#Introducing: Mousinette!

[starwarsmum]

A new fic? Me? Must be Wednesday 😅 this is based off a prompt for @apileofashandember about Marinette meeting the batfam through Penny ❤️

The rating on this is Mature because it gets a little spicy further down the line! You have been warned 😘

Chapter 1: A Liar Ruins a Website

Marinette sat alone in her room, hands scrunched in her hair as she muffled her screams into her bed. Her laptop sat innocently on her pillow, new comments popping up every few minutes on her now ruined website. 

“Make a website, Jagged said, it'll get your name out there, he said,” she complained to Tikki. The tiny god wisely said nothing, but settled itself into her hair. “How did that liar even find out about it? No, don't answer that,” she added when Tikki took a breath. “If I don't take my website down now, my name will be ruined, and I will never design professionally again.”

One short internet search later, and her heart broke as she changed the code to an out of service message. She would have to email the half a dozen clients that she had secured in the past month or so, and contact Jagged and Penny to let them know. It wasn't fair, she had worked so hard on making her website cute and fun. And now all of that hard work was ruined.

She sighed and opened up her group chat with Jagged and Penny, looking back at the good luck messages she had received from them about the website. It made her miss the early days of her commissions, when Jagged had asked her to make a pair of sunglasses and an album cover.

Nette: hey, just to let you know, I had to take the site down. someone said I stole their work and I got a bunch of hate

Auntie P: what?! who dares? I'm sorry Nette, that's awful

Uncle J: that's not rock n roll! is it that girl you told us about? Leela? Layla? 

Nette: probably, not that I can prove it

Marinette sighed, rubbing her eyes. She fired off the emails to her clients, hoping to get ahead for the night. She had finished her homework, but she still had an hour or two before she crashed for the night so she was hoping to get at least one of the designs finalised.

She got lost in the designing process, fresh pages becoming covered in sketches and annotations. She surfaced from her work after Tikki reminded her that she had school the next morning, so she readied herself for bed. When she checked her messages again before she went to sleep, she saw a new one flashing on the group chat.

Aunt P: if you need a hand rebranding, creating a new website, just let us know. we're proud of you for being so mature with this and we'll help you succeed

Nette: thanks both, I may take you up on that. I just need a couple of days to get over this setback and we'll sort it

It was after a fitful night's sleep that Marinette awoke, late as usual, and ran through her morning rituals. She shoved her hair into a bun, dragged on a semi-respectable outfit and grabbed a croissant on her way through the bakery. Now that she was in lycée, she had to travel further in the mornings. Fortunately, with the motorcycle she had finally passed the test to drive, she didn't need to rely on public transport to get there.

“Girl, are you okay?” Alya raced up to her as she pulled into the lycée car park, throwing her arms around Marinette. “Lila told us your website went down last night, right when she was about to submit a request! What happened?”

“Someone started a rumour that I stole my designs and it meant a bunch of people started trashing the site,” Marinette said, trying to keep her voice even. She couldn't help stressing the first word, as she knew who was likely behind it, but she regretted it when Alya sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose.

“Not again, Marinette! I know it's been hard for you since you and Adrien didn't work out, and now it looks like he and Lila are going to start dating, but you need to stop with the jealousy! I love you, girl, but you get so into your head about him.”

“Alya, I didn't even say anything!” Marinette protested, weariness settling back onto her like an old, heavy blanket. “Look, whatever, it's not important right now. We're going to be late to class if we don't hustle.”

“I know you, Mari, you always think it was Lila!” Alya sounded exasperated, and it wasn't like Marinette could refute it. They walked along the hallway to their lockers, nodding at their friends as they passed. “And I get it, really, you can't help how you feel, but like I've told you before, you have to look at things objectively to get to the truth!”

Marinette bit her tongue, not wanting to point out that Alya’s blind insistence that Lila would never do such a thing was just as subjective as her believing that she had. She deliberately changed the topic to something else, ignoring the disapproving look her best friend shot her.

When they entered their classroom, Marinette greeted her other friends, sliding easily into her seat. She had chosen to sit at the back of the class so that nobody could say she had to give up her seat to someone else, reducing the upset it caused when Lila started spinning tales. She was fortunate that Lila had been placed in a different class in the previous years, but in her last year of lycée, her luck had finally run out.

“Oh my gosh, Marinette, I heard about your website!” Came the liar's high pitched faux-concerned voice. It grated on her that she would have to play nice with Lila once again, as Lila got her jabs in at Marinette. “It's so scary that someone would start a rumour about your work ethic, with so little evidence! Adrien and I were talking about it last night, he's always saying how you're still such a good friend to him.”

“Yeah, well, actually there's no evidence of me stealing designs because it's one hundred percent untrue,” Marinette said blandly, staring Lila down. She ignored the distressed noises the other girl started to make and waved a hand. “It doesn't matter, I have a few commissions to get through, but then I should take a break from designing to focus on the BAC anyway…”

Everyone around her told her it was such a shame that she wouldn't be able to take on new commissions for a while and she nodded glumly. She had no intention of stopping designing, of course, but this would hopefully give her some breathing room whilst she got herself set up again - anonymously this time. 

Which sadly meant that Max was no longer an option for making a new website. As much as she loved her friends, they really didn't look too hard at Lila's fantastic stories, which meant they would blithely tell the witch when Marinette set up again. This way, she would make a name for herself separately, and claim the brand in a few years once it was fully legitimised.

The lessons that day felt like they dragged on forever, Marinette just wanting to go home and make some progress on her commissions. She had learned to keep her sketchbooks at home - she didn't want to lose her work to people like 14-year-old Chloe - so she focused on trying to get a headstart on her homework whenever she had a free minute.

“Marinette! We were just talking about our Christmas plans, girl, weren't you making a bunch of designs for the local nativity play?” Alya beckoned her over and Marinette hid the grimace that threatened to cross her face. “Wow, that's so cool! Did you volunteer or something?”

“Not really, they saw some of my work and offered me a reasonable price for their main costumes for the play,” Marinette answered, wary of where the conversation would go next. She had stopped doing freebies for her friends, which had upset them until she had explained that she wanted to go to university in America and needed to spend all of her time on paid commissions. 

“Oh, it's so nice for you that you're comfortable taking pay from such an underfunded space, Marinette!” Lila put in, sounding sweet as per usual, but with all of the underhandedness that Marinette was accustomed to. “I was just telling Rose that I'm planning on volunteering my time at a soup kitchen throughout the Christmas period. My friends, Damian and Tim, their family funds a few different charities both here and abroad. Do you think Adrien will be able to help out too?”

“You should probably check with his aunt,” she replied flatly, refusing to be baited into an argument about whether she should be doing the costumes for free. “I need to go and eat, excuse me.” She pushed away from the table, feeling drained again and resolutely ignoring the conversation that picked up about Lila's ‘friends’. Marinette was sure that whoever Lila was claiming to know this time had no clue who she was and she wasn't going to get stuck in that mess.

She toyed with her phone before deciding that she absolutely needed a new website and that Penny's friend was likely her best bet. So she crafted her message, begging Penny to put her in touch with her computer whiz before slogging through her homework and lunch.

_ _ _

Marinette sat nervously at her desk later that evening, waiting for the video call Penny had promised her. They had decided a three-way call was the best way to introduce them both, but as the other two were in America, it was later than Marinette would have liked for a video call.

Tikki was sitting quietly on her shoulder as she sketched anxiously. She knew that whoever Penny was introducing her to would be nice enough, but she was always unsure of meeting new people. She added a few details to her work, and jumped when the laptop began ringing. She hastily accepted the call, twisting in her chair and tapping her fingers.

“Hi, Nette,” came Penny's bright voice. “And hey Babs, thanks for coming on the call to help. Marinette, this is Barbara, an old student of sorts. I worked with her back when I was an aide at Gotham U, she was studying library science with a minor in computer sciences. Babs, this is Marinette, Jagged's personal designer. She's done a ton of his more recent album artwork and designed all of his stage outfits for the last 2 years. She's also our honorary niece.”

“It's a pleasure to meet you, Marinette!” The woman was leaning towards her screen, scrutinising the teenager. Marinette eyed her as well, seeing a whole mane of red hair and glasses above a broad smile. “Penny mentioned you needed some help with a website, though she didn't mention you were so accomplished already.”

“Ah, yes, I had some recent trouble with my own website and I don't have enough technical know-how to create something secure. I'm planning to go anonymous, to prevent the same thing happening again, but I have no idea where to start,” Marinette explained, twirling a lock of hair around her finger. 

“And how do you plan to get clients if you have no base to start from?” Babs was beginning to type furiously, a gleam in her eyes. “Don't get me wrong, I'm sure your work is wonderful, but if you don't have any endorsements, isn't it really hard to break onto the fashion scene?”

“Oh, well I thought I'd have Jagged do the introduction, if that's okay, Pen? Because I'm under 18, I didn't tell anyone except my maman that I was working with Jagged and she promised to keep it to herself. I figured that way I can sort commissions and won't have a problem with getting new clients.”

“Wicked idea, M!” Came Jagged's voice from off screen, making her giggle. “Babs, let us know when you have her site up and running and I'll rep it on my socials. Rock n roll, girls!”

So they worked out the logistics moving forward, Marinette trading contact info with Barbara and promising one evening a week to go over the website details. It was everything Marinette had hoped for when Penny had offered to connect her with a friend. When the call finally ended, it was closer to midnight in Paris and she was relieved that it was a weekend the following day.

“That went well, Marinette,” Tikki squeaked at her, floating around head height as the girl got herself ready for bed. Marinette agreed before collapsing into bed with a groan. It didn't take long for her to pass out, a slight smile on her face.

[xhanisai]

I'm satisfied, How would Kwami Buster go down?

In Kiss AU? Hmmm...

The beginning starts off the same with Plagg sneaking out of Adrien’s bag for the cheese trap whilst Tikki darts after him. Adrien and Marinette are too busy flirting chatting to notice. 

The whole chase scene happens with Md. Mendelieve trying to catch the kwamis and so on. 

Adrien’s at Marinette’s house (for a sleepover) when they both scold Tikki and Plagg, the former much more apologetic than the latter. 

“Adrien...I’m really worried. I feel like those two are hiding something,” Marinette furrowed her eyebrows sadly, cuddling her partner closer whilst eyeing the slumbering kwamis in the pillows besides them.

“I would have easily gotten it out of Plagg with some camembert but Tikki seems to have a leash on him. She must be really scary to have him so tight lipped.” The blonde unconsciously let his fingers comb through the girl’s hair, resting his cheek against her head and inhaled her sweet scent.

“Or maybe he’s just really whipped? Tikki is far too sweet and kind to hurt a fly, let alone cute little Plagg.” Adrien playfully flicked her nose with his other hand, making her squeal.

“It’s the cute ones you have to watch out for,” 

Marinette sat up quickly, raising a sly brow at him whilst Adrien smirked back. Both of their fingers itched for a pillow, never breaking eye contact.

“You’re right, but I’ve always known how dangerous you could be despite those cute kitty eyes,” Taking advantage of Adrien’s sudden blush, Marinette launched forward with her pillow, earning a delighted yelp and another pillow chucked at her head.

Oh it was war!

The next day, goes per canon where Md. Mendelieve goes on that TV show and tries to prove that the kwamis are really, only for it to backfire on her. Adrien and Marinette sneak out together, shocked but slightly mad at the little kwamis. They tell them off, Plagg especially till they hear screaming upstairs. Things carry on canon, both get their kwamis sucked out by Kwami Buster and immediately had to hide. Marinette told Adrien to stay in decent hiding spot whilst she comes back with help. Introducing Banana Noir!

Since the other miraculouses only require the phrase, Marinette was able to transform as Multimouse with ease. She does get a bit dizzy and tired from all the miraculouses she was wearing. 

Everything goes per canon save for Chat immediately recognising his partner.

“Damn girl! You have great buns!” Banana Noir received a glare from all the individual Mousinettes, silencing him. “Hehe...guess I just booked my funeral in early...”

Saving the day was a cinch for these two. The only difference is that after Chat dropped the teacher back to her class, he immediately vaulted back to Marinette who was still in her Ladybug attire. She was on the floor, clutching her head with a frown.

“Bug? You okay? That must have been so painful...” Chat rubbed circles on her shoulders, lips mirroring her frown.

“I’m okay, just knackered,”

“Marinette...”

“Fine! I feel like I got hit by a truck. Happy?” She received an appreciative kiss on the forehead, already making her pain lessen. 

“I had many jokes to tell, ready to tease you as soon as I saw you as a mouse-”

“And I’d have throttled you with my rope.”

“Ooo kinky~”

“Adrien...”

“So cute~ I’d have eaten you.” The boy rubbed his nose against hers, helping Ladybug stand up. 

“There are some cats out there that are afraid of mice- you’re one of them.” Ladybug suddenly leaned into his face, making Chat take an instinctive step back, as if he’s the prey. “Got ya~” 

“H-Hey! I wasn’t ready!”

The end!

[starwarsmum]

Chapter 7 of Introducing: Mousinette 🥰 Moving to Gotham

In spite of having tried to plan a celebration with everyone for their BAC results, Marinette was the only one in their group who had not yet turned eighteen. And so, Lila had convinced the group that the club she had dragged them to would allow Marinette in if she gave her name at the door, regardless of their over-eighteens only policy.

Trying not to get overly worked up, she apologised to the bouncer at the club, messaging Alya to say that she was going to find somewhere to hang out for the next hour or so before heading home. She didn't expect a message back - the club had sounded unreasonably loud and Lila had a way of making Alya think that Marinette was tardier than she ever was these days.

She also pulled up her messages to Chloe and Adrien, venting her frustrations about their friendship group. Chloe messaged back immediately, saying that she was welcome to come to the hotel and spend time with her and Kagami, but Marinette declined. She knew the girls had not been able to go on a proper date in a while and didn't want to crash it.

After ninety minutes with no messages, Marinette paid for another coffee to go, and left the diner she had made camp in. It was a gorgeous evening, the streetlights twinkling along the Seine and various groups of people having fun. She stayed on well lit streets, enjoying the buoyant mood around her as she walked home.

Once home, she crept quietly upstairs, trying not to wake her parents. Sighing in relief when she made it to her room, she switched on her laptop and dropped a message to Barbara. Having cancelled their regular catch up, Marinette didn't expect to get a response, so was pleasantly surprised when a video call lit up her screen.

“Hey Babs,” she said quietly, leaning back in her bed and picking up an embroidery hoop. “I thought you would be busy since I cancelled on you. I was really only messaging to let you know I was home safe after the night flopped.”

“Hey Mari! Well, it's not just me tonight I'm afraid, I have visitors. Dick and Steph both came over to keep me company,” Barbara replied enthusiastically, and the other two popped their faces in to say hi. “But how come you're home so early?”

So Marinette gave a brief recount of her evening, laughing a little at Dick's affronted expression. When she had finished, she felt a little better for having vented, and so was stabbing her embroidery needle slightly less viciously. “But nothing new, I should have seen this coming when Alya suggested somewhere new. And I bet Lila manages to twist this against me somehow.”

“Wow, she sounds like a bitch,” Steph said offhandedly, although she looked annoyed. “Babe, if you need us to bring the smackdown, please just tell us. I will steal Bruce's jet and be there as soon as humanly possible to set people straight. Hell, I'll even bring the Demon with me to hammer it home if I have to.” 

Giggling at the thought, Marinette beamed at the blonde woman. She looked back down and finished a particularly tricky part of the embroidery before looking back at them all. “Oh my God, did I tell you that she lies about being besties with Tim and Damian? I swear she's a compulsive liar, I'm not sure I've ever heard her tell the truth, except for the times she's threatened me,” she added, almost thoughtfully.

“Hold up, she did what?” Dick said, looking even more concerned, if it was possible. He was typing furiously into his phone, typing, Marinette assumed, a message to Tim. “What's this girl's name? I know she can't possibly know Damian, because Damian has exactly one friend, but Tim really needs to shut this down if she's using his name for clout.”

“It's Lila Rossi, but she's not using it for clout per se, she's just using it to make our terrifyingly gullible classmates worship the ground she walks on. I'm not really sure what she gets out of it, other than irritating me and making ‘friends’,” she said, making sure they knew she didn't think they were really friends if she was lying to get them. “But it really doesn't matter, it's the end of June and I move to Gotham mid July. At which point, I don't have to deal with her anymore, plus I get to live some of the lies she tells.”

“It's still not cool, so I'm just giving Tim her name in case it crops up at some point. But she just lies? And nobody calls her out? Hell, I should get Tim to do a French press release just for this, she's clearly a menace to society. Just let us know if we need to do anything for you, we will shut it down,” Dick promised, which made Marinette smile.

“You'd have to get in line behind Jagged,” she admitted ruefully, chuckling at their confused expressions. “That was the first lie, she said she saved Jagged's kitten, as if he's ever had something as tame as a kitten, and she still says she's close with him. It's how she's got them believing half of what she says now. But I really don't want to talk about it any more. If I let her take up space in my brain, she wins.”

The other three begrudgingly accepted this, moving the conversation on to Marinette's impending relocation to the States. The conversation continued, touching briefly on Marinette's birthday plans. Marinette admitted that she didn't plan on doing much, as she would be too busy packing, but her parents were taking her and a few friends to a fancy restaurant to celebrate.

Actually moving from Paris to Gotham was an experience, one Marinette felt she could maybe have lived without. She had found a nice apartment, it had a main bedroom, living area with kitchenette, and a spare room, where she planned on putting her commission work. Moving all of her sewing equipment had been a hassle, and she needed to get extra furniture before she could set it up.

Fortunately, she had gotten herself ahead of her commissions and the space at Wayne Enterprises was all set for her work there. It meant that she could take a day or so to visit thrift stores and find a serviceable workbench or desk, as well as hit the local fabric stores for materials.

But for that night, she wanted to settle into the place, find somewhere secure to store the Miracle Box and sleep. She forced herself to order some takeout and eat it, but then she went through her nightly routine. Her room was at the top of the building, slightly cheaper because you could sometimes hear the vigilantes of Gotham pounding across the roof, but she wasn't really one for waking up to that kind of noise. Tikki would wake her if it was dangerous, but she often slept through most everything.

She found it relatively easy to fall asleep, and Tikki was nestled away on top of the Box. She didn't really remember dreaming at first, but she did jolt awake at 2am, having had a nightmare about Chat Blanc. Even though they were well past the issue, when she was disrupted she found her anxiety liked to bring that particular memory out for a spin.

Sighing and moving quietly, so as not to wake Tikki, and not to annoy her downstairs neighbours, she crept over to her kitchenette. After taking a long drink of cold water from the filter in her refrigerator, she felt the urge to step outside. She listened intently for a moment but couldn't hear footsteps, so she slid the window open and stepped onto the fire escape.

Moving lightly, she slid onto the roof, breathing in the cooler air. It was a warm night and the apartment trapped heat like crazy. She didn't have a trap door to let the heat out, so having access to the roof was nice. Knowing that she was in Gotham, she kept her guard up, which means she wasn't overly surprised when someone stepped out of the shadows on the other side of the roof.

“Bonjour,” she said, smiling up at Robin as he moved towards her. She refused to be intimidated by his silence, and turned back to the skyline view from the edge. 

Damian paused, unsure of how to deal with the sudden reappearance of the woman who had changed his behaviour so much, without even being present. He had been prepared to run into her in the office, even to meet her at the university, but during his time as a vigilante? And out on the rooftops, instead of during a mugging, or worse.

“Are you not sketching tonight?” He cringed internally at his abruptness, but outwardly he was cool and curious. She shrugged lightly, peering at him sideways. He could tell she remembered their previous encounter, and he had often wondered how she saw him. It wasn't often he interacted with civilians in both of his identities, and he found himself wondering how they compared.

They stood together in silence for a few minutes before she stepped over to the fire escape again, without saying a word. He quashed the disappointment that welled within him, watching as her head vanished from sight. He stood, immobile for several moments, and was about to retreat back to his perch when she reappeared.

“I'm afraid I don't have anything homemade today, but I did pick up a pack of cookies on my way here,” she said, apparently in explanation. He cocked his head at her, confused. She blushed a little, turning her back on the city to sit upon the ledge. “In Paris, when we had an active supervillain, the heroes would stop by my balcony on occasion, and I would provide a place to rest. Unfortunately, I do not have a balcony here, and I only moved in this afternoon, so I could not bake anything. But if you plan to be here regularly, I can leave some food out. It has always seemed hungry work, being a hero.”

“Vigilante,” he said automatically, leaning forward onto his forearms against the ledge she perched upon. “And whilst I appreciate the sentiment, I am not fond of sweets, particularly mass produced and packaged.”

“Alright,” she shrugged again, taking one for herself and closing the packet. She didn't say anything more, staying close to him without ever crowding him. As it ticked over to 3am, he excused himself, unmuting his comm and letting the team know that he was returning to base. He could feel her eyes on him as he leapt from building to building.

The next time he returned to the rooftop, he was curious as to whether she would be there. It was sooner than he thought it would be, not even a full week later. The roof was empty and he allowed himself to deliberately scuff his boots to make noise. It was just past midnight, early in his usual patrol but the previous night had seen them bust a particularly heinous trafficking ring. The nights following ones like that were notoriously quiet, so he saw no harm in situating himself on an innocuous rooftop and waiting to respond to any threats.

He saw her head peek over the top of the ledge, and her face brightened into a smile as she spotted him. His comm was already muted, most of the team recovering from minor scrapes and the remainder being in no mood to socialise during their individual patrols. Grayson was patrolling the other side of town, but the comm was silent from his usual prattle.

He eyed the plate in Marinette's hand as she approached him and went to remind her that he did not eat sweets often when she gave him a quiet greeting. He felt wrong footed, as though she were following a script and he hadn't been given any notes. Rather than perch where she had last time, she came over to his own perch and settled onto the roof rather than the ledge.

“I know you don't normally eat sweets, so I made some mini quiches and cheese twists,” she said when she was fully settled. He hesitated again, unsure if he should eat anything. He would never normally accept food from a civilian during patrol, but ordinarily he would not have spoken with her either. 

When he did accept one, she seemed to brighten considerably, and began chattering about her day, how she had gone into her new job’s building and made a great deal of progress on her work. He already knew she was working at Wayne Enterprises, so he didn't make any outward reaction when she mentioned Drake as her boss.

“So you have always helped your city's heroes by providing nourishment?” He wanted to learn more about the Parisian heroes and her relationship with them seemed the easiest way to breach that topic. “Did they not find you suspicious?”

“Do you find me suspicious?” He would have thought her pretending to be coy if he couldn't hear a genuine sort of surprise to the question. When he didn't say anything, she continued. “Huh, well, no, I guess they didn't. It was mostly Chat Noir who visited me, and we met because I was being targeted by one of the akuma…”

As she launched into a description of her experience with someone called the Evillustrator, he watched her, fascinated by how emotive she was to this version of him. He asked questions as she spoke, and she answered eagerly. He wondered if she had spoken to anyone else about her experiences with heroes.

It startled him when Grayson called for help in his sector, and he hastily said goodbye to Marinette before launching into the night, confirming that he was on his way. He wondered, after the threat was dealt with, whether he would see her on the roof again.

_ _ _

She hadn't intended to befriend the vigilante that frequented her rooftop, but that's what had happened. Sometimes she would be up there already, working on designs, sometimes she would wake when he was stationed above and come to join him. Other times, she would be awake when his feet scuffed the rooftop and she would make her way up. She shared a lot about her time in Paris, finding it easier to talk about her old friends, the villains, and Lila, without worrying that he would dismiss her. It also helped having an outside perspective, something she couldn't get from anyone else.

It was a slightly dreary evening at the end of summer when she began to talk about her plans for the coming academic year. She was huddled closer to him than usual, using him to shield herself from the light rain. She felt a rush of affection for him, not dissimilar to how she would feel as Ladybug, interacting with Chat Noir. 

“I just can't believe I have to start classes soon,” she mused, flicking open an app on her phone with her schedule. “I might not be up on the roof as often, but I can leave snacks out in plastic boxes. And I'll try to come out, once a month at least. You're probably the only friend other than Babs that I've made since getting here.”

“What about your employer? I had thought you were on good terms with him,” he said quietly, apparently trying to hide a smile. “And you are sure to make friends in your classes. It is more likely that you will stop coming up here because you have a more filled social calendar, is it not?”

“Hmmm, I don't think so. My understanding is that the first year of university is to be social, but I have already locked myself into a job that will take up so much of my free time, and I have a scholarship to maintain. No, I think it more likely that you will get bored of quiet nights on the roof once the weather changes,” she said ruefully. “And that is a shame, because you are surprisingly good company. When I talk to Babs about the vigilantes,” she missed the panic that flashed across his face, “she says that Nightwing is known to be chatty, Red Robin is some kind of super genius, Red Hood is violent and you are supposedly very prickly.”

“You talk to your friend about these visits?” He sounded confused, maybe a little concerned and she waved her hands emphatically.

“Oh, no, absolutely not. She already worries about me living alone on the top apartment of a complex, I don't want her to know I regularly go onto the roof, alone save for dubiously grouchy vigilantes,” she teased, smiling again. When he nodded, she thought she spotted some relief, which made her wonder if he usually was prickly, but she had somehow earned his friendship.

“Well, perhaps you will befriend more dubiously grouchy people,” he said, sounding amused. She hummed thoughtfully, thinking of another dark haired boy, one who was genuinely grouchy. “Or perhaps you will attract rays of sunshine. Or more people like your unfortunate nemesis, Lila.”

“God, I hope not,” she groaned, looking out at the cityscape again. “If I come across another one of her, I'm calling bull. Did I ever tell you she lies about knowing the upper echelons of Gotham? Claims to be besties with the Waynes, which I know for a fact is a lie, because I asked Tim outright. And if she's friends with Damian, they deserve each other,” she finished sourly.

“You have a problem with the youngest Wayne?” He asked, voice rumbling quietly. She hesitated, wishing she'd minded her tongue - she made an effort not to badmouth any of her acquaintances to him, not knowing who he was or who he knew.

“I wouldn't say I have a problem, per se. He's kind of stuck up, which should be expected, being from money. Like my friend Chloe, she was awful to grow up with and her dad was mayor of Paris. But he's an adult and was just so dismissive of me, right when we first met. Which, fine, I don't need to be friends with everyone, but he's both my boss's little brother and a sort of brother to my friend Babs, so I wanted to get on with him. If I had more time and energy, I might've tried to wear him down, but I'm in a new city, I have work and I have classes.”

“Well, if he was foolish enough to treat you poorly without reason, he will probably give you space. But if you are worried about it for your friends’ sake, perhaps you could extend an olive branch. Perhaps he was having a bad day when you met.”

“The next time I spent one on one time with him, he called me short and childish,” she said flatly, once again missing the contrite look that crossed his face. “He also said that cooking was easy, even though he's never tried it, and that moving out of his manor was beneath him. But forget that, I'm running my mouth when I shouldn't. It happens when I'm nervous, and the idea of starting university in a completely different country is scary.”

They lapsed into a comfortable silence, and Marinette was relieved she hadn't ruined things by ranting about her not-problems. When she eventually went inside, she went straight to bed, and slept through until morning.

[starwarsmum]

Chapter 6 of Introducing: Mousinette! Results Day 😁

After Marinette left Gotham behind (hopefully temporarily) she braced herself for the final school term. She woke on the first morning back at school and felt melancholic - this was the last time she would start a fresh term with her current friends. Sure, it wasn't like she'd never see them again but still.

“Tikki, why is change so hard? I had a wonderful time in Gotham, but how is it possible that lycée is over so soon?” she sighed, ruffling her fingers through her hair as she took a final look in the mirror. Tikki gave her some encouraging words and she smiled, grabbing her backpack as she walked out of the room.

Approaching the lycée, Marinette slowed down and checked her phone for messages. Now that she was back in Europe, her new American friends were unlikely to message her during her morning routines and school - they should either be sleeping or working. But Adrien had found time to message her, asking about her trip and whether she was ready for school again.

She smiled and sent him a short text saying that she was happy but also sad and nervous about the next step after this. The rest of this term was about preparing students for their next step in life, rather than learning about topics. She kept her smile all the way to her desk, thankfully able to block out Lila's high pitched (and likely false) recounting of her break.

Sadly, she could only ignore it for so long, Alya dragging her into the conversation by asking how her break was.

“Isn't it crazy that you were both in Gotham? Lila was just saying that she spent most of her break with the Waynes, which is so cool! Didn't you say you went to view the Gotham U campus with your aunt and uncle?”

“Yeah, and we met up with my online friend's family. She has a younger brother planning to go to GU, same as me! He's a bit of a jerk, but you know, I don't have to spend time with him if I get accepted. I've already started researching fashion internships, in case. How was your break?”

“My break was boring, mostly spent it babysitting and being relieved that there's no more tests! Ooh, your online friend that sent you flowers on Valentine's Day? Did sparks fly when you finally met face to face?”

“Um, no, I think I traumatised her, actually. And she definitely only sees me as a little sister, so I spent some of my time getting over the tiny crush I had,” Marinette shrugged. She had grown massively from when she would sob about how unfair it was that someone didn't love her back. She had a better sense of her own self-worth and wasn't going to waste her energy on trying to force things to change. “Besides, she's almost twice my age, I'm not sure I would have liked her as much if she did have feelings for me.”

“Oh, that's such a shame, Marinette!” Lila cooed, drawing Alya’s attention back to her. “I'm sure you'll find someone eventually , some people are just unlucky like that. Like my friend, Damian, he told me he has feelings for someone, but she doesn't feel the same. I've told him I'll help him confess but he won't even tell me who it is.”

“Ooh, girl, you don't think he could be crushing on you , do you?” Alya had taken the bait, and Marinette had to work not to audibly groan. She knew it was all lies, because after spending two evenings with Barbara's not-quite-family, she had worked out that they were the same Waynes that Lila had been bragging about for the past few months. When she had asked about her, they had claimed confusion and she let it go.

“Oh, I hope not,” Lila replied, managing to sound both flattered and crestfallen. Honestly, if Marinette didn't detest her so much she would be impressed. “I would hate to hurt a friend, just because I don't feel the same. I mean, we all know how certain people,” she added significantly, eyes darting to Marinette, “can't handle when people don't return feelings. Our friendship might not be the same again!”

Gritting her teeth, Marinette turned away as Alya continued the conversation and tried to get a handle on the flash of anger that had flickered through her. It's my last term with the lying witch, she consoled herself. And then I'll be away from here, actually friends with some of the Waynes and she'll drop into obscurity.

_ _ _

Barbara was in the batcave when her phone started belting out Katrina and the Waves’ Walking on Sunshine. The others around her, getting ready to call it a night after patrol, glanced over to her, quizzical looks on most faces. Damian was scowling, but given that was his usual look, she paid it no mind.

“Hey Mari, what's up?” Barbara said as she answered the phone. Jason snorted at the ringtone and Damian seemed to freeze before shrugging it off. She eyed him speculatively for a moment, before focussing back on the call.

“I got in!” Came the shriek from the other end of the line. “I got my BAC score today, and I got a freaking 19 and I only needed a 16 to get in so I'm going to Gotham University!”

“That's incredible, way to go Mari! Does that mean it's time to apply for those internships? Oh my god, you have to promise me we'll do girls nights when you're here,” she was babbling, but she wasn't used to having civilian friends any more. It would be nice to let loose with Marinette, even if it was only once in a while.

“Obviously we will, but I have to go for now, I need to go down and tell my parents! Talk to you on Saturday.” And the dial tone rang in Barbara's ear suddenly. She grinned, shaking her head. Chances were, Marinette would realise she had called Barbara at 3 in the morning, Gotham time, but she was pleased that she had wanted to tell her so much that the time difference hadn't even crossed her mind.

“I take it that your…friend will be attending the same university as me this fall?” Damian said suddenly, standing to the side. He huffed slightly at her brisk nod and walked away without another word. She glanced around and caught Dick's eye, but he only shrugged as he walked over to her.

“I don't know what that was about, he hasn't mentioned her to me since the day we went to tour the college,” he said. “You know what he's like with new people though, he's probably just worried we're going to make them hang out.”

Barbara hummed in agreement, picking up her phone again when a message chimed. She smiled when she saw that Marinette had indeed realised the time in Gotham and was both apologetic and a little concerned that Barbara had still been awake.

Across the world in Paris, Marinette had messaged Chloe, Kagami, Adrien and Alya to let them know the good news. She was grinning from ear to ear, bouncing around her room and squealing every now and then. She had already started packing almost everything, regardless of if she would need it between now and when she moved to Gotham.

“Tikki, it's really happening! Oh my God, it's going to be so incredible, we can move into the dorms, make friends and learn so much! And I need to find an internship, God that's going to be so stressful!” She threw herself into her desk chair and let it wheel her to her computer, throwing herself onto her arms.

“Marinette, I'm so proud of you! You worked so hard on your BAC, and you have so many options with internships thanks to the work you've put into commissions!” Tikki was fluttering around her head, smiling and squealing. “We’ll need to consider our options because we can't let any dorm mates know about me.”

“Ugh, right, magical secrets,” Marinette moaned, thinking hard. “The dorms we looked at were pretty small, not a lot of privacy and no soundproofing. That doesn't sound like I'd be able to keep you out of the box…okay, new plan! We're going to secure an internship and get an apartment, that way it's our space. It'll probably be easier doing commissions anyway.”

Now that she had made the first decision, it was easy to see what next steps to take. She started looking at the listings near the university for 1 or 2 bedroom apartments, writing off several that looked beautiful but had ridiculously low prices. She settled on two or three that seemed reasonable and sent emails to them.

She then started to scout out internships, checking the employees testimonies and looking at potential salaries. She sent emails to all of them, but took extra care on the ones she wanted. Wayne Enterprises was at the top of her list, both because she knew them personally and because it was high on the list for employee treatment. 

She sighed and stretched again, checking her phone and grinning at her new messages. She opened the one from Kagami first, the slightly formal manner making her glow with pride at how well she had done. Chloe's was more relaxed but just as proud. Alya hadn't messaged back yet, but Adrien’s was sweet.

Hey Bug, that's so awesome! I knew you could do it, you've always been the perfect one of the two of us. Let me know if I can help at all with the changes etc. <3

Although it had been a hard decision at the time, breaking up was the right thing to do. When they had revealed their identities after catching Hawkmoth, it had been awkward and tense. They had decided together that there was too much between them now, and that being friends was better than trying to force it to work.

They had both made token arguments, trying to keep the relationship, if only because it turned out they were Ladybug and Chat Noir, Marinette and Adrien; their friends shipped them so hard, they had practically cried when the pair finally started dating (Alya totally cried when they stopped dating, too). 

Their new friendship was built on the solid foundation of having spent time fighting a supervillain, shared stresses of hidden identities and dealing with mini gods. But moving in with his aunt in England meant that Adrien had had to break up with another person - Plagg. Plagg was getting some much needed rest in the Miracle Box, coming out occasionally to chat with the Guardian and Tikki.

Now that she was out of texts and tasks, Marinette decided it was time to do some designing again. She had a free day from lycée and planned to utilise it properly. All of the joyous energy that had flooded her was ready to be honed, and she wanted to see what she came up with. 

So it was several hours later that she heard the chime of her emails, and realised that she hadn't moved in that time. Cursing softly, she made her way to the bathroom, went down to the kitchen to grab a drink and a snack, before settling down in front of the computer again. She opened the new email, squealing when she saw it was from Wayne Enterprises.

Dear Miss Dupain-Cheng, 

It was a pleasure to receive your application for the internship offered here at Wayne Enterprises and we are considering your application currently. We do wish to clarify some things regarding your experience up to this point.

You have successfully worked with Mme Audrey Bourgeois, and won a competition with the brand previously known as Gabriel. Based on those, we would just like to discuss what you have worked on since your brand ceased trading in the past year.

We look forward to hearing from you,

The Office of Timothy Drake-Wayne

Co-CEO

Marinette chewed her lip, wondering if she was ready to out the face behind MDC. On one hand, this was why she had rebranded, she needed to get her work out there and make it easier to break onto the fashion scene later. On the other…the anonymity meant that she didn't have to deal with paparazzi, or people trying to be friendly with her just because she was kind of famous. Her hands hovered over the keyboard before deciding, and starting the email back. She checked the time and saw that it was still early in the day in Gotham.

Good morning,

Thank you for your speedy reply, I appreciate that you are a very busy company so it means a lot that you have taken the time this morning.

In regards to my brand, I rebranded in December last year. Prior to the rebrand, I had kept my connection to Jagged Stone secret as I am still 17, and did not wish to present myself to the media yet. As this is still the case, I trust that you will treat this information with discretion.

All of my current work can be found under my new website, mdcdesigns.fr  

If you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to contact me, either by email or phone,

Marinette Dupain-Cheng (MDC)

She tried to relax but was checking her emails every few minutes. She figured they would need to check her claims out, but she so badly wanted this internship. It was the best paid - ie, not volunteer work - and the company had raving reviews from long standing employees.

After what felt like hours, but was only minutes, her phone buzzed with an incoming call. She picked it up hastily, not bothering to look at the screen as she did so. She felt herself physically deflate when Alya responded to her greeting.

“Girl, a 19? That's crazy amazing! We have to celebrate, like immediately! I can have the girls ready to go in half an hour, tops, and we can do whatever you want. I'll bet the others will want to celebrate their scores too, and anyone who doesn't can commiserate!” Alya was so enthusiastic that Marinette couldn't help laughing.

“Als, it's, like, Wednesday. We should wait until Friday, that way we can plan something spectacular,” Marinette mused, already jotting down a couple of ideas. “Now, I'm not 18 yet, so that vetoes a couple of options, but we could go for a meal, get glammed up and head to this new dance club, it allows 16 and up, you just can't drink without ID. Oh, or we could go listen to a band somewhere, although Kitty Section is obviously a no, since they'll want to relax too. Hmmm, why don't we- oh, sorry, that's another call, can I catch you back in a little bit? Thanks, Alya, speak soon!”

She switched calls while Alya was still laughing and went to say hello when someone else interrupted immediately.

“How could you not tell us you were MDC?” came Tim's voice. He sounded highly affronted, and Marinette choked back a nervous giggle. “You knew we wanted to know, Babs must have told you we were fans, so why didn't you say anything?”

“Uh, hi Tim, nice to hear from you,” she replied awkwardly. “Well, first off, I said in my email why I didn't say anything. Also I know Babs pretty well but I only met you that week? Anyway, Babs was the one that wanted it kept a surprise.”

“I didn't think you were so malicious, Miss Dupain-Cheng,” Tim said gravely, although he undercut the gravity with a snort a moment later. “God, no wonder we couldn't find out though, I bet she designed your website, didn't she? I knew the code was familiar when I struggled to crack it, but she didn't say anything so I didn't put it together.”

“She did, and off the record, the reason I needed a new site is because someone started spreading rumours that I was stealing someone else's work, so I had to shut my old one down. That's why I needed Babs' help to set up a new one, I couldn't trust my friend to do it without blabbing.”

“Oh, well, that sucks. Whatever, I already talked to Babs and she confirmed that you are who you say you are so I wanted to call personally and offer you a job.”

“Don't I need to interview for the internship? Aren't there, I don't know, a bazillion other candidates that need to be sorted through?” Marinette was alarmed at how quickly it was all moving.

“An internship? Oh, hell no, I want to hire you as the fashion consultant for Wayne Enterprises. We don't have one currently, just sort of pick up the odd suit and have Alfred tailor it, but if you're willing, we could give you a job to be in charge of our public event wardrobes.”

“...you know I'm going to be a student in the fall, right? And that I can't be a full time employee because I'm not even 18 yet?”

“Oh, well, sure, but there's no point giving you an internship when we could take you on part time. My understanding is that you're getting a full ride to GU and therefore don't need the money for school fees, but I promise as a part time employee, your pay would be significantly better than an intern’s. Plus, that leaves the internship open to someone who needs it.”

“How do you even know about the scholarship?” Marinette was stunned. He wanted to hire her? No awful internship, she could do what she loved for people she knew and liked? It sounded too good to be true. “Wait, no, that's not the point. I mean, yes, obviously I want the job, when do you want me to start? I can't move to Gotham right now, because I have to finish the year, and my birthday isn't until July, but then I could make my way over in August?”

“Okay, awesome, what if we hired MDC as a independent consultant, through your website, for the next 2 months, you can start making some designs for everyone, and then you can sign an actual contract just after your birthday, then whenever you move to Gotham, we can set you up with an office and creative space?”

It was more than Marinette could have dreamed of, and she was quick to agree. They hashed out the logistics, but he sounded just as gleeful as she felt when the call disconnected. She squealed and did a happy dance, picking up her phone to call Alya back. 

_ _ _

Once Damian knew that he would be seeing Marinette again, he decided that he needed to change his behaviour. It was not a sudden revelation, he had been thinking about their interactions more often than he would admit ever since she had gone back to Europe. So over the next week or so, Damian made an effort to improve his conversational skills. He spoke to random students at his high school, worked on being more patient with Kent, and asked his father to find him some work at his company to spend time with a range of different personality types. 

He of course did not relay this particular reason to his father, giving a more general explanation of wanting to get a feel for the business before he began working towards his economics degree. His father readily agreed and Damian found that he was more than capable of marshaling his temper around buffoons.

He did not want his brothers to make more of his change of behaviour than there was, and so he seldom interacted with others at the same time as them. Even so, Grayson had commented more than once that his patience had improved drastically, most likely referring to the fact that he had not threatened anyone who had been overly familiar with him.

He was determined to make a better impression on Marinette the next time they met.

[starwarsmum]

Chapter 5 of Introducing: Mousinette!

The next time Damian saw Marinette, Grayson and Gordon had dragged him to a tour of his new campus. It had been a fairly uneventful morning, Grayson had felt it necessary to show him around the university, as though he hadn't visited already.

“You did not mention that you were planning to attend Gotham University,” he said, attempting small talk. He felt the discomfort cloak him like a second skin, his arms stiff, jaw locked. When she gave only a noncommittal noise, he tried again. “What course are you planning on studying?”

“I'm sorry, did I land in an alternate universe?” Marinette said, shooting an incredulous look his way. “Because I seem to remember you being kind of an asshole at dinner the other night.”

“Tt, I said you were behaving like a child, which you were,” Damian responded. If he was a cat, his hackles would be raised and he would be yowling, low in his throat. He watched Marinette bristle, pleased, for some reason, that he was able to rile her so quickly. “If you do not wish to be perceived as a child, perhaps you should act your age more than your height.”

“And perhaps you should act more your age than a pompous, stuck up-” she was cut off by Gordon approaching, chatting with Grayson as he pushed her along. He watched her visibly take a deep breath and push down whatever she had been about to say, before looking at him flatly. “I'm planning on studying business,” she said in a monotone. 

That surprised him, but he was spared from responding by Gordon and Grayson beginning a more animated conversation about the dorms. He watched her giggle effortlessly, charming them both as they approached the business school section of the university. 

“Dames, have you seen the dorms? They're so cool, are you sure you don't want to stay here instead of the manor?” Damian gave Grayson a look of incredulity, before turning away with a derisive snort. “What? It's not like you'd be alone, Marinette's planning on staying in the dorms!”

“Dick, please don't try to convince him to stay in the dorms,” Marinette pleaded, shooting Damian a sceptical look. “Besides, I'm pretty sure Mr Rich Boy couldn't handle one week in the dorms. He strikes me as the hapless sort - has he ever even made a meal?”

“Tt, as if it is difficult. Regardless, the idea of residing in these dormitories sounds a specific sort of torture and I shall not be subjecting myself to it.” He refused to be baited by the little witch - he had no need to learn to cook, and she would not taunt him into proving her wrong. 

Marinette gave him a fierce glare but allowed him to have the last word, which made him unreasonably annoyed. He was even more annoyed when she started to ignore him, just as she had that night at the manor. It changed when Jagged Stone arrived with Penny Rolling and they managed to abscond with Grayson and Gordon.

Things continued in a strained way, Marinette shutting down any attempt at conversation, often walking away from him to view the different departments on display for the day. Eventually, he allowed himself to trail along behind her, keeping a slight distance but close enough that the others could find them both easily.

She had vanished around a corner when he let the gap grow slightly, and he sighed, annoyed. He became slightly concerned when he didn't immediately spy her, but huffed in annoyance once more when he saw her flirting with another attendee. He had blond hair, an athletic build and was only a couple of inches taller than her. He decided to approach, if only so he could taunt her with it later.

“...just hope you aren't in any of my classes in the fall, I'd never get any work done,” the boy was saying. Damian rolled his eyes, slowing slightly so as not to draw attention to himself. “But maybe we'll end up in the same dorm and we could-”

“Thank you for the compliment, but I'm afraid I am not interested, Monsieur,” came Marinette's reply, which made Damian pause. He glanced at her face and she still had a smile in place, but perhaps he had mistaken annoyance for attraction. “Please can you move so I may get back to my friends.”

“Ooh, French, that's hot,” came the smarmy reply, plainly not listening to her. “I bet you could teach me a thing or two about kissing.”

“Look, I have tried to say no politely, but you don't seem to be getting it,” Marinette said flatly, putting a hand on his shoulder to push him out of the way. Damian watched, fascinated by the shift in her demeanor. “And the only kissing I would be willing to teach you, is to kiss the asphalt.” and she pushed his shoulder, hard enough that he took a step back. Which is when he reached out and grabbed her arm, forcing her to stop.

“What the hell, bitch? Think you're too good for an American, huh? Or maybe you don't know how to be polite when someone is being nice to you,” he said, pulling her back sharply and making her yelp. Damian didn't hesitate, taking hold of the other boys forearm. “And who the hell do you think you are?”

“I think I am one of her companions today, and that you need to learn what ‘no’ means. Both the word and contextual cues, as she gave you both and you ignored them. Let go of her, before I force you to,” Damian said haughtily, releasing his grip when Marinette was free. He watched the other boy beat a hasty retreat before turning back to her.

“I had that handled,” she said immediately, narrowing her eyes at him. “I did not need you swooping in, like a bat and sticking your nose in. And I don't appreciate you laughing at me,” she scowled when he lifted an amused eyebrow at her accidental joke.

He watched her stalk away, impressed in spite of himself. She probably could have taken care of it herself, and he wouldn't normally have stepped in, except that she had been grabbed, and made an involuntary noise, so he had moved. Spotting Grayson and Gordon, he started after her, vowing not to get involved unless she asked for help in future.

The rest of the day passed relatively uneventfully, although Damian found his gaze drawn more and more to the fiery Parisian. She had seemed empty-headed and childish when he met her, but he was being forced to reconsider his evaluation of her the more he knew her.

He found himself hoping that she would be attending the university later that year, if only so he could add more to the growing list of idiosyncrasies he had made note of about her.

[starwarsmum]

Chapter 11 of Introducing: Mousinette! 😁 Getting Angry

 Damian stormed into the batcave, in a foul temper. He glared at Drake, who reddened slightly and made himself busy at the computer again. He took his time changing into his suit in an attempt to calm his rage, but it felt like a losing battle. He stalked over to the team, glaring at anyone who met his eye.

“You're late, Robin,” his father said, a note of concern in his voice, which Damian chose to ignore. “Is everything okay?”

“Tt, I am fine, father. Everyone is late sometimes,” he refused to elaborate, even though he had never been late before, and planned never to be late again. “What is the plan for patrol?”

“Red Hood is with Batgirl, Red Robin with Spoiler, and Robin, you're with Nightwing,” Batman ordered, ignoring the growl that came out of his son. “I'll take Crime Alley tonight, Robin, Nightwing knows your assignment. Stay in touch through Oracle.”

Grayson managed not to say anything until an hour later, which surprised Damian. He had expected to be bombarded with questions as soon as they were alone, but something about his demeanor must have warned him away. But it could only last so long, and Damian’s mood dropped further.

“So…Marinette, huh?”

“Nightwing, no civilian names,” he barked, glaring into the darkness. Grayson came up to him and sat down on the building ledge, swinging his feet slightly.

“C’mon baby bird, I'm just curious. I didn't think cute and bubbly was your type, or hell, that you had a type. You should've seen Red Hood when he heard the news, he was almost catatonic!”

“Tt, none of you should be involved in this aspect of my personal life,” he grumbled. “I do not have a type, Nightwing. She is…unique, and I find I am drawn to her. It appears she feels similarly, and we are exploring this connection. Is that enough for you that we may proceed with patrol?”

“Sorry, Robin, it's just…so new,” Grayson looked contrite, his legs still for a change. “I'm happy for you, you know? If she makes you happy, that's all we want for you, and I'll support you.”

The rest of their patrol passed relatively uneventfully, and they returned to the batcave. Damian changed less quickly this time, allowing the others to get ahead of him. He nodded curtly as they bid him goodnight, but they did not approach him further - except for Gordon. She rolled right up to him and waited patiently as he turned to her.

“I suppose you also have questions,” he said, teeth gritting as he flushed with embarrassment. “Is it too much to hope that you will give me space if I ask nicely?”

“I do, and it is,” she answered curtly. “Marinette is my friend, Damian, I won't see her hurt if I can prevent it. Do you really think it's a good idea to get involved with her, a civilian?”

“And how do you suggest I go about dating? Only date from those with a mask? I have been led to believe that is not how feelings work,” he said drily, trying to cover his discomfort with sarcasm. His feelings for Marinette were new enough that he did not know how to discuss them. 

“Maybe not, but it doesn't have to be Marinette,” Gordon said firmly, keeping her wheelchair directly in his path. “It's great that you're exploring being a real boy, D, but Marinette deserves to experience a real love, a romance, and I think we both know you wouldn't be able to give that to her.”

“It is none of your business,” Damian hissed, fury rising within him. He had known his family would be insufferable about his dating, especially someone as bright and caring as Marinette. What he hadn't expected was to be told he wouldn't be enough for her. The thought settled into a corner of his mind and he deliberately turned away from it. “I will not stand here and allow you to dictate my personal life. If you have a valid concern, email me and I shall respond accordingly.”

He stalked off, hands curled into fists and tension obvious in his shoulders. He managed to avoid everyone else as he reached his room, which he was relieved to find empty, save for his four legged friends. Alfred the Cat looked up at him but didn't move, and Titus remained unmoving in his dog bed.

He collapsed onto his bed and checked the time on his phone. Curiously, he had a new text notification. In spite of his concerns that one of his siblings was messaging to berate him, he opened it. He felt a warm flush spread over him as he read it.

Hey Damian, thanks for a wonderful evening! Let me know what days you're free and we'll arrange that date ❤️ 

He refrained from messaging back immediately, believing that she was a light sleeper, and not wanting to wake her prematurely. But that didn't stop him from falling asleep with a smile on his face, clutching his phone to his chest.

_ _ _

Marinette awoke the following morning to half a dozen or so texts. She gnawed her lip before deciding that coffee was going to be needed before she could face some of them and made her way to her kitchen. As she waited for the coffee, she flicked open her texts to see who had messaged her. Smiling, she opened the one from Damian.

Good morning, I trust you slept well. I enjoyed your company greatly and am free most Saturday and Sunday afternoons. Otherwise, I am available next Wednesday evening. Yours, Damian.

She grinned, a happy flush of warmth filling her. She hadn't been too worried about texting him last night given that they had become sort of friends, but it was nice to have a text to wake up to. She considered her options as she prepared her coffee and took a fortifying sip before responding.

Good morning handsome ;) next Wednesday would work perfectly, did you want to just get dinner or something else? Saturdays are unofficially girls night with Babs, so to avoid problems there, we should probably keep those free. But if you wanted to spar again, Sunday afternoon sounds ideal? <3

Once that was done, she grabbed a bowl for some cereal before facing her other messages. She had two from Chloe, one from Adrien, one from Steph, another from Dick and a final one from Barbara. She groaned, not wanting to confirm that they all knew about her and Damian’s budding relationship.

After firing quick texts to Chloe confirming that she was already working on the commission she had sent through for Kagami's Christmas present and that she would be home for the holiday, and to Adrien to let him know that she was doing fine, she braved the one from Dick. She knew that he would mostly be pleased for them. 

Hey Mari, heard you and lil D were up to mischief yday! Is it wrong to say I'm proud? Seriously tho, if you need any advice, I'm here x

She smiled, feeling the warm glow return. Sure, Barbara may be worried, but Dick just seemed thrilled that his little brother was dating. She sent him a string of heart and tongue-poking-out emojis. She decided to save Barbara's for last and opened Steph's, wondering what she would have to say about the matter.

Hey, heard you got your freak on with the Demon :| thought you had better taste but obviously not #shrug# if this is a hostage sitch, hmu, I'll make him regret it! 

Marinette snorted, deciding that she needn't dignify that with an answer. Steph had joined her for girls night at Barbara's occasionally, and she liked the woman well enough. So whilst she was getting to know her, it wasn't the closest relationship yet. No, the person she was closest to, she was hesitant to talk to about this, because she didn't want to hurt their friendship. Biting the bullet, she opened her last message.

Hey Mari, just checking we're still on for Saturday? I would like to talk about yesterday, but I don't want to push you if you're not ready. Love, Babs

She sighed, making Tikki look up from her breakfast cookie. She knew that Barbara meant well, and that she wanted Marinette to be happy, but she didn't know enough about the whole Barbara/Damian dynamic to say whether she wanted what was best for him. She thought for a few minutes longer, before deciding not to address the topic via text. 

Hey! Of course we're still on for Sat, did you want me to bring dinner, or do you want to order in? I think we should try that new Mexican place near yours, but I'm happy to cook if you want. Love you too <3

She didn't get any replies until she made it to campus. She had a heart emoji back from Dick and a thumbs up from Adrien, both of which made her smile. Her class was due to start in ten minutes so she made a stop at the local coffee joint, wanting to be fully awake for the rest of the day. Because the classes were all in English, she had to work a little harder to concentrate most days, but she was determined not to let it stop her from succeeding.

_ _ _

Damian was also on campus, stressing slightly over Marinette's message. What did she mean by spar? Did she actually want to spar, or was it a coded message, meaning that she wanted some alone time with him? He couldn't fully tell her tone by text and he was starting to stress himself out unduly trying to work it out.

“Morning Dames, ready for our next lecture?” Kent bounced over to him, unfairly chipper for first thing in the day. He gave a slight frown when Damian only grunted back to him. “Okay, even for you that was grumpy. What's up, Mari tell you she wasn't interested?”

“Tt, she said no such thing,” he growled back, glaring a little as the memory of Barbara's complaints came back to him. Kent’s eyebrow rose behind his glasses and Damian huffed and looked away. It only seemed to intrigue the budding reporter more. He pointedly ignored his friend, staring at the message again.

“Okay, if she hasn't shot you down, what's happened? You only ever get this broody about her, don't even try to deny it. I'm only going to keep asking, so you may as well tell me,” Kent added severely, poking Damian's shoulder.

“Tt, fine, but I will then require your help deciphering this message,” he said, before launching into a brief description of the events in the gym the previous day. “And then Marinette and I went on a date, and now she says she would like to ‘spar’ with me on Sunday, before a date on Wednesday. Does she mean she would actually like to spar? Or is she suggesting we take some time alone for- other activities?”

Kent appeared to be speechless, his eyes wide behind his lenses. It took several prompts for him to respond, and he failed to assist with the immediate problem. “Holy crap, no, wait, what? Are you seriously telling me you tried to hook up with Mari last night? What the hell, man?”

“Kent, do not be ridiculous. We became a little carried away by our mutual feelings, after which we went to dinner,” he had chosen to leave out the time spent in her apartment, as it did not seem relevant to the topic at hand. Had it been possible, he would have omitted what had occurred in the gym, but it was the main reason he was conflicted in how to respond. “Time is rather pressing, Kent, she messaged me this morning and will expect a response soon.”

“Right, yeah, okay,” Kent said, still sounding a little stunned. “I mean, why not just ask? Mari doesn't mind you being blunt, does she? Or, maybe you just treat it like a spar? If it's more, you'll find out and won't seem like a creep for expecting more.”

Damian pondered this before pulling the messages up again. He thought carefully about what he wanted the message to say and managed to craft something he was happy with. Then he gave a rare smile to Kent. “Thank you, I think I shall be able to communicate effectively moving forward.”

“Sure, but you know I'm going to have to talk to her, right? No, listen, you're my best friend and I have to make sure she's good enough for you!”

“You have already met Marinette,” Damian said, slightly bemused. “She is the same person she was when you were spending time with her two weeks ago.”

“Except she's not! Two weeks ago she was a cute girl you had a crush on, now you're dating. She needs a shovel talk, and I'm going to give it to her.”

“Why would you talk to her about shovels? No, never mind. Kent, I am telling you not to bother her. My family is already inserting themselves needlessly into these events, I shall not forgive you if you discourage her from continuing.” Damian speared him with a glare, but before they could talk on it more, the lecturer appeared and began.

_ _ _

Lunch was the first chance Marinette had to check her messages again. She knew she was mostly hoping for something from Damian, but was also dreading anything more from his family. She brightened when she saw that he had in fact messaged her back.

I believe dinner will be an enjoyable experience with you, if last night’s meal is a good indication. I agree, Gordon is already somewhat vexed with me so ensuring you do not cancel your plans with her is imperative. In regards to Sunday, I would be happy to spar with you, perhaps we could invite Grayson or Todd as they have adequate capabilities? Unless you are using spar as a euphemism for our other activities, in which case I would much prefer to stay far away from any of my siblings. 

Marinette grinned as she tucked her chin into her oversized hoodie. She had absolutely meant to actually spar, but she liked that he was thinking about kissing her again. She tapped her phone against her chin excitedly, wondering whether she could say that she would be happy with either. Unfortunately, that was when someone flopped into the seat next to her, making her squeak and drop her phone.

“Sup, Pixie, you're looking a little red there,” Jason said, sounding amused. Marinette shot him a grumpy look, picking up her phone and locking it. No need for him to see the exchange of messages between her and Damian. He made a disgusted noise, prodding her opposite shoulder. “Please tell me you're not getting worked up by Demon Spawn of all people.”

“Hi Jason, wow, it's good to see you too!” She said sarcastically, feeling nettled. “Also, it's none of your business if Damian is getting me worked up - unless you'd like to have an in depth discussion about what I find hot about your brother?”

“Ew, gross, that was uncalled for,” Jason said, wrinkling his nose. “Besides, you can't honestly say you find his attitude attractive, that would mean you need a psych eval. I would hate for it to turn out you were criminally insane and get you sent to Arkham.”

“If you're not going to be nice about my feelings, you don't get to talk about them,” she sniffed, now feeling stung. Jason leveled a look at her and she felt her cheeks brighten. “No, if you're going to be mean and rude, you can find someone else to have lunch with, Jason. Babs and Steph are already going all ‘concerned big sisters’ on me, I don't need you being an overprotective jackass too. Honestly, Dick's being the only reasonable one of you lot.”

“Aw, don't be like that Pix, you know I'm just worried about you. You don't know D like the rest of us, we're just trying to make sure you're not rushing into anything. And before you say you're not, please remember that Timmy found you rolling around the gym floor with him,” he said with distaste as she opened her mouth to defend herself.

“Oh my god, it is the only time I have rolled around a gym floor with him, and it is still totally nobody else's business! And of course I don't know him like you do yet, that's why we're going to dinner soon. I would wager I know him pretty well, just in different ways to you.” Marinette started to stand up angrily, grabbing her bags and looking for a table to stalk over to so she could have lunch. She was prevented by Jason gripping her upper arm and she glared at him again.

“Look, Marinette, I get that you think this is a good idea. Really, I can see that you are all aboard the crazy train and riding it to date station. But maybe you should consider that I have more experience than you and can say, without a doubt, that Demon Spawn is not a good match for you. You're too different, I'd sooner expect you to date Jon than him.”

“His name is Damian, and if you cannot be civil about this, we have nothing to talk about,” Marinette hissed at him, shoving his arm, hard. She felt like screaming, righteous fury making her blood simmer. “I get that this is a surprise to you, but if you think I haven't thought about this��at length, you're wrong. So until you can apologise to both of us, find someone else to have lunch with.”

She stomped away, hands shaking so much that she could hardly keep a grip on her phone. She walked blindly, no longer hungry and wanting some solitude. So she was both embarrassed and frustrated when she crashed into someone else. She muttered apologies, trying to grab her phone from the floor.

“Marinette, are you okay?” Fantastic, she thought, now Jon's here and, knowing my luck, he's also here to warn doom and gloom. She let out a choked laugh, tugging a hunk of her hair. “Hey, I thought you were supposed to cry after I give you the shovel talk,” he joked, clearly concerned.

“Maybe if most of Damian's family wasn't being a bunch of assholes,” she said bitterly, swiping at her eyes. “Sorry, I don't mean that. It's just all a little overwhelming, and Jason has decided I'm making a mistake and he has to fix it, even though I'm not. And it makes me angry, because Damian's such an amazing guy but he keeps calling him Demon Spawn and I hate it, but nobody seems to be listening-”

“Whoa, okay, slow down, Mari. Clearly the shovel talk isn't necessary, you get it. Do you want me to walk you somewhere? So other people leave you alone, I mean. I can probably get Dames here, if you'd prefer?”

“No, I don't want to see him and tell him that his family are being jerks until I calm down,” she muttered, shoving her phone into her bag. “I'm sorry, I tend to ramble when I'm frustrated or worried. How's your day going?”

He let the conversation slide into small talk, although he still looked concerned. She managed to determinedly fill the air with chatter about their classes and plans for the weekend. She seemed to become more animated, talking about her job and the work she was completing there. 

Eventually she glanced at her phone, and apologised that she would have to leave to get to her next lecture in time. He nodded but walked her to the lecture hall, saying that they needed to plan some time to hang out and get to know each other better. She smiled and agreed, saying that he was more than welcome to join them for her and Damian’s next sparring session.

As he walked away, she took a moment to message Damian.

Yes, I really meant spar! I'm pretty sure we should do a preplanned date before we have any more fun with our ‘other activities’ ;P Dick can come but Jason's on my shit list. I invited Jon, I hope that's okay? Also, I missed you at lunch today, maybe we can get lunch together on Friday when we're both at WE? xox

_ _ _

Barbara was working in the Wayne Manor dining room when Jason stormed in, Dick hot on his heels. She had heard them coming because they had been having a heated conversation but it seemed to be reaching a boiling point.

“I'm not saying sorry for trying to keep her safe,” Jason grumped, dropping into a seat near her. “Hey, Babs, you're on my side with this, right?”

“I refuse to agree with that statement until I know what's going on,” she shot back, not even looking up from her laptop. He began protesting and she waved a hand at him. “No, seriously, I don't know if I'm on your side, because I don't even know what you two are arguing about. If you want me involved in this, catch me up.”

“Jay got into a fight with Mari,” Dick said immediately, behaving just like an older brother who had caught his younger sibling doing something naughty. “Apparently she's mad at him now and said he has to apologise to both her and Damian. What did you even say, Mari’s such a ray of sunshine, she never gets mad without a reason.”

“I told her the freaking truth - she doesn't know Demon Spawn well enough to be hooking up with him! But she's gone off the deep end, won't hear a word against him and about bit my head off for suggesting she might not know everything. I swear, if it's not some form of mind control, she officially needs to see a psychiatrist.”

“Hey, that's not fair,” Dick said, looking slightly outraged. Barbara sighed, removing her glasses to rub her eyes. “I know Damian isn't the easiest person to get along with but everyone who's spoken with her has said that she's happy and seems mentally with it.”

“Except for the fact that she's trying to date Demon Spawn! It's not hard to tell what he's getting out of this, she's funny, smart and gorgeous, but Damian? There's a reason we call him Demon, Dick, and it's not ironic. Is there any way we can get B to drop in on her and run a tox-screen or something?”

“Jason, you know Bruce would never agree,” Barbara interjected, trying to bring some levity to the conversation. She hated it, but she had to admit that she was leaning more to Jason's side of things. He may be hot headed but those he cared about were important to him, and there wasn't much he wouldn't do to keep them safe. “Look, I'm having her over on Saturday and I'll get to the bottom of this. Dick, I know you want Damian to be happy, and to grow, but it can't be at the expense of Marinette.”

“I didn't say it should be!” He shouted, throwing his arms in the air. “No, listen to me, I text her this morning and she seemed perfectly fine. She is an adult, the same age as Damian, and she is interested in him. If Tim hadn't found them in the gym, we wouldn't even know anything about this right now, and they'd be exploring their relationship privately. We should 100% butt out of this.”

“Grayson is correct, you should not be intruding on my relationship with Marinette.” Barbara span around so quickly she nearly overturned her wheelchair. Damian stood in the doorway, anger radiating from him. “Why is it every time I see one of you today, you are attempting to meddle in my love life? It is no-one else's concern whom I spend my time with, and I will be stabbing the next person who speaks about it within my hearing range.”

Silence settled in the room, Dick looking abashed and Jason angry. Barbara was ever more concerned - Damian hadn't legitimately threatened to stab somebody in years, but she didn't doubt that he meant it. Jon stepped past the doorway a moment later, frowning and shaking his head, before following Damian.

“Well, shit, he definitely seems like he's not unhinged,” Jason said into the quiet, his sarcasm grating on Barbara's nerves. “Good luck on Saturday Babs, let us know if you need help staging an intervention. Maybe invite Steph along for support, she doesn't have patrol this week.”

Jason stalked out of the room and then it was just Dick and Barbara, both lost in their own thoughts. Barbara was sure that Dick was angry with her, but she was also annoyed with him for encouraging the teens to rush into things without thinking. She sighed; Dick was a romantic at heart and wanted a fairytale romance for his little brother. He clearly thought Marinette was just that, and would likely try to find ways to push the two together, regularly.

“I know you think I'm being naive, Babs,” Dick said suddenly, interrupting her thoughts. “And you're right that I don't know Marinette very well, but you don't know lil D all that well either. I'm not asking you to, I don't know, endorse the relationship or whatever, I'm just asking you to give them some breathing room, to work it out themselves.”

He walked out before she could respond, leaving her with a lot to think about.

[starwarsmum]

Chapter 2 of Introducing: Mousinette 🥰

Chapter 2: Marinette Moves On

The release of her new website, combined with Jagged raving on social media, meant that Marinette was extremely busy after Christmas. Her parents were very supportive of her stepping back from the bakery so that she could keep on top of her schoolwork and her commissions. 

Marinette's friends, on the other hand, were growing increasingly vocal about how they felt neglected. Alya in particular had messaged her several times, asking to hang out with the ‘whole gang’, which Marinette politely declined. Every time she did that, Lila would lay it on thick, asking if it was because she would be going, and apologising for making Marinette uncomfortable, which made Alya slightly harsher with Marinette.

Marinette neither confirmed nor denied that Lila was the reason she didn't want to hang out, but Alya was hotheaded and tended to assume Marinette was still jealous of the other girl. Marinette had lost count of the number of times she had been lectured for not being ‘more open-minded’, which made her temper flare. 

And so Marinette found herself spending even more time with Kagami or Luka. She carved out time in her schedule to spar with them, especially Kagami who would use a bokken while Marinette went barehanded. It was fun and challenging, and helped her to keep her skills fresh. 

In addition, even though the website was finished, Marinette kept up with her weekly calls with Barbara. She had found that the woman was friendly, smart and could be witty. Plus, they had a shared disdain of puns from ex-boyfriends turned friends. When the older woman had told her about her first boyfriend, Dick, Marinette had been horrified to find out there were other nerds who made puns constantly.

It was nearly Valentine's day when Barbara called Marinette outside of their agreed times, which made Marinette worry. She picked up hastily, sending an apologetic look to Chloe who only huffed in annoyance.

“Hey Babs, is everything okay?” She put down the needle she had been threading and peered into her screen. “It's not like you to call out of the blue like this.”

“Well, it's also not like me to receive a mystery package, Mari,” came Barbara's dry reply. “After checking it for…problems…imagine my surprise when I find a gorgeous, hand-knitted blanket, with little glasses and computers designed into it. Care to explain?”

“Oh, um,” Marinette fumbled, glancing at Chloe before shrugging sheepishly. “You're my friend, Babs. You helped me out more than I can say, and I wanted to make something for you.”

“Mari, sweetheart, this must have taken hours,” Babs said, sounding mildly horrified. “I did the site because Penny asked, not because I needed you to pay me back.”

“Don't you like it?” Marinette pouted, cocking a hand to her hip. She fought back a grin when Barbara sighed and pinched her nose. When no denial seemed forthcoming, Marinette shrugged and smirked at her. “Well then, I don't see the problem. Besides, you mentioned that your ex was complaining about, you know, and now you can rub it in his face.”

“Oh my god, you're so right! Actually, can I commission you to make something else for me as well, then? Because whilst this is practical and I adore it, I want to be able to really rub it in.”

Marinette laughed goodnaturedly, agreeing easily, before admitting that she was in the middle of a different order. They agreed to chat about things when they had their usual catch up that weekend. Chloe raised a brow at Marinette when she picked the needle and thread back up, and continued as though there had been no interruption.

“So who was that, Dupain-Cheng?” Chloe said when it became clear that Marinette wouldn't speak without prompting. When she only received a noncommittal shrug in return, she harrumphed. “How is it you always make mysterious connections and refuse to explain anything?”

“Just lucky, I guess,” Marinette replied, smirking at her little inside joke. “Besides, do you want to talk about my social life, or let me finish Kagami’s Valentine's present? That's what I thought,” she added smugly when Chloe grumbled and waved a regal hand.

An hour later, Chloe inspected the completed product - a delicate kimono with tiny dragon and bee embroidery along the folds. It was red and black, with gold detailing and Chloe cooed over it, before assuring Marinette that her fee would be in the account within the next day.

Tikki buzzed around Marinette's head, showering her with praise for how well she had done completing the kimono. She suppressed a smile as she thought about the black and yellow dress that Kagami had commissioned for Chloe's Valentine's gift. She was pleased that her friends were happy together, even if she had been wary of Chloe when they had started dating.

But Chloe had apologised for her behaviour, going so far as to buy some rare threads as an apology gift, even though that hadn't been necessary. Chloe had been spirited away by her mother at the beginning of lycée and, upon returning at the beginning of this academic year, had kept to herself mostly. She no longer tried to antagonise Marinette and had gone out of her way to assist others when she could. 

So, whilst they weren't the best of friends, Marinette and Chloe had agreed for Kagami's sake to get along. And it had worked out in the past few months, Chloe's biting sarcasm softening to friendlier teasing. Alya still wouldn't spend time with her, but she no longer cautioned doom every time Marinette said that she was going to, so Marinette counted that as a win.

When Valentine's day finally arrived, Marinette dreaded going to school. Even though she knew there would be no akumas, thanks to her single-handedly bringing down Hawkmoth 2 years ago, she still had to deal with average teenage drama - usually in the form of Lila preening over a large bouquet of flowers that a ‘mysterious admirer’ had sent for her. Which would lead the girls in even Marinette's classroom to speculate whether they were from Adrien and, if so, when he would finally ask her out.

So when she walked into the classroom to see a giant bouquet sitting on her desk, she immediately assumed that someone had mixed up the seats. They weren't the usual mix of roses and tulips that she was accustomed to seeing Lila receive, but it was definitely an expensive bouquet. 

So she was very surprised to see her name on the tag. She gulped, mind whirring into overdrive as she tried to work out who could have sent her such an ostentatious gift. She blushed as the other girls made noises of appreciation, Alya nudging her in the ribs excitedly, before flipping the card over in search of more. She was not disappointed as she read:

To an amazing girl, who does so much for those around her. We haven't known each other long but I wouldn't trade what we have for the world. Lots of love, the girl behind the screen.

The blush deepened as she realised that Babs had sent such an impressive bunch of flowers, all because Marinette had mentioned that her friends made a big deal about her being single on Valentine's day. She was touched, but also mortified by the attention she was gaining. How on earth was she going to explain this away?! 

She remained tight-lipped until another flower delivery, this time the anticipated one for Lila, interrupted the class. Lila came in a few minutes later and cooed over the arrangement. She couldn't hide the surprise in her face when she saw the class gathered around Marinette and immediately tried to work it to her favour.

“Oh, Marinette, I didn't realise you were dating again already! Unless…but no, I'm sure you're very happy,” she assured, letting the doubt in her voice do the work for her. The people who knew Marinette less well began to look at her speculatively, making her hackles raise. Fortunately, she was saved answering by a loud laugh from the front of the classroom.

“Oh, now I see why you were so secretive about your phone call, Dupain-Cheng,” Chloe smirked, flouncing over to her. “It looks as though she knows how to treat you right, at least. You'd better introduce Gami and me when you go public though, it is ridiculous to think you hadn't mentioned her before.”

Which sent the class into uproar - Marinette remained quiet, lowering her head to her arms to hide her relief. Chloe had successfully diverted the class and Lila hadn't managed to twist it any further. Not long after, the class was called to order by their teacher and Marinette was even more relieved that she sat at the back so that she didn't feel like someone was behind her, staring.

She would have to have a word with Barbara about the over-the-top display when they chatted that weekend, though she was touched by the thought that had gone into it. The bouquet held her favourite hues and flowers, and she knew she would be pressing several of them. 

_ _ _

“Babs, I swear to god, what the heck?” Marinette deadpanned as soon as the woman had joined the chat. She was greeted by laughter and a bright smile. She tried her best to keep her scowl, but the laughter was infectious and she giggled back. “Okay, fine, I deserved it after the whole blanket thing. But you have no clue how stressful the class was about this.”

“Please, you probably handled it like a pro, Mari,” Barbara said shrewdly. “And I assume it all worked out, or you would have called me.”

“Okay, number one, rude. Two, I hate how insufferably smart you are,” Marinette shook her head, clearing the light blush that was forming across her cheeks. She was trying her best to stamp out the burgeoning crush on her new friend but it was hard when she did things like that. “Anyway, I had another idea for your commission…”

They passed the next couple of hours chatting about the commission and general things that had happened in their week. When it was time to say goodnight, Marinette felt more grounded again, and she signed off cheerfully. 

The following two weeks were a little easier, Barbara chattering about her family in the background while Marinette worked during their weekly catch ups. During getting to know each other, Marinette had mentioned wanting to attend university in America, and Barbara had been working hard to convince her that Gotham University was the best for the business course she wanted to take.

In trying to convince Marinette what a good idea it was to choose GU, she had started talking about the people she spent her time with. When she talked about Dick, Marinette could see the affection and weathered annoyance she had for the man. She was cautionary when talking about Jason, who she knew fairly well, but warned had a temper.

“Oh, Tim is the one who is obsessed with your work, by the way,” she said casually, on the third catch up since Valentine's day. “He is a huge Jagged Stone fan, but he also follows fashion pretty religiously, so he keeps trying to find out who you are. Luckily, he can't crack my encryption because he doesn't have as much experience as me.”

“I take it he's really annoyed with you for having those commissions then,” Marinette mused, pinning a section of the skirt she was working on back before shooting a grin at the woman. “What about the one that's my age, David was it? You haven't told me much about him.”

“That's because I don't know much about Damian,” Barbara admitted. “He's not exactly easy to get along with, and he doesn't want to get to know anyone as far as I'm aware. The main thing I know about him is that he likes animals more than people. Now Steph, she's a riot! Used to date Tim, but they're friends now, which is starting to feel like a club, with three of us.”

“Ha, well I'd love to meet all these people you keep talking about,” Marinette said cheerfully, focusing on the hem of the skirt for a second. “And, honestly, Gotham U is my first choice, it just depends on if I can get the grades. But I'm not too worried, I'll get in somewhere, and then I'll plot my takeover of the fashion world.”

“Well we'd love to have you in Gotham. Plus, it's Penny's alma mater too, so you'd be part of this club too!” They were interrupted by Marinette's phone ringing abruptly, and she apologised, putting down the needle she was using to answer.

“Hey Als, what's up?” She wedged the phone between her ear and shoulder, squinting critically at the finished waistband of her design before deciding it was perfect. She frowned and gave the phone her full attention after a moment. “I'm sorry, what?”

“Girl, you know how there's that new designer that, no offense, is revolutionising the fashion world? The one that makes all of Jagged Stone's outfits, MDC,” Alya was saying excitedly, her words coming out in a rush. Marinette's eye twitched, worried that she'd been found out, so she put the phone on speaker and confirmed that, yes, obviously she knew about all major fashion designers, including breakthrough ones like MDC. She saw Barbara's mouth twitch and silenced her laptop, leaving the microphone alone. “Right, so you know how Lila saved Jagged Stone's kitten years ago? And so she's, like, super tight with him?”

“Alya, you know I don't-” Marinette began, trying to cut the other girl off, but she was overridden.

“No, don't start with the disbelief thing, I've told you that green is not your colour,” Alya said, and Marinette could almost see the scowl the aspiring reporter must be sporting. Barbara's mouth dropped open, before she started to say something Marinette couldn't hear. “Listen, because she's so close to Jagged, she's met MDC! And she said she could get me a telephone interview with him,because he's not ready to let his anonymity go, so I can't do a vlog on it.”

“Oh, so when is that happening?” Marinette tried to relax her jaw and sound upbeat but she was fuming. She could hear the scepticism in her voice though, and knew that Alya had picked up on it too.

“Marinette, I know what you're going to say, but can't you just be happy for me? It'll be huge when I get to do this interview. And Lila already told me that he's not quite ready for any interviews, but as soon as he is I'm first on the list!”

“Alya, please, I know you're excited,” Marinette said, exasperated. “But can you just see it from a different angle? She hasn't given you a shred of proof that she actually knows MDC, and you don't even have a date for the interview! It is so far from a guaranteed thing, and I just don't want you to hurt your chances moving forward-”

“I should have known you would be like this,” Alya said, sounding every bit as exasperated as Marinette. “I only wanted to tell you so that I could offer to hook you up when I did get the interview - can you imagine collaborating with someone like that? - and I'm still totally going to do it, but now you're going to have to apologise to Lila as soon as it goes through. Also, you have no proof she's lying, whereas I know that Lila knows Jagged Stone, which is what makes it plausible!”

“She's never proven that she knows Jagged either!” Marinette hated arguing with Alya, but she hated liars more. Especially when she knew they were lying. Barbara was looking concerned but Marinette focused purely on Alya for a moment. “And the only reason you think I'm wrong is because you decided I was jealous of her, which I'm not-”

“Yeah, right,” Alya laughed, though she sounded fed up. “Forget it, I know you're busy right now, I'll see you at school on Monday, okay? And maybe try to be more open minded.”

Marinette stared speechlessly at her phone for two full minutes. She was so frustrated with Alya, who refused to believe that she didn't still have feelings for Adrien and therefore had to be jealous of Lila. Eventually she shook it off and turned the sound back on for her laptop.

“Okay, no, seriously, what the hell was that?” Barbara said incredulously. “Did she just say she was going to get an interview with MDC? Has she been sniffing paint fumes? And who on earth is Lila?”

“Ugh, Lila is the reason I needed a new website. I can't prove it, but she spread a rumour that I stole all of my designs. She has a knack for telling almost believable stories and the internet is a hellhole, so I had to take it down and go anonymous, which you knew. But Lila's been lying since I met her when we were fourteen, and my friends seem to just believe her.”

“Well, that sucks! How has she not been caught?”

“It beats me, I've tried reasoning with everyone, I've tried to prove she's lying and I've tried to ignore her and take the ‘high road’ but nothing works,” Marinette said, shrugging as she turned back to the skirt. “At this point, I'm just trying to outlast this and make it to university.”

“But why don't they believe you? I've known you for a couple of months but I can tell you're not the type to get jealous of some girl for whatever reason. Plus, you actually know at least one famous person? And you're literally the person this girl is pretending to know this time.”

“Oh, they think I'm jealous because of my ex. When she first showed up, I maybe let her tactics get to me and tried super hard to prove she was a liar with no evidence. But then I dated the guy they think I'm jealous over, and things ended mutually, so I don't really know what they're thinking. But anyway,” she said, waving her scissors around dismissively. “Let's get back to talking about all the reasons I should attend GU.”

[starwarsmum]

Chapter 10 of Introducing: Mousinette 🥰 The BatFamily Loses their Minds

Marinette squealed when they were interrupted, the hands that had previously been fisting in Damian’s hair going still. She could feel a blush working its way over her face and Damian seemed to have gone completely still, as if whoever it was had movement based vision.

A silence spread back through the room, albeit a very different and more awkward one. Damian swore in another language and Marinette had to force down the giggles that threatened to bubble over. She tilted her head towards the door and the giggles became a mortified groan. 

“Uh, I, that is- I'm sorry,” Tim said, sounding like he wasn't sure if he should laugh or cringe. “But seriously, you're in a gym, there are better places to get…intimate.”

“Drake,” came Damian's voice, his tone low and angry. Marinette couldn't suppress a shiver of delight going through her as it rumbled against her chest. “If you do not want me to stab you, I suggest you step outside for a moment, and do not even think about texting anyone.”

As she heard Tim step swiftly out of the room, his muttering cutting off as the door clicked shut, her giggles returned in full force, and she could no longer suppress them. She tried to rein them in as Damian sighed and rolled off of her, but it was difficult. His eyes sliced sideways at her but the darkness in them made her body hum.

“Well, that was…” she trailed off, struggling to put her feelings into words. Her skin tingled where he had touched her, and she mourned the loss of contact. He had surprised her by kissing her, but it hadn't been unwanted. She could admit to herself, now, that her attraction to him had been growing and after that…

“Unfortunate? Mortifying?” Damian sat up and ran his fingers through his hair - she had made it stand up on end a little. “I assure you, Drake will tell someone how he found us, it is only a matter of time.”

“Well, I was thinking something more along the lines of incredible, or amazing,” she said, bringing herself into a seated position. She could tell she had surprised him by the light flush that tinged his neck, which made her grin. “And it's kind of our fault. He's right, there are better places for us to…let loose like that. Hot as it was, I'd rather not be interrupted next time.”

There came a knock on the door and she sighed, jumping to her feet and offering a hand to Damian. She felt the calluses on his hand again as she pulled him to his feet, and blushed. She had basically just told him that she wanted to make out with him again, and she wasn't sure whether he wanted that. And she wasn't likely to find out when his brother had walked in on them this time.

“I really am sorry,” Tim said as he stepped back into the room, hovering awkwardly for a moment before making his way to the treadmills. Damian clicked his tongue again before making his way to the other side of the room, where the hanging bags were. Marinette decided it was best if she didn't join Damian for now but needed to burn off the excess energy, so joined Tim on the treadmills.

“I mean, it's not really your fault,” she shrugged, trying hopelessly to control her blush. She set the incline and speed and began her jog. “We were in a public space, we really only have ourselves to blame. I'd like to say it won't happen again but it's not as though we planned on it happening this time. I should probably pick a different sparring partner, at least publicly.”

Across the room, Damian was listening intently to every word exchanged between his brother and Marinette. He was going through the motions, hitting the bag with less ferocity than usual to make sure he didn't miss their conversation. He paused briefly, as though adjusting the bag, as what she said settled in him. Did she want it to happen again? Was it possible that the attraction he felt so strongly was returned, even in part? 

It took an agonisingly long time for her to finish her workout, but when she did, he made his way to the door first and held it open for her. She thanked him quietly, her voice dropping to be only for him, which made his skin tingle with anticipation. He felt nervous as they stepped into the empty hallway, both walking slowly towards the changing rooms.

“Thank you, for sparring with me,” she said, breaking the silence but increasing the tension. “You're much better than I thought you'd be, you must have trained a lot to get to that point.”

There was a teasing edge to her voice, as though she wasn't only thinking about the short spar. He decided to take a risk and answer both possibilities. “I was trained from birth to be as lethal as possible by my mother. The…latter activity is relatively new to me, although I would not be averse to ‘training’ with you again.”

“I think that could be arranged,” she said, her voice slightly husky, before she pulled him to a stop in a dark alcove. She tugged on his t-shirt, and he obliged, angling his mouth over hers. His hand quickly cupped her chin, and the sigh she let out cut clean through his other thoughts. 

When they broke apart this time, there was no-one standing watching them and he was grateful. He felt raw and open, her blue eyes captivating him. There was a heat in them that made him want to abandon caution and kiss her again but he held off.

“I'm not sure the corridor outside the gym is any more private,” she joked, although she sounded breathless. The hand on her hip circled lazily, without any conscious thoughts from its owner. He felt her press closer to him and felt a surge of satisfaction - she responded to his touch, enjoyed it by every indication. “As much as I like this, I should really go shower. Want to get dinner with me?”

Damian had never showered so fast in his life.

_ _ _

Barbara wheeled into the batcave to a deafening amount of noise. She raised her eyebrows as she saw Jason staring blankly into space, Tim gesticulating wildly and Dick looking like Christmas had come early. Steph, Cass and a tired looking Duke were to the side, looking sceptical. She made her way to them first.

“What's going on?” She asked immediately, wondering if it was more serious than Tim's message had indicated. Had Arkham had a breakout? Was it the Joker, was that why Jason looked so…blank? 

“Tim, Babs needs a rundown of events,” Duke called out, looking apologetically at her. “I'd try to explain but I'm not sure I believe him.”

“I'm telling you, it happened,” Tim said flatly, leveling a look at the other man. “But I get it, if I hadn't seen it myself I wouldn't think Demon Spawn capable of it. But I'm telling you, if I'd walked in any later, I'm sure I'd want to bleach my eyeballs. As it is, I think I need to schedule a therapy session.”

“Wait, Damian? What did he do?” Barbara was even more confused, if that was possible. Dick gave a squeal and bounced in place.

“Baby bird's on a date,” is all he said, which made Barbara's eyebrows shoot towards her hairline. He gave an enthusiastic nod, throwing his hands up. “I know! I didn't even think she liked him as a person, let alone enough to kiss him!”

“Wait, I think I'm missing something here - who is Damian on a date with? And how do you all know about it?”

“Okay, okay, hang on,” Tim said, leaning forward to be heard better. “So, you know that the Wayne Enterprise building has a gym that nobody except us uses? Right,” he said at her affirmation. “So I was finishing up for the day and decided I didn't want to travel all the way home to get a workout in and headed down. I didn't expect Damian to be there because he's supposed to be on patrol tonight, so he usually works out here.

“So I get changed, grab a bottle of water and head to the room only to find it, uh, occupied.” Barbara felt as though she had lost her eyebrows to her hair now. “Yeah, I know, so I make it clear, to whoever it is, ‘this is a public space’ or whatever but then I clock who it is .” He paused dramatically, glancing at Dick, who started bouncing again. “And sure enough, Damian’s getting his freak on with our latest hire, M-freaking-DC.”

“What?!” Barbara gaped for a few moments, before grabbing her phone. She blasted a text to Marinette, not quite believing Tim, but not disbelieving him either. She made an impatient noise when she didn't get a message back immediately, but couldn't do anything. “Okay, let's say that happened, which I'm not sure it did because my girl is normally levelheaded, how does that mean they're on a date?”

“Well, that's an assumption based on the fact that they left both the gym and the building together. And somehow, Demon Spawn hasn't made it home yet, even though he normally comes straight back to walk that dog of his.” Tim shrugged and turned to the batcomputer, pulling up his mobile phone tracking system. “Now, we could always confirm that they're still together, if we wanted to.”

“Okay, this I have to see,” Steph said, bubbling up and making a perch on the table behind Tim. He made short work of pinpointing Damian's position and pulled up the camera feed of the restaurant his phone gave as his location. And there he was, sat in a corner seat with the young designer. Their heads were close together, Damian's eyes locked onto hers. “Holy shit, no way, am I the only one seeing this?”

“No, and it's straight up unnatural,” Jason replied, apparently having come out of his stupor. “Do you think he's harassing her? Maybe blackmail? Because Pix is smart, way too smart to be fooling around with him.”

“That's the thing, he seemed genuinely embarrassed, and she seemed happy enough to walk off with him. Even said something about not being sure I'd never walk in on them again which, let me tell you, I did not need to hear or think about. I wasn't kidding about the therapy session.”

“Okay, I'm calling her,” Barbara proclaimed, watching the screen as her phone dialed. They all watched as the young woman on the screen looked away from their brother to check her phone. She frowned before looking back at Damian and clearly murmuring an apology before she answered it. They could see him tense slightly before he leaned back with a coffee to give her some space.

“Hello? Babs, are you alright?” Came Marinette's voice through the phone and Barbara was confronted with the reality that Marinette absolutely had gone to dinner with Damian.

“Hey, yeah, all good,” she responded, stalling as she tried to think of a reason for having called her. “Just, uh, just wanted to see how your week was going. We hadn't sorted out the details for Saturday night and I wanted to make sure we were still on.”

“Oh my god, Tim told you,” came the mortified squeak from her friend. She watched on screen as Marinette covered the receiver to hiss something at Damian, which made him frown and then his gaze flickered to the nearest security camera. She uncovered the microphone to say, “Jesus, it's not even been 4 hours, why would he do that? Tell him none of his shirts will fit correctly for the next month and he's not allowed to complain. Please tell me you're the only one who knows, that I'm not going to face a firing squad for making out with your baby brother. Because, in my defense, he started it.”

“Um, well, I don't think you'll be facing a firing squad,” Barbara said, trying to make light of the fact that they had basically called a family meeting for this. “But, are you sure about this? If there's something else going on that you need to talk to someone about, we would listen, you know that right? If he's pressuring you or-”

“What? No, oh my God, no no no, there's no pressure,” Marinette's voice had hit a level of high pitched that Barbara had never heard before. Barbara's attention went back to the screen as Damian put his coffee cup down and leaned towards her. His hand slid to hers to catch her attention but then remained holding it, even as she shook her head frantically. “Babs, look, I appreciate the concern but I should probably go, I'm getting dinner right now. I promise, I am happy and fine and do not need an intervention.”

“Well if you're sure-”

“Yep, totally sure, bye now!” And then the line cut, making Barbara blink at her phone for a moment before turning back to the batcomputer. The Marinette on screen had buried her face in her hands while Damian rubbed her back consolingly. He still looked concerned but didn't seem to be pushing her to tell him anything.

“Do you think we could casually stop by that restaurant?” Steph piped up, eagerly, which set off a round of arguments for and against.

_ _ _

Damian sighed internally as Marinette crumpled in humiliation. He knew his family would be incapable of letting them work it out for themselves, but he was still irritated that they hadn't even waited a day before pushing their noses into his business. She was mumbling incoherently under her breath and he moved closer to her. 

“Marinette, it is fine,” he said in a low voice, attempting to soothe her. She sighed and leaned towards him, letting her head thump onto his shoulder. He let his arm slip around her waist, before resting his cheek on her head. “My family are intrusive and protective but they also know and like you, so they will not be hard on you.”

“Not me,” she mumbled, and he pulled back slightly, confused. “Babs was double checking that you weren't pressuring me into hanging out with you. And if I understood her correctly, she isn't the only one Tim told. God, why can I never just have a date? Why is it always nosy friends, or disapproving parents or paparazzi? I can't even kiss you without getting busted by your brother!”

“I am sure we can find some privacy next time I kiss you,” Damian mused absentmindedly. He felt her stiffen slightly before he saw the redness creep along the back of her neck. He felt himself blush slightly at the assumption he had voiced.

“Pretty confident, aren't you?” she mused, looking up at him from under her bangs. She sighed more contentedly when she looked back down, interlocking fingers with the hand he had taken. “I just wish Tim could've kept it to himself for a little bit, he's the least likely to chase us for information. And I wanted to try a couple of dates before the grilling really started.”

They were interrupted by their waiter, bringing their plates and offering refills of their drinks. They waved him away and the conversation moved back to their own interests and hobbies. Damian felt a flutter in his stomach when they paid the bill and she let him take her home. He hesitated only for a moment when she invited him in, checking the time before deciding he could stop in for a short time before he would be missed.

Meanwhile, Marinette was buzzing with nervous energy (and caffeine). She had really enjoyed their date, impromptu as it was. Her heart jumped as he entered the apartment behind her, gently closing the door. He followed her into the kitchenette as she filled the air with senseless rambles, until he gently tugged her hand. 

“Marinette, you do not need to be worried,” he said firmly. “I do not expect anything from you right now, and I will need to leave shortly for a family matter. I merely wanted to spend some extra time with you before that.”

“Oh, yeah, of course,” she replied, cheeks burning. She busied herself with the kettle, pulling out teas and offering him to choose one. “So, I know you do finance and whatnot, but how do you find it working with your family? Especially as you're still at school.”

“Tt, they let me handle things by myself, mostly, which is how I prefer it. I must admit, I do not look forward to the questions I am sure to receive when I go home this evening. Drake should have minded his own business,” he growled, helping her to steep his tea. She giggled lightly and he smirked down at her, making her realise just how closely he stood. She looked down to concentrate on her tea, trying to control the erratic beat of her heart.

“I'm sorry I can't help with that, I have the feeling I'll be getting another call from Babs soon,” she said mournfully. She sighed and set the teas aside to steep properly, a small electronic timer ticking away. Jumping up onto the counter, she kicked her feet lightly. “If you have second thoughts at all, there won't be any hard feelings, you know?”

She held her breath for a moment when he didn't answer. She locked her gaze onto his as he moved slowly in front of her, placing a hand either side of her hips. “I do not regret how we have spent our time today,” he said carefully, his voice low and unhurried. She relaxed slightly and tilted her chin in invitation, which he immediately accepted.

The kiss was less fervent than the ones from earlier, sweeter almost. She felt her heart beating against his chest, her hands finding their way back to his hair and tugging lightly. He groaned before pushing between her knees, encouraging her to wrap her legs around his waist, kissing her more fiercely when she did. The shorts she was wearing rode up slightly as his hand slid up from her knee. 

She made a sound of pleasure as he explored her mouth with his tongue, and his hand slid beneath her shirt. Her own hands traveled downward, pulling at the buttons on his own shirt, and she marveled at how solid he felt. She felt his heart rate increase as she unbuttoned the shirt, pushing it off of his shoulders, but he merely growled low in his throat. His hands were lazily stroking her skin, setting trails of fire under it. 

Her ears were ringing, blood pounding in them as he moved his mouth from hers and paid more attention to her neck. He experimented again with the spot behind her ear, and this time she outright moaned as she pressed herself against him. He tugged gently on her shirt and she quickly obliged, lifting her arms so that he could remove it. She locked her feet behind him as he cupped her breast, and kissed her jaw and neck. 

She could hardly think through the lust that fogged her mind, his thumb making circles dangerously high on her inner thigh. Not wanting to be outdone, she pulled at his jeans, delighted when his breathing quickened. He nipped her neck slightly harder and she almost melted into a puddle, a gasp quickly muffled when he claimed her mouth again.

His hand had just breached the lower hem of her shorts when a sharp ringtone cut through the air, making him jerk back. He swore in what she thought was Arabic, before yanking his phone from his pocket. “Please excuse me for a moment, I must commit a fratricide,” he said darkly, turning to accept the call.

Marinette busied herself with the tea, turning off her timer as she did so. Clearly the cups of tea had been steeping too long but the ritual of the motions helped to steady her heart and occupy her thoughts so that she didn't accidentally eavesdrop. She turned back with the mugs in hand just as he ended the call with a curt goodbye, and he turned back to her with regret plain in his features.

“I take it you're running a little late?” She said, attempting to use humour to mask her disappointment. He sighed, running a hand through his hair. He was no longer looking at her and she was confused - was he angry with her? Had she taken things too far? But then he was holding her shirt out to her and she, belatedly, realised that he was trying to be a gentleman. She quickly slid the shirt back on, and then picked her own tea back up. 

“Regrettably, I must take my leave. Forgive me, Marinette, I wish I could stay here longer, but my family is awaiting my arrival to begin the meeting.” He seemed frustrated, with a tinge of anxiety, and she wondered if they would really give him that hard of a time. She gave voice to the thought, and he gave her a tight smile. “It is less that I am concerned that they will pry into our business, and more that if I leave now, you will decide that you no longer wish to continue our…”

She grinned as he searched for a word that didn't have too many connotations attached for what they were. She set down her cup and slid her arms around his waist. “I know we're kind of jumping past a few steps today - God, if this were a normal first date, I would never have invited you upstairs - but…I like you, Damian. You're funny, smart, a little blunt but my God are you sexy, and I enjoy spending time with you. I'm not going to change my opinion of you just because you finally kissed me, idiot.”

He made an offended noise, but she yanked the collar of his freshly put-on shirt to kiss him again. This time, she was careful not to get carried away, her hands staying firmly on his collar until she pulled back. His gaze was dark and she felt a thrill move through her, but she pushed it aside as she shooed him towards the door.

“Let me know when you have an actual free evening, and we'll do the whole thing - dinner, maybe a movie, you can come back up here for coffee or something,” she managed to say, barely a blush in sight. She squealed when he darted back in for a final kiss and then he was gone, leaving his too-bitter tea to be washed away.

[starwarsmum]

Almost forgot it was Wednesday! So, chapter 4 of Introducing: Mousinette

Marinette stared at the architecture in the entry hall, fingers twitching with the urge to sketch a new dress idea. She barely registered Penny chattering to Dick and Babs, as she ran a hand along one of the banisters. 

She did notice, however, when Jagged launched himself at her, knocking her off her feet. He caught her up, twirling her around as he cackled. They were only interrupted when the butler, Alfred, announced that the others were waiting in the dining room, and that dinner was ready to be served.

As she entered the dining room, she tried to place faces to the names Babs had given her in the months they had been chatting. The tall man with the white streak in his hair was easily identified as Jason, which meant the one cradling a mug was probably Tim. There was a woman with black hair sitting quietly and watching her back, and a blonde who was chatting animatedly with Tim. Cass and Steph, as Babs had said that Cass was more comfortable with sign language than spoken words.

Which left a tall Arab boy, who had slicked back black hair. He was glaring at everyone else in the room, a haughty expression crossing his face as she met his eyes. They were a startling green, but he turned away abruptly, a slight sneer on his mouth.

Marinette bristled immediately. She had had enough of snooty rich people to last her a lifetime. She had learned how to hold her own against them - after all, the only thing evil requires is that good people do nothing. She had been goddamn Ladybug, she had wielded nearly all of the Miraculous at once as Multimouse and she would be damned if she let this stuck-up pretty boy snub her.

She sat down in the empty seat next to the boy and chirped a ‘hello’. She then proceeded to ignore him in favour of the quiet woman with the dark hair. She made sure to be warm and friendly to everyone else, making jokes and sharing her own anecdotes, but became inconveniently deaf when he made his own statements.

They moved to a parlour after the meal, Jagged insisting that they play games. It led to an argument as to whether they should play video games (Marinette said yes) or the classic of charades (Dick was overly enthusiastic for that one). Unfortunately, Dick won that argument which meant they started picking teams. 

Being the last one to be picked, Marinette was forced onto Damian's team - Dick was weirdly insistent that ‘lil D’ join in and be a team captain. Before they got started, their father, Bruce, said he needed to speak with Alfred about something and it couldn't wait, which left the group to chat and crack jokes.

“Those desserts were incredible, by the way, Mari,” Barbara said, smiling over at the girl. “I almost wish I'd told you to leave them at mine so I didn't have to share.”

“Aww, Babs, you don't mean that! After all, you'd never want to cause me pain,” Dick chortled, using the French pronunciation. He had been delighted to hear that Marinette grew up in a bakery, and clearly he was ready to start in on the infamous puns. Marinette rolled her eyes and groaned. 

“Dick, if you tell another bread pun, I will find a toothpick so that I can poke your eyes out and serve them on a brioche,” she said, voice completely level, her expression serious. “And that is not an invitation to tell other puns. Repeat after me: we can do better than awful wordplay to make our friends and family laugh.”

“Ouch, what a visual! Well, I certainly don't want to croissant you!” He grinned as she leapt from her seat, shoving her finger into his face. Barbara cheered her on as she proceeded to make him cross eyed in an attempt to keep her finger in sight.

The joke, of course, was that he should have been watching her other hand, which took hold of his foot and shoved him roughly off the back of the seat he was perching on. He squawked, catching himself with his hands and righting himself with a back spring. The room erupted in laughter, except for the brooding boy who merely made a loud click with his tongue and called them both children.

Marinette responded by sticking her tongue out and turning away from him. She complained loudly to Barbara and Penny that she wished she'd known there would be awful baking puns, because she never would have come if she had. This made Dick gasp loudly, placing a hand to his chest and pouting.

When she finally left, many hours later, Marinette had charmed all but one of the inhabitants at the manor. She gave them all warm goodbyes, promising to come back and see them during her two week holiday. On the way back to the apartment, she leaned back in her seat, feeling tiredness wash over her again.

She woke briefly to stumble into the apartment and into her room before passing out on the bed. But two nights of good sleep was too much for her, and she woke just past 2am, wide awake. If she had been in Paris, she would have transformed and done a route past the Eiffel Tower but, in Gotham? She couldn't risk the connection, especially as she had shared quite a lot about the situation with Barbara.

So, instead, she slipped quietly out of the apartment via a fire escape, and made her way to the roof. She scouted the rooftop before settling on a ledge, a sketchbook in her lap. She had been itching to design since she had arrived, and in the quiet she finally felt settled enough to allow her need to create.

She would have stayed there until morning, but after half an hour late she was interrupted by the thud of boots hitting the roof. She glanced around to see two of Gotham's vigilantes gazing curiously down at her.

“Um, hi,” she said, waving feebly up at them. “Nice night for some hero work."

“...sure,” the one with the red helmet said. She had done research on the vigilantes before, of course she had, she was planning to go to university here. But it had been a while since she had reviewed her notes and she couldn't remember the blasted names. “Is everything alright, miss? It's unusual to see other people on roofs at this time of night.”

“Oh, right, I'm fine,” she said cheerfully, waving her sketchbook to explain. The other vigilante leaned forward and she caught a glimpse of a garish yellow, like green and circus red. This one she remembered. Hard to forget the vigilante who voluntarily dressed as a traffic light. He scrutinised her book, before turning his face back to hers. The whited out lenses of their masks made her feel uneasy - the Miraculous magic made it rare for her not to be able to see her teammates' eyes. “I fell asleep earlier than I meant to this evening and when I woke…”

“I see,” Robin said, though Marinette had the sinking suspicion that they both thought she was crazy. She could hear how carefully he chose his next words. “It would be helpful if you could take yourself back inside.”

“Thank you for your advice, but I am happy where I am,” Marinette said pleasantly, which made the one with the helmet snort. When Robin scowled, she merely smirked up at him, refusing to back down. “You are not the first little hero to try and intimidate me, and you don't even have magic powers.” A lie, it had always been villains and akuma victims who had tried to scare her, but that seemed like an unnecessary amount of information.

“You make a habit of getting on the wrong side of heroes and vigilantes?” Robin said, and Marinette was sure that if she could, she would see a raised eyebrow. He seemed like the kind of guy who would do that. She remained sitting out of stubbornness but waved a hand. She could almost feel him bristling at the dismissal. “I do not know what you think you know of Gotham but you should not be out on rooftops at night.”

“But you are allowed?” She gave him a raised eyebrow of her own. She took a moment to re-centre herself, realising that she had become overly snarky. “Never mind, I'm sorry. I had…an overwhelming evening, I hurt a friend by accident and spent  the remainder of the night with strangers. I was using the quiet up here to clear my mind, but if you think it unsafe, I shall return to my room.”

Apparently startled by her sudden shift, Robin shared a glance with his teammate. Said teammate shrugged but didn't say anything and the silence stretched on a beat too long to be comfortable. She stood and reached her arms skyward, careful not to drop her sketchbook over the edge of the building.

She could hear the other vigilante - what was his name? It was going to irritate her until she found out - murmur something and Robin made a tutting noise. She chose to ignore them both in favour of paying attention to the fire escape. She was well past her clumsiest days but when she was nervous, she tended to fumble a lot more. And two vigilantes, watching her climb down after she sassed them? Nerve-wracking.

Tikki buzzed up to her as she slid back into her room quietly. She held her fingers to her lips and ushered the Kwami out of sight. 

Back up on the roof, Red Hood glanced at Robin who shrugged and moved silently away from the fire escape. They had stopped because it was unusual to see anyone out at night, but it had been Robin's choice to move closer when he had recognised the girl from earlier that evening.

“Well that was weird,” Red Hood said, his delivery deadpan, but Robin could hear the vague amusement. “She's an odd one, do you think O knows about her tendency to wander the rooftops?”

“Tt, how would I know that?” Robin retorted, running an eye over the skyline. “She did not seem quite as compliant earlier in the evening - I anticipated her refusing to vacate the roof, at least for as long as we were here. Nightwing did mention the unpleasant interaction Oracle experienced with her earlier, that could be contributing.”

“She's a cute little thing, huh,” Red Hood continued, his voice taking on a teasing quality that Robin did not understand. Deciding that he did not want to understand he ignored the remark, which made the other man sigh for some unfathomable reason. “Come on, dude, you have to have noticed she's pretty. Isn't that the reason you were so wound up tonight?”

“I do not know what you are referring to. If I was uncomfortable during dinner, it was because we had unknown individuals in attendance, one of which behaved far too much like Nightwing. As for her appearance, I do not think my opinion is relevant and therefore shall not be sharing it. It is late, I shall be returning to the batcave and then to sleep. Try not to get yourself killed between here and your home, Hood.”

Robin left Red Hood behind, ignoring the exasperated sigh and complaints that issued from his comms. What did it matter if he did not behave around this girl as other boys his age? He was far superior to others his own age, and so that was to be expected. 

And so he endured the teasing from various members of his family as he always did when they introduced him to females his own age. But it was a relief when he reached the batcave and was able to turn off his comms, silencing their comments. Pennyworth was the only one bar his father who did not reference the young woman, for which he was grateful to the man.

Even his dreams seemed plagued by the girl with the dark hair and an almost intriguing fire burning in her eyes. When he woke the next day, he wondered if she had somehow placed a spell on him that made it impossible not to think of her, although it very well may have been more to do with the fact that his family would not stop talking about her.

Over the next few days, he learned random facts about her - she was a native Parisian, she was not Jagged Stone's blood related niece, she was planning to attend Gotham University…he would not admit it, but he was intrigued by the tidbits that slipped from his brothers. Grayson in particular seemed to be spending more time with her as she was friends with Gordon.

He hoped that when she returned to Paris, he would be able to put her fully out of his mind.

[starwarsmum]

Onto the next chapter of Introducing: Mousinette! Finally we see Marinette arrive in Gotham ❤️ there is a panic attack depicted in this chapter. It isn't intense, but it's there

As the Easter break approached, Marinette was snowed under by her tests and commissions. She apologised to Barbara but wasn't able to keep up with their weekly chats. She had a conditional offer for her university of choice and she had to get the appropriate grades. She promised that she would catch up with the other woman as soon as she was free but, for now, she was under more than enough pressure.

Marinette slept for 36 hours straight when the final test was complete, and the final commission boxed and sent to the buyer. When she eventually awoke, she was hungry, bleary and wanted to crawl back into bed to sleep for another 36. Unfortunately, Penny and Jagged had made plans to stop by that day and Marinette had promised to be available and not half-dead for the visit so she had to shower and make herself presentable.

“Lil M! It feels like forever since we saw you last, how's my favourite little rocker?” Jagged's voice boomed as he caught sight of her. She grinned and snuggled into a hug from Penny, making him cry out in mock outrage. “We were just talking to your parents about our plans for your break, Rockette.”

“Oh?” She was only mildly interested in the plans, as she knew her parents had asked her to keep her schedule free to help more in the bakery now that she didn't have the BAC breathing down her neck. “I hope they involve plenty of rest, seeing as I still feel like I haven't slept in a week.”

“Well, there will be plenty of time to sleep on the plane!” Penny said brightly, making Marinette pull away from her sharply. “Ah-ah,” she admonished, shushing Marinette before she could start bombarding them with questions. “Your parents agree that you've more than earned a holiday, which is why you haven't been allowed to take on any new clients, and your parents asked you to keep your schedule clear.”

“We knew you wouldn't do it unless you had another obligation, Marinette,” Tom said mournfully, regretful that they had had to trick their daughter. “We are more than capable of keeping the bakery running without you, and Penny and Jagged offered to take you to see your new university during the trip.”

“I don't even know if I passed yet!” Marinette exclaimed, throwing her hands up. It was only token resistance, she knew that if they had taken the time to work with her parents then there was no way she wasn't going. “How long do I have to pack?”

“Well, the jet leaves in 4 hours-” Marinette cut Jagged off with a screech, launching herself back upstairs without another word. The adults stood around chortling as they waited patiently for her to re-emerge with her suitcase. When she came back down half an hour later, pink suitcase and carry-on in tow, he continued as though there had been no interruption. “-and as we don't have to fly commercial, there'll be plenty of time for you to tell your little friends that you won't be available,” he finished smugly. 

“Maman, Papa, thank you so much,” Marinette squeezed them both tightly, promising to keep them updated while she traveled. They parted tearfully, but Marinette was also excited to see where she might be living in half a year's time. “I can't believe you didn't tell me, I have no idea if I packed everything I'll need.”

“Anything you don't have, we can pick up for you,” Penny reassured her. “Besides, it's only for 2 weeks, and we have a pretty packed schedule ready for you.”

“Wait, does Barbara know?” Marinette asked excitedly. When Penny confirmed that it would be a surprise for her too, Marinette squealed and immediately began planning what she would wear to meet the young woman. Penny eyed her carefully, noting the light flush to her skin and the over-bright sheen to her eyes. She knew Marinette had a good head on her shoulders, but also that she had a tendency to let her heart lead her, which didn't always end well.

Choosing to shelve that problem for later, Penny allowed Marinette to babble excitedly about everything from the architecture she had seen in pictures of Gotham, to the latest red carpet fashions. The nervous excitement kept Marinette bouncing in her seat during the flight, and whenever Penny and Jagged closed their own eyes to get some rest, she pulled out her sketchbook to jot down new ideas. 

When they eventually touched down, it was late evening in Gotham, meaning that Marinette's parents would be getting up soon to start their morning bakery routine. She fired off several messages to confirm that she was safe and sound in Gotham, unsurprised when only her parents messaged back.

They trudged to the Rolling-Stone’s apartment, Marinette yawning and bleary-eyed. The adults promptly sent her to bed, saying they would wake her at a reasonable hour to discuss their next plans. She sleepily demanded that seeing Barbara be a priority, as she was supposed to be having a video call with the woman the following evening anyway. Only once they had agreed, did she allow them to prod her into the room that would be hers for the next 2 weeks.

She was asleep almost before she had fully laid down, Tikki settling into the crook of her neck.

_ _ _

Barbara Gordon was used to long nights, being the main coordinator of the bat-family’s nightly activities. At 32 years old, she had seen her share of horrors and continued wanting to make a difference to their city. She was used to spending her days catching up on some sleep, before assisting the GCPD with cold cases so that she could afford everything she wanted.

When Penny Rolling had contacted her to help out with a budding designer's website, she had been intrigued. She had then proceeded to look for as much information as possible about the girl, not wanting to go into the agreement blind. She hadn't expected to find out about Parisian superheroes as part of her research, but she took it in stride as much as she was able.

Then she had met Marinette and immediately felt a protectiveness that defied logic. The girl was clearly competent, clever and driven, something Barbara appreciated, but there had been an underlying sense of vulnerability, which had ignited motherly instincts she hadn't known she possessed. She often wondered if this was how Bruce felt when he adopted yet another stray vigilante. It certainly explained why the manor was always overrun.

She had been relieved to find out that the ‘Hawkmoth situation’, as Marinette called it, was long resolved, and that she didn't need to worry about her brand new sister being caught up in attacks anymore. She had enough sibling-figures that threw themselves into danger with reckless abandon, thank-you-very-much. 

On this particular evening, the Bat-boys were needling her for information about her sudden acquisition of not 1, not 2 but 3 MDC original pieces. They were green with envy, none of them having been successful at locating Jagged Stone’s now famous designer (because she would not allow them to crack her firewalls, she was the Oracle for a reason) and so they had taken to trying to trick information out of her. 

“C’mon O, you know I've been a Jagged fan since the beginning. Our first date was at one of his concerts! We know she's French, we know he thinks of her as family, but how did you get ahead of us on the waitlist for a commission?”

Barbara snorted, keeping it to herself that she had deliberately asked Marinette to hold off on accepting the commissions the boys had sent her. The girl was strangely accepting of the request, stating something about knowing what it was like to tease a sibling-figure. She refused to elaborate, but Barbara wasn't too concerned - Marinette had a lot of friends, lots of them probably felt like family at this point.

“Can we keep the line clear, Nightwing?” Came Bruce's exasperated voice. “Oracle, how is the situation at the dock progressing?”

“Looks like you should be good to engage, they just swapped a couple of briefcases. I have some decent photos of the exchange, lovely and clear. I doubt this politician expected to have this much scrutiny, he's not even covering that very distinctive mole of his.” Being a corrupt official was bad enough - a sloppy corrupt official? It was like he wanted to be caught. 

A couple of hours later, Barbara signed off of comms, intending to get a better night's sleep before she had her catch up with Marinette the following day. It felt like it had been months, rather than weeks, since she had spoken with the girl, and she missed her. 

When she awoke the next morning, she had a message from Penny, who had apparently landed the day before and wanted to crash the video chat that night. Barbara's two favourite civilians, available on the same evening? Not just a ‘yes’, but a ‘hell yes’. She smiled as she tidied up her living space, knowing that Penny would want to stop for dinner after the call.

She got a response saying that Jagged had other plans that evening, so she found the details for her favourite local takeaway. She was just putting away her work when her phone lit up with messages from Dick. She was about to open them when her doorbell sounded.

After doing a visual and auditory check that it was, in fact, Penny Rolling at her door, she buzzed her up to the apartment. Once bitten, twice shy and all that. So she was instantly on high alert when she heard hushed voices making their way to her door. She grabbed her safety bat from the stand beside the door, and prepared to depress her emergency beacon.

As the door swung open, she leveled her bat at the two women who appeared, which made the smaller one almost drop the boxes she was carrying. Penny cried out in alarm, pushing herself between the two and shouting for calm. After a minute or two’s confusion, everyone had calmed down enough for Barbara to recognize Marinette.

“Well, I guess that means you're surprised?” Penny said into the strained silence. Marinette frowned at her, before dropping in front of Barbara and catching her eye. “I'm sorry Babs, I didn't think bringing Mari would be a problem, I just wanted to do a nice surprise for you-”

“Penny, could you take the boxes to the table and let Jagged know we made it safe?” Marinette interjected, smiling up reassuringly at the older woman. Once Penny gave a jerky nod and went through to the other room, Marinette dropped her voice. “It's okay, Babs, you're okay. Whatever you're seeing right now, it isn't real. Can you feel my hand? It's on your arm right now. Maybe you can remind me what perfume I chose today, I'm so scatterbrained.”

“Y- you smell like strawberries,” Barbara said in a strangled voice. “Strawberries and flour.”

“That's great,” Marinette continued, flashing a beam at the woman. “Can you tell me what you're thinking right now?”

“That I'm a grown woman and I'm having a panic attack,” she bit back a hysterical laugh. “I'm so sorry, I don't- I don't get surprise visitors. The last time someone came by unannounced I ended up in this chair.”

“Oh, my God, Babs, I'm so sorry,” Marinette's voice strained with tears, her comforting hand starting to shake slightly. “I had no idea, or I would have emailed you last night when I landed. Tell me what I can do to help you, please.”

Barbara took several deep breaths and fought to bring her heart rate down. She could hear Penny speaking tearfully to someone on the phone, probably Jagged. She startled again when Penny reappeared in front of her, holding her phone out.

“Babs, are you okay?” Dick's voice came through the line and Barbara started to feel grounded again. She let out a semi-hysterical hiccup and he carried on. “Do you need me to come to you? Or do you want to come here? You'll never guess who showed up here, Babs! Jagged Stone! Did you know Bruce knows him?”

“Dick, you knew that he knows him,” Barbara laughed. She wiped the remaining tears out of her eyes and glanced at Penny. “And let me guess, you're using his phone right now?”

“I totally am,” Dick said gleefully, and Barbara could almost imagine him sitting on the edge of a sofa, his knees bouncing up and down. “ And he said that he can get me an in with his designer! So now you won't be the only one with an MDC original!”

They had a very short conversation before they handed the respective phones back. Penny and Jagged had another quick conversation and they decided it would be better if everyone was together, so Dick was coming to pick the three up.

Marinette immediately began to fret that she hadn't baked enough, eyeing Barbara’s kitchen thoughtfully before deciding she simply didn't have time. “I'll have to make more next time,” she shrugged, making Barbara laugh, which made her beam back at the woman. 

When Dick showed up, he immediately introduced himself to Penny, squealing that he recognised her from Jagged's tour photos. Then he spotted Marinette and did a double take. Barbara could see him eyeballing the black hair/blue eye combo and wondering if it was too late to rescind the offer to take them to dinner.

“Dick, this is Marinette, she's like my French little sister,” Barbara said, beaming up at Marinette. She gave a subdued ‘hello’, no doubt still feeling guilty for sending Barbara into a panic attack. “Penny introduced us when Mari needed help with something, but we decided to stay in touch.”

“It's a pleasure to meet you, Dick, Babs has told me a lot about you. I'm sorry you had to come to get us after we frightened her,” Marinette said, looking down as her feet fidgeted. Barbara and Dick exchanged a look, communicating wordlessly. Barbara felt her heart twang as she rolled towards her.

“Listen, Mari, it's okay. You're a teenager who had no idea what I've been through, because I never told you. And Penny, I assume you forgot because you don't visit often, so I get it. I'm sure it won't happen again,” she ended gently, piling boxes of baked goods onto her lap to help move them to the car. “Now come on, we might as well get back to what I'm sure is a very eventful evening with Jagged Stone.”

They filled the car with mindless chatter, Marinette and Penny talking about things they'd seen in Paris, reminiscing the time Penny had been akumatised in Marinette's bakery, or when Fang had turned into a dragon. Dick kept shooting Barbara incredulous looks, but she only shrugged and asked light questions. She would have to explain it in more detail later, but maybe they'd bring it up at dinner.

As they pulled up to the manor, Marinette's eyes widened visibly. She turned and looked at Dick, looking bewildered at his very casual, almost disheveled looking attire. Penny laughed aloud, nudging Marinette until she closed her mouth with a snap.

[starwarsmum]

Introducing: Mousinette Chapter 12 😘

Damian Needs a Hug

Marinette hovered outside of Wayne Manor, debating whether to knock on the door and risk someone other than Damian answering, or just texting him. She was about to message when someone prodded her from behind. She yelped, nearly dropping her phone in surprise.

“Sorry, I didn't know how to announce my presence,” Jon said, sounding chagrined. She flapped her hands and tried to get her heartbeat under control. “I take it you're here to see Damian?”

“Yeah, we agreed to do that sparring session I mentioned. I take it you're here to join us?” She asked, smiling up at him. They continued to chat as Jon led the way in - apparently he had a standing invitation, and didn't require someone to let him in - and took her straight to the designated training room. She looked around eagerly, taking in the area laid with mats, the freeweights and, weirdly, some trapeze equipment. Jon laughed when she asked about it but didn't answer.

They went through a light warm up, Jon hardly seeming to get out of breath, while Marinette worked herself hard, wanting to rid herself of the nervous energy that had clung to her all week. She let her mind wander as she did a light jog around the room.

The night before at Barbara's, she had been anticipating an inquisition, befitting the daughter of a cop but…she had asked her, once, if she thought it was a good idea. And when Marinette had sighed and told her that she was fine, that she liked Damian and wanted to see where it went, Barbara had given a strained smile but left the topic alone. Marinette wasn't quite sure what to think of it.

She was broken from her reverie when Damian entered. Jon had stepped out only moments before so she took advantage of their privacy and pulled him into a kiss. He responded eagerly but she broke it off almost as quickly, without stepping out of his arms.

“Let's not get caught making out in a different gym, okay?” She tried to make a joke out of it, but could tell he was still annoyed with his siblings. She rubbed his arms reassuringly, before reaching up slightly to lose her fingers in his hair. It was quickly becoming her favourite thing to do, and she would take every opportunity he gave her. “Besides, Jon should be back in a second and we can actually spar!”

“If it were not for the fact that I asked him to be here especially, I would suggest canceling plans and finding somewhere more private,” he murmured, making her blush. He leaned down and bit her neck lightly, making her squeal and push him away, but he was smirking. “I have already warmed up, shall we make a start on some simple blocking?”

When Jon finally re-entered the room, the pair were sparring lightly, working on a complicated looking hold. He did give Damian a strange, almost wounded look, like he knew exactly what Damian had almost suggested - but that was absurd, and Marinette put it out of her mind. They fell into an easy rhythm, taking turns to be the one critiquing.

Damian was aware of the door opening several times but nobody dared to interrupt. He was relieved that they were giving him the space he had requested- well, demanded. He watched as Marinette sparred with Kent, her face alight with a smile and sweat starting to glisten across her skin. 

As the door opened again, he glanced towards it and immediately scowled. Todd had come in, glanced at the pair sparring before grabbing Damian by the arm. Marinette looked around briefly, pausing the spar but Damian shook his head lightly and went with Todd.

“What do you want?” He asked as soon as they were out of the room. He had been on edge most of the week, and Todd was not his favourite person on a good day. He had often found himself dwelling on Barbara's words and running through scenarios in which the relationship continued for long enough that he would share his past with her.

“I want you to tell me straight if you're forcing Pixie to go out with you,” Todd answered bluntly. “And don't screw with me, you two are completely different people. She's mentioned previous partners and none of them come even close to matching your description.”

“I do not know what you want me to say to that, Todd, nor what you are insinuating. Marinette and I have spent time together in the past months and found common interests. I will take it as a compliment that I differ from her previous partners as clearly those relationships failed.”

“Jesus, you still sound like a freaking robot, and you expect me to believe you have genuine feelings for her? Demon Spawn, come on, is this some sort of experiment you're doing? Do you think that you've gotta date to seem like a real boy or something? Because-”

Todd was cut off as the door swung wide open and a furious Marinette glared up at him from the other side. “This sounds suspiciously not like an apology, Jason,” she said angrily, pinning him with a furious look. “I will not allow you to treat him like an enemy when he has done nothing wrong! No, don't argue with me, I don't want to hear your excuses for behaving badly. I expect you to respect my decisions on who to date, even if you don't agree with them, or we are not friends.”

And without waiting for an answer, she grabbed Damian's hand and pulled him back into the training room, snapping the door closed behind them. Kent was staring at her, wide-eyed but she was peering up at Damian with something like concern in her features. “Are you okay?” Was all she said though.

“I- I am sorry for Todd's behaviour,” he replied, unsure of how he was feeling. His heart was racing and his arms longed to hold her. He glanced quickly at Kent who, bless his country roots, made the appropriate excuses to leave them alone. It would not necessarily stop him from listening, but Damian could at least pretend. “I think I would like to end our sparring session there and spend some time alone, to talk.”

“Of course,” she said immediately, wrapping her arms around his middle briefly before flitting off to change clothes. He did likewise, taking some comfort in the basic act of dressing, but felt almost anxious when he saw her again, dressed in a jumper-dress and leggings combo.”Where should we go? Is there a room nearby?”

“As much as my bedroom would afford us privacy, I fear it would cause more problems if we were to secret ourselves away in such a manner. There is a drawing room nearby, we should be secluded enough to talk.”

Marinette grabbed her satchel, allowing him to lead her to the room, where she immediately sat down and motioned for him to join her. Once he was sat, she motioned again to ask him to lie down. He reluctantly lay his head in her lap, feeling overwhelmed and unloved by his family.

“I do not understand. I am aware that I was…difficult, when I first arrived in Gotham. And I had not been socialised correctly by my mother. But I am nearly 19 and I feel I have grown. Why are they so sure I will get this wrong? Do they know something I do not?”

“No, Damian, don't think that,” Marinette murmured, running her fingers through his hair. “They're the ones who don't understand, they don't get it. And the only opinions that matter in whether this relationship is working are ours. Do we know everything about each other? Of course not. Believe me, my secrets are probably bigger than yours. But this is new, and I want it to work, so we will be taking it at our own goddamn pace.”

He turned his head until he could look into her gorgeous blue eyes. She was gazing steadily at him and he felt a rush of affection for her. He reached for her cheek, adoring the way she leaned into his hand. They stayed like that for several minutes, Marinette threading her hands into his hair and he closed his eyes, completely relaxed. She began to hum, a sad smile playing on her lips.

“You are beautiful, Marinette,” he whispered eventually, opening his eyes to enjoy the blush he caused. “You truly are, and you are one of the kindest people I have had the fortune to become acquainted with. I do not know what I have done to deserve this happiness, but I will do my best to earn it for as long as you will have me.”

“Damian,” she groaned back to him, making him smirk a little. “You're not allowed to say something so sweet when I physically can't reach to kiss you.” 

“Apologies, I will try to comment on your shortcomings instead. Did you know that you telegraph your intentions when you punch with your left? And you have a tendency to rush into judgment whenever you think you have been wronged. And-”

“Alright, that's enough of that, thank you,” she cut him off, tugging on his hair sharply. He laughed, a rumbling chuckle that made him feel lighter again. He closed his eyes again, relaxing fully into her touch. She began humming again, something unfamiliar to him and he allowed his mind to wander.

Marinette's hands stilled a short while later, sensing that he had fallen asleep. She smiled and pulled her sketchbook towards her, opening it to a new page and allowing her creative energy to flow freely. She couldn't work on any existing projects, but with Christmas approaching she needed to get a jump on presents for her friends.

She allowed her free hand to keep stroking through his hair, humming occasionally but aiming to let him sleep. She was proud that he felt comfortable enough with her to fall asleep. From what she knew of him, both from the time she had spent with him and what she had managed to gain from his family, he had trouble lowering his defenses around people.

Two hours later, she heard someone muttering by the door, but didn't dare to move around to find out who it was. She had filled three pages of designs and was satisfied that they would be well received by her friends and family. She already had most of the materials, and a quick visit to her local craft store would gain her the remaining items.

“Apologies for the intrusion, Miss Marinette, Master Damian, but dinner is now ready,” came Alfred's voice from behind her. Damian flinched awake, rolling automatically off the sofa and into a crouch. He glanced around before realizing where he was and flushing slightly. Straightening up, he nodded at Alfred.

“Of course, thank you, Pennyworth. We shall be through momentarily,” he said, sounding slightly stiff, only relaxing once the butler left the room. Marinette watched his shoulders slump slightly, before he ran a sheepish hand through his hair. “I am sorry, Marinette, I did not mean to fall asleep. I know we had planned to go out for dinner, but as it is late, would you like to stay here?”

“Sure,” she said, stretching before standing. “You're very cute when you're asleep by the way, I could get used to watching you nap.” 

“Tt, you are absurd,” he said back, although she could see a blush spreading across his neck. She giggled and took hold of his arm, pulling him gently towards the door. She continued to tease him, even after they were in the dining room and seated.

“So,” Dick said, breaking into their little bubble, “did you get up to much today? You looked pretty cosy when Tim and I saw you in the drawing room.”

“You should mind your own business, Grayson,” Damian sniped, although Marinette thought he was just embarrassed at having been caught resting. She squeezed his hand, part comfort and part reprimand. “Tt, we sparred with Kent for part of the afternoon and then Marinette did some designing. It was pleasant.”

She beamed at him and the conversation moved on, Marinette being more social than Damian. But he didn't snipe at anyone else, and even spoke cordially to Tim when asked a question, which Marinette thought was pretty good. She was upset with Jason still, and relieved he had left the manor after their argument.

After dinner, Damian insisted on taking her home himself, pulling her after him towards the garage. “Would you like to return home via car or motorcycle?” He asked absently, hovering by the keys hung on the wall.

“As much as I would love to go by bike, I don't have an appropriate jacket,” she said mournfully, looking at her knit jumper. “And anything of yours would be way too big. Maybe next time?” She added eagerly, already brainstorming a few designs for a new motorcycle jacket. He chuckled as he led her over to his car, promising her that he would bring his motorcycle next time.

_ _ _

As Damian drove home, he thought about Todd's apparent anger and concern for Marinette. It had been something that had cropped up in his thoughts more than once since finding out that Marinette had fought with him earlier in the week. When he was in an uncharitable mood, he was almost inclined to call him jealous that it was Damian Marinette had chosen, but he knew that was not the case.

Of all the people who were angry with him for pursuing a courtship with Marinette, Todd's troubled him, if only because the pit madness could be unpredictable. It was something that needed to be resolved, sooner rather than later, and he had the feeling that it wouldn't be, not until they had a serious conversation.

He sat in the car for an extra minute or two, before deciding that time would not improve the situation. Grabbing his motorcycle, he immediately left once more, aiming for Todd's most recent favourite safe house. During his tenure as Robin, Damian had found that the older man was more accepting of uncomfortable conversations in his own space, and intended to resolve things tonight.

Upon entering the safe house, he found it empty, but this did not alarm him. Todd had a knack for finding trouble when he was angry, and would likely return some time later, with bruises. He debated messaging Kent for backup, in case things went sideways, but decided that he should put some faith in Todd. 

When Todd did appear, several hours later, he did not seem surprised to find Damian in his apartment. He did seem surprised by the lack of weaponry, if the way he lowered his own pistol was any indication. Damian waited until Todd approached him, not wanting to rile him further.

“So, if you're not here to stab me, which I recall being how you said you would deal with any interference in your ‘relationship’,” he air quoted sarcastically and Damian tightened the leash on his own rage, “why are you here?”

“Tt, you should not tempt me, I am not above fighting you to make a point,” he said, although without his customary sneer. This appeared to startle Todd further, and he completely disarmed himself, before reaching into the refrigerator for a beer. Unsurprisingly, he did not offer one to Damian but took a long drink before continuing.

“Alright, I'll bite. If you're not here to kill, or at least seriously maim, me, what do you want? I'm pretty sure both you and your little ‘girlfriend’ are mad at me. And I know you know I'm mad at you, which makes this visit suspicious.” Damian sighed and pulled up one of the bar stools opposite him.

“Firstly, Marinette and I have not, as they say, defined the relationship. This is a recent development in our ongoing relationship and I am not sure I have that sort of claim on her. Secondly, you are correct that we are angry with you, although I suspect that Marinette is more hurt that you do not trust her judgment. But to address your question, I am here to find an agreement with you.”

“An agreement? What, so if I ask nicely you'll consider breaking it off with her?”

“That is not up for discussion, Todd,” Damian said sharply, before attempting to cool the anger again. Exhaling, he tried again. “I do not appreciate you making light of my feelings for Marinette. And whilst this is excruciatingly uncomfortable for me, I am willing to sit down and discuss said feelings if it helps you to know that I am earnest in them.”

“...shit, you're serious. Okay, wait, since when do you like Marinette? Hell, why do you like Marinette? I know why normal guys fall over themselves for her, but normal you ain't.”

“I have admired her for some time. At the risk of angering you, I will say that I have been visiting her in my other persona since she arrived back in Gotham. We struck up a friendship during that time, which I decided to pursue in my civilian life. She is unaware that we are the same person,” Damian added hastily. “As for what I find attractive in her, she is smart, driven and possesses a mental and physical strength that I admire. I also find I have the urge to hold her, regularly, which is what Drake unfortunately witnessed.”

“Oh. I guess you're more normal than I thought, Demon Spawn. I gotta ask though, what makes her want to date you? I was not kidding about you not being her type, the last guy she dated was freaking Adrien Agreste, some French model. I looked him up, everyone says he's a goddamn sweetheart, not a mean bone in his body. And you expect me to believe she's into you?”

“I still do not know how you expect me to answer you, Todd. She said that she thinks I am humorous, intelligent and attractive, if a little blunt. She has stated that she would like to continue exploring this facet of our relationship, and I do not wish to discourage that. I am aware of how you all view me, that I do not have feelings such as this, but in spite of my mother's family and teachings, I am human. Marinette makes me feel human.”

“Shit. You don't just have a crush on her, you're full blown in your feelings about her,” Todd seemed stunned, which was a vast improvement from the anger he had been displaying since Tuesday. “I guess I owe you an apology or something, I really didn't think you cared about her. So, I'm sorry or whatever, I'll uh, I'll keep out of it.”

“Truly?” It was Damian’s turn to be surprised. He hadn't expected Todd to back down so quickly. “Thank you, Todd, contrary to what you may believe, I do not wish to be your enemy. Marinette does not usually speak poorly of you, and I know she cares for your friendship.”

“Yeah, man, really. Do you want me to talk to anyone else about it? I can probably get them to back off, I know Babs is worried about Pixie.”

Damian was bemused - his most vocal enemy in his pursuit of Marinette was offering to back him? He considered it, briefly, but decided against it. Marinette was friends with Gordon, and had already said that she had backed off.

“Again, thank you, but I think it best that I handle anyone else who has an issue. I am sorry that I cannot stay, but I do need to sleep before my classes. I will mention to Marinette that we have reached a truce, I am sure it will improve her mood. Goodnight, Todd.”

And he left, taking his motorcycle directly home and planning to get as much sleep as possible before the next day began.

[starwarsmum]

Introducing: Mousinette Masterpost

Chapters: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31

Currently being released, 1 chapter a week! Updates on Wednesdays

Original post inspiration: from @apileofashandember post

[starwarsmum]

Chapter 8 of Introducing: Mousinette ❤️ Jon Finds Out About Marinette

Marinette rushed to her next lecture, head down and wishing she'd had more sleep the night before. It was the first Monday of classes, and she had almost overslept. Her work at Wayne Enterprises was due to take place on Tuesdays and Fridays now, the other weekdays full of lectures and workshops. She liked them well enough so far, but there was so much to do. She slipped into the lecture hall, taking a seat somewhere in the middle, trying not to look completely out of her depth.

She glanced up when a shadow fell across her table and had to work very hard not to let a scowl cross her face. Above her was no other than Damian Wayne, her (possible) nemesis. She swallowed a sharp remark and raised an eyebrow at him, waiting. He shifted his weight between his feet before speaking.

“Is this seat taken?” He asked, and when she shook her head, he waited for a beat. “Would it inconvenience you if I sat here? You have chosen an optimal position to pay attention to the content but not be called upon too regularly.”

“Wow, was that a compliment?” The response left her before she could censor it, and she was frustrated with herself, until his lips twitched into an almost smirk and he shrugged. “Um, I mean no, that's fine. Sorry, I didn't sleep well last night,” she offered, in way of explanation.

“A problem I struggle with most days,” he said sagely, settling into the seat next to her. She let out a snort and her hand clamped to her mouth. It must be the sleep deprivation, she thought, shaking her head. “Besides, you know Drake cannot function without six cups of coffee per hour, I will not be offended by some light sarcasm.”

She bit her tongue so hard, she thought she could taste blood. Had she fallen asleep at her desk? Was this Damian's lesser known good twin? She was saved from saying anything when the lecturer called for their attention, filling the next hour with their Introduction to Budgeting class.

At the end of the hour, Marinette stretched and Damian had to physically stop himself from watching her. He had noticed a growing trend from their evenings chatting when he was behind his mask: he would watch her move, noting a grace to her limbs and strength that belied her slight frame.

He had known she was beautiful, the darkness in which they often met incapable of hiding it, though his memories of the times he had spent with her in daylight were only slightly faded. But in the daylight (or harsh, strobe lighting) she had a clever gleam to her eye, a slight smirk that was so often hidden in shadow. He could see the way she bit her lip when she concentrated, leaving an imprint when she stopped worrying it.

He cleared his throat as she made to leave, likely for lunch given the hour. She stopped and turned back to him, cocking her head and waiting. He swallowed, forcing his eyes to meet hers.

“Do you have time to get lunch?” He blurted out suddenly, and he could see the surprise she quickly attempted to smother. “I know a few decent restaurants around here, and a few cafés. Given you had trouble sleeping, I thought you may appreciate the company.”

He held his breath as he waited for her response. She hadn't said no outright, which encouraged him, but he was also aware that only a few nights ago she had told him what she thought of The Damian Wayne. While it likely helped him for her to see them as completely different people, it irked him to think of her disliking him, so he planned to rectify it.

“Um, sure, I had planned to pick something up and take it back to my apartment but if you know somewhere, I'm fine to eat in,” she said quickly, as though rushing through it before she could second guess her decision. He relaxed and stood, motioning for her to start walking.

He led her to a small, hole-in-the-wall style bistro, one he frequented with Kent. She greeted the staff pleasantly, smiling at their waiter and asking about house specialities. He could hardly take his eyes off of her, giving his usual order without looking at the menu. 

“So, do you come here often?” She asked, and he blanked for a moment, sure she didn't mean it how it sounded. 

“Tt, I have been here with Kent occasionally, they do a few adequate vegetarian dishes,” he admitted, taking a sip from his iced tea. “I enjoy it here because the staff do not bother me whilst I am eating.”

“And Kent is…?”

“An acquaintance from school. He is also to attend this university, although his focus is journalism. His classes will start tomorrow, which is why I am not having lunch with him.”

“Huh, that's cool,” she said, sounding genuinely interested. She leaned towards him, hugging her mug of coffee tightly in two hands. “And you're vegetarian? I'm working on some dishes for a friend of mine, I'd love an opinion on them! I feel like you wouldn't sugarcoat it if they're awful.”

“Tt, you are correct, I would not. What would be the point in telling you falsities, you would only be likely to attempt to feed it to me again.” Just then, their orders arrived and they fell into companionable silence as they ate.

When they finished and paid their bills, Damian felt that he had overcome the first hurdle in becoming friends with Marinette.

After lunch, Marinette found herself running late again and cursed under her breath. She launched herself around people standing on the pavement, dodging nimbly. As she rounded her last corner, however, she crashed into someone very solid and tumbled to the floor.

“Shit, sorry kid!” The person she had crashed into was tall and solid, so he was still standing. She took his offered hand and pulled herself up, apologising as she scrambled for her notebooks. “Hey, don't I know you?”

“Ah, um, yes, I think so, you're Jason, right?” She took in his large stature and the streak of white in his hair. She indicated the latter as she continued. “Difficult to forget such a distinctive hair style.”

“Hah, yeah, you're Babs’ little friend, right? I forgot you were starting here this year, so you need help getting to a class? Here, I'll walk you, people tend to get out of the way for me.”

“I'll bet,” she replied, amused. They walked quickly, chatting amiably. As they approached the halls for her next workshop, he handed her his phone so she could ‘be in touch with the only sane one in the family’. Although she was dubious about it, she put in her number and rushed away promising they could catch up next time.

_ _ _

As the week progressed, Damian found that he ran into Marinette more often than he thought he would. They only shared one class but their days at Wayne Enterprises aligned which meant that he would see her in the cafeteria, or getting a coffee in the morning. She was hesitant to begin, but had begun to offer him a smile each time she saw him, almost reflexively.

He didn't get lunch with her again on campus, given that Kent had begun to hang around him. He was not yet ready to share her with him, especially as she seemed to be a magnet for overly-friendly male admirers. If he was less capable, he would have lost count of the number of men who had come up to her to flirt (eight, he had counted eight individual times that he had seen, heaven knew how many others had approached her when he wasn't around) and it was beginning to irk him.

He had long since resigned himself to the fact that he was developing feelings for her, but seeing other people approach her with the intention of wooing her made him want to hiss at them. He cared for Kent but if he also fell for her charms, it would test their friendship. So it made him bristle to see her talking to Todd of all people, at lunch on Thursday, and there was nothing he could do if he wanted to keep his growing friendship with her to himself.

“You okay, buddy?” Kent asked as Damian scowled. He followed Damian's line of sight and saw the pair laughing together. “Oh, did Jason get a new girlfriend? Wait, does he do the whole dating thing? She's not his usual type, she's kind of cute-”

“Cease your prattling, Kent,” Damian snarled, making the super raise an eyebrow. “Tt, they are not dating, she has no romantic inclinations towards him whatsoever, and if he has them towards her, I shall be divesting him of his lower regions.”

“Whoa, that's aggressive. Your heartbeat's going a little crazy there too,” Kent said, making Damian’s expression darken further. “I take it you know her too? How come I haven't met her?”

“Because she is an employee at Wayne Enterprises, and she is friends with Gordon. She is in my Introduction to Budgeting lecture, but otherwise we have no other shared education, why would you have met her?” He worked to bring his heartbeat under control and made his voice level. “Regardless, they are not our concern and I do not wish to waste my lunch break speaking with Todd. May we proceed?”

“Sure thing, but don't think I forgot that you threatened little Jason in your little speech there. I've known you a long time my friend, and you've never threatened to castrate someone before.”

Marinette spotted Damian leaving with a tall, black haired man and watched them out of sight. She continued to listen and respond to Jason, but he was looking for something on his phone and so didn't notice her distraction. She had to admit, she was curious about Damian’s friend, who she was yet to meet. He had mentioned him again on Tuesday when they'd been getting coffee, and she wanted to pick the mystery man's brain about Damian's prickly nature.

“Anyway, thanks for having lunch with me today, Pixie,” Jason said, grinning down at her. “It's nice to have someone to talk to about Jagged's music. And you have such hilarious stories, you'll have to tell me more about this cat noir next time, he sounds lame.”

“No lamer than a man dressing as a bat and flapping at people,” she retorted. “Or dressing as a traffic light, or wearing an awful helmet that doesn't have eye holes. Honestly, if I could design something for these vigilantes, I would make sure they were dressed fashionably.”

Jason laughed as he waved, jogging lightly to get back to work. Marinette had some free time and the last warm days of summer were giving way to autumn, so she wanted to spend as much time outside as possible. Picking a quiet bench in the corner of the common grounds, she slid a pair of headphones on and played one of her favourite playlists. It was dynamic, inspiring her to design practical fashion for movement.

As she designed, she felt her mind wandering to Damian. He had looked handsome standing next to the other man, wearing a clean cut jacket and jeans. His dark hair was ruffled slightly, not slicked back for a change. She came back to herself to find that she had sketched his outline, the hair standing up fetchingly. 

She paused and cocked her head at the picture. Something was tickling at the back of her mind as she stared at it, but it didn't become any clearer. Sighing, she sketched a new outfit over the top, a dinner jacket and trousers with a smart shirt - if she was going to daydream about the man, she might as well make it work related.

[starwarsmum]

Fic Links Post!

Alfred Appreciation Party - AO3

Lost in Paris AU - AO3

Sibling!Timinette AU

Sibling!Cassinette AU

Maribat BioDad Bruce AU

Introducing: Mousinette - AO3

HMB Word Darts 2024

Maribat Mix & Match Monster Mash 2024

Coming soon:

Daminette December 2024