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soulmate-game · 1 year ago

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Another day, another chappy

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The Heroes’ Game

Chapter 3

“So, did you kids figure it out?” Nightwing asked when the two soon-to-be lovebirds opened their eyes. As if reading his mind, Robin turned to glare darkly at the older hero. Ignoring the silent warning, Nightwing just continued to talk. “Because it’s been forty-ish minutes since you guys started meditating. If we wanna make it to the museum on time, we should leave soon.”

“Forty-ish?” Robin repeated incredulously, standing up. “Honestly. You can’t even keep proper track of time?”

“It’s fine, we figured everything out Monsieur Nightwing,” Marinette interrupted before an argument could spark up. “Our vision is back to normal for now. Oh, but,” she pulled her phone out of her purse, handing it to Robin. “Do you have a secure number you can give me? I can’t exactly wander around Gotham at night every time I want to meet up with you.”

Robin winced at the visual. “Yes, please don’t do that. I don’t need my job made even harder than it already is,” he grumbled before taking her phone from her casually, and creating a new contact for himself. Unbeknownst to him, she changed his contact name in her phone from ‘Robin’ to a simple green heart emoji the second he gave her the device back.

If he asks, I’ll just say it’s because a green heart is way more subtle than his superhero name, she decided silently.

“Alright, let’s get the smaller lovebird home,” Nightwing teases, successfully making Marinette’s entire face flush bright red.

“H-h-hey! W-w-we just met and I’m sure Robin doesn’t like me like that yet. I mean, sure our soul bond is romantic and everything, but the actual emotions take time to form and I’m pretty sure Robin doesn’t want to go too fast so really calling us lovebirds is just not accurate yet and really, really embarrassing so if you could not do that, I would really really appreciate it monsieur Nightwing, sir!” Luckily, Marinette’s flailing Arms of Denial provided the perfect opening for Robin to slide his arm around her waist and toss her over his back halfway through her ramble. Apparently being slung over the shoulder of her soulmate wasn’t enough to get her to stop though, since she didn’t even miss a beat and continued until she was done.

Nightwing only laughed, making Marinette’s blush deepen several shades.

“I’m never going to get silence again,” Robin groaned as they traveled over the rooftop.

“Hey, at least she isn’t scared of heights,” Nightwing offered, seeing as Marinette had barely reacted at all even during the steeper jumps and falls they had made. Robin briefly paused at that, turning his head to look back at the French girl as well as he could, given her angle in his fireman carry.

“That’s a surprisingly astute observation, Nightwing,” Robin begrudgingly complimented. “How are you so calm about this? Does Ladybug randomly take you freerunning, too?”

It took a solid five seconds of uncontrollable stutter before coherent language seemed to come back to the petite girl. “W-w-What?” Well, mostly. “N-n-no way! I mean, Ladybug would never compromise a c-civilian like that! I just have, a-a passion! Yep. A passion for parkour. Nobody expects it from me, really, but—“

“Okay, calm down,” Robin interrupted, rolling his eyes behind his domino mask as he and Nightwing resumed running. “You don’t have to tell me if you really don’t want to. It isn’t like it’s a bad thing. In fact considering who I am, you being afraid of heights at all would be really inconvenient for both of us.”

“Ha, ha, yeah,” Marinette agreed, her nervous laughter doing nothing to soothe the suspicion both vigilantes had now. Sure, she was Robin’s soulmate, but that didn’t suddenly make her trustworthy. In fact, some people (Jason and Tim) would argue that it made her extremely suspicious, because there was no way someone innocent could be soulmates with Demon Spawn. Robin himself, being the only one to see what exactly inhabited Marinette’s half of their mindspace, was of an entirely different mindset. Everything he saw there indicated she was completely innocent, and nobody had control over the first things to appear in their mindspace if they had one. The things that appeared always reflected the truest aspects of that individual.

No, Damian Wayne had a much different suspicion. A suspicion that came from the fact that Marinette knew far more intimate details about the villain situation in Paris than she should, from the fact that she had displayed such confidence fighting men twice her size, from the fact that their only shared object in their mindspace besides the TV was a sparring mat, of all things. From the fact that her body language had relaxed for a moment when she found out her soulmate was a vigilante.

Damian Wayne had a suspicion that his soulmate was a hero.

He only had to look through all of Paris’s heroes to find out which one.

All too soon, they arrived across the street from the Gotham Museum of History. Suddenly glad that she wore pants instead of the skirt she had been contemplating when they relaxed in the hotel, Marinette slid off of Robin’s shoulder and dusted herself off.

It had been nice, feeling the wind in her hair and the familiar adrenaline of leaping across buildings, of seeing the world flash by in a mesh of indistinguishable color. Even if she wasn’t the one doing the moving, it was still nice. She knew she wouldn’t be able to swing around as Ladybug while she was here, and she knew the month of reprieve of freerunning was going to take a mental toll on her.

Maybe I can convince Robin to take me with him sometime. Just a short run, that’s all. No crime fighting involved.

Yeah, fat chance in Gotham City, but a girl could hope.

It wasn’t long before a group of fourteen kids and one adult crossed the street, stopping right in front of where Marinette stood with her arms crossed. Having Robin and Nightwing at her side helped her confidence, but the anger and betrayal she felt didn’t hurt it either.

“Marinette!” Mlle. Bustier exclaimed, eyes wide. She continued rapidly speaking in French, “But— weren’t you with the class—“ she turned, only for a certain pink haired teen to skate forward with her hands on her hips.

“Uh, no Mlle. Bustier. Adrien and I tried to tell you that Marinette never made it on the bus!”

“But, Alya told me you three were lying because you didn’t want to go to a boring museum!” The teacher said in dismay. Then a frown overcame her face. “Well, regardless. We have departure time set for a reason, Marinette. I expect you, as the class president, to set a good example and arrive on time. Being late is very unbecoming of you, especially considering you weren’t responsible enough to even meet up for the tour. As the person who recommended the museum in the first place, Marinette, I expected more integrity out of you.”

“Excusez-moi?” Robin spoke up, hands clenched into fists at his side. The teacher jumped, clearly not having anticipating the Gotham hero to understand everything she said. The young Robin continued in perfectly fluent French; “It is not Marinette’s responsibility to take care of your class or to be flawless. It is your own failing as a teacher, neglecting your responsibility to ensure that all of the children under your care are safe and accounted for. While in Gotham, you are supposed to act as their caretaker and their parents are relying on you to do at least a halfway decent job. Instead, you allow your own class President, the only reason any of you are even here and able to visit anywhere, to get left behind and almost kidnapped in the most crime ridden city in the country!” The vigilante never raised his voice, the iciness of his tone easily carrying and showing how deadly serious every last word was. Caline Bustier could only freeze under Robin’s wrathful glare.

Nightwing’s hand on Robin’s shoulder stopped the tirade, though the older hero’s gaze never left the teacher either. “We will be keeping an ear out, madam,” he said in deceptively cheerful French. Bustier twitched again in surprise. There was still a threat under that cheerful tone. “Any kid left behind in this city, especially if they don’t know the city, is in a lot of danger. I suggest you do your job unless you want the police having a talk with you too, instead of us friendly vigilantes,” he warned. “Now then, try to have a good rest of your night Marinette. Stay safe. Hopefully you won’t have to see us anytime soon, yeah?” He switched back to English, earning a wry smile and small nod from Marinette.

Neither Gotham hero missed the way Marinette shrunk in on herself as soon as she realized they were leaving. Two sets of masked eyes narrowed, but otherwise they gave no sign of noticing. A brief wave from the friendlier of the two heroes later, and they were gone.

Marinette couldn’t help but feel like a sheep left in a pack of wolves.

Thankfully, her class at least had the decency to wait until they were all sat down and had finished ordering before pouncing.

“Honestly, Marinette?” Alya snapped, eyebrow raised and scowl on her lips. “I can’t believe you would waste the time of Gotham’s heroes just for attention. Look at how sad Mlle. Bustier is now!” She waved a hand to the teacher, who was still in obvious shock. “I can’t even imagine what you did to make them think you were about to get kidnapped. Probably some poor innocent guy in prison now because of your whining, and what if wasting time with you made Nightwing and Robin miss out on saving someone in actual trouble, huh, girl?”

Lila broke into tears. “I-I’m just so g-glad you’re safe, Marinette! When you told m-me you felt s-sick and wanted us to g-go without you, I h-hoped you wouldn’t c-c-cause any trouble,” a giant fake sob ripped itself from Lila’s lying throat. “But this is what I g-g-get for having faith in y-you!” Everyone quickly rushed to assure Lila that she had to reason to feel bad about Marinette’s behavior, it wasn’t her fault Marinette was an attention hog.

It was all the pigtailed girl could do, to sink down in her seat and thank every power in the universe that she hadn’t suggested moving onto Audio Only Mode with Robin yet. She had an odd suspicion that anger management wasn’t exactly one of his strengths.

Just take deep breaths, she thought, doing the best she could to keep herself calm while she ate. Alix leaned into her arm, offering comforting weight and silent support. Marinette just smiled at her gratefully. Speaking up would do nothing right now, not while everyone was so solidly against her and Adrien was stuck as Lila’s human teddy bear. He sent her an apologetic glance, but Marinette could only shrug. As much as she still liked having him around as Chat, she had long since gotten used to not getting help in class from Adrien.

Marinette sunk into her bed once they got back to the hotel, the silence of the room weighing on her. She was the odd student out, so she didn’t have a roommate.

“Maybe tomorrow will be better, Marinette,” Tikki tried to cheer her up, the tiny Kwami flying over and nestling next to Marinette’s face in a pseudo hug. The teen just hummed in halfhearted agreement, closing her eyes. It took a while, but she was eventually able to sink off into slumber.

—*—*—*—*—*

“You seem tired,” Robin remarked blandly, raising an eyebrow at Marinette’s dejected form just slumped half-on half-off of her loft bed. Her head was part of the half actually on the bed, and thus her expression was hidden from Robin as she let out a loud groan of despair. “Are you dying?”

“Noooo,” Marinette paused. “Maybe.”

“And why are you maybe dying?” Robin walked over to his weapons rack, where a brand new section of green wall was revealed over it boasting domino masks. Considering he had went to sleep, he obviously hadn’t been in uniform. Which, therefore, meant he wasn’t in uniform in the dreamspace. Quickly pulling on one of the masks, he turned back to the loft bed.

Marinette still hadn’t lifted her head.

“... is your identity safe now?”

“Yes, I have my mask on.”

Marinette wasted no time sitting up after that, exposing Robin to the absolutely dejected look on her face. Immediately his eyebrows shot up, the way her hair fell loose around her head instead of being held in pigtails only emphasizing the sorry state she was in.

It had really been a gamble, talking to himself when he reached his room to ask Marinette if she would do her best not to look at him when he first entered the mindspace. A gamble that apparently paid off. Apparently if one of them was asleep or meditating, they could still see through the other person’s eyes if they watched TV in the mindspace.

But now he couldn’t really care about his identity as much as usual, considering his stalling meant she had been left alone to wallow in whatever misery left her in this state.

“What happened?” That came out harsher than he intended it to, but Marinette Luckily didn’t seem to care. She just heaved a heavy sigh and slipped off her bed. She didn’t even use the ladder, just letting herself slide off and land surprisingly nimbly on her feet. Robin narrowed his eyes.

Parkour, he thought with a mental scoff. Sure. Wait, that doesn’t matter right now.

“It’s just my class,” Marinette confided, fiddling with the long sleeve of her pajama top. “It’s really stupid, and I know I should be strong enough to ignore the things they say, but it still hurts. A lot.”

A very unfamiliar feeling caused Robin to bristle and stand up straighter. “Things? What things do they say?” He watched as Marinette fidgeted nervously, and then went to his couch. She looked between it and him for a second, silently asking permission to sit on it considering it was a Green Item and therefore his by default. He simply nodded, moving over to sit next to her.

“It’s dumb, and you really don’t have to worry about it,” she started, but she also couldn’t fight the urge to confide in him. Maybe it was the mindspace, the aura of it heavily persuading the two inhabitants to speak nothing but the truth while there. Maybe it was the bond itself, trying to convince her that she could trust him. Whatever it was, she had never wanted to tell someone about her issues this badly before.

“I didn’t ask for reasons to not worry, I asked for what they said,” Robin retorted firmly. Marinette actually chuckled at that, the bluntness reassuring her.

I guess Chloe was right, huh?

So she explained. She stared down at the green floor under her feet or the couch cushions or the TV or the vast white expanse of their mindspace, but never Robin. She never looked at him as she recounted everything that happened after Lila Rossi joined the class, how she took her friends away and lied every chance she got to make Marinette look bad. How she had even managed to spin a lie that got the whole class believing that Marinette got left behind and almost kidnapped on purpose, for attention, despite Marinette having social anxiety and not liking having large amounts of attention on her to begin with.

She explained every harsh detail of Alya, her previous best friend, betraying her and turning into her second worst bully because of Lila. How only Alix remained by her side and her class as a whole ridiculed, isolated, and bullied her. If they didn’t bully her, they ignored that anything was happening. She explained how Adrien, also her friend, was given the ultimatum that if he didn’t keep Lila happy he would be withdrawn from school and effectively isolated at home again. She explained that he tried to help, but was often stopped from doing more than offering a warm glance by Lila’s grip around one of his arms (almost always his left arm nowadays, since even Lila knew better than to touch or obstruct someone’s soul mark without permission).

“And it’s really just dumb school drama,” Marinette was wrapping up, the sleeve of her nightshirt sporting several holes in it from how she had been worrying at it throughout her whole story. Normally she wouldn’t dare hurt her clothes in such a way, but here it didn’t matter. In the mindspace, nothing but their own consciousness actually existed. She could destroy her clothes all she wanted here, and they would be perfectly fine when she woke up. “I just need to suck it up and not let Lila’s words affec—“

Marinette almost bit her tongue when she was flicked on the forehead, her eyes crossing as she tried to spot the offending hand. Slowly coming out of her shock, she followed the hand to the wrist, then arm, then the face of a very frustrated Robin. His eyebrows were pulled down low over his masked eyes, the hand that hadn't just flicked her was clenched in a fist and shaking. Marinette was pretty sure that he would have been making his palm bleed if they had been in the physical world right then.

“No,” Robin’s voice was strained, as if he was doing his best not to raise his voice. It still trembled with anger. “The way they are treating you is incredibly uncalled for, unjustified and dishonorable. You should not be forced to manage your emotions even on the level that Hawkmoth forces all of Paris to do every day, let alone force yourself to cope with what is clearly serious harassment. They are taking advantage of you, Marinette. They are using you because they know you will provide things they favor— clothes, baked goods, and whatever else you might give them. They are not entitled to that, though. They are not entitled to your kindness or forgiveness, and they are not entitled to your patience. If they do not want to or are too dumb to acknowledge the truth of what is happening, that is their fault and the way they are treating you because of it is unacceptable. And your teacher! Nightwing and I were not bluffing when we threatened to get her investigated. I tried to research you after patrol today, but Red Robin pointed out that it may be seen as insensitive or intrusive of me. Perhaps you should allow me to do so anyway, so that we can take proper action if there is proof of your school being negligent.”

“Robin, that really isn’t necessary,” it said a lot that Marinette no longer had the energy to wave her hands in denial. She just spoke in a defeated tone.

Robin flicked her again.

“I am your soulmate, not your therapist. But it is wholly unacceptable for the person who is supposed to be by my side for the rest of my life to be mistreated or emotionally abused in such a way. The fact that you have not even been akumatized by that villain in Paris yet despite going through all of this is clear testimony that you have a strong mind and will, but everyone has their limits. When you feel yourself approaching said limits, you can meditate and turn on Audio Only Mode, so that I know you need to vent.”

“But I can’t let my emotions get out of control when I am back in Paris,” Marinette started to say, but was cut off by Robin already shaking his head.

“That does not count here. Very few magics can penetrate a soulbond mindspace, and I severely doubt an Akuma is one of them. You can go to sleep or meditate, and release all of your frustrations here where it is safe. Letting them build up will only cause more damage in the long run.”

The Asian girl shifted, looking first at the green floor beneath her and then up to Robin’s face. Her posture said that she was relaxed, at least a lot more than she had been during her entire confession, but her eyes held worry. He could see it swimming in those sapphire depths.

“Are you sure it’s okay?” She asked weakly in French. The slip back to her most commonly used language made Robin frown. He really was far from the best person to comfort anyone, even his own soulmate. He was flying blind here, and could only do what he saw as logical. Surely his soulmate, of all people, would accept that.

“I do not make it a habit of expressing many of my emotions very often,” he admitted slowly. “But I understand that you do not come from my circumstances. I will not be bothered.”

Insecurity wormed its way into her blue eyes l, pushing the normal worry away. “Even if we’re soulmates…” she started hesitantly, squirming in her seat. “You shouldn’t have to put up with me. I mean, I overreact a l—“

“No.”

Marinette was startled, eyes wide and uncomprehending. “Excusez moi?”

“No,” Robin repeated. “You are not overreacting. I will not allow you or anyone else to think that about yourself. If nothing else, everyone is entitled to their emotions,” he stubbornly pushed away unpleasant memories. This wasn’t about him. He could not have his soulmate in an unstable state of mind. It was not acceptable, even if he did not know or fully trust her yet. “You are my soulmate,” he said slowly, leaning forward and staring into her eyes to try and hammer in the words he spoke. “As such, I will not allow anyone to treat you as anything less than royalty. Not even yourself.”

Marinette was certain she would have passed out from forgetting to breathe, had they not been in a mental world separate from physical reality.

Oh, this is so much worse than fawning over Adrien.

—*—*—*—*—*

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

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jayphoenic · 1 year ago

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Maribat Masterlist 2

The Supreme Masterlist by @icerosecrystal

Masterlist by @neakco

Maribat Series Masterlist by @jinx-jade

Batman Rec Fic by @lurkinglurkerwholurks

Masterlist by @arty-shadow-morningstar

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justrandomfanfictionskh · 2 years ago

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A Blue Bird and a Black Cat pt1

Selina decides that Marinette would be better as the Cat than Adrien. Five years, later Dick is very confused about this Lady Noire ao3

Five months ago Selina had expected to waltz into the Louvre, liberate a particular Ming dynasty Jade Cat, and waltz out. She had not expected to be stopped by two teenaged heroes, who clearly had no adult supervision. She had definitely not expected them to be quite so skilled at fighting, despite their obvious lack of training. And she had most certainly not expected them to leave their fight in favor of chasing a strange blue child on a flying carpet! She had not gotten the Jade Cat, or even entered the Louvre that night. However, the next night she had gotten her answers.

The small girl in the ladybug suit explained everything as simply as she could to the rouge, and what Selina heard was both intriguing and horrifying. The idea that a mad man was vilifying children in order to serve his purposes, and enslaving people made her hiss and spit. What was intriguing was the young heroes. Especially the cat boy. Not to mention the girl's response to her reaction. She seemed amused and almost...gratified by such a blatant display of disgust. When Selina asked why the Justice League had not gotten involved the girl just sighed and Selina watched as a huge weight settled on her shoulders.

"We tried calling them, but they didn't believe us. I don't know if it was because we weren't talking to the right people, or the magic interfering. But it's almost impossible to prove our claims, because the government is actively suppressing the information so that foreign relations aren't strained, and the magic involved means that there is no lasting damage, or casualties, and the identities of the users are protected through the magic. So proving anything we say in order to get the help we need is next to impossible. Besides do you really want to see Superman, or Batman, or worse, Wonder Woman akumatized? No thank you?"

Cat Woman hummed thinking softly. She snapped her fingers when an idea came. "I know lets make a deal!"

"I'm sorry?" Ladybug asked.

"A deal! I make them with Batman all the time!" A half truth but the young hero didn't need to know that. "I get you Hawkbitch, and you let me take the Jade Cat!"

Ladybug eyed her suspiciously before saying, "You honestly want me to believe that you can find Hawkmoth? and then you really think I'm just going to let you walk away with the Jade Cat? A priceless artifact? Are you crazy?"

"I'm from Gotham," Cat Woman said dismissively, "But that's not the point. The point is, that I can deliver! I get you the name of your villain. You utterly destroy him. And then I walk way with the most precious kitty in France! What do say?"

"I have been looking for Hawkmoth for almost five years, five years, and you think you can just find him like that?" she snapped to illustrate her point. But Selina just smirked.

"If you think it's impossible, then what do you have to loose? I'll even sweeten the deal, I'll leave Paris, no...I'll leave France, and I won't come back until I have a full file detailing exactly who this Hawkbitch is, including admissible proof of his identity. What do you say?"

If this was Superman, he would say no. If this was Batman, he'd think about it and then also say no. Wonder Woman was to experienced to get this deep in the hole. And the rest of the hero community that well but she expected that they would all refuse such an offer. She expected the girl to do the same, but once again her expectations were over thrown when Ladybug said, "Ok. You have a deal. Get me Hawkmoth, and you can attempt to steal the cat. But you have to leave first thing in the morning, and you cannot, I repeat, cannot come back until you know who Hawkmoth is."

Now five months later, Selina smiled into her coffee. All she had to do was casually mention to Bruce that there were unsupervised heroes in Paris, and he was on the case like a cat on a mouse, or a bat on a bug. Whichever you prefer. Still she did not want to reveal herself to the heroes just yet. Because she...was curious.

While waiting for Bruce to crack the case, Selina had decided to do some light browsing on exactly who these heroes were. Their identities were apparently protected by magic, which Selina could easily believe. She had seen Ladybug's face that day as clear as the moon in the sky. But like the moon, her memories of the girl's features were obscured behind clouds. But after using a French IP address and watching something called The LabyBlog and The BugCast, Selina had become determined to discover the identities of the young heroes for two very important reasons. One was to rip that ring off of the mangy, feral, tomcat's finger for daring to disgrace the noble and divine species of felines with his carless and flippant ways. And two was to invite Ladybug to have a little Gotham fun. The girl was clearly too stressed for words, but it wasn't hard to see why. With a partner like that and the responsibility of resurrecting the dead, Selina would have cracked years ago. But this girl hung on, and for that the girl disserved a break, without having to worry about akumas, or villains, or anything but the joy that came from bashing in a deadbeat's jewels.

But after a week of searching and stalking, she had gotten know where. All she could confirm, was that Ladybug, and probably Chat Noire lived somewhere in the vicinity of this lovely patisserie. Not a lot to go on, she knew, but it was better than nothing. And besides, the coffee was wonderful. The pastries were divine. And there the sun was shining. So she really couldn't complain. The sun never shone in Gotham.

As she took another sip of coffee and looked over at the park where children were playing, she smiled thinking about the current Robin. He was probably too old and too scarred to enjoy the park as a kid. But perhaps one day, he could enjoy the park with a kid. Maybe a little brother, or a little sister. She smiled mischievously, but her thoughts were interrupted by a small cough.

"Oh I'm sorry, excuse me, I didn't mean to disturb you. You were probably really deep in thought, and hate being interrupted, and think I'm annoying, I'm so sorry! This is so rude of me, and you probably hate me, and don't want to talk to me. But I needed to ask you something, but you don't have to answer, in fact it's probably best if---"

"It's alright child," Selina said with a low chuckle and a soft smile. "I understand, now what is your question?"

"Oh, ok," the young girl said softly, "Um, if you're finished with your plate, then I can take it inside for you?"

Selina arched a brow and examined the girl. She was small, and extremely nervous, which made Selina think that she was probably 12 or 13. However, any careful examination of her features revealed that the girl in actuality was probably older. Perhaps 16 or 17. But it was difficult to tell. First of all her black hair that shone blue in the light was tied up in pig tails (a decidedly younger preference). Secondly, her big blue bell eyes were shining with all of the nervous energy her voice conveyed (the poor girl probably had anxiety and had never been taught how to manage it). Thirdly, her clothes, which were objectionably fashionable and stylish, seemed to convey a softness and timidity that only hung around small children. Selina found her pretty, in an innocent, cute, fairy kind of way. Which combined with the over abundance in nervous energy, convinced Selina that this child should never enter Gotham, unless she quickly received a shot of pure confidence in the next hour or so.

So Selina smiled her warmest smile and said, "Of course you may my dear. Please. Now tell me are you just being kind, or do you work here?"

"Oh?" the girl said a little confidence edging its way into her voice, "My parents own this patisserie! And I like to help out where I can. I hope you enjoyed everything!"

"Oh I did," Selina said. "I truly believe this is the best cup of coffee, that I have ever had. You must compliment your parents for me..."

"Oh, Marinette!"

"Selina."

Marinette's smile was now so bright and genuine, that it was contagious. And Selina found herself watching the girl out of the corner of her eye for the next half an hour she was there.

Benevolent and sanguine feelings rolled through Selina, as she watched Marinette clumsily and skillfully clean the outside tables. The girl was entertaining, as she seemed to be a mass of contradictions. One minute she was graceful. The next she was flailing. One minute she was nervous and shy. The next she was talking animatedly with someone she knew. One minute she was day dreaming. The next she was stressing over the smallest details of the tables. Selina was amusedly endeared to the young lady. But she didn't have time to be distracted. She needed to find Ladybug, and give her the Hawkbitch file. However, just as she was finishing her drink something happened that made Selina bristle and hiss.

Marinette was just wiping down a table, when something caught her attention and made her tense. This caught Selina's attention, because it was a different kind of rigidity than her pervious bouts of nervousness. When the girl had addressed Salina she had been fidgety, but upright and clear. Now, Marinette was hunching over, curling in on herself. Her hands, which had flitted about with the need to move, now stilled, and...Selina blinked and almost turned to directly stare at the child. Marinette's hands were shaking and her eyes...oh her big, beautiful, clear, bluebell eyes, where fading as if something was slowly draining away the life in them Selina felt her own shoulders tense as she watched. She knew those actions. She had seen those signs. She recognized those defenses. She did not have to consult Harley in order to recognize a victim of abuse.

Selina settled back as casually as she could and began to watch the pedestrians. One of these people was this bright young woman's abuser, and Selina was determined to discover them. None of them stuck out, everyone kept walking past, or into the bakery. Then a group of teenage girls caught her eye. Unremarkable in and of themselves, just a group of five or six teenagers, probably coming from a shopping spree. They were laughing and talking without a care in the world, but there was something about them that made Selina's hair stand up on end. So she examined them closely. Her eye fell on the girl who was front and center of the group. Her hair looked as if she was trying to imitate sausage links, and her style was decidedly gaudy. The girl walked with an air of entitlement, and obnoxiousness that even a cat would find insulting. Especially since she was not carrying any of the shopping bags and was walking ahead of the group, thus giving the impression that the girls around her, were not her "friends" but her ladies-in-waiting. And though she never looked down at the people around her, she watched them through narrow calculating eyes that reminded Selina of Lady Shiva. Selina did not like that woman.

Selina kept one eye on Marinette, and one eye on the approaching group, sat back, and watched. And what she saw made her quietly hiss into her now empty mug. The lead girl (Selina heard her called Lila) took one look at Marinette and smiled predatorily. She then redirected everyone immediately from their previous goals, to the bakery and sat down at a table Marinette had yet to clean. She then proceeded to cry and sob, blaming Marinette for forcing her to sit at an unclean table, while the rest of the girls began to yell and berate the poor girl for the injustice. Marinette said nothing as she quietly cleaned the table, letting the screams and sobs wash over her without even making a noise. As Marinette attempt to walk away with the dishes, Lila very blatantly tripped her. This time Marinette did not use her graceful reflexes to contradict the clumsiness but silently fell to the ground shattering all the plates. The other girls at the table then began to scream at Marinette for attempting to hurt Lila by dropping plates on her head.

Selina could not hear this Lila's voice, from where she was sitting, but the affects of her gross, and obvious manipulation and abuse made Selina want to scream and claw her eyes out as she watched. The sweet charming girl silently and cautiously pick up every shard of ceramic as the other girls screamed and surrounded her. The commotion drew out the two adults that Selina had seen behind the counter. Knowing these to be Marinette's parents, Selina decided not to kill a minor, trusting them to defend their daughter. The yelling stopped for about five seconds when they appeared. Long enough for Lila to say something through her hands, and for the bakery owners to turn on their daughter and begin to reprimand her and not the other girls. Selina had to bite her tongue against a scream as she watched the previously bright and kind girl that was Marinette silently stand up and slink back into the bakery without ever making a sound. When she passed, Selina felt stabbed, because her beautiful blue eyes were rendered dull and grey in the wake of her abuse.

Once Marinette was gone, Selina watched as her parents filled the group's table with the best free pastries with growing hatred and disgust. Selina shook her self she could not get akumatized. She could not risk all of her plans falling apart, because of one incident. However, she smirked deviously. There were other ways to punish bullies and abusers. But as she walked past the table, something happened that completely other threw all of her expectations once again. This was becoming a pattern in Paris.

Marinette blinked at the woman in her room. "What the hell?!" she exclaimed. Cat Woman smiled mischievously and removed her cowl throwing Marinette into even more open mouthed confusion. Mme. Selina is Cat Woman! her mind screamed. Marinette stared at the new patisserie regular in shock and horror, as the older woman chuckled at her reaction.

"Sorry to keep you waiting Ladybug, but I had to be sure of you identity before I could give you this." She held up a thick manila folder with the word Hawkmoth written on the side, and the word Hawkbitch scribbled on the front.

Marinette held up her hands in protest. She had to breath. Her mind was swirling, and she could barely process all of this new information. Mme. Selina was her new favorite customer. She came in almost everyday and always had a kind word for her. Cat Woman was a thief who stole priceless artifacts. She had known Selina for about three weeks now. And Cat Woman was a world renowned thief. A thief who knew her identity...Marinette took a deep breath before she could spiral and closed her eyes. This was not helping.

Ladybug, she thought desperately, I need to be Ladybug. She took a deep breath and settled into the mindset of the hero of Paris. Ladybug could save the day. Ladybug would save the day. Ladybug can deal with Cat Woman with ease. Ladybug would make sure that nothing went wrong. She felt her energies settle into calm, heavy, order as confidence and surety took over her bones. When she opened her eyes, Cat Woman was watching her with undisguised curiosity and fondness. Ladybug could not understand it. She cleared her throat.

"So how did you discover my identity?"

"Well it wasn't easy," Cat Woman said dismissively. "But lets just say, you were perhaps a little too tired after that last akuma. Neither you nor that filthy alley cat noticed that I was following you. But then again he never notices when I follow him." She spoke of Chat Noir with disgust, as if he were the epitome of everything wrong with the world. Ladybug let the information settle in the back of her mind before she continued.

"So you're here about our deal. Hawkmoth's identity in exchange for a free attempt at the Louvre." It was a statement, but Ladybug was curious to see how Cat Woman would respond to it.

"Yes," Cat Woman said with a smile, "But also no."

"No?" Ladybug said with unaffected surprise. "Don't you want your Jade Cat?"

"Hmm," Cat Woman mused as she eyed Marinette's room. "I think I remember saying that I want the most precious kitten in all of France. And at this point I don't think it's the Jade Cat."

Ladybug sighed and crossed her arms. "Do I want to know?"

Cat Woman smiled sardonically. "Lady Noire."

Ladybug blinked. That was not the answer she was expecting and it almost rocked her out of her persona. She recovered by giving Selina a very pointed look and said slowly, "Lady Noire? The persona I take when I wear the cat miraculous?"

"Mmhm," Cat Woman hummed with a smile.

"I don't understand."

"Well it's quiet simple really. I don't like that tomcat running around with the black cat miraculous. As the original, feline identity I take anyone who attempts a feline persona very seriously. And I don't like the reputation he is giving us nighttime predators."

"You do know that the black cat hero is older than most civilizations."

"All the more reason to take his miraculous from him. He doesn't deserve it, not with the way he treats you. Come now kitten, you can't tell me that you haven't ever questioned his suitability for the role. He's skilled, yes. And he's passionate. But he's hardly capable. How often does he leave alone in a fight? How often does he get distracted or impede your abilities? How often has he assaulted you?"

"Woah, Chat Noire has not assaulted me," Ladybug declared.

"Oh so you like it when he kisses you're hand, and calls you pet names in professional settings? Or how about when he decided he was in love with your civilian identity? Did you like him coming up to your balcony every other night? Based on how often the CCTV cameras caught him here, I assume he had an open invitation? You did invite him to sit on your balcony for hours on end, correct?"

Ladybug stiffened. She couldn't deny it. She couldn't deny any of it. She couldn't deny her wish that Chat took things more seriously, or was more reliable. It was becoming more of a question of if he would even show up! And when he did appear, she often found her self watching him as much as their enemy. When he decided that he was in love with Ladybug, she always had to make sure that there was at least five feet between them so that he wouldn't try to pull her against him, "Because that blast was going to hit you m'lady!" he would always say even as his hands began to wonder. And when he decided he was in love with Marinette, she could barely go out on her balcony to water her plants without him trying to corner her, or get into her space. She used to love lying back in her bed, and watching the sky out of her sky light. Or going out on her balcony at night to let the cool air wash all of her troubles away. But now there was paper over the glass, and she had to lock the window the moment the sun went down in case Chat Noir decided to shift his attentions again.

She looked away but Cat Woman moved so that she was in her line of sight. Ladybug looked at her and saw something she had not seen directed at her in a long time. Not since Luka and Juleka left with their father for his world tour, and Kagami had been sent to a fencing camp by her mother. It was sympathy, understanding, and a righteous fury on her behalf. Ladybug shifted, she could feel her mask slipping, and she was almost tempted to call on her suit in order to cement it in place, but Cat Woman wasn't done.

"You know," she said softly, "I had plans to steal you away as the new cat holder, before I ever realized you were Ladybug." Marinette started and stared, but said nothing. She did not trust herself. Selina continued, "That first day we met. I saw what those girls did to you. What your parents did to you, and I'll admit I was almost akumatized. But I wasn't because the moment I went over to steal that Lie-la's wallet, rip her knock-off designer bag, and spill coffee in her lap, something happened. The moment I heard her voice I started to believe her. Despite everything I felt and witnessed, I started to believe that she was right, and you deserved what they did to you." Ladybug stiffened, but said nothing, she was too confused and too conflicted. So Selina continued almost conspiratorily. "And that's when I realized. That Lie-la is a meta!"

Marinette gasped. Her mask had slipped. The Ladybug persona was on the floor. There was no recovering it. The realization and the understanding hit her like a truck as the reality fit everything into place. For years she had wondered how Lila had done it. How had she turned everyone who had always loved and supported her through thick and thin against her as if she was a rat in the pantry. But it made sense. Lila was a meta! She was controlling them. Marinette never stood a chance. She looked up and saw the gleaming satisfaction in Selina's eyes as hope and vindication filled Marinette's. And Selina continued,

"It's the only explanation. Because I know what I say. I know what they did to you. And over the past few weeks I have seen who you are as well. You are kind, and generous, and beautiful. So how could anything she said be true, even if I believed her when I heard her voice. I knew right then and there, that very first day what was happening. But Marinette...I also knew right then and there that the only way for you to be free of them, of her, would be to escape. The only way you're going to be able to get out of this toxic dumpster fire of a life is to run away from it as fast and as far as you can. Now you're 18. You'll be graduating soon. And with this," she tapped the almost forgotten file, "You'll be able to put the mask aside. You can choose how you want to escape. All I ask is that you let me help you do it...It is your decision Marinette. I'll make sure that it is only your decision. If you let me."

Marinette breathed deeply, her scattered and shattered mind desperately trying to put all of the pieces together. She tried to summon Ladybug. She tried to shut down. She tried everything, but that did not stop the buzzing in her head so she just stared, at the woman in front of her. The woman who was offering the only thing her heart could ever want. As she stood and stared the kwamis began to slink out of their hiding spots, but only Tikki came up to comfort her and pull her out of her deepening spiral. "You're unbalanced, Marinette," the kwami whispered. "And I'm sorry, I don't know how to help you. I can only offer you creation and order, and I'm afraid you might have a little too much of that right now. Please, please, please, let this woman help you! We, all of us, will support you no matter what."

And with that, Marinette fell to her knees and began to cry. And she didn't stop not even when the small hands of her kwami were joined by the warm, tight embrace of a human. So she knelt and cried, as sixteen deities protected her, and a warm, kind woman embraced her.

(let me know if you want to be tagged for this fic.)

#maribat #miraculous ladybug #batfam #batman #dcu fic #marinette dupen chang #dickinette #dick grayson #nightwing #ladynoir #lila salt #class salt #adrien salt #ptsd problems #mlb x dc #dc x mlb #since when did selina have a clone?

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person25 · 1 year ago

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so i’ve already talked about my feelings for daminette, now i thinks it’s time for the other maribat ship (that i’ve read for) (skip the first two ships if you actually want to read interesting words)

dick x marinette:

honestly, i haven’t read much and have only seen it where they knew each other in the circus. the least popular out of the (male) robins. i think it could be adorable if executed well but yk i haven’t really put my heart into it so i can’t say much.

tim x marinette:

definitely cute, both usually a mess, also addicted to coffee?? i mean whatever helps you through the day. i like the dynamic a lot. i feel like marinette would be most likely to get in a relationship with tim out of the others, based on what? what my brain tells me. they deserve to live happily ever after with each other. also don’t have much to say about them, i enjoy it👍

jason x marinette:

now this is where it gets interesting, jason and marinette would make a very good couple imo. balance each other out and all that. mari is always a badass in these which is definitely a slay. honestly these do everything right that i have a problem with in daminette fics, probably bc most people writing these have a stronger understanding of the characters than daminette writers (respectfully)

almost always talks about jason’s trauma aswell as marinettes which i personally want more of in daminette fics. more explicit fics than any of the other (i’m pretty sure anyways) so if that’s what you’re into, this is probably the one. also quite a bit of soulmate aus (again my fav if done right)

usually older than 20 so more mature and not in high school. high school is fine until you’re tired of it and don’t want to read it ever again, iykyk.

honestly my 2nd fav (as much as i tear daminette down it’ll always be #1 in my heart fr) they just have that special something the others don’t

other things about maribat as a whole i haven’t talked about yet:

i really don’t like when mari can beat any of the boys in a fight out of her suit unless it explicitly states how she’s so strong. these boys have been training their whole lives and i don’t think marinette could beat them with little training out of the suit. like don’t make her strong bc you want her to be strong do it to further the story or have a good explanation as to why

i may have said i don’t like salt but i definitely do, as long as it makes sense at least a little bit. i think any ship other than daminette (depends on the fic ofc) does salt well, honestly like adrien as a bestie more than an enabler but if you don’t like adrien definitely read a maribat salt fic

i have talked abt this but i’m gonna say it again bc it also happens with these ships, marinette does not have more trauma than any of these people and unless you specifically make it that way (which would take a lot of work and a lot of trauma considering what they’ve been through) i don’t like people writing it as if she does when the most they say she’s been through is losing a couple friends and them being slightly mean ( i am NOT talking abt when they physically harass/assault her)

another thing about daminette is that he has green eyes and a tanner complexion so they don’t look too alike but with the rest of the ships they look like siblings and it’s not a deal breaker or anything just a siblings or dating situation

things i’m willing to talk abt if you give me time to read fics:

bruce x marinette:

honestly never thought abt it but if i put enough will power in it i’ll read some, even if it’s a tad bit weird

maribat f/f ships:

i will 100% do this, i just need time to finish a tim x mari fic (i read for this post) bc while i can read multiple fics at a time k cannot read multiple maribats at a time and i’ll read some bc i love the idea just never got around to it

also i’m still new to (posting on) tumblr so bare with me🙏

@fallenkingsvale

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olivia-anderson-fanfic · 1 year ago

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Stale(mate)

Summary: A pact written in blood.

(Vampire!au Dickinette. Vampire!Mari says ACAB. As a cop, Dick thinks this is very concerning.)

It started, as all cases of serial killers do, with a single body.

It was a particularly alarming scene, one that haunted the few officers that had borne witness to it for the next several days. Not because of the murder itself, though that was frightening on its own. When the man’s head had been lifted to check for a pulse, they were given a perfect view of why his neck could no longer support it – for there wasn’t much neck left at all. Deep claw marks poked their way through his shirt, curling themselves in his skin, leaving gaping wounds in their wake. Gunpowder residue suggested that the man had shot at his attacker, but there was no bullet at the scene, and no blood. Not even his own. Despite the cruelty involved in the murder, it was clear that there was a method behind the madness, because he had been bled of every last drop, and said blood had been stolen away.

This wasn’t why the police had been so shaken, though.

It was because the man was one of their own.

It was because, in the officer’s hand, stiff with rigor mortis, was a slip of paper, with one simple sentence in curling, elegant script:

The police department has been dirty lately, but don’t worry, I will clean it up for you all.

Needless to say, the case quickly became a high priority.

Everyone on the force was called to inspect the scene. Invited to take pictures of evidence. Begged for theories.

Dick Grayson knelt in front of the body. His lips were pressed into a thin line, but not quite out of disgust or concern like his peers’.

No, his eyes found their way to the hand that had been clutching the note. It had been taken away for the sake of evidence, but the words were seared into his mind regardless.

The man in front of him had been a dirty cop. Dick had known that even before this had happened, but he had never been able to get any hard evidence. Nothing that couldn’t have been explained away, at least.

Now, it wasn’t necessary.

The words on the slip of paper echoed the ones he had told himself when he had joined the Bludhaven PD. The promise he had made to himself. That he would find evidence on all of the dirty cops, that he would clean up the force.

It seemed like someone was going to do all of the hard work for him.

He put the thought out of his mind. He might agree with the reasoning, at least on some level, but he figured that agreeing with a potential serial killer wasn’t exactly the way to go.

He shook his head. He would focus on this case, get this murderer off the streets, and then go back to his true goal.

⋆♱✮☽🦇☽✮♰⋆

How do you catch someone who leaves no clues behind?

The night it happened, Dick had been staying late, pondering this very question. More cops had been found dead, all drained of blood, all looking as if they had had a run-in with a wild animal, all with their throats torn out. He had stared at the many pictures of all of the different crime scenes that lay strewn across his desk, drumming his fingers on the arm of his chair, trying to find any semblance of a clue. But there wasn’t any.

His attention had been stolen away.

Maybe this should have been the first sign.

It shouldn’t have been all that interesting, shouldn’t have held his gaze longer than a few seconds. A cop was bringing in a woman. Based on the gem-covered, short dress with a low v-cut, and the fact that she was clearly on at least one substance, Dick figured she had probably come from a bar. Nothing new. Not worth the ruckus that had started up the moment she had come in, and certainly not worth a second glance from him in particular.

“Drunk and disorderly,” the cop holding her hands behind her back announced to the too-curious room.

Her eyes were sharp when they swept over the room. This should have been the second sign.

The third sign came quickly, the moment she spoke. For there wasn’t nearly as much of a slur to her words as the strap of her dress hanging from her shoulder and the dazed look on her face might have suggested:

“C’mooooon,” she complained, leaning back against the officer, digging her heels in to make it harder for him to take her to one of the holding cells, her head turning to nuzzle into his neck. “Can’t we just keep this between you ‘n me? I’ll make it worth your while…”

The officer’s face flushed red. Her mouth came to press against his pulse point.

Her lips curled into a kind of grin. But not the kind of grin you might expect from someone who was about to get out of jail. Dick had seen that look before. That was full of relief, or sometimes smug, but this was different. No, there was something malevolent there.

She whispered something, and this was the final warning.

Because the officer’s eyes widened in abject terror.

Dick started to rise, his hand finding its way to the gun at his hip.

He never got the chance to even try.

She dug her teeth into his neck and pulled, yanking his artery right out into the open. Blood spurted, splashing everyone in the nearby vicinity in red.

Including her, but she didn’t seem all that concerned. She held the rapidly dying man close to her, her head still tipped back against his shoulder, her tongue poking out of her mouth as if she was concentrating hard on something.

Finally, he was allowed to fall to the ground, and she showed off freed hands. The handcuffs still hung from one of her wrists, but she was no longer limited to only her teeth.

A bullet slammed into her stomach, and she stumbled just slightly with the force of it, but didn’t seem all that affected. She reached down to pick the bullet out of her dress, and then presented it for all to see. There wasn’t a single speck of blood on it.

“Someone’s gonna be paying me back for this dress. I liked it.”

This wasn’t their main concern, though, because the woman launched herself at the cop who had dared to shoot her.

She didn’t even bother with her teeth this time. Instead, she slashed her throat with long claws, and the woman gave a silent scream as she went down, frantically trying to hold the blood in.

She didn’t pay her any mind, instead turning to her next victim.

Dick just… stared as she made quick work of the precinct.

He couldn’t quite bring himself to jump directly into a losing battle. He knew better than that. The only effect the constant gunfire seemed to have on her was annoyance. If she wasn’t concerned about a bullet, then there was little he could do to stop her. She was fast, invulnerable, and (if the desk she threw at the people running for the doors meant anything) stronger than a normal person could reasonably fight off. Fighting her was stupid, and so he didn’t.

And, beyond that… well, he had already admitted, even if just to himself, that he agreed with her goal, even if her methods were hard to agree with. He couldn’t quite bring himself to try and stop her when she was doing what he had been struggling with for months now.

She was efficient, if ruthlessly so.

Before long, he was the only person left alive.

She slowed to a stop. Her hair was a mess, her bun on its last legs, strands falling in her face messily. Somehow, this didn’t make her look like a mess at all. Somehow, even the blood spilling down her chin just added to the strange, unearthly beauty that he couldn’t seem to look away from.

Her lips pulled into an amused smile.

His eyes caught on her teeth, dripping red. On the long canines that might have poked out of her mouth even when her lips were closed, on the other sharp teeth that could tear him to shreds in a second. She ran a tongue over her teeth, her eyes gleaming with something that was distinctly inhuman. Something more.

“You didn’t shoot,” she said.

He swallowed thickly, and then mentally cursed himself when the motion drew her eyes to his neck. “I –... it wasn’t helping anyone else,” he said.

She hummed, pursing her lips in a way that was definitely mocking him. “Did you know your heart rate increases when you lie?”

“Well, my heartrate being fast isn’t all that surprising. I am a little scared of you.”

She laughed, and her teeth glinted in the light. “That, at least, is true.”

She walked towards him, her steps slow and languid, as if she had all the time in the world.

She did.

She came to stand in front of him, and he almost laughed aloud at the height difference between them. You would expect a serial killer to be tall, strong, imposing. She was strong, but if he hadn’t known any better he would have walked right past her on the street without being any the wiser. If not for the blood staining her front, he might have thought her pretty. Maybe he still did, but not in the way he usually found people pretty, but instead like a waterfall. A force of nature, a gorgeous thing you can’t quite tear your eyes away from, something that will pitch you off the side of a cliff, down hundreds of feet towards your doom.

Her gaze flicked downwards, to the gun pointed at her heart. It was useless, they both knew, but he couldn’t bring himself to let go of it. Maybe it was because he was human, but he couldn’t give in, couldn’t lay down and die. Not entirely. He wanted to fight. He wanted to keep her from truly trying to fight him.

Too pale blue eyes (bloodless, he realized dully) zeroed in on the nameplate on his chest. Her gaze, briefly, flicked to the side, as if considering, but either she didn’t care enough to dwell on it or her thoughts raced faster than he could ever hope to comprehend, because she found her way back to his eyes within a second.

She leaned into his space. A hand came up to cup his chin, and he only just stopped himself from flinching.

If she wanted to kill him, he wouldn’t be able to stop her. If he couldn't hold onto his life then, at least, he would hold onto his pride.

A finger came to rest against his pulse point, and even he could feel just how fast his blood was pumping beneath it.

He didn’t have much pride left, but he could at least have this. The knowledge that he hadn’t screamed and cried and tried to run away like everyone else.

“Officer Grayson?” She said, and a faint accent hung onto her words as she sounded out the name, but he couldn’t quite care about figuring out where it was from when a fanged mouth was nearing him. “I’ve heard a lot of good things about you, so I’ll let you off for good behavior.”

“You’re pretty close for someone that’s going to be letting me go.”

She hummed, an impossibly low sound that almost reminded him of a purr, and then tilted his head to the side with her hand. “Well, something tells me that your shock might wear off soon, and I want to be able to clean up in peace.”

This was all the warning he got before her teeth sunk into his neck.

Have you ever been put under anesthesia?

A sudden rush, a buzzing in your head drowning out all thoughts you could have in just a second. No matter how hard you thrash, no matter the amount of panic making your heart race, your eyes droop against your will. Within seconds, you’re gone.

That was what it was like.

Not that Dick passed out, per say. No, he was very much awake. He just… couldn’t bring himself to do much of anything. Not even stand on his own two feet. If it were not for the arm wrapped around his waist, the hand cradling his chin, he would have collapsed instantly. The gun slipped from his fingers and somewhere, distantly, he recognized that it had gone off, but he didn’t really care.

Lips detached themselves from his skin, and she carefully lowered him to the ground.

She smiled, swiping away the stream of blood sliding down the side of her face with her thumb.

“Sweet,” she mused.

“Mm,” Dick said, though even he wasn’t sure what he had been trying to say. He felt… floaty. He had never been one for drugs and had never liked the taste of alcohol enough to get anywhere near blackout drunk, but he suddenly understood why people were so into them. There was something relaxing about not being able to hold a thought longer than a few seconds, freeing about the idea of all of his worries falling away into nothing. He was almost scared of how he would feel after the weird floatiness was gone, but he couldn’t even bring himself to care about that.

All he could think about was the pleasant little smile on the woman’s face, sharp teeth dripping with blood and something that had a deep purple tint.

He lifted a heavy hand towards her.

She snickered and batted the hand away with ease. “Mm indeed, Officer Grayson. How about you get some shut-eye, hm?”

That sounded like a good idea.

He thought about thanking her for it, but he drifted before he could.

⋆♱✮☽🦇☽✮♰⋆

Dick, obviously, had a lot of things to explain when he awoke, his head pounding and in desperate need of something to eat.

Luckily or unluckily, the footage of the incident had been wiped. As had the blood. He wasn’t sure how she did it, because the murders had been bloody and she’d made no attempts at all to try and mitigate that… but his concern was more with how he would have looked on camera. He hadn’t made any attempts to stop her, and had allowed her to put him to sleep without any hints of a struggle. It would not have looked good.

But it also didn’t look good to be the new-ish recruit who was inexplicably the only one left alive during a mass murder.

Thankfully, his blood tests exonerated him. His inability to react was attributed to high traces of a sedative that had gotten into his system. The two pinpricks in his neck were said to be the injection sight and, thanks to the awkward positioning that would require him to contort quite a bit to take it himself, they just assumed he was dosed by a rowdy criminal he had arrested earlier that day, and that it had kicked in at a bad time.

Within a few hours, he was let go to go and sleep off the last of the ‘drug’, given a few days' grace before he would need to give a witness statement…

But he didn’t sleep.

He couldn’t stop thinking about her.

Because it was his job. She was a case that he needed to solve, and it had suddenly become far more difficult. It would take careful planning to take her down. There was a very high chance that he would die trying.

And…

Because of the way she had made him feel. Even hours later, he couldn’t seem to stop craving the feeling of her teeth sinking into him. It hadn’t even hurt. The second she had broken the skin, he had been enveloped in a warm feeling that he couldn’t help but want to go back to. It was as if all of his problems had melted away in that second, and who wants to have problems? Wasn’t it only natural to get a taste of that kind of freedom and then crave it from then on?

As long as he didn’t let it affect his search for her, then it didn’t really matter.

He gripped his phone tighter, the veins in his arms bulging.

It might even help.

⋆♱✮☽🦇☽✮♰⋆

It had been three weeks, but there she was.

If he hadn’t seen it in person, he wouldn’t believe it.

A real-life vampire.

Standing in the sun. He supposed it wasn’t all that surprising to see that she didn’t die like in the stories. The idea of something as powerful as her crumbling away into ash over something so trivial seemed impossible.

If she had noticed him, she didn’t show it. Humming a playful little tune, her head bobbing to music playing in her earbuds, her sundress flowing in the wind, her mess of keychains clinking together as she locked up her apartment… she looked human, in that moment. Like any other person who was just going about their day. She had a job as a tailor. A couple of friends that she would meet up with later. A pet cat that was already meowing and scratching at the door, begging for her to go back in for ‘just a couple more’ pets. She was so… normal.

Maybe the reason they were seen as creatures of the night was less about that being their domain, and more about how difficult it was to see her as anything but human during the daytime. It was hard to conflate the image of her dripping in blood with the girl who looked so alive.

Dick’s breath caught in his throat.

She paused just slightly. She didn’t move, didn’t even stop humming, and yet the air around her changed. Her smile stretched wider, showing off the fangs that had been plaguing his mind for weeks.

But the sun softened even that edge. Glittery lipgloss glimmered on her lips. Sunspots decorated the bridge of her nose. Even the lifeless blue eyes he had noticed on that first night seemed bright when reflecting the sunlight.

She clapped her hands together by her face as if she was just so delighted to see him. “Officer Grayson, sweetheart, how have you been?” she greeted him, as if they were old friends, as if he hadn’t shown up at her house uninvited and she hadn’t killed a majority of his coworkers.

“Awful,” he hissed.

Which was true. His skin had taken on a pallor, sweat beaded his brow more often than not, and his hair hung limp around his face. Whenever the few coworkers he had left asked, he would say he was sick, but that wasn’t quite right. He just felt… antsy. Like something was crawling beneath his skin, trying to claw its way out. He needed to keep moving. If he didn’t, his mind would stray back to the floaty feeling that the vampire had given him, and how that might help calm him down.

“Yeah, you look it,” she teased, taking a few short strides in his direction. “That venom did a number on you. Maybe I used too much…?”

She reached a hand out, ready to grab him by the chin, looking so damn concerned that he almost believed it, but he caught her wrist before she could.

The handcuffs hanging from one of his belt loops were burning hot in the few places where they touched his leg. Which was to be expected on a day as hot as this, where he had to unbutton his shirt and roll up his sleeves for fear of heat stroke, metal does get hot… but it was more than that.

The handcuffs that his department used were plated with silver, or at least a pure enough alloy of it for the cuffs to give vampires pause. Back during her siege on the precinct, she had forgone the use of her superhuman strength when getting out of the cuffs, having to get out the old-fashioned way by stealing the key. If there was any chance of subduing her in a way that was still in line with his training as a police officer, it was through this.

He needed to arrest her.

And yet.

He needed answers more.

He knew where she lived, anyways, so it wasn’t like she could up and leave that easily.

He could spare a few moments to ask why he felt so terrible. Why all of his thoughts were plagued with thoughts of the purple venom that she had injected into him.

“What did you do to me?”

She inspected him for a minute, blue eyes boreing into his own, and he couldn’t help but look away.

She must have found whatever she was looking for regardless, because she answered him: “I used some venom – er, vampire venom, though I think you know that much at least – it was just to calm you down. It’s supposed to be used to subdue our…” she glanced to the side “food while we eat it – think like a rattlesnake or something, but a little more enjoyable for the food… less neurotoxin more vague high feeling… usually people like me tend to take more time when eating, I just tend to be on a bit of a time crunch, so I don’t really use it for that… it does make a good sedative for getaways, though, which is why I did that…”

He stared at her. It stood to good reason that she had never explained venom before, vampires were secretive in nature, but the explanation was so scattered, as if she was coming up with all of it on the fly.

How had he ever thought her a threat?

How was she?

“Now,” she said. “As fun as explaining that was, I do have to pay the bills, so –.”

“Why did you let me live?”

She sighed, rolling her eyes. “I’ve already told you. It’s because I’ve heard a lot of good things about you.” Her lips twitched. “You’re ‘one of the good ones’, if you want to explain it terribly.”

“Why should that matter? I’m still food.”

“You’re not food. And, just so you know, I’m not a monster, either.”

He went quiet.

She smiled.

“Ciao,” she said.

Her teeth sunk into his arm, and that was just about the last thing he remembered before he was back to floating. His skin felt like it was buzzing where she held him, dragging him back toward his car. His vision was a blur of bright skies and a brilliant smile.

⋆♱✮☽🦇☽✮♰⋆

Dick groaned when he came to properly. He was laid across the backseat of his own car, the hand she hadn’t bitten pillowing his head. Which meant both of his arms were numb, great. His eyes struggled to focus on the ceiling of the car. Possibly because there wasn’t much to focus on, but more likely because his vision was generally blurry. His head ached, and he realized that, fittingly, he could count out his racing pulse with every throb in his temples.

Okay, admittedly, he had been a little unprepared.

But he could prepare himself now. He knew about her safehouse and, even though it was very likely that she was abandoning it now, it should give him a good idea of the kinds of places she would stay in.

And, if he could get into one of her safehouses when she wasn’t there, then he could really prepare.

He moved to let himself out of the car so he could go in and inspect the place.

… it was a cop car. The backseat is reserved for criminals to be taken in, and couldn’t be unlocked from within for fear of a criminal jumping out during a red light. He kicked the door in frustration.

⋆♱✮☽🦇☽✮♰⋆

“How old are you?” Dick asked the next time he saw her at the precinct. It was a slow day, with only a few cops, none of whom were nearby, and only one ‘prisoner’, so no one paid any mind to their chatty coworker.

You could ask why he wasn’t trying to warn anyone, but he knew it wouldn’t do any good, and he still didn’t have anything that would stop her in her tracks, much less get rid of her for good.

As callous as it might have been, his current objective had shifted. He needed to make sure she didn’t go on a killing spree while he was on the job again. He couldn’t take her down if he was sitting behind bars for collusion.

So. Keep her talking.

“Why do you care? This isn’t Twilight, y’know, I’m not going to fight a werewolf for you,” she said, leaning against the bars.

“You know Twilight? You have to be young, then,” Dick said, a ghost of a smile dancing across his face at the small victory.

She gave a quiet laugh. “Every vampire knows Twilight, trust me. I swear, I may be killing people, but it’s just rude to ask if I sparkle in the sun when I’m trying to do it!”

He tried to imagine that, for just a moment, and a laugh bubbled out of him. “I see.”

“Ugh, if another edge lord tells me that they want me to turn them so they can be with their people or whatever, I’m going to step out into the sun.”

There was a moment of silence, and he could almost feel her hesitation, the words hanging in the air, waiting for her to acknowledge them.

“Twenty-six.”

“I mean, like… actually,” Dick groaned.

She snickered. “I’m serious. I was born twenty-six years ago, in Paris, to this lovely French couple. Humans, just so you don’t ask.”

He mulled this over. She was… twenty-six. At maximum, she had twenty-six years of being a vampire under her belt, and that was if she had been turned as a newborn. If her age of turning was her physical age, then he would guess that she had had maybe two or three years as a vampire.

She had been a human for… most of her life.

How would he feel if he had gone from human one day, to a bloodthirsty monster the next? How could he live, knowing that the only way to do so was to make a meal of other people?

He had the sinking feeling that he would react much the same as she had. Grab the worst people he could get access to, and chow down. Because the other option was to starve, and starving was one of the worst ways to go.

He wasn’t sure he wanted to think about that. “Humans?”

“Mhmm,” she said. “Tom Dupain and Sabine Cheng. They were great.”

Dick didn’t miss the use of were.

“How would they feel about their little girl going around killing people?”

She scoffed. “Well, I’d like to imagine that they would be glad I’m not dead, too.”

⋆♱✮☽🦇☽✮♰⋆

The vampire hummed as the door swung open. She glanced behind herself, making sure that she wasn’t being followed, and then swept a leg out to catch her cat before he could sneak past. She scooped him up by the scruff of his neck, giving the cat a tired look.

“Really?”

The cat, being a cat, meowed.

She meowed back. As all cat owners must.

She closed the door behind herself without even bothering to glance back, instead concentrating on making sure her cat didn’t wriggle away. But, finally, the risk was gone, and she set him down. Immediately, he took off in the direction of his food and water bowls, meowing loudly for sustenance, and she laughed lightly, making a move to follow...

Only to stop cold.

Her welcome mat had been turned around while she was out.

Now, most people wouldn’t notice. And, if they did, this would make them immediately wary of who was there and why they would do such a thing.

But Marinette wasn’t a ‘people’ at all, and her expression immediately twisted. She looked back at her door, and found the doorknob had been turned upside down.

Dick’s heart pounded in his chest, and he had to hope that she would just assume it belonged to her cat.

Whether or not she was fooled, she seemed to have bigger problems.

For, you see, he had done some research on vampires and their houses, and found very little that he could use. But in the footnotes of an article about classic vampire mansions (which didn’t apply in this dingy little apartment), he found a strange detail: that, when someone you knew turned into a vampire, you were supposed to flip the doorknob upside down so they couldn’t get back in. Vampires were creatures of habit, the article claimed, and this would confuse them so much that they would have no choice but to leave.

She didn’t look like she was all that confused, admittedly, but she wasn’t making any moves to attack, nor leave. She stood perfectly in the center of the mat, trapped.

“Fuck,” she breathed.

He breathed out a sigh of relief.

Her head jerked to look at him and, for once, he got to see her when she had been thrown out of her element. There was no smile on her face, just pure terror.

It… didn’t feel as good as it probably should.

“The welcome mat?” she said, sounding genuinely offended.

“Well, you vampires aren’t supposed to be able to get inside without being invited,” he argued, coming out from behind the counter. “It’s only fair that I change the mat.”

She crossed her arms over her chest. “I was invited. This is my house. You are the one who showed up uninvited.”

He decidedly ignored her in favor of pulling out his phone. Trembling fingers scrolled through tab after tab on vampires, until he came upon the one he wanted:

An exorcism.

For just a moment, he hesitated. And not just because the video warned that you had to be a priest to perform an exorcism.

No, it was because she looked so human at the moment, her eyes wide and her fingers bunched in the fabric of her dress, anxiety rolling off of her in waves. Dick had killed people before, it was a part of his job, sometimes he had to make tough choices… but shooting someone was far faster than any of the methods for killing vampires that he had been able to find. Shooting someone was a split-second decision, something that could haunt you but ultimately didn’t give you enough time to regret, to have that horrible second thought.

This was more.

And, though he hated to admit it, there was another, less virtuous reason.

It was also because of that purple liquid she had injected into him. It was… nice. A horrible part of him was dangerously aware of the fact that she was trapped here, would starve without his help, and that she would likely do anything he asked once she got hungry enough. He could get a constant buzz, at the cost of a murderer’s freedom.

At least this jail was nicer than the one she would have gotten were she human.

He shook his head to clear it.

If he didn’t do this now, it would only be harder to quit later on.

He clicked play on the Youtube video, and then repeated after the kindly priest, chanting, a cross held out.

She pressed back against the door and started sliding down, but not in horror or because she was weakening. She looked… bored.

“Hey, an important thing to know about vampires: Christianity doesn’t mean shit to us. Christians are just liars who saw scared townsfolk and decided that they could capitalize. ‘Hey, look, we conveniently have all of the solutions to your vampire problems’.”

Dick… didn’t know what to do about that. Most of the solutions he had found were Christian-based.

But perhaps she was lying.

⋆♱✮☽🦇☽✮♰⋆

She was not. Dick had tried everything. Silver to weaken her. Garlic. Holy water…

He had even had time to feed her cat!

He sat on her counter, among aged wine bottles filled with blood (she had gleefully explained to him that the alcohol stopped the blood from coagulating, which he had not needed to know), scrolling through the internet frantically for something that might work.

She glared at him, her face half-buried in her cat’s fur. Like he had done something wrong. Sure, he had gone into this fully expecting the exorcism to send her crumbling into ash, but she had been trying to drain people of their blood, so he thought that this was kind of fair game.

Still, he bristled. Offended and defensive. “What, was I just supposed to let you go on killing people?!”

“They were going to die anyways, were they not?” she argued.

“Not for several years!”

“That’s the problem,” she said, rolling her eyes. She stroked her cat’s fur, scratching it behind the ear, and the cat purred as it leaned into her. “They would have used those ‘several years’ to cause harm. Wouldn’t it be better this way?”

“They have families! Those people were innocent, and now –!”

“Their victims were innocent, too. So were the victims’ families. But you never see people talk about them.”

Dick… didn’t quite have a retort for that one.

He sighed, running his hands through his hair. “They’re bad people, okay? I agree. But you can take them down using the system, you don’t have to kill them.”

“How’s that been going for you?” She said, raising an eyebrow skeptically.

Dick, once again, wasn’t sure.

“We have the same goal, sweetheart. I’m better at achieving it, obviously, but that doesn’t mean that we can’t work together. I can get all of the people you can’t get evidence on, you can get me schedules and stuff so I don’t accidentally incriminate you or anything. We could work.”

He shook his head. “I can’t let you do that.”

She sighed, tipping her head back to rest against the door. Her expression shuttered closed. “Then do me a favor and go through the actual process to kill me already.”

He perked up.

“Stab me through the heart with a wooden stake, use it to pin me to the earth until I stop moving, burn my body, and then scatter my ashes in a river so I can’t reform.”

“That’s…” Dick said, deflating.

“A lot. But still better than starving. So, prove you’re a good cop, do me a mercy.”

Dick hesitated, chewing on his bottom lip. He could tell she was manipulating him, but to what end? Was she really so scared of starving that she would advocate for her own murder? Or was this all just her version of reverse psychology?

Damn, his head hurt.

It was still hurting from the pseudo-hangover the vampire venom had given him, but this certainly wasn’t helping.

He combed his fingers through his hair, thinking hard. “I’m not going to let you starve...”

She raised an eyebrow.

“What? Going to start body snatching from the morgue or something?”

He snorted a little, shaking his head. “No.” He walked across the small apartment and held his arm out, wrist bared. “You need blood. I have blood. Problem solved.”

“I’m not going to be your pet, I hope you know.”

His lips twitched into something of a wry grin. “I know.”

“I could drug you out of your mind. You wouldn’t even know your own name, much less that you need to run. I may not be able to leave here, but it would not be difficult to make sure that you reach the same fate.”

“I thought you weren’t a monster.”

She grinned, sharp teeth flashing in the light. “Treat me like one, and I will deliver. When I get out of here, I will tear you to shreds. And I will make sure you feel every second of it.”

“I knew the risks when I got this job.”

“Funny. All of your coworkers used to say the same thing.”

He offered her his hand again, and this time she took it.

Teeth sunk into his wrist, and this time it hurt.

#maribat #tag team tournament #ttt #spandex flex #dickinette #i deeeeefinitely intended it to endt his way #carpal tunnel is not affecting my fics in any way #there is no extra arc #there is no war in ba sing se #dick grayson #marinette dupain cheng #ladybug #nightwing #i hate that dick is canonically a cop #but also. i can use it for acab so

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ali-annals · 7 months ago

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Rude Interruptions

Pairing: Dick Grayson x Marinette Dupain-Cheng

Rating: M | Ao3 | WC: <1k | CW: suggestive content | A/N: prompt 1 prompt 2

Marinette is trying to make out with Dick but someone decided to disturb them. Also, why does she want to make out with Dick? He is such a dork.

Soft lips trailed down her neck, ending pleasant shivers through her body.

She ran her fingers down his strong, muscled back, tugging his shirt out of his pants and pulling it up.

Bright blue eyes grinned up at her behind tousled dark hair as he tossed the shirt to a forgotten corner and lifted her shirt up.

She lifted her arms to let him pull her shirt over her head, but he left the collared neck around hers, pulling her towards him to catch her lips in a passionate kiss.

They parted for air, breathing heavily, and she finished removing the shirt, sending it after his.

Her back hit the bed with a soft thump as he crawled up her body, caging her in, trailing soft, teasing kisses as he went.

She kicked her shoes off and scooched up the bed to gain a better position to continue their hot and heavy makeout, his lithe form continuing its slow pursuit of her.

She wrapped her legs around his waist to trap him into staying close to her, locking her arms around his neck and pulling his face down to meet hers.

His warm, rough hands roaming her body, mapping out her reactions to him, adding to the heady experience of his slow, thorough kisses, his sharp cologne mixing with a faint scent of sweat and the club and something she couldn’t quite place and didn’t exactly want to with how well-kissed she was…

Faint strains of an old song sounded through the door, and she prayed it was just because her roommates hadn’t expected her back this early and were chilling in the living room, and she would just have to make sure to be quiet.

Unfortunately, her luck never seemed to carry over to her civilian life in the most desperate times she wished for it, such as right now.

The music got louder, and she could make out the faint thumping sound of feet on the creaky hardwood plank just outside her door.

Dick’s kisses paused, and he turned towards her door in confusion.

She sighed and sat up halfway. “It’s my idiot roommates, who have a bad idea of a joke and even worse taste in music.”

Dick turned back to her, pouting slightly. “But it’s the perfect song! They have great taste!”

He hopped off the bed and swung the door open, facing two grinning green-eyed blonds.

Felix was holding the speaker above his head while Adrien danced to the music at his side.

Dick joined in, copying Adrien’s moves quite quickly.

The sound of skin hitting skin sounded above the ending tune.

Felix looked past the two’s shenanigans and smirked at Mari, who had facepalmed. “Having fun?”

“The most,” she deadpanned.

Dick looked back at her. “Come on, Mari, it’s the perfect song!!”

With a reluctant and put-upon sigh she flipped out of bed and grabbed a T-shirt to replace her previously-removed sparkly blouse before joining the impromptu dance party.

The song ended and Felix queued a new one, a little livelier this time.

~~~

Once they were finally left alone and in peace (there was a difference, as Marinette could attest to, with this night as only the latest example), she turned to Dick.

“Why did you join them and introduce yourself and be all friendly?”

He looked her in the eye and grinned. It was evil, and a little shiver went down her spine.

“Because the fastest way to kill their fun is to join it and be even more fun.”

Her jaw dropped. “You are a genius,” she breathed, jumping at him and pinning him against the wall.

~~~~~

The last guest was seated and the song began playing, the same song that Felix had blasted three years ago.

Mari’s eyes filled with tears as the flower petals dropped to the carefully-tended lawn of the Wayne Estate.

At the foot of the aisle danced a man in a black tux, a bright blue tie at his throat and a matching fanny pack around his waist, dropping rose petals as he twirled past the rows of guests.

“What is he wearing,” hissed Mari to Steph in horror, but the blonde was currently doubled over in laughter, blinking rapidly to ensure she wouldn’t cry and smudge her makeup before the ceremony even began.

“Look, Mari, that ’s what you want to marry. You don’t have to follow that dork down the aisle, you know.”

“I love him because he’s that dork,” she sighed, settling her bouquet and straightening her shoulders. “Time to go become Mrs. Dork.”

#dickinette #dcxmlb #fic #ali writes

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abyssal-ali · 2 years ago

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looked up at the sky and it was maroon

Pairing: Dickinette

Rating: T+ (TW: blood/biting/possible MCD)

WC: ~1.3k

A/N: thanks to @boldlyanxious for helping! I couldn't decide, so Choose Your Own Ending.

Marinette turned the corner of the aisle, heading into the candles section.

Her lemongrass candle was almost burnt out and she wanted a new one for her spa nights.

She subtly turned her head to see who was following her into the aisle. It was almost closing time and not many people were in the store. “Can I help you?”

A very good-looking man stood a few feet away, a sheepish look on his face. “Er, I was hoping you could…my ex just walked in with another guy and…I was wondering if you could hold my hand?”

Marinette scanned his posture, noting how he was politely staying out of her personal space.

“Alright, but I must warn you, if anything happens to me, I have a pack of friends who can and will hunt you down.”

Very Good-Looking Man smiled at that. “I promise nothing will happen. I’m Dick, by the way.”

“Mari.”

Marinette extended her hand, which he shook and then clasped in his. It wasn’t too loose or too tight, she decided. He had very nice hands as well, callused and strong.

He carried himself like a gymnast or acrobat or maybe a dancer, with easy grace and natural eye-catching flair. The calluses could be from training of some sort.

She gently tugged him into the housewares section; she needed more glasses and mugs for when her friends visited.

“So, if you don’t mind me asking, what happened with your ex?”

She stooped to check out a cute mug with black paw prints on it. Oh yeah, that would definitely be Adrien’s.

“Um, we just decided we didn’t really work that well together in a romantic relationship. It was a while ago that we broke up, actually, but we hadn’t been spending much time together before that. It kinda felt like we were already broken up, y’know? Just delaying the inevitable.”

She hummed sympathetically, but Dick didn’t seem too sad about the breakup anymore.

Maybe seeing his ex suddenly made old feelings come back, she wondered. Or seeing a new guy with his ex, someone he still cared for, as a friend or SO or something else, just rattled him.

She’d been a bit awkward around Luka for a while after they’d broken up, she understood the urge to appear ‘fine’.

They headed to the checkout, Dick carrying her basket, which he’d insisted on carting around for her, saying his grandfather raised him to be a gentleman.

The tired clerk quickly checked them out and they left, Dick carrying her bags.

ENDING OPTION 1:

The doors slid shut behind them and Marinette inhaled the crisp night air happily, rubbing her arms against each other for heat, as she’d forgotten a jacket when she ran out to Target.

Suddenly she realised that she hadn’t seen anyone else in the store while she was there, and that Dick hadn’t bought anything.

“Did Target not have what you need?” she asked, half-joking, but more on-guard since they were alone outside.

“I hope you have exactly what I need.” The hairs on her neck stood up as a cool whisper floated across her neck and torso.

He turned to her, smiling again. “I lied, my ex wasn’t actually in there with a new guy. I was dared by my brothers to hold hands with someone for ten minutes without them knowing why, but you’re really interesting and cute, and I was wondering if I could get your number?”

His sheepish grin looked a little pointier than it had in the store, but she dismissed it–this was Gotham, there were more unusual body mods than longer-than-average canines.

“Sure.” She handed him her phone. “What’s your number, so I don’t block you when you contact me?”

He inputted his number and handed her his phone so she could add hers.

She hit the power button and handed it back, keeping her hand extended for him to return her phone to her.

He paused.

“You also have something I need,” he licked his lips, pocketing her phone.

“Life.”HIs tone was almost a growl. She turned to run.

“Blood.”

With inhuman speed he dragged them into the shadows, pressing her against the stone walls. His large, strong hand closed over her mouth, his calloused thumb stroking her jaw in a mockery of comfort.

The shadows behind him seemed to lengthen and creep up his form, pinning her in place no matter how much she struggled. Only muffled squeaks escaped as fangs ripped into her neck.

Dick tore his fangs away, blood dripping down his jaw, his long tongue licking it up sensually.

“You sound and taste so sweet, little mouse. I wish I could keep you and feed for longer.”

He bent back over her, his grin a haunting red like the sky as she closed her eyes.

~~~~~

ENDING OPTION 2:

The doors slid shut behind them and Marinette inhaled the crisp night air happily, rubbing her arms against each other for heat, as she’d forgotten a jacket when she ran out to Target.

All the smog and clouds and general Gotham-ness reacted with the moonlight and turned the sky maroon. She wanted to find fabric that exact colour to create a nighttime look inspired by Gotham.

Dick put her bag down, removed his colourful jacket, and draped it over her shoulders.

She smiled at him gratefully. “Are you sure you won’t be cold?”

He looked down.

“I’ll be fine. I’m a vampire.”

“Really?”

“Yep. But don’t worry, I won’t eat you! I can control myself.”

“Okay. Does pepperspray work on vampires? Garlicspray?”

Dick chuckled. “Yes, it stings. Would you like me to wait with you until a taxi comes?”

“Uh, I was just going to walk home…” she admitted.

“Mari.” Dick placed his hands on her shoulders. “Please tell me you did not just say you were planning on walking home alone. At night. In Gotham.”

“I did not just say all that; I only said I was going to walk home. The other stuff was implied.”

Dick groaned. “Please let me stay with you until a taxi or Uber or something comes.”

“Okay,” she agreed, fishing out her phone to call a ride. Once it was booked, she looked up at him daringly.

“Happy now?”

“Ecstatic,” he agreed.

She bent over to pick up her bag and realized that Dick hadn’t bought anything.

“Did Target seriously not have what you were looking for?”

“What? Oh.”

Dick looked a little…guilty?

“I lied, my ex wasn’t actually in there with a new guy,” he confessed. “ I was dared by my brothers to hold hands with someone for ten minutes without them knowing why, but you’re really interesting and cute, and I would like your number...if you’re willing to give it to me?”

“Okay.”

“Really?” He looked surprised at her quick acceptance.

She nodded. “Sure, hand over your phone so I can add it.”

He did, teasing her. “Are you sure this isn’t just a ploy to steal my phone?”

She rolled her eyes and handed it back. “While I have borrowed phones for a short time without permission in my younger days, I wouldn’t steal your phone, especially not when you’re right beside me.”

She answered the text she’d sent herself from his phone, saving his number.

“There we go.”

The car pulled up and Mari got in after confirming it was hers.

“Thanks for holding my hand!” he called after her.

"Anytime!”

Once the new purchases were dealt with and she was washed and in bed, she checked her phone. 2 new texts from Dick.

Dick: Hey, I won the bet with my brothers and got a weekend of free cooking.

Dick: Would you like to sample it with me?

Mari: Is it safe for a human like me to eat?

Dick: 100% safe, the one who’ll be cooking is human too.

Mari: Then I’d love to join you!

•○●○●○●○●○●

I do have an idea to write an addition to ending #1, but we shall see. And yes, Jason is the chef.

#ali writes #Dickinette #Mlbxdc #Dcxmlb #Fic #Maribat Meetcute

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duskyashe · 1 year ago

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I DID MARIBAT/DAMINETTE ART FOR THE TTT EVENT THE MARIBAT SERVER RAN THE PAST WEEK and COMPLETELY FORGOT TO POST IT Ó⁠╭⁠╮⁠Ò Luckily, I posted everything in the server and that counted for the event, so now I'm just playing catch-up (⁠；⁠^⁠ω⁠^⁠）This post will have everything I submitted for the TTT event for convenience sake lol

The two drawings at the top and the two just above are my Fae!Daminette au portraits, I spent a day and a half on them and I'm really proud of how they turned out (⁠ ⁠ꈍ⁠ᴗ⁠ꈍ⁠)

Next, I did Dickinette, Jasonette, and Timari as silhouettes/shadow couples, doing various couple-y things. I also did Daminette again, but theirs is a bit more special (⁠｡⁠•̀⁠ᴗ⁠-⁠)⁠✧

I have three versions of Daminette's silhouette/shadow couple piece, simply because I couldn't decide which one liked better ╮⁠(⁠＾⁠▽⁠＾⁠)⁠╭

I also submitted some screenshots from an upcoming vampire!Jasonette fic that may or may not count, but it wasn't finished in time to post, so that'll be coming out some time soon ¯⁠\⁠_⁠༼⁠ ⁠ಥ⁠ ⁠‿⁠ ⁠ಥ⁠ ⁠༽⁠_⁠/⁠¯

And that's all, folks! Have a good morning/day/night!

#maribat fanart #maribat #ttt2023 #dickinette #jasonette #timari #daminette #digital fanart #dc x mlb #miraculous x dc #dusky draws

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maribat-awards · 2 years ago

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ONE DAY LEFT TO NOMINATE YOUR FAVOURITE FICS

It's that time again!

Time for the Maribat awards!

This year we have a bunch of new categories and new rules - like that you can nominate up to three fics for each category!

(and yes, you can submit nominations more than once in case you forgot something - but submitting someone twice for the same thing won't do anything!)

Check out the link below and start collecting those nominations now!

Rules and Categories under the cut.

Maribat Awards Nominations 2022

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RULES:

1. When you are nominating someone, you MUST include LINKS to their accounts or stories, or they will not be counted.*

2. All works submitted must have been created in 2022, unless it is for a new category (marked with *new). This does not mean updated in 2022. The original work creation date must have been on or after January 1, 2022, or it will not qualify.

3. Any creators must have completed at least one fic/artwork in the 2022 year.

4. You may nominate up to three works or creators for each category.

5. A work or creator may only be nominated for one category (e.g., you cannot nominate the same fic for both Favourite Fic 2022 and Best Hurt/Comfort).

6. You may submit nominations more than once in case you forgot something - but submitting someone twice for the same thing won't do anything!

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Categories include:

Favourite Author

Favourite Artist

Favourite Fic

Favourite FanArt

Most Underrated Author

Most Underrated Fic

Best New Author

Best Maribat Author of All Time (Any year)

Best Maribat Fic of All Time (Any year)

Ships:

Best Daminette

Best Jasonette

Best Timari

Best Dickinette

Best Rare Pair

Best Platonic (non-bio-family) (*new)

AU/Trope:

Best Biological family AU (no longer just biodad!Bruce)

Best Soulmate AU (*new)

Best Fantasy/Historical AU (*new)

Best Class Trip Trope (*new)

Best Enemies to Lovers Trope (*new)

Best Marriage Trope (Arranged or Not) (*new)

Best Fake Relationship Trope (Dating or Marriage) (*new)

Overall:

Best One-Shot

Best Multi-Chapter

Best Fluff

Best Angst

Best Hurt/Comfort

Best Comedy

Best Rated G (*new)

Best Rated T (*new)

Best Rated M (*new)

Best Rated E (*new)

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soulmate-game · 1 year ago

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

—*—*—*—*—*

The Heroes’ Game

Prev ….. Next.

Chapter 2:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Two!”

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

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

“... I’m Robin.”

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

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

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

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

“Oh? You’re right. Ready to lose?”

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

“Just Marinette, please, Monsieur Batman.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

PLAYER ONE: MARINETTE DUPAIN-CHENG

PLAYER TWO: ROBIN

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

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

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

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

Soul Team.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

—*—*—*—*—*

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

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jayphoenic · 2 years ago

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Masterlist of Reccomendations

I've compiled all of my posts here for easy access (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*.✧

A Bunch of Masterlists

Miraculous Ladybug

Maribat

DCU

Marvel

My Hero Academia

Harry Potter

Supernatural

Teen Wolf

Hannibal

Katekyo Hitman Reborn

What If (Original) Series

If I can take some of your time for this, I have some fics that I don't remember the title or where I read, but I would very much like to read them again.

Searching For A Fic. Help?

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justrandomfanfictionskh · 2 years ago

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A Blue Bird and a Black Cat pt 5

(Selina decides that Marinette would be better as the Cat than Adrien. Five years, later Dick is very confused about this Lady Noire)

ao3 Beginning Previous

Dick closed his computer with a groan when Alfred knocked on his door. He instantly regretted all of his life choices when he realized that not only had he neglected to change out of his itchy suit, but he had also not slept a wink. He didn't know why he had done it. He was not Tim. He had a moderately healthy sleep schedule. He did not go on twenty-four hour research benders. He knew how to put aside his obsessions for some well needed shut-eye. But ever since meeting Marinette and witnessing her reunion with an old school "friend," Dick had been desperate to learn more.

He couldn't say why, only that he needed to know how someone so brash and confident, had been quelled so easily. So, he dug into all of Barbara and Tim's research on the Paris Incident, and began scouring the internet for even a scrap of information about Marinette, Hawkmoth, and Alya Césaire. As it turned out there was a lot to learn, and the Tech Bats had learned almost all of it and complied it neatly into an easy to read file the size of a Dickens novel. But for all of their thoroughness, they had yet to answer the most burning questions of Dick's mind. Why was Lady Noire afraid of an amateur journalist interning under Lois?

The closest answer he could find was an obscure little article at the back of Tim's research about something called the "Akuma Class." A specific collége and lycée class that had been targeted repeatedly by the emotional terrorist. It seemed that almost every member of that class had been akumatized at one point or another, repeatedly. According to the article, only two people were never akumatized in that class. Therefore, they were suspected of working with Hawkmoth, especially when both teens vanished after the death of the villain. They were Adrien Agreste and Marinette Dupain-Cheng.

Dick didn't know this Adrien, but he was Hawkmoth's son, so he supposed it was possible. But he wasn't focused on him, not when he recognized Marinette immediately. And just as quickly dismissed the idea of her working with a villain, for three reasons. One, Selina would never associate with anyone who willingly worked with a bastard who targeted children. Two, Lady Noire was clearly working with Ladybug, thus explaining all of her "suspicious" behavior. But the third reason was something he had a difficulty quantifying. He would call it a gut instinct, but that was hardly enough proof for the all knowing Batman. Still, despite her blatant criminal activity, it was impossible for him to picture either Lady Noire or Marinette as a super villain. It just didn't make since.

He sighed as he stepped out of the shower, and dressed in comfortable Saturday clothes, as he continued to process all of his new information. There was a lot to process, but the one thing he kept coming back to was the Akuma Class. Of all the disturbing and perverse things he had read about the Paris Incident, that one was the most disturbing. Specifically, he kept turning a single quote from the article over and over in his head.

"Under normal circumstances, such a volatile mix of emotional personalities would have been dispersed to other classes throughout their education. However, by some unspoken agreement of the school board and community, no member of the Akuma Class was ever able to transfer out, not even to other classes within the school. Leading many to believe that (like 'Mr. Pigeon') the Akuma Class was silently offered up to Hawkmoth as sacrificial lambs in order to protect the rest of Paris's student population."

The whole idea made Dick sick, and just thinking about it made him want to throw up. He remembered his own high school experience. His raging emotions, his swirling grief, his never ending crusade. And he was the same age was the Akuma Class. That could have been him, trapped in a toxic environment, with his classmates constantly turning into villains, offered up as a sacrifice for the rest of the city. No wonder Selina kidnapped the girl, he thought as he plodded down the stairs. But Marinette had never been akumatized. He tried to wrap his mind around that. Did that mean she was extremely emotionally mature, or extremely traumatically damaged. Based on what he had seen last night, and the Wayne family track record, Dick was leaning more towards damaged...just like the rest of them.

He was distracted by a knock on the door, and furrowing his brows, he peered into the foyer to see who it could be. Dick didn't even try to stop his mouth from dropping when he saw Alfred move out of the way to admit the very person he was just brooding over. Marinette 'Lady Noire' Dupain-Cheng smiled brightly at the butler as she entered the house, and Dick suddenly felt as if he was severely underdressed. He was wearing faded grey sweatpants and a ratty old graphic tee, while she was dressed to the nines in a red blouse, black blazer, and pants. He had the sudden urge to run upstairs and at least comb his still wet hair, but it was too late.

Her eyes found him as she took in the foyer, and the amused smile that spread over her face made him flush with annoyance and confusion, Why did he suddenly feel the need to be dressed up, just because she was? Her clothes weren't even that nice! Just regular fashionable, business casual attire. But somehow she made it look elegant and refined. And when she studied him with an amused and critical eye, he was suddenly very aware how ragged he looked compared to her. It made him scowl. He had never been uncomfortable in his own clothes before. He liked his style, whatever that happened to be at the moment, and he was not going to let her ruin it for him. Nope. Not on comfy Saturday! Suddenly determined to die on the sweatpants hill he found himself on, Dick plunged his hands into his pockets and marched down the stairs as if he were in his finest suite. "What brings you back here?" he tried to sound casual, but between his exhaustion and conflicting emotions his words came out a little harsher than he intended.

She raised an eyebrow at him but answered, cheerfully saying, "I was invited." She held up a card with Selina's handwriting before continuing, "Why? Do you not want me?"

"I didn't say that."

"Then you do want me?"

"I want a straight answer."

"That's something you're going to have to earn."

"Earn how?"

"Hmm...well, lets start with entertaining me, and we'll see where we go from there."

"I haven't entertained you enough already?"

"Not nearly!" Marinette said with a laugh and a smile. Dick felt the pull of his lips into a smile. But just as he was about to open his mouth to retort back, he saw Alfred raising an eyebrow at him from behind Marinette. Dick shut his mouth with a scowl, and coughed,

"Selina should be in the sitting room. I'll show you."

Marinette threw her head back in a clear bright laugh, as she trotted to keep up with Dick's longer legs. "You're fun Blue Bird!"

"Does that mean I'm about to get a straight answer."

"Well that depends."

"On?"

"On your question," Marinette said eyeing him from the side, her playful smile never leaving her lips. She clasped her hands behind her back, almost innocently as she waited for Dick to take his turn.

Dick on the other hand, felt as if he had stepped into a game of riddles with the fey. He could keep the game going. Playfully bantering with each other while his family watched him skeptically, and teased him about being a flirt or turning into Bruce. Or he could ask the questions that were really pressing on his mind. Questions that might have her shutting down completely. He stopped to look at her seriously, his mind swirling with all of the information he had learned the last night, and the one quote that kept coming back to him, "silently offered up to Hawkmoth as sacrificial lambs." This woman was not a lamb in any sense of the word. He couldn't believe that she would ever allow herself to be sacrificed so unfeelingly or unwillingly.

And yet...it was still there. The hidden steel. The dangerous edge that watched him as warily as she was playful. It was the tenseness in her shoulders and the challenge in her eyes, that had every bone in his body on alert saying, "Watch out this one's dangerous!" She had a caution that Dick knew only came from seeing the worst in humanity. And the memory of how she had responded to her classmate was still burned into his mind like a brand.

"Why did you leave Paris with Selina?" He finally said, "There had to have been other options."

Marinette froze and straightened. Her hands were still clasped behind her back, but her smile was gone. Now there was only the steel and the challenge as she look him straight in the face. They stood there frozen for a minute. Dick didn't know what she was looking for, but he had a feeling it was probably something similar to what he was looking for. They both seemed to find it in each others eyes as they stared each other down. Two pairs of big blue eyes that were still too young to carry the kind of weight that was behind them.

Finally Marinette answered his question, "I left with Selina, because there was no one else to leave with. I probably could have gone off alone. But I didn't want to, and neither did she. For about two years, we only had each other. And that was all we needed."

"What about Ladybug?"

Marinette smiled softly, somehow both sad and mischievous at the same time. "She had other responsibilities to fulfill. But don't ask me about them now, I have a feeling the big bad Bats, is going to want to know, and I only want to answer those questions, once if you don't mind."

This time Dick nodded and led the way into the sitting room. If he noticed the way her shoulders seemed to subtly relax at his turning away, he did not mention it. If she noticed the way the small smile played on his lips without him fighting it, then she said nothing. And if either of them noticed Alfred smiling behind them with genuine fondness, then neither of them uttered a syllable. And for three very brief seconds, both were completely comfortable in the other's presence.

Of course, that moment was instantly shattered when they entered the sitting room. The moment Dick opened the door, there was a violent squeal as Selina ran to embrace her protégé, as if they had not just parted the night before. Dick moved past the two women embracing and cooing over each other to see who else was up. Bruce was sitting in the arm chair watching Marinette with thinly veiled skepticism. Damian was standing behind him, not even attempting to hide his skepticism. While Barbara, Cass and Steph were sitting on the couch watching with varying levels on enthusiasm. Well Cass and Steph were on the couch, Barbara was near them in her wheel chair. Meanwhile Duke was squinting at her as if she were under a microscope, while Jason just smirked. Tim, however, was lost to the world as he cradled his coffee, as if it were about to be stollen from him.

Dick moved to stand beside Duke, and elbowed him gently. Duke jerked, and then explained, "She's got this light around her. I don't know how to explain it but...I don't know. It's somehow black and red at the same time. Like...like someone superimposed one color over the other...I don't know how else to explain it."

"That's probably the miraculous," Dick whispered back. "You read the file right?"

Duke scoffed, "Like I have the time...How did you find the time?"

Dick was about to answer, but just then Selina moved so that everyone could get a clear view of their newest...acquaintance. "Everyone!" Selina exclaimed. "This is my protégé, in unconquerable Marinette! Marinette, you met my fiancé, Bruce, and his eldest, Dick."

Bruce stood plastering the best fake smile he could manage, "Marinette, Selina says good things about you."

"And you as well," Marinette said with a smile, "I'm meant what I said on the roof by the way. But for now it's a pleasure to meet you."

The open confusion and indecision on Bruce's face had almost the entire family snickering, as he desperately fought to chose between his desire to make Selina happy, and his instincts as Batman. However, before he could make up his mind, Selina whisked her away to the rest of the family. The girls all hugged her warmly. Jason gave her a casual salute. Tim toasted her with his coffee. And Duke shook her hand with a smile. Dick tried not to laugh, as Duke struggled not to squint at her in an attempt to better understand her light. But the newest Wayne succeeded which only left Damian.

Damian was openly scowling at the woman, and the scowl deepened as each member of his family greeted her with friendliness. When Marinette turned to him he only said, "Tt." And marched to the door where Alfred was waiting to usher them to their late breakfast.

Marinette turned to Selina with her signature playful smile and said, "Charmer."

All of the kids burst into a fit of snickers as Bruce rubbed his temples with a sigh. "Oh don't mind Demon Spawn," Jason said with a grin. "He was raised on the wrong side of hell, and now the rest of us have to pay for it."

"I'll talk to him," Bruce said gruffly shooting Jason a warning glare.

Marinette waved him away with a patient smile, "Don't bother I understand. Talia's his mother yes?"

Bruce stiffened and turned to Selina, "You told her?"

"She did not," Marinette interrupted. "I've just had a few...run ins with the League before. None of them pleasant mind you, especially not when Talia was involved. But, oh well, c'est la vie. I won't take anything he does too seriously. And I'm sure we'll get along swimmingly soon enough."

"You've had 'run ins' with the League?" Bruce said cautiously.

Marinette's smile turned mysterious as she said, "I'll tell you as we eat. We don't want all of Alfred's hard work to go to waist while you grill me one my life story. Now do we?"

Alfred smiled at her acknowledgement and the family entered the dinning room with mutterings, grumblings, and a lot of "Well she'll fit right in's." After a bustle of finding everyone a seat and getting food, Dick found himself across from Marinette, who was beside Selina. He was also right beside Damian, which meant he was on demon duty for the next thirty minutes to an hour, so he wouldn't be able to study Marinette's reactions properly. In the end, it was Stephanie who got the first question as she called,

"So what were you stealing the other night."

If any of the family members tensed at the reminder of Marinette's less than reputably dealings, then she did not noticed as she said calmly and casually, "I was not stealing. I was liberating. There's a difference."

"Tt," Damian scowled. "I fail to see the difference."

"The difference," Marinette said with secretive smile, "My young red bird, is that one means I'm taking something that doesn't belong to me. The other means I'm retrieving something that does belong to me. Or well, Ladybug."

"So the Falcon Vambrace," Barbara said leaning forward, "Is a Miraculous."

"MmHm," Marinette said as she took a bite of her eggs. "Mm. Alfred these eggs are divine do you mix cream in with them?"

"Wait," Tim interrupted, "What kind of Miraculous?"

"The Miraculous of the Falcon of course," Marinette said as if it were obvious. "It possesses the kwami of nobility. It's a very powerful piece, and should never have made its way into a museum. If that artifact had gotten into the wrong hands." Marinette shook herself as if someone had dumped cold water on her. "Not good. Kublai Khan used it to conquer all of China, you know."

"Marinette," Selina explained gently, "Only steals miraculous. Ladybug has very strict rules on what kind of chaos Lady Noire is and isn't allowed to create."

"Hmm," said Bruce, "and where is Ladybug?"

Marinette waved dismissively, "Off rebuilding the Order of the Guardians. They vanished for over 200 years you know, and only reappeared seven...no eight years ago. There is a lot they need to catch up on. You know, like basic electricity."

"And in the mean time," Tim supplied, "She has you retrieving all of the lost Miraculous."

"So you really are the clever one," Marinette cooed, "But yes, basically."

"What about the old Black Cat?" Stephanie asked.

Marinette tensed. It was slight and barely noticeable, but she covered it with a bite of food, before saying, "When Ladybug became the Grand Guardian of the Miracle Box, that is the box that store the most powerful of the Miraculous, Chat Noir...he began to change. In the end, it was too dangerous for himself and the world to continue as the wielder of the Black Cat." Here Marinette lifted her eyes, and everyone froze. They could all now see the threat and the warning that was there as she said, "The miraculous are dangerous artifacts. Especially the Ladybug and the Black Cat. An unbalanced or incompatible user could cause the devastation of the entire world, with a single word. These are matters we do not take lightly."

"Which was Chat," Dick found himself asking. "Unbalanced or incompatible?"

Marinette was now studying him the same way she had in the hall way. After a brief moment she said casually, "In the end I guess he was both. He was incompatible, but it was the type of incompatibility that allowed him to resist the more...dangerous urges of the Miraculous for a long time. But in the end..."

"He gave in," Cass said quiet but clear. "He hurt you."

Marinette leaned back and waved her hand dismissively, but she wouldn't meet Cass's eyes as she focused on cutting her breakfast sausage. "The past is the past. He is no longer a consideration. Let us leave it at that."

Dick saw Selina shift. He had a feeling that if he looked under the table, then he would see the older woman holding the younger's leg in sympathy and consideration. The disquiet silence that followed was tense as everyone struggled to respond to such a statement. To everyone's surprise it was Jason who changed the subject. "When did you run in with the League?"

Marinette sighed and looked to the ceiling in consideration before saying, "Off and on for the last...four years. The first time was in...Portland. Talia got her hands on the Miraculous of the Bear, and I had to steal it from her," Marinette smirked as she side eyed Jason, "I got the Bear. Talia got a scar."

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Damian's fork and knife clattered onto his plate as everyone, even Bruce, stared at her in open amazement. Selina smiled with pride. She then had one whole minute of absolute silence, which she used to discuss Marinette's plans for her wedding dress before the dinning room erupted into beautiful chaos.

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