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heqvenlymoons · 9 months ago

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I'll Follow You Until You Love Me

Inspired by a tiktok edit, the song Paparazzi by Lady Gaga and @olivia-anderson-fanfic 's Stalker x Stalker fic <3

Timinette One Shot | Stalker x Stalker | AO3

Within the privacy of her room, Marinette studied the murder board she had made of Tim Drake, which hung on the wall beside her bed. Her eyes admired the various pristine photos of him, fingers tracing his jawline in a gentle caress with an expression that could only be described as dopey.

Connecting the strategically adhered photos to the board along with the yellow sticky notes— containing details such as his hobbies, favourite spots, and other tidbits of his life— were a bright red string, linking elements together whenever necessary.

There was a Red Robin emblem pinned on the center of the board beside the name ‘Timothy Jackson Drake-Wayne’, a reference to his vigilante identity.

Understanding the importance of secret identities, Marinette had refrained from scattering the Red Robin emblems across the board like she wanted to, which would heavily hint at his identity.

That wouldn’t be good if someone were to break into her apartment or if the board fell into the wrong hands.

The Red Robin emblem pinned on the board was discreet enough, merely an adorable drawing of a robin coloured in red.

The need for discretion with Tim’s vigilante identity hadn’t stopped her from scribbling red hearts all over the board, in various sizes and shades of red.

It seemed like her obsession with knowing every detail of her crush’s life only got worse after she moved on from Adrien.

A trauma response to how despite being focused on knowing everything about Adrien from his personality to his schedule, she hadn’t accounted for how the Adrien Agreste she sees every day was all but a mask to hide his true self.

His true colours had shown during the many lectures he had forced onto her about not exposing Lila and taking the ‘high road’. Looking back, Marinette had been too naive and optimistic to have missed the subtle devious gleam in his eyes when he outright gaslighted and manipulated her into thinking she had to ‘be the bigger person’ and not let Lila get to her.

That had spoken volumes about the true personality of the supposed ‘Sunshine of Paris’.

Marinette hated herself for how obsessed she was with Adrien. She felt like a fool for having fallen for him, thinking she knew everything there was to know about him when in reality she knew nothing about him at all.

The icing on the cake was that Marinette hadn’t even known he was Chat Noir until she took his ring away, having had enough of his pushy behaviour and lazily watching off the side during the rare times he was present during akuma battles.

It was like the situation with Kim all over again but worse.

The several attempts to confess her feelings to Adrien have always gone awry and she would forever thank the kwamis for having dodged that bullet. It was a privilege she didn’t have with Kim.

Marinette vowed then to do better, to take it even further. If she were to have another crush after Adrien, she would obsessively study their life, determined to know everything there was to know like a crazy stalker.

It was what she did with Timothy Jackson Drake-Wayne.

Finding out he was a well-known public figure had only heightened her actions. Being a celebrity was going to entail putting up a mask, and locking away your true self from the media.

It was what Adrien did after all, and she wouldn’t make the same mistake again by overlooking the famous aspect of Tim.

With her hard-earned hacking skills, she hacked into government records, education, medical, banking institutions, and everything for Tim’s files. Everything. She had to know everything to know what kind of a person he would be.

But it wouldn’t stop there. She bugged his room, and his office at Wayne Enterprise and placed a tracking device on him.��

She would know his address so she could watch from afar as Ladybug how he acted when alone and away from the public’s eye. She would follow him around, ever so ready to catch even the slightest slip-ups while taking care to be discreet in doing so.

He might be able to hide his true self from the public but what would a person do when they thought they were alone? They won’t bother to hide their true selves then.

If that weren’t enough, she found ways to plant herself near where he was. With a little luck, she landed a job as his secretary at Wayne Enterprise, which gave her legitimate reasons to be around him.

Within a day of diligently watching Tim, she had discovered he moonlighted as the famed vigilante Red Robin. With that discovery, she had enough information to piece together the identities of the rest of the Bat family.

She was willing to believe Tim might be a good person based on the fact he was a hero, but heroes can be two-faced as well. Chat Noir had been proof of that.

Regardless of knowing all this information, it wasn’t enough. She needed more. She had to have a conversation with him when he was at his worst.

What better to do than to stage a kidnapping and talk to him in an empty warehouse hidden away in the city somewhere?

Marinette wouldn’t hurt him of course, she would never hurt him no matter what.

The idea led to her current predicament, where she was drawing up numerous plans along with backup plans and the plans for the backup plans.

She had one chance to do this correctly, and with Tim being Red Robin himself with the rest of the Bat family to back him up, she doubted the odds would be in her favour even when she was the very embodiment of luck.

So focused on her plans, she missed Tikki exchanging worried looks with the other kwamis.

Tikki flew over to her, a hesitant look on her face as she contemplated how to address her chosen’s obsessive behaviour.

Marinette looked up from the several boards filled with kidnapping plans and met the gaze of her concerned kwami.

Marinette knew she looked like a mess. There were huge bags under her eyes from spending nights finalizing her plans. Her pigtails had long fallen out of their neat style, leaving tangled heaps of raven hair from the many times she tugged on it.

Misunderstanding the kwamis’ concerns, she attempted a smile. “I know I haven’t been sleeping but I promise I will soon. I’m almost done finalizing the plans and if they’re done by tonight, I can put it into action tomorrow.”

Tikki’s eyes widened and the other kwamis were speaking over one another in a poor attempt to stall the plan in hopes of the boy miraculously catching wind of this and having time to get away.

“Um Master, perhaps you should reconsider. Do you think it’s wise to—”

“Oh my, I don't think this is a good idea. He’s a Wayne, glorious and famous! You should just demand for his hand in marriage instead—”

“Not that your plan isn’t sly, it is, but maybe take some more time to come up with an even slyer plan—?”

One voice in particular stopped all arguments. “Ugh, if Pigtails wants to stalk her crush, let her. I fail to see what you’re all so worried about, you don’t have this problem with cheese.”

Tikki turned to Plagg, aghast. “Plagg, you stinky sock! Stop encouraging her! Stalking is not healthy, and not to mention, morally wrong. I’ve never seen Marinette this obsessed, even with Adrien and we all saw how that turned out!”

Marinette winced at the blonde’s name but it went ignored as Plagg rolled his eyes.

“Don’t bring Blondie into this, he was still a good cat until his soul got corrupted because he wasn’t a true holder.” Plagg hissed, crossing his arms and looking upset. “I’m not saying Pigtails is going about her crush the right way but cut her some slack, Sugar Cube, she’s been through a lot and doesn’t need you yelling at her now that Hawkbutt’s been defeated.”

Tikki, to her credit, looked chastened by the end of her counterpart’s rant.

Marinette felt touched that Plagg cared enough to defend her and she reached a hand out to pet the kwami of destruction's head.

Plagg seemed to know what she was thinking and zipped away. “Yeah, yeah, don’t get all sappy on me now, Pigtails. You can show your appreciation by feeding me cheese.”

Marinette huffed out a laugh at his response, while Tikki wore a scandalized expression on her face accompanied by a shout of “Plagg!”

Tikki turned to Marinette, eyes softening. “Do you think it’s a good idea to go through with the plan? You’re already breaching Tim’s privacy and boundaries enough without adding kidnapping to the mix. Why not just approach him at the coffee shop he goes to every day? You can still have a conversation with him there without breaking laws and boundaries.”

Marinette’s hands tightened on the board she was holding, a twinge of guilt surging through her because Tikki was right. It was wrong to cross Tim’s boundaries by stalking him, but she couldn’t stop.

It was like a drug, she couldn’t stop even if she wanted to. She needed to know everything about him so history doesn’t repeat itself for the third time.

She remembered meeting Tim for the first time like it was yesterday.

──────────

Marinette had been in a rush, the popular fabric store she liked to frequent was having a flash sale today and she needed to hurry or everything would sell out.

But first, she needed her daily dose of coffee for energy.

In her haste to shuffle towards the coffee shop, she hadn’t noticed someone bumping into her, knocking her to the ground.

“Are you alright, M-Miss? I’m so sorry about that, I didn’t mean to knock you over! Uh, not that I was planning to knock someone else over either! Please don’t take this the wrong way,” a panicked voice made her look up from the ground and to the owner of the voice.

Marinette’s heart raced at the sight of a black-haired boy with cerulean blue eyes. She was aware her mouth was agape, but she couldn’t seem to move as her eyes stared into his, fascinated.

Although he had eye bags that could rival hers when she pulled all-nighters working on commissions, the boy still looked very handsome.

Marinette thought he must be photogenic.

“I can assure you, I’m not, but I appreciate the vote of confidence,” the boy said, his lips quirking into a heartstopping smile.

Her face felt hot as she realized she said the words out loud and she stuttered out apologies but he waved her off.

His smile widened, a happy gleam in his eyes like he had accomplished something only he knew. He held out the coffee cup to her, nodding for her to take it.

Her hand reached out, albeit hesitant but she took it. Her fingers brushed his, sending electric sparks through her.

She peaked at him through her lashes to see if he had felt the spark to see him with the same happy smile, only it seemed to have brightened.

His eyes flickered to the fabric shop in the distance and back to her, the movement was fast and Marinette would have missed it if she hadn’t been so focused on watching him.

“You seem to be in a rush, I won’t take up more of your time than need be. I really am sorry about bumping into you,” he reiterated his apology, except he hadn’t looked that sorry at all.

He looked rather happy for having knocked someone over.

His smile seemed to dim the longer she stared at him without saying anything. He shuffled his feet, looking unsure and a crestfallen look had fallen upon his face.

“Sorry,” he mumbled, sounding genuinely regretful now as he moved to walk past her without meeting her gaze.

Marinette forced herself to move before he got lost in the crowds without her getting his name. She needed to see him again but she needed his full name so she could ‘check’ he was genuine. “Wait! My name’s Marinette Dupain-Cheng. What’s yours?”

She had introduced herself with her full name in hopes of getting his full name in return. It could’ve been a dumb move as it was Gotham. The boy could be in a gang for all she knows.

Judging by the look on the boy’s face, he seemed to think so as well. Though he didn't disappoint. The look cleared as fast as it came and the happy grin was back on his face. “Timothy Jackson Drake-Wayne. Only fair I give you my full name in return as well.”

He offered one last polite smile before walking past her again, this time with a happy bounce in his steps, unaware their first meeting would be the catalyst of her new obsession.

──────────

“The conversation has to happen somewhere out of the public’s eye so I can make sure it’s the real Tim and not just what he was showing because he’s in public,” Marinette sighed in response to Tikki’s question.

The kwamis were silent. They all knew her past crush on Adrien had reopened old wounds and that she was determined to not repeat mistakes.

Tikki was about to respond but Plagg shook his head.

“Just let it play out, Sugar Cube. You know as well as I do that when Pigtails makes up her mind, there’s virtually nothing we can do to change it,” he said softly, his green cat eyes watching as Marinette’s gaze drifted back to the murder board of Tim by her bed, a look of yearning in her eyes.

The kwamis watched her work in silence, with looks of concern, sadness and resignation.

──────────

The next morning, Marinette buzzed with excitement and nerves from the prospect of talking to Tim again. They did talk daily, what with her being his secretary but today felt different. She would finally see whether or not his kindness and everything he did was an act.

She made her way to the coffee shop near WE with a light bounce in her steps, picking up his favourite coffee drink she had ordered via mobile.

At the counter, when no one was looking, she slipped in a concoction she had made for when she couldn’t sleep into Tim’s drink, giving the cup a subtle shake for good measure.

Leaving the serene ambience of the coffee shop, Marinette made her way to the front steps of Wayne Enterprise, just in time to see Tim exiting the car and bidding Alfred goodbye.

Tim lit up when he saw her, and not for the first time, Marinette felt a twinge of guilt from what she was about to do. Maybe kidnapping hadn’t been the right way to go about it but she won’t back out now.

Feeling cheered by the sight of him watching her with a happy smile, she moved forward, handing him the coffee cup. “Your favourite order, as per usual.”

With her eager gaze fixed on the cup he had grabbed and anticipating his first sip, she missed the imperceptible knowing glint in his eyes.

He turned away from her slightly, seeming to be distracted by a commotion happening from a distance away. Fortunately, from her angle, she could see he had taken a big sip from the cup.

He turned back to her with a dopey expression on his face, looking at her like she had hung the stars. “Thank you, Mari, you’re the best! I know I can always count on you when my family cuts me off from my beloved coffee.”

Her heart stuttered at the way he was looking at her. A faint blush dusted her cheeks as she ducked her head with sudden shyness.

Marinette watched him from her peripheral, waiting for the concoction to take effect.

He moved forward like he was heading toward the entrance of Wayne Enterprise when he stumbled and she moved to hold on to his arm.

Tim shook his head, trying to stay awake but Marinette knew it was no use. His eyes had started to droop as he struggled to stay awake, his hands clinging onto her and pulling her close, seeming unaware she was the one who drugged him.

She was all too happy in allowing him to lean against her, ushering him away from WE’s entrance before anyone could catch on to what was happening and led him to an alley nearby. “Come on, you deserve a break anyway.”

He buried his head in the crook of her neck, Marinette’s mind going into overdrive at the action and his proximity, biting her lip to keep from squealing like she wanted to.

“I’ll follow you anywhere,” he mumbled, his words causing the guilt to eat at her now.

It wasn’t too late, she could lead Tim to his office in the Wayne Enterprise building and pass it off as him being sleep-deprived as usual if anyone asked— no, she had to do this. The hard part was already done, she couldn’t give up now. It was to go big or go home, right?

In the alley, she grabbed the glasses from her purse with one hand and put them on. Ignoring the disapproving gaze of Kaalki when the kwami of migration materialized from the miraculous, she muttered the transformation phase.

She paid no attention to the heavy feeling in her chest as she opened a portal to a warehouse forty minutes outside of the city.

Everything will be alright, it’ll work out, Marinette repeated in her mind like a martyr as she ushered the sleeping Tim into the portal.

It had to be.

──────────

Everything was not going to be alright.

That was Marinette’s first thought ten minutes later after she had tied Tim up to a chair with a rope she had left in the warehouse the night before and bound his hands together with a zip tie.

Now, she was on the verge of having a panic attack from her thoughts.

What had she been thinking? Tim was going to hate her and when his family rescued him, they were going to kick her out of the city, or worse, put her behind bars for life! She can’t go to jail, who would protect the miracle box?

She should’ve listened to Tikki and the kwamis. She was a selfish person for not having thought of what would happen to the miracle box if she were locked away in prison. How could she not have considered the consequences?

She was starting to hyperventilate when gentle hands grabbed her, accompanied by a familiar soft voice, snapping her out from the beginning of a panic attack.

“Hey, Mari, you’re okay. I need you to breathe with me, can you do that?”

She took a deep breath, grabbing onto the hands of the owner of the voice to ground herself. She looked up to see… Tim?

He was crouched in front of her, filled with concern and worry for her. Distantly, she realized during her dissociation, she had dropped to the ground and curled in on herself, hugging her knees to her chest.

Her expression twisted into one of horror when she realized he had somehow broken out of the bindings restraining him to the chair.

“I’m sorry for kidnapping you,” she wailed, blurting the first thing from her mind and moving away from him like a frightened rabbit.

She wanted to scream in frustration. I’m sorry for kidnapping you. Really? That was the best she could say? You don’t just apologize for kidnapping someone!

Tim looked dumbfounded, though he didn’t seem to be afraid.

Of course, he wasn’t afraid, he was Red Robin for crying out loud! As a public figure, he’d probably been kidnapped for ransom more times than she could count. Her sorry excuse of an attempt to kidnap him was pathetic compared to the more dangerous situations he’d been in.

When he stayed silent, she blurted out, “Please don’t send me to prison.”

He frowned. “Why would I send you to prison?”

Marinette’s jaw dropped in disbelief. Looking at him like he was the crazy one, she sputtered out, “B-because I kidnapped you! And stalk you. I've been following and watching you for so long, your privacy might as well be non-existent!”

He opened his mouth to respond but she rushed on, not giving him the chance. “If you don’t send me to prison, I’m sure Batman will, especially when I’ve kidnapped his son!”

“I tried to kidnap Batman’s son,” Marinette whispered in realization and whimpered, tugging at her raven pigtails in distress.

Tim didn’t look surprised or upset by the fact she knew his vigilante identity. On the contrary, he looked way too happy for someone who had gotten drugged, kidnapped and found out that he had an obsessive stalker. He wore a look of pure happiness on his face as he spoke. “Mari, no one is going to send you to prison. I won’t let it.”

She shook her head, unconvinced. What was he doing? Didn’t he realize he was away from the public? He didn’t have to keep up the act anymore.

“Marinette, I’m being serious. Nothing is going to happen to you,” he reassured her, moving to wrap his arms around her in a hug. The happiness was still present on his face but his eyes had softened into a look of adoration as he looked down to the girl in his arms.

“But why?” she whispered in confusion, blinking up at him with teary eyes.

Not that she wanted him or anyone from his family to send her to prison but shouldn’t he be more concerned by the fact that she had been stalking him for kwami knows how long?

She had heard enough lectures from Tikki to be aware that her obsessive behaviour was unhealthy and warranted concern, and yet, Tim wasn’t acting how she expected.

A smile tugged at his lips and she stared, captivated.

He seemed to preen at her awestruck look, smiling wider. His hand moved to play with the ends of one of her pigtails, saying in a quiet but fond voice. “I know you’re MDC.”

Marinette froze, her lips moving to deny from instinct but he continued in that soft voice of his.

“I’ve been a fan since you designed Jagged Stone’s Rock Giant album. Your commissions were never open but even when they were, you only accepted orders by referral. I decided to search for your identity then, but that led to an unhealthy obsession of digging up everything about you when I uncovered your full name.”

It was silent as he let the implication of his words sink in. He had the decency to look ashamed for invading her privacy.

“Your school records showed how you were once expelled, and the expulsion was retracted with no reason listed. Then I was digging into François Dupont, trying to find out the cause for your expulsion and why it was retracted. Everywhere I looked, it said you were bullying someone by the name of Lila Rossi.”

His jaws clenched, a look of anger crossing his face but Marinette knew he wasn’t angry at her. He was angry for her. “But in reality, it had been the other way around! All her ridiculous claims were documented on that tabloid blog— the Ladyblog— and it was so easy to destroy her. I sent lawsuits after her and contacted every celebrity she lied about.”

Marinette remembered that day, it had been glorious. The downfall of the liar who had gone through on her promise to make Marinette’s life a living hell.

It was the last day of school before the winter break and Marinette had looked forward to the break, desperate to get away from the glares and verbal assault her classmates were sending on behalf of the Italian girl.

After lunch, in the middle of class, Marinette had watched with wide eyes as Lila was delivered piles of lawsuits from every celebrity she had ever lied about.

Marinette had always wondered who was the one behind the execution of the lawsuits. She hadn’t believed for a second that suddenly, without prompting, every celebrity Lila had lied about got together overnight to serve the Italian girl lawsuits.

Until now, that is. Marinette watched Tim in awe, feeling tears pricked the corner of her eyes because despite them being strangers at the time, he hadn’t hesitated in destroying someone who was dead set on ruining her life.

He was better than Adrien in every aspect. Better than her former friends.

Tim had stood up for her when no one else would.

And for that alone, Marinette knew she wouldn’t be falling out of love with him anytime soon.

“Don’t even get me started on the Hawkmoth situation. Yes, I know you’re Ladybug,” he said, causing her to freeze yet again at his words for having uncovered another part of her identity.

She relaxed a second later. She trusted Tim. Besides, It was only fair after she knew his identity he was Red Robin.

He sighed, running a hand through his black locks, looking into her eyes with his blue ones. “What I’m trying to say is, it would be hypocritical of me to send you to prison for stalking me when I’ve been doing the very same thing to you.”

Shocked by the fact that her stalking was reciprocated, she only managed a soft “Oh.” in response to his speech.

He grabbed her hand, his grip firm, yet gentle. “I know stalking is… frowned upon and morally wrong, but I don’t mind you stalking me forever.”

He grinned, not hiding the happiness in his eyes. Although his smile wavered, as if anxious. “In fact, I’m ecstatic by the fact that I’m not the only one, uh, resorting to illegal measures to get to know his crush?”

Marinette squeaked at his admission, covering her red face with her hands. “C-crush?”

Hearing Tim confess his feelings made her feel elated that it hadn’t been one-sided. She was over the moon!

He smiled, albeit shy and his cheeks were turning pink. “Yeah. With all the digging I’ve done on you, I feel like I’ve known you forever. I know you’re my secretary and because of that a lot of the conversations we have were strictly business, but I would like to change that. I want to get to know you through proper conversations.”

As messed up as it might be, Marinette was glad she wasn’t the only one with stalking tendencies when it came to crushes.

With everything she had compiled on Tim, there were some things you won’t know until you’ve personally been told because not every tidbit of information was going to be on the internet, celebrity or not.

She much preferred learning things about Tim by talking to him rather than hiding out of sight and admiring him afar like she was his shadow.

With a blush blooming across her cheeks, she managed to get it out, without stuttering, “I feel the same way.”

He lit up like it was Christmas and still holding her close to him, his gaze dropped to her lips. “C-can I—”

Knowing what he was asking, she responded before he could get the full sentence out. “Yes.”

He wasted no time in pressing his lips against hers.

The kiss was soft and sweet, filled with passion and longing between them.

Her arms moved to wrap around his neck, pulling him as close to her as possible.

If stalking Tim was a drug, then the kiss was an addiction she never wanted to cure.

“Oh my gosh, I’m kissing MDC,” he mumbled against her lips in disbelief, internally fangirling. “I’m your biggest fan, I’ll follow you until you love me.”

Marinette flushed at his declaration. She could never get used to the idea that she might have people who are fans of her work, much less Tim being her biggest fan.

“I’ll hold you to that,” was what she mumbled back before her thoughts and senses were consumed with nothing but him.

#maribat #timinette #timari #maribat marinette dupain cheng #maribat tim drake #stalker x stalker #heqvenlymoons #this oneshot is mainly inspired by a tiktok edit #someone take the internet away from me because inspiration is everywhere #i cannot be stopped

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