#there's this one really complicated emotion i'm trying to capture with steph

[olivia-anderson-fanfic]

Into The Unknown, Part 27

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Tim laid back on the mats as he calmly checked off the appointment he had just done. He had a fifteen minute break and then it would be time for Steph’s class. He turned off the phone, resting it on his stomach and closing his eyes.

Steph had been coming once a week for almost two months now. It was… weird to see a version of her that had never gotten away from her dad. Arthur Brown wasn’t a D-tier supervillain here, but he was still an F-tier dad, and it showed. He had forgotten how pessimistic Steph had been when he had first met her. Not to mention… well, let’s just say he was hesitant to start teaching her any blocks because it meant that he would have to throw a (fake) punch in her direction and he was scared about how she would react.

He was also scared about how she would react if she found out that he was ‘baby-ing’ her, though…

He felt the tip of a shoe dig itself into his side and slowly opened his eyes so he could properly scowl up at Steph. “Ow?” He said, wriggling on the floor to try and escape the evil combat boots.

“Some self-defense teacher you are, just laying here. Didn’t even notice me coming. What if someone tried to rob you?”

“I feel like a dojo is one of the last places someone would go to rob someone,” said Tim, pushing himself up to sit. A grin edged across his face. “It just doesn’t seem like a good idea to rob people that are almost guaranteed to know how to fight.”

“You’re underestimating how stupid some people are,” she said, rolling her eyes.

He shrugged, smiling. “I’m an optimist, what can I say?”

“... Dean says that he once saw you trip over a mat and then lay there for a solid five minutes reconsidering life.”

Tim’s face reddened. He had thought that he was alone when that happened. “I’ve grown since then.”

“Since last month?”

“Sooner than that, since you last saw me two weeks ago.”

He smiled, pulling his hair back into a ponytail and tossing Steph an extra hairband because she was always forgetting to bring one. She caught it with ease and grinned at him.

“I’m still not over that, by the way,” she said, forcing her face into a mock pout. “I can’t believe you would dare to miss a class with me. And here I was thinking I was your favorite.”

He sat himself down on the floor to start stretching and she followed his lead.

“You are my favorite, paying customer number 54235,” he said.

She rolled her eyes calmly. “Whatever. How was the kid’s birthday?”

“If you think you can distract me from asking whether or not you’ve practiced over the past two weeks like I asked you to by asking about Damian…”

Her forehead beaded with sweat. Totally because of the very difficult stretching they were doing. Don’t be fooled by the name, child’s pose is definitely hard to do.

He let her stew in it for a moment.

And then said:

“... you’re absolutely right.”

So, as they went through their regular routine, Tim was allowed to ramble, filling in the silence with anything that came to mind. He talked about how Damian sneezed when he looked directly into bright lights; about how the kid had started using the word ‘pasghetti’ because he thought it was funny how much it annoyed Tim – which meant that he was finally starting to trust, at least on some level, that he wouldn’t hurt him when he was upset; about how Marinette had started playing a dumb game with Damian’s feet that made the kid laugh even when he was ‘mad’ at them…

Steph listened, occasionally throwing in little reactions like ‘oh?’ and ‘aw!’ whenever Tim took a breath. It wasn’t banter or even a proper conversation, really, she didn’t say much. But she seemed to enjoy listening.

Or, at least, he hoped. Sometimes he caught a different look in her eyes, almost longing whenever Tim talked about how much he adored this or that about Damian…

But she kept asking. And he was happy to talk about things with someone who wasn’t also there for most of the stories he had about him.

~

Well, Marinette now knew why she was getting so much work recently. Apparently, it had all been training. She had been fooled.

The four of them sat around one of the tables in the break room after work. Or, well, everyone outside of Marinette was sitting at the table. Marinette was on her knees on the floor, clinging to Ava, head in her lap. The woman was worse at cuddling than Paige, but unfortunately Paige was too pregnant to hug comfortably (the baby moved when she hugged her, ew). Damian was sitting in a chair, coloring with so much passion, but she couldn’t even enjoy his cuteness because of her stupid job.

“So… what happened?” Said Ava after about five minutes of Marinette listing every curse word she knew in rapid succession – and, considering she could speak and read in every language (thanks, Tikki), she knew quite a few.

Paige leaned back, hands resting under her stomach. “They offered to promote her to secretary.”

“Uh... that’s not really a promotion, is it?”

“Wayne’s personal secretary,” Paige clarified.

“... oh. Guess that kinda is a promotion…? Maybe?”

Marinette nodded, squeezing her. “And then – and then – that monster has the audacity to tell me to take my time deciding.”

“That’s… a good thing, though?” Said Ava, frowning.

“I know, but now I feel bad saying no.”

“And she wants to say no because… why, exactly?”

Paige shrugged.

“Effort,” Marinette groaned.

Paige and Ava shared looks.

Paige sighed, long and deep and so so tired. “Hate to tell you this – okay, not really – but you’ve probably been doing more work the past few months than you’d be doing as his secretary.”

“Yeah, but that was by choice,” she complained. “Now that it’s expected there’s going to be pressure.”

“Why don’t you ask him to not make it official and just have all of it be ‘extra’? Or ask him to let you try it out for just a few months? Or to let you ease into the work?”

“... hey, Ava, has anyone ever told you you’re a genius?”

“Not nearly enough. Can I record you saying that for my ringtone?”

She rolled her eyes and buried her face in Ava’s lap. Fingers carded through her hair.

There was a long silence as Marinette considered what to do.

It was broken when Damian started whining. Marinette slowly opened her eyes and then raised her eyebrows at the hand reaching for hers. She let Damian take it and pull her over so he could give her one of his crayons and his coloring book, flipped to a new page.

“Happy,” he said.

Marinette’s head tipped to the side. “Okay, Dami,” she said. She colored in the smiling person’s face with the green crayon she had been given as quickly as she could, and then looked back up at him. He was watching her intently.

She laughed a little, mildly confused.

This seemed to please him.

“Happy,” he said again, nodding firmly.

He reached out and gave her a pat on the head before taking his things back.

“I think you just got called overdramatic by a baby,” Paige said.

Her face reddened. “Oh, fuck off.”

~~~~~

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