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Get ready for everybody's favorite month of the year: Maribat March! This year, we've decided to give you a little more time to answer the prompts breaking the calendar down by weeks, instead of days. We're super excited for this event's return, and we hope you are too!
If you’re publishing on Ao3, we have an Ao3 collection, just like last year. To be added to it, make sure to select “Maribat March (Maribat_March)” when you select the collection you want to add your fic to. For the ease of readers, make sure to include “For Maribat March Week #: [Prompt]” in your summary.
If you’re posting something NSFW, make sure that it’s rated as such, and has all of the relevant tags and warnings. If it doesn’t your work won’t be approved to the collection.
Prompt List
Week One: "What if I don't want to be a Magical Girl?"
Week Two: "This place is depressing."
Week Three: "Can I get an interview?"
Week Four: "I hate clowns."
Week Five: "Sounds like a wild ride."
Shout out to Mod @newdog14 for designing this year's calendar, and to @izanae for assisting with prompts. There are also special brownie points available to anyone who spots the hidden references Newsie slipped into this post!
Get ready for everybody's favorite month of the year: Maribat March! This year, we've decided to give you a little more time to answer the prompts breaking the calendar down by weeks, instead of days. We're super excited for this event's return, and we hope you are too!
If you’re publishing on Ao3, we have an Ao3 collection, just like last year. To be added to it, make sure to select “Maribat March (Maribat_March)” when you select the collection you want to add your fic to. For the ease of readers, make sure to include “For Maribat March Week #: [Prompt]” in your summary.
If you’re posting something NSFW, make sure that it’s rated as such, and has all of the relevant tags and warnings. If it doesn’t your work won’t be approved to the collection.
Prompt List
Week One: "What if I don't want to be a Magical Girl?"
Week Two: "This place is depressing."
Week Three: "Can I get an interview?"
Week Four: "I hate clowns."
Week Five: "Sounds like a wild ride."
Shout out to Mod @newdog14 for designing this year's calendar, and to @izanae for assisting with prompts. There are also special brownie points available to anyone who spots the hidden references Newsie slipped into this post!
The Winter WIP Wars are over. The winner? The Maribat Fandom! Thank you to everyone who participated in this epic event! We got so many fic updates, and there are more to come. Per the votes, Mod Newsie and Mod Izzy will shortly be updating The Paris Problem and AStray, respectively. While they're putting the final touches on those chapters though, we hope that you'll check out the fic updates from our event participants!
A Brief Acquaintance by StarWarsMum Chapter 3-4 (Platonic Jasonette & Daminette Rated T)
(Never) Satisfied by oliviaandersonisntmyrealnamelol Chapter 16 (Timari Rated T)
Coffee Is Overated by StarWarsMum Chapters 4-7 (Timari Rated G)
Crisis in your Heart (One-Shot) by krono20112025 (Daminette Rated G)
A Bird in the Hand by StarWarsMum Chapters 7-9 (Timari Rated T)
The Only Choice by StarWarsMum Chapters 2-5 (Daminette Rated T)
Pop n' Lock by Rierse Chapters 3-5 (Dickinette Rated T)
Save Myself by Izanae Chapter 38 (Timari Rated T)
A bond formed through trauma by Totally_no_one_like_me Chapter 21 (Daminette Rated T)
Starting this Sunday, we invite you to update your existing WIPs! For every new chapter or series update you publish from January 18th through January 31st, you get to cast a vote on which which WIPs Mod Newsie and Mod Izzy will update. They've each selected three for you to choose from, and they will both be updating whichever of their fics gets the most votes. Your options are:
Izzy's Fics:
Save Myself (Timari)
New Me (Roynette)
AStray (Tim & Plagg, eventual Timari)
Newsie's Fics:
The Paris Problem (Daminette)
Bad Omens (Dickinette)
antigenic drift (Gen, with a large side of Salt)
Starting at Midnight EST on Sunday, January 18th, we'll be accepting your votes HERE. There's no minimum number of submissions to get an update from Newsie and Izzy, but if you want one fic in particular, you'll want to update as many WIPs as possible in order to ensure that it gets the most votes.
Haven't finished Daminette December yet? Still got a Halloween fic listed as incomplete? Has it been longer than you meant to go without updating a long fic? Have we got an event for you!
This year, we're challenging you to finish your WIPs! Or at least update them. For the last two weeks of January, every time you update an existing WIP, you get to vote on which WIPs Mod Newsie and Mod Izzy should update in February. That's right, this event has an actual prize.
More information on how to vote will be released soon, but we wanted to make sure you had time to start working on your older projects. ;)
The final day of the Sudden Death Showdown! Huge thank you to @maribatserver (and especially Newsie) for running this event and making it so fun and entertaining every day!
Link to AO3
“I can’t believe I let you talk me into this,” Marinette muttered, walking alongside Damian as they approached Alya’s home. It was her birthday, why was she subjecting herself to the intense scrutiny that was bound to follow as soon as her friends knew she was hanging out with Damian? But Damian had insisted that he attend her birthday celebrations and she had been too flustered to tell him no.
“You made an admirable attempt to sway me against the idea,” he offered, though the smirk he was sporting undercut the sentiment somewhat. “But I have been known to be stubborn and it is hardly as though you had a valid reason to deny my presence at an event to celebrate your birthday.”
“I think introducing you to my friends the day after I met your family is a pretty good reason,” she whined, sighing as they reached the door of Alya’s home. “Just promise me that you won’t listen if they start trying to stir trouble by insinuating things, okay? They mean well but they’re also menaces and love to embarrass me.”
“It will be fine,” he said, his voice completely calm and gait unruffled. Of course he wasn’t bothered, but he also wasn’t the one who had fallen completely head over heels for his coworker-slash-friend. No, that was Marinette, who had been bemoaning her fate to her best friend for weeks and now had to actually introduce them and hope Alya didn’t screw things up. “If it is too much, I have the ability to say something or leave.”
Squaring her shoulders, she pushed open the door and poked her head through it before stepping through. Everyone already there cheered, and Adrien came over to drag her into the group that had formed over by the drinks Alya had set out. Damian followed at a slower pace, eyes darting around as if he was assessing it as a battleground - which, maybe he was.
It took all of five minutes for Alya to catch should hold him and drag him away for a chat. And Marinette was being plied with so much affection that she couldn't get away, or even keep a clear line of sight on them. The times she did catch a glimpse of Damian's face, she wasn't optimistic that their friendship was surviving that night.
Deciding that the only thing that would improve things was drink, she grabbed one of the bottles of elderflower wine and started to drink it straight from the bottle. Alya’s parents were some of the adults that had come through with them, which made sense considering they had two young children dependent on them. They'd since let Alya move to her own place, but they were still close and they taught her how to make good wine.
Most of the bottle was gone when Damian appeared back at her side, accepting a glass of something and looking far too serious for a birthday party. But he didn't leave, and seemed to make an effort to actually talk to the people around them, discussing mundane things and his interest in supernatural creatures. So, for that night, she decided she wasn't going to look for trouble.
_ _ _
In spite of her worries that their friendship would be over following her birthday, it stayed much the same as it was. Only now, because everyone around them knew that they were acquainted, they were able to meet more easily, and did so weekly at a minimum.
More surprisingly, her friends didn't tease her about him. Alya made a comment that he seemed nice of all things, which definitely made Marinette think she hadn't actually spoken to him and instead a doppelganger must have swooped in and tricked her for that one evening. And when she said she didn’t think Alya was talking about the same guy, she had the audacity to laugh at her.
“Okay, I mean, he wasn’t nice, but he seems like a good guy? Like he’s seriously invested in whatever your whole relationship actually is,” she shrugged, ignoring the way Marinette spluttered at the word ‘relationship’. She knew it wasn’t inaccurate, it just sounded misleading. “And he showed up to your birthday party the day after finding out about it. What can I say? I like that he wants to get it right.”
“You’re not helping me with getting over my crush on him at all,” Marinette grumbled, stroking the fox that had taken to begging for food at Alya’s back door. It was friendly enough, and seemed to be on the mischievous side, so Marinette was trying to cultivate a friendship to make sure the sneaky beast didn’t go after her less defensive animals if it made its way to her house. Alya’s was the one closest to hers, after all, so she didn’t want to risk it.
“I don’t think you need to get over it,” Alya replied, grabbing a piece of leftover meat from her plate and throwing it to the beast. “No, really. He keeps showing up, he wants to get to know you and your friends, and he introduced you to his family! Maybe he just takes things slower than the rest of us. If he’s had a comfortable life in Gotham, it could be that he doesn’t see the point in rushing, that he has all the time in the world.”
Marinette kept quiet, not wanting to admit to her friend that Damian had already kissed her, and on the first night they’d met to boot. That he’d already made the decision not to pursue anything with her and only wanted her company because she liked the same creatures he did. It was nice that one of them could live in the fantasy. Instead, she hummed noncommittally and made a small light that bounced across the ground so that the fox had something to play with.
Because as much as she knew there was nothing more between them, she wanted it. And every time he stayed over into the early evening hours, sharing parts of his history and talking quietly about what they wanted from their futures, she felt a yearning for more. He’d explained what Jason had meant about his own connection to the horned god, his voice unsteady at times as he explained that he didn’t want it to change how she viewed him. He had even looked relieved when she assured him that she didn’t think any less of him for having been brought back from the land of the dead.
Meandering back to her home when Nino showed up to spend some time with Alya - they were planning on joining households soon and Marinette didn’t need to get in the way of their time together - her heart thudded almost painfully in her chest when she spotted Damian standing outside her home again. He was playing with the same fox she had been, although he had caught a sunbeam on the blade of one of his daggers and was making the reflection dance across the floor.
“I didn’t expect to see you today,” she called out when she was closer, and more sure that her voice wouldn’t give away how she was feeling. If she had known he was coming, she wouldn’t have opened that particular emotional box with Alya earlier. “Is there something that needs our attention?”
“No, although I heard that your familiar Longg might have been sighted just beyond Gotham City,” he said, opening the gate for her and waiting for her to pass through it before following suit and closing it behind him. “I came because it occurred to me that Samhain is not even a week away and we have not discussed our plans for it.”
“Plans?” she asked, trying to ignore the flutter in her chest as he joined her at her kitchen counter to make the tea. It had become a familiar ritual, him setting the kettle to boil after stoking the fire while she measured out the leaves for each cup. It was devastatingly domestic, and she had had many fantasies of them following the same routine in the mornings if they were to inhabit the same space.
“Yes, I understand that it is an important night for you and your friends, and I did not get to witness any of the festivities last year,” he explained, looking over her shoulder to see what tea leaves she had chosen before rummaging in her pantry for the honey. Never for himself, he just knew that there were certain teas she preferred to drink with honey, so he got it out whenever she was preparing it. “Besides, it is the anniversary of the first time we…met.”
“W-well, my plans stay the same year on year,” she said, only stumbling at the beginning as her heart thumped in her chest. “The only thing that tends to change is the place, and we haven’t confirmed where we’ll be holding the rituals this year. Did- Do you want to join us?”
“I would like to spend one of your holidays with you to understand its importance better,” he said softly, carrying the teacups to the table while she grabbed some baked goods. Everything in her was screaming at her to accept the request, to assure him that she wanted to celebrate every occasion with him if he wanted the same, but she needed not to scare him away with her intensity. So she settled into her seat before replying.
“Then I don’t think anyone would have a problem with you attending,” she said, stirring the honey into her drink before taking a sip. When he hummed, she decided it wouldn’t hurt to add her own feelings, at least so he didn’t think she was indifferent. “I would like you to be there.”
“Then I shall,” he replied decisively, taking a slice of cheese bread and spreading a thin layer of butter over it. “It is not a holiday in Gotham, so it is not as though I shall be missing anything by coming to your own rituals. Even if it was the case, I would much rather experience something new with you.”
Flushing slightly, she started talking animatedly about the different things they got up to on all hallow’s eve. Their conversation flowed easily, discussing how he might help with certain parts of the evening and the day before, as whoever’s home they all descended upon would need to clear space for the bonfire.
“Thank you for the tea, and conversation,” Damian said when they had come to a natural stop. “I must return to my home before dark today, but I promise to be back early on Samhain to assist you with whatever you may need.”
“Careful, I might get you to help with my baking,” she remarked as she walked him out, hands brushing against each other as they stopped by the gate. She thought he might have gotten taller over the past year, while she had remained the same. “Thanks for agreeing to come. Alya said she thinks you’re a good person, by the way, so you’ve made a good impression there.”
“I suppose that makes us even, as most of my family rather approves of you,” he murmured, fingers coming up to brush her cheek gently. Breath catching in her throat, she didn’t dare move as she waited to see what he would do; didn’t want to break the spell if he was thinking of kissing her like she was of him. But his hand dropped away, and she let her eyes drop so that he couldn’t see the disappointment in them. “Until next time.”
The gate opened silently for him and he was gone in moments.
_ _ _
On Samhain, Marinette was woken by someone pressing against her wards gently, like an alarm ringing just beyond her reach. Plagg stretched and bounded off the bed towards the kitchen, meowing for food and hissing slightly when she ignored him to open the door and wards. It took very little time for Damian to stroll up the path to her home, and she smiled as she busied herself with setting out food for the rest of her home’s occupants.
“Good morning, Marinette,” he said when he had closed the door behind him, carrying a large canvas in one hand. She was burning with curiosity, but she could tell from the look on his face that he was waiting for her to ask about it so she kept quiet. “What do you require me to do first?”
I can think of a few things, she thought but thankfully didn’t say. She was still half asleep and could feel Plagg’s influence on her words, so she bit her tongue until she could speak rationally. Finally, she managed to outline the plan for the day, mentioning that some of her friends were going to be busy setting up a haunted house for the rest of them to enjoy before they all convened for the evening rituals.
“So before they all get here, we need to get some baking done and clear the yard,” she said, already tying her long hair back and grabbing her apron from the back of a door. When she didn’t hand him a spare - she hadn’t yet found reason to make one, although if he kept coming around she would - he rolled his sleeves up and made his way out to her garden to set up the bonfire.
It made short work of her tasks, having someone willing to help, and before she knew it he was back inside and watching her prepare icing for the cakes she had made. The act of baking was soothing and she smiled at him before checking that the cakes were cool to the touch. The only time he spoke was after she had set aside the piping bags and was straightening up the living area, moving furniture to the sides and preparing her spare room for her familiars to rest in.
“And why are you not participating in the haunted house?” Damian asked in a low voice as they finished preparing her house for visitors. Since she hadn’t been there to enjoy it last time, the others had insisted she host again so that they could all enjoy it, especially since she was now eighteen and they could all legally enjoy the wine they made. Satisfied that the room was set for all rituals and merriment, she moved back to the kitchen before speaking.
“Because they all get a little freaked out when I start talking to the actual spirits instead of playing with the homemade stuff,” she shrugged, setting down the tray of cakes and holding out a second piping bag for Damian to use. When he looked at it blankly she was starkly reminded of the difference in their skills. “Come here, I’ll show you how to do it.”
She made a singular attempt to stand behind him to guide his hands before realising precisely how useless that was. Tutting and stepping in front of him, she guided his hands so that his arms were practically around her as she demonstrated. It was only after the intense focus faded that she grew embarrassed of her actions and tried to extract herself as nonchalantly as she could. Unfortunately, with the piping bag and his own focus on the task at hand, it simply wasn’t possible.
And it wasn't as if she minded having his arms around her, feeling the muscles tense and relax as he started to take over the simple swirling motion for each cake. By the time he was finished she could almost forget how much she enjoyed having him hold her, even if he didn’t feel the same way she did when he did it. But when he set aside the piping bag he didn’t release her, instead choosing to rest his chin on her head before speaking.
“What else do we need to prepare before your friends arrive?” he asked in a soft voice, hardly disturbing the air around them.
“Nothing, we’re- um, we’re ahead of schedule,” she replied, hoping she didn’t sound as breathless as she thought she did. When he stilled completely, not even his chest moving against her back, she thought he was going to move away. And he did, the warmth of his body leeching away rapidly as she turned to face him and lean against the table.
“Then I suppose we should find something to occupy our time,” he said with a half smile. Fighting a blush, she let her eyes dart around the room to see if there was anything they could do but his fingers touched her chin delicately and drew her attention back to him. “You know, I’ve found myself plagued by far fewer evil spirits this past year.”
“Yeah? That’s, uh, that’s lucky,” she stammered, shivering as he traced the shape of her jaw slowly until his forearm rested on her collarbone and he held the nape of her neck. “Um, did…did you want to…”
“I can only conclude that a Samhain’s kiss is required for a fortuitous year,” he murmured, leaning down and hovering in her space. He didn’t move to close the distance between them for several seconds, his eyes searching her face again for something. When her hands settled on his chest, he seemed to take it as the permission it was and pressed their lips together gently. He pulled her closer, deepening the kiss and holding her against him as she melted into it. “I’m unsure if one night per year is sufficient enough to keep the evil spirits away,” he said in a deep voice when he eventually pulled back.
“Mmm, maybe we should-” she began, thoughts scrambling when he kissed her earlobe. “We should definitely see if a more regular ritual keeps them away.”
“Perhaps we can come to a mutually beneficial schedule of these rituals,” he rumbled, pressing kisses down her neck and smiling against it when she gasped.
“That sounds- sounds like a good p-plan,” she agreed, before twisting to kiss him again.
Our final night is finally over! Thank you so much to everyone who played, we were delighted to get so many spooky submissions!
This year, our lone survivor was Damian Wayne! We'd call him a Final Girl, but we think he might stab us for comparing him to that trope. Regardless, congratulations to him for seeing dawn.
Happy Halloween everyone! Remember that we still have 31 Days of Halloween prompts for your spooky enjoyment! Muahahahaha!
As dawn rises after night six, we've lost one more character to the darkness. Only four remain, and tonight, only one will survive. Who will it be? Submit your work to this form (x) to save who you can.
Last night, we said goodbye to Dick. Tonight, we'll say goodbye to three more. Only one can survive night seven.
Damian made good on his promise and returned not even a week later, looking relaxed as he strolled up to the boundary of her property. She had to viciously strangle the flutter in her chest when he waited for permission to cross the threshold, his hand resting on her little gate comfortably. Trying to shove down her eagerness to greet him, she walked casually to the gate and smiled up at him in greeting.
“Good morning, Marinette,” he said cordially, smiling when her own widened. “I hope I am not intruding.”
“Nope, I was just getting ready to take a walk through the swamp,” she replied, closing the gate after stepping out to him. “Since you're here, would you like to join me? I mean, it's a pretty good co-worker bonding thing, right?”
“I would be honoured to accompany you on this outing - to deepen our professional acquaintance,” he said completely seriously, though his eyes crinkled in the corners as he offered his elbow to her. It made her giggle, and she had trouble concentrating for the rest of the walk. Instead, she focused solely on him and their conversation, learning more about him as they walked and sharing pieces about her life and her friends.
By the time they returned to her home they were walking in comfortable silence, having exhausted several topics of conversation. Damian hesitated on her doorstep, frowning lightly for the first time since he had arrived that day. She tilted her head at him questioningly, not passing into the room and awaiting whatever conversation they were about to have.
“You are aware that my associates have been searching for information about you,” he began eventually, looking past her to where Plagg was lazing on her sofa. She hummed in agreement, twisting a lock of hair around her finger nervously. They hadn’t really discussed his associates since Jason had gone home and she kind of preferred to pretend they had no interest in her any more. “Good. And you are also aware that I have said nothing of our acquaintance to them, barring Todd who has also been keeping quiet regarding the matter.”
“Yes, I’m aware that you’re not outing your connection to a witch when most of your family is completely against magic,” she said with a raised eyebrow, making the decision to pull him into the house. “It would be kind of against your interests to do that.”
“I would not say it is completely against my interests to make them aware that I have a new acquaintance that I am spending a majority of my time with,” he argued, still very much not looking at her directly. “In fact, I would prefer if I could…introduce you to the remainder of the group. Not as the witch that assisted in taking down Black Mask, but as my acquaintance and associate that I have been spending time with. It is, of course, up to you.”
“You want to introduce me to your other associates?” she blinked, confused. “But not as the witch that they’ve been looking for. Because you want them to…?”
“I would like them to be acquainted with you,” he said semi stiffly, a slight reddening to his ears. “But I would only do so if you were comfortable with it, so if you would rather remain as things are, I understand.”
“Well that…I’d be lying if I said I didn’t want to meet them,” she admitted, laughing when he blinked at her in surprise, tension seeping out of his shoulders. “Oh come on, they’re the people you spend most of your time with, outside of whatever family you have, right? I would love to see how you behave around them, especially with some of the stories you’ve told me.”
“...yes,” he said, sounding cautious. “I am also hopeful that, other than Todd, the rest will be unaware of your capacity for magic. So you shall be meeting them in a personal capacity rather than as my associates.”
“You don't want me to answer their questions?” she asked, surprised. She had assumed that meeting them meant that she was going to be spilling as much of her history as she was comfortable with, alongside a solemn oath to only use her powers for good. “Doesn’t that sort of defeat the purpose of meeting them?”
“No, not as I only wish to introduce you as my- my friend,” he said, red tinging his cheeks again. “For transparency, my associates are my family. So if you are worried that they will see something in our friendship that they shouldn’t, they won’t.”
“You- are you feeling okay? You just said friend and friendship in relation to me,” she said, actually a little alarmed. In all of their conversations, he had kept it on the professional side, and she had taken to heart the fact that he had never referred to her as anything other than a co-worker. His blush receded slightly as he sent her a deadpan look, and she was mildly relieved. “Alright, so…we’re friends and you want me to come and meet your family. Yeah, okay. What day?”
_ _ _
On the day Damian had chosen, Marinette left her house ridiculously early and tried not to let her nerves get the better of her as she traipsed into Gotham. The early morning fog that surrounded her was mysterious but comfortable, and she enjoyed feeling the power thrumming through the surrounding area as she walked over it. Master Fu had told her that accepting a role as a Guardian would give her access to things she could not have imagined and she would forever be grateful that it wasn’t just a line to get her to sign up.
The sun was much higher in the sky when she arrived at the meeting point Damian had insisted upon, though it was hiding behind the clouds. Not that she expected anything less considering where she was, so she kept moving and just breathed the slightly less fresh morning air as she sidestepped other people.
When she reached the meeting place, she was surprised to see that he had relinquished the duty of collecting her to Jason. He was leaning on a nearby wall and looking for all the world like he had every intention to stay precisely where he was. But as she waved at him, he stood up straight and shot her a smile that managed to assure her that he was planning to be friendly.
“Morning Pix,” he said once she was in range, ruffling her hair once she was close enough. “Sorry Damian didn’t come to meet you, he wanted to. But the others collared him and he couldn’t get out in time to be here. Luckily, I was free and willing to come and get you. It’s not a super long walk but we should get a move on if we want to be there before Alf serves the food.”
Laughing and falling into step with him, she left the conversation for him to make as she still wasn’t entirely sure where she stood with him. Apparently, he didn’t mind the silence either because it wasn’t until they had been walking for a solid ten minutes that he finally spoke.
“So, I kind of owe you an apology for blowing up about the whole identity thing,” he said in a low voice, hardly carrying far enough for her to hear it. “I guess I was a little worried about how Damian had gotten into so much so quickly. But he’s always been the kind of guy that marches to his own drum on certain things so…I should have trusted his judgement.”
“Oh. Okay, thank you,” she replied, twisting her bag strap in one hand as she tried to work out what this meant for the day she had agreed to. Fortunately, he didn’t leave her in suspense for too long.
“On top of that, I’ve agreed not to say anything about you being the girl from the party,” he told her, making her blink. “Mostly because he made a bet with me that the others wouldn’t be able to work it out, but he also said that you’re pretty touchy about the whole ‘hunt you down because you use demonic powers’ thing.”
“They’re not demonic powers,” she frowned, looking at him fully. “I work with nature and take blessings as well as give them. There’s nothing demonic about Wiccan faith and it’s kinda crappy of you to use words like that. And if Damian-”
“Whoa, okay, I’m sorry,” he said quickly, turning down a long path that she couldn’t see the end of. “First of all, Damian used none of those words, so he didn’t do anything for you to be upset about. Second, I don’t really know anything about what you can do other than take down people twice the size of you like they’re nothing. Damn, I was right about the feisty thing though, you’ve got claws.”
“Most things in nature can defend themselves, Jason,” she muttered, focusing on calming herself down. “Sorry for flying off the handle. I’ve had very bad experiences with people who view us exactly as you just described and I don’t want a repeat of any of it.”
Jason nodded, but didn’t continue the conversation as they continued walking. If Marinette had been any less in shape she would have been winded by the time they turned up to the veritable mansion Jason had led her to. She was pretty sure her mouth was hanging open but Jason was paying her no mind as he strolled up to the door and knocked loudly.
“Why are we showing up to a castle?” she hissed her grip on her bag tightening into a stranglehold. “Jason, don’t laugh at me, tell me-”
“Ah, you must be Miss Marinette,” a gentleman said smoothly, smiling at her kindly. Not that it eased her nerves at all and she let out a strangled noise that she hoped he took as confirmation. “Wonderful, I believe the other young masters are seated in the drawing room, awaiting your arrival. Master Damian, in particular, has been rather eager, so we should make haste. Follow me.”
Terrified and unsure of what exactly she was getting into, she was left with no alternative but to do as she was told. But the second she had Damian on his own, she was going to eviscerate him for letting her walk into this blind. The walk to the drawing room took forever and she was very much debating whether running away would break their newly coined friendship. But it was too late and she entered the lion’s den.
_ _ _
After a brief round of introductions and Alfred - their butler - bringing them several pots of fragrant tea, Marinette found herself sat in the middle of the throng of men, their eyes studying her. The only person that didn’t make her want to fidget was Damian, and only because she was very close to throttling him for letting her walk into this blind.
“So, how did you two meet?” Dick asked after the conversation had stumbled to a halt, smiling like an excited puppy.
“My cat jumped on him,” she replied automatically, more than adept at spinning the truth at this point. It helped that she'd also rehearsed this particular tale ever since Damian had suggested introducing her to his family. “And since he didn't hurt Plagg, I decided we would be friends. Even if it took him a while to warm up to the idea.”
“Tt, it took me an appropriate amount of time to decide that I wished to continue our acquaintance,” he said, glaring when his brother, Tim, snorted. “Regardless, that is how we met and I am…pleased that we have both been willing to know each other better.”
It was hardly a declaration of adoration but it made her smile nonetheless. The conversation moved forward and Marinette was almost fully relaxed by the time one of the boys brought up their surprise at her coming to their home at such short notice. Perhaps too relaxed, because she spoke without thinking.
“I'm actually glad he said today, I'm busy tomorrow,” she laughed, touching the pendant under her shirt. She didn't wear it often but with everything happening in these couple of days, she had wanted a piece of her parents with her. When the others all looked politely interested, she elaborated, “I'll be celebrating with my friends.”
“Is tomorrow a holiday of some sort?” Bruce enquired, and she could almost see him trying to run through the various holidays he was aware of so he could learn more about her.
“Of a sort. But only to me and my friends; it's my eighteenth,” she explained, only for Damian to drop his cup with a clatter as he stared at her.
“Your- it is your birthday tomorrow?” he demanded, looking betrayed. “Why did you not inform me?”
“It hasn't come up?” she hedged, squirming slightly as everyone appraised the pair. “Damian, I don't know when yours is either. I don't even know how old you are, so you actually know more about me than I do you at this point.”
“December ninth,” he responded immediately, still frowning. “And I turned eighteen on my last.”
“See? And when we were dealing with that lizard escapade you didn't mention it,” she nodded. “So you're not allowed to be mad at me, all things considered.”
“We had scarcely known each other for two months!” he snapped, something suspiciously akin to a pout on his face. “It is now closer to a year and you willfully withheld the information-”
“Tikki almighty, can you not just say that you're upset that I forgot to tell you?” she sighed, shaking her head and ignoring the way one of his brothers choked on laughter. “You are allergic to being direct, aren't you.”
“I am attending your birthday festivities,” he said decisively, jaw setting when her eyebrow raised. “And you will tell me what you want as a gift.”
“I didn't tell you so you would get me a gift!” she squeaked, flushing red when he grinned sharply at her response. “And it's rude to just invite yoursel-”
“Okay, so this is adorable,” Dick said in a hushed tone to Tim, who nodded even as his shoulders shook with laughter. It made Damian glare at them and Marinette look down at her hands in embarrassment. “Oh, I didn't mean to embarrass you, Marinette, it's just so rare to see Damian that relaxed with someone.”
“You are all insufferable and I wish I was an only child,” Damian growled, which made Marinette giggle again. He shot her a smirk and she decided she didn't mind his prickly nature if she got to watch him turn it on others instead of her.
Damian al Ghul Wayne carried an Axe swinging it with vengeance.
“If anyone dares to denigrate the Canaries, whose music is a gift from above, I will not tolerate any slander of their latest album. And You deserve death,aagh!”
Insult Damian Wayne’s favorite band and Black Canary, and you’ll see a true die-hard True Canary fan in action!
