i still can't believe that klay thompson's ugly ass had the audacity to cheat on Megan. like still. he is so mf ugly, i can't. whoever had him thinking he was cute enough to cheat on THEEE Megan thee mf Stallion deserves to be in jail. dead homies.
Day 6 of Nonsense November! Prompt today is Cheater, Cheater
@maribat-calendar-events
Link to AO3
The next meeting with Marinette for the collaboration was set for two days after the original meeting and Tim was determined to be there and not behave as he had the last time. Because he’d been forced out of patrol, nobody had an excuse to keep him away from the meeting this time, and he fully intended to apologise to Marinette for his behaviour. Now that he wasn’t under the influence of fear toxin, he could see just how aggressive he had been towards everyone, and he fully intended to correct her opinion of him.
Walking into the Wayne Enterprises building, he nodded to the receptionists and made his way up to the executive’s floor. He was over an hour early to the meeting and would be able to prepare absolutely everything to make sure that she didn’t regret signing on to work with them. He had so many ideas for her plans to bring affordable protective wear to Gotham, and he was so ready to wow her with his thoughts.
The coffee machine in his office was everything he wanted that morning, the aftereffects of the fear toxin making him feel sluggish. Or just his utter refusal to sleep for more than three hours at a time. Really, he shouldn’t be at the office according to everyone else, but he didn’t want to miss the chance to grovel to Marinette and make sure she didn’t hate him.
Remembering that she’d asked to get out at the coffee shop before their first meeting, he set up everything so he could make her a coffee. And if she’d gone and bought one again, he could at least let her know that she could make one. In future. If she wanted. God he hoped she wanted to spend more time with him. He could vaguely recall that she was pretty, and that she had managed to maintain her professionalism in the face of his own irritability, but very little else.
When she showed up thirty minutes later, he practically launched himself out of his seat to greet her, his coffee sloshing onto the papers in front of him. Despair settled into his bones as he all but shrieked and tried to save them while Marinette stood in the doorway looking concerned. Why why why couldn’t things go right for him? The only small mercy was that Bruce hadn’t arrived yet because she was early, so he might appear at least semi-dignified when he did show up.
“Are you alright?” Marinette asked gently, coming forward and helping to salvage whatever paper she could. If he wasn’t so overwhelmed, he might have tried to be nonchalant about the whole thing, especially because whatever was drowning in his coffee was probably replicable, but the lack of sleep mixed with the fact that she was MDC meant that wasn’t possible.
“No, I’m a mess,” he said, mouth snapping shut as soon as the words were out of his mouth. Great, there went any chance he had of letting her see him as a competent partner. At least he could just stay quiet now… “I’m so sorry, I was- I’d set up a bunch of ideas and things but- my coffee betrayed me! And it’s not even like I can punish it because it’s everywhere.”
“Here, let me help,” she said just as gently as before, treating him like a volatile chemical reaction she was expecting to go off. With two sets of hands on the paper it went much quicker and he could even admit that it was nowhere near as bad as he’d believed. Yes, the pages were damp and coloured now, but the writing was still just as legible as when it had been dry and it wasn’t as many of them as he had initially believed.
“I’m so, so sorry,” he said mournfully, hiding his face in his hands and slumping into his seat. It didn’t matter that he knew he was being pathetic and probably weirding her out just as much as he had in their previous meeting, but he was still sleep deprived and, now, without his coffee.
“It’s fine, I can’t even remember how many of my projects have been restarted because of a clumsy moment,” she hummed, moving over to the coffee machine in the corner. He let go of his face to follow her with his eyes, anxiety pressing at his ribs. “I think you said you take your coffee with cream and sugar, when we talked about it before, right?”
“Uh, yeah, that’s right,” he said, flushing and rubbing the back of his neck as he looked away from her. Suddenly missing the fear toxin that had made him less awkward around her, even if it was because he was paranoid and twitchy, he tried to think about anything other than the fact that this attractive, talented woman remembered such an insignificant detail about him. And when she set a mug in front of him, he couldn’t help but notice that she must have used some of her talent for designing to add just the right amount of cream because the colour was spot on. “Wow, um, thanks.”
“Don’t mention it,” she said, smiling as she moved to the other side of the desk and took a seat. “Shall we discuss your ideas before Monsieur Wayne joins us?”
Launching into an enthusiastic explanation, brandishing papers and feeling encouraged by the intensity of her attention, the time flew by. It seemed like only moments had passed when the door opened and Bruce entered the room and paused to watch them both. Tim trailed off from his current long-winded discussion of why zips were the preferred method of fastening pockets in Gotham. Marinette had been nodding along, her pencil skimming over the page as she took her own notes for it all, though she put her pencil down seconds later to stand and shake Bruce’s hand.
“Thank you for agreeing to meet again so soon, Monsieur Wayne,” she greeted with a look back over her shoulder at Tim. “We were just looking at some of our options, though I’m sure we could use your input for the older side of things.”
The conversation became a lot more structured from that point forward, and less free and creative which Tim disliked. There was something about Marinette that made him want to make something, to forget about the logic side of things and work that out later. It certainly didn’t hurt that she had been getting just as invested in the conversation and looked absolutely stunning when she got passionate.
“What do you think?” Marinette said, turning to him suddenly and reminding him that she wanted his input during these conversations. He looked at her a little wild eyed, glancing at Bruce to save him but the older man just looked mildly amused. When he turned back to Marinette she deflated slightly, lips puckering in a minute pout as she realised he hadn’t been listening to her. “Of course, I can always just-”
“No! I, uh, I think it’s a great idea,” he said, nodding vigorously and smiling when she smiled again. And now he was going to try and blag his way through this and get as much information as he could in the next two minutes. “We would just need to work out a couple of logistics…”
“D’accord,” she agreed, starting to pack up her things and standing. Tim jumped to his feet as well, shooting a pleading look at Bruce to get some kind of direction for what he was signing up for. Thankfully, his adoptive father took pity on him and stood too, leaning down to shake Marinette’s hand warmly.
“Sadly, one of us has to stay here at Wayne Enterprises, so I’ll have to give the walking tour a miss,” he said, clueing Tim in. It wasn’t as much information as he needed, but he already felt like a heel for screwing up in the first place, so he’d take whatever help Bruce was actually willing to give him. “But you’re also welcome to use the company card to get lunch while you’re out, and perhaps you can come to the manor for dinner sometime this week to let me know what you found.”
“Perfect! Come on, Monsieur Drake, I think there’s a decent coffee shop nearby that we could stop in first to observe the fashion of those around,” Marinette said, waiting for him to lead the way out of the office. “Oh, but I will need to use the restroom before we leave, if you can excuse me.”
“You’re such a cheater,” Bruce laughed under his breath as soon as she was out of earshot, ruffling Tim’s hair when it was clear they were alone. “You’re lucky I’m willing to help you out, but you should really work on paying attention to what she says if you want this collaboration to work out.”
“Yeah, I know,” Tim sighed in reply, still looking the way she’d gone.
