If much, Damian would have thought that his penpal had given up on him. That until he received a letter almost a year after the previous one.
Took her long enough. He thought, locking his bedroom's door (just in case) and opening the damn letter. In neat calligraphy there was only three phrases.
Gotham Botanical Garden at 19h (Gotham Time). Happy birthday. With love, LB.
Marinette ran away from her past as Ladybug. After Hawkmoth's defeat she had nothing left to treasure in Paris, so when she received a scholarship capable of score her not one but two majors in some random city of the States, she didn't think twice.
Except that she ended up in Gotham, of all places.
The first thing Marinette noticed about the boy who was on the lobby of Chloe's hotel was that he wasn't parisian.
The second thing she noticed is that he guards himself like a fighter, not like the spoiled son of a rich man.
Their eyes met for a second, dark blue against jade green, before the designer is pulled inside of the elevator by a smug Chloe. She immediately tries to wiped the smile from Chloe's lips.
"Don't you dare to say a word," she groaned, but her friend had already won. Best-friend rights be damned.
"What did I do? It's not like I saw you going all Ladybug mode on one of our guests for the first time in six years!" this holiday break was going to be a nightmare.
"And what if I did?" Marinette defended herself, flopping face first on Chloe's bed. The mattress dipped by her side.
"Come on, Dupain-Cheng. It's been literal years since the last time we had to fight for our lives! Let yourself loose a little!" Chloe meant good, but Marinette couldn't help with her instincts, be it with the miraculous or her civilian self.
"Maybe for you," she mumbled, stuffing her face agaisnt the pillow. Her body stiffened when noticed what she had said.
"What do you mean? Marinette, please tell me that the city where you're living is safe, for fucks sake," all the goofiness from Chloe's voice was gone, replaced with worry for her best-friend.
"Oops?" Chloe's mouth fell open, and before Marinette could defend herself, the blonde had kicked her out of the bed and onto the ground.
"Spill! Where are you living?! Marinette, I swear, I'll follow you to America if I need to. Where. Are. You. Living?" Chloe sat on her friend's stomach, making sure that the girl wouldn't run away from her questioning.
"Gotham! Chloe, move, I need to breath!" which wasn't a lie since Marinette was having problems to inhale because Chloe was agressivelly tickling her sides.
"You kidding me?! Marinette, that's the most dangerous city of the entire continent!" Chloe sat on the floor, watching the designer catch her breath again. Once Marinette could breath just fine and her face lost some excessive blush, she sat by Chloe's side, leaning against the bed.
"I scored a scholarship good enough to get me a double major on Gotham University. I just couldn't let that pass, y'know?" Marinette felt slightly guilty for hiding her scholarship from one of her only friends in Paris, but it wasn't like she had much of a choice. She had to know if she could handle the first year, at least.
"I know what you mean," Chloe hugged her legs, resting her chin on top of her knees and looking at her friend. "But if you ever pull a stunt like that again, I'll ask for a transference and fly to Gotham to make sure that you're not hiding anything else from me. Got it?" Marinette nodded, tackling the blonde in a hug that promptly sent both of them to the floor again.
"But I have a question," the designer got off from Chloe and lied on the floor, looking at the ceiling. "Who was that guy and what is he doing here?" Chloe took her sweet time to remember which guy Marinette was referring to before clicking her tongue on the roof of her mouth.
"He's Damian Wayne. Apparently he's in town to run a check on his father's branch of the company here," Marinette hummed softly, taking the information in.
"Bug! Thank God you're here and I am really sorry for the mess," Marinette dismissed the frantic boy with a move of wrist. Of course she knew that Adrien would end up staining the front of his fucking new suit forty minutes before a meeting.
She knew him too well.
"Just show me the stain, so I can do some damage control. You're lucky that Kagami was fine with me postponing our hangout, or else I would have kicked your ass," Adrien simply nodded, offering the girl the blazer neatly folded. She didn't need to see to know that he was waiting to be yelled at for being so careless.
For Adrien's luck, it was easy enough to fix.
It didn't mean that he wouldn't have his ass whipped later, though.
Instead of working around the black stain of coffee on the light gray fabric, she dried and lighted the stain as better as she could before pulling a emergency sewing kit from her purse.
With the ease of years of work, Marinette turned the light brown stain into a puddle and embroidered a small black cat drinking the water on the border. Since the stain was close to the hem, it seemed like it was made on purpose instead of a last minute fix.
"You are too lucky that I am on a good enough mood to save your ass on my college break, Agreste," she teased, offering the blazer back.
"You're a life saver, Mari," the blonde hugged the girl, causing Marinette to let out a chuckle.
"Good to know that that's the reason why we are friends," she smiled, putting her sewing kit back on her purse when Jane, Adrien's assistent, knocked on the doorframe lightly.
"Adrien, the guest for today and his body guard are here," Adrien motioned for her to let the guests enter the office. Marinette took a place on the couch, waiting for her cue to leave.
Instead of some old man, the person who entered the office was Damian Wayne.
"Pixie!" Jason's voice took Marinette by surprise, and in a second the girl was being twirled around the office. "I didn't know we would meet here!"
"Me neither, Jay," she laughed, messing with the older's hair. "I came because of an emergency call, but everything is good now," she answered, back to her place on the couch. Jason sat by her side without a second thought.
"Do you know each other?" Adrien gestured between the two. Damian's eyes were hard to read, switching between Marinette and his body guard.
"Jason is my neighbor in Gotham. Apparently he got a good gig this week," Marinette explained. Adrien dropped the topic with a nod, turning to Damian and inviting him silently to take a place on the other couch while sitting on the armchair.
"Is it wise to let her hear our negotiation?" was the first thing Damian said since they arrived. Adrien assumed his professional posture once for all and nodded.
"Marinette is one of the few people whom I trust with my life. Besides, she's also pursuing a Business degree. A little bit of new knowledge is always welcome, am I right, Miss Dupain-Cheng?"
"Of course. There's no need to worry about what you treat about in front of me, but I can always leave if you don't feel comfortable with me here," she didn't notice the look of pride on Jason's eyes.
"If you trust her in such a way, then I do not see any problem with our present arrangement," Damian teared his eyes from the black haired girl and turned back to Adrien, finally starting to talk about their recently adjusted deal about the Fashion Market.
"I didn't know that you knew The Adrien Agreste," Jason poked Marinette's side, making the girl squirm and try to hold back a giggle.
"He is one of my oldest clients and friends. You wouldn't believe on how powerful a person with connections is," she mumbled back, trained eyes watching as Damian and Adrien tried to come to a deal about the investment on international brands.
"Oh, believe me, I know," Jason muttered, but the girl wasn't listening to him.
"It's interesting, but we haven't a good enough structure to get such a exposure. It's too risky for our internal market," Adrien argued, still contemplating the idea of expanding the brand.
"If you allow me," Marinette started. Adrien motioned for her to continue. "Our internal market is strong enough to hold for a while, but we would need to make a trial for external market. I believe that the best way would be to get attention from younger masses and then go from there," Damian narrowed his eyes on the direction of the young designer.
"The younger masses are not the ones buying our products," he corrected, but Marinette hadn't finished yet.
"Of course not, but they are the ones dominating the social media today. Take Chloe Burgeois and MDC as an example. Chloe's a digital influencer with two thirds of her public being teenager and young adults, but the people who try to commission from MDC, Chloe's favorite fashion and graphic designer, are adults and people who know the power of popular trendings," Marinette knew what she was talking about.
When she worked with Jagged, his main public were teenagers, and her pieces became popular because of the young public. The same happened with Clara Nightingale and the first dress Marinette made for the singer.
Who noticed the clothes and made MDC a popular designer was the public.
"Elaborate, please," Adrien motioned, a small smile on his lips.
"To international market, you should focus on public figures with a medium-high level of influence over the young adult masses. Personalities like Jagged Stone, Chloe Burgeois. If you are ready to risk even more, I would suggest yourself Mr. Wayne, singers like Hongjoong Kim, from the group ATEEZ, or the actor Garfield Logan. This is just my suggestion, of course," she finished, a satisfied smile lingering on her lips and small stars twinkling on her eyes.
Marinette was on her element.
"Interesting point of view, Miss Dupain-Cheng," Damian admitted, alternating between looking at Jason and Marinette, before lowing his eyes to his wristwatch. "Unhappily, I have another place to be soon. Agreste, we can talk more about the deal on a later moment. It would be promising if Miss Dupain-Cheng could be present too."
"Oh, I am sorry, but I came to Paris on my college break. I don't think we'll be seeing each other again, Mr. Wayne," Marinette answered politely.
"Never say never, pigtails," Jason teased, standing with Damian as they made their way out of the office. "See ya later!"
"What a interesting meeting," Adrien mused, eyes glimmering with silent tease.
"I will give you a head start before I kick your ass for staining your blazer, Agreste."
If Jane heard the commotion inside of her boss' office, she didn't say a thing.
Leaving the mall alone, since Chloe had to leave early, Marinette chose to walk around the city instead of going back to the bakery, even if she knew that no one was waiting for her on the place she once called home.
The Seine seemed a bit gloom under the new moon, and there was nothing interesting to do by herself in the city.
Walking with her head down, Marinette didn't notice a man standing on her way and bumped her forehead against his chin.
"I'm sorry! I was distracted!" she rushed, crunching down to gather her phone after it fell from her pocket.
"And you won't even give a hug to your ol' friend?" Marinette snapped her head up to see Jason's smirk beocming softer.
"Jason! What are you doing here?!" she jumped on his arms, sure that the man with a white streak would catch her. I hadn't been even a weekend since the last time they saw each other but she clung onto him with her life.
"I would say that I missed you, but that would be a bold-faced lie," he teased, earning a pinch on his side after putting the girl down.
"You love me, admit it," she tucked her tongue out, letting herself be embraced by the man that she saw as an older brother. Jason walked her in the direction of her house with an arm around her shoulder.
"You wish, pixie," she snorted in fake annoyance and led him by the streets that she knew by heart. "I am here as a scort for the Wayne kid. His father is like super protective and asked a little favor from your favorite, red-themed hero," Marinette pushed him lightly.
When she first moved to Gotham, finding a place to live, even temporarily, was not a easy task. The newly graduated girl ended up on a small cheap two-room apartment across Jason's.
It didn't need much of a thought to put two and two together one day, when he slumped on the hallway with a bullet wound and slightly delirious of blood loss.
After six months, Marinette had already learned first-aid on non-life-threatening injuries like a pro and landed herself a poet as a new friend, on the side of a self-defense personal teacher on free weekends.
She didn't ask about his work, and he didn't pry about her constant nightmares that would make her wake up screaming and spend the rest of the night working on small commissions to keep herself busy until she passed out of exhaustion.
"Is he nice?" Jason barked out a laugh, stopping in front of what used to be the front of the bakery that Marinette's parents once owned. Her grandfather kept the business running, but slower that the late Dupain-Chengs once did.
"A hell-sent asshole, if you allow me," she giggled quietly, opening the front door with her own keys.
She and Jason bid goodbyes and he left after kissing her forehead and shooing the small girl inside.
That night, a Gotham hero made their patrol route pass twice over the small bakery.
Ever since the daughter of the mayor of Paris had started taking therapy during middle school she changed a lot.
Marinette was the first person to whom she apologized, of all people, even before starting with the therapy.
Chloe made all she could to assure Marinette that she had changed for the better.
When Marinette first scheduled a session for Chloe when they were still on middle school, she didn't think that the girl would really appear. Mr. Jean had even told Marinette that she didn't have to pay for a consultation that didn't happen.
That was at the age of 14.
For the first month, Marinette paid for Chloe's treatment. After it, the blonde took the matter on her own hands, but still kept it secret from her parents. Everyone knew how Audrey and Andre Burgeois weren't the best parents out there. They didn't care enough to check their daughter's bank account to see her taking out the same amount of cash on the third day of every month.
A year passed like that, and while Chloe slowly became better, their classmates, however, becamo worse.
Lila Rossi, a italian transferred girl, had taken the matter of making Marinette's life a living hell on her own hands. She spilled lies, appeared with fake injures made of pure make-up, and took away every friend Marinette ever thought to have.
After Adrien's first interference, his father threatened not only withdraw him from school, but also send him to live with his aunt in London. It didn't stop him from snapping at Lila from time to time, but there was not much he could do apart from that.
Alya turned her back totally on Marinette on her first chance, but Nino refused to let one of his best friends behind.
The second wave of lies included that Marinette was, possibly, a homewrecker.
Lila was so creative.
Chloe, on the other hand, held power. She didn't need lies, and that was how she started protecting Marinette when the girl couldn't stand up for herself.
Their friendship only strenghtened from there.
They became partners in crime, covering for each other's backs.
However, by the time when Hawkmoth was defeated - on Marinette's 16th birthday - there's was almost nothing left on the girl to be saved.
Slowly but surely Chloe helped Marinette to come back to her senses.
The bullying, the responsability of being a Ladybug and a Great Guardian, the school. Everything was just too much for her to handle.
When the team finally revealed their identities - Queen Bee had become Buzz in order to keep her identitiy safe - everyone made an effort to back Marinette up, even if they were already doing it before.
Luka started teaching guitar to the girl, while Kagami taught her some fencing. Adrien offered to teach her some mandarin and train her english.
Kagami pulled some strings and helped her new friends change schools, while Chloe made sure that no one from their previous class could track them down for a while.
Wednesday was when Marinette decided to spend time with her grandpa in the bakery.
They started before the sunrise and warmed the wood oven as best as they could. The smell of newly baked bread reminded her of her parents and how muchh Marinette missed them.
"Marinette, you can decorate these pastries? I need to work on the macarons for our next delivery," she took the baking sugar from Mr. Dupain's hands and offered him a small smile before starting to work on the pastries.
"Pietro and Antoinette aren't coming today? Tony wanted me to teach her on how to draw on our handmade coffees," she received a head shake from her grandpa, before tilting her head to the side.
"I thought you could like to spend some time with your old man before going back to university, so I told them to take the day off today," Marinette smiled, putting the decorated pastries on the decorative boxes before back hugging her grandpa.
"Of course, I would love to spend time with you! I can always talk with them tomorrow. I am all yours today," the man chuckled lightly, busying himself with the task on hand. After putting the macarons on the oven and turning on the timer, he turned to her only granddaughter and offered her a sad smile.
"You miss them, don't you?" Marinette's smile faltered, and she hated herself for that, because it meant that she was acting so distant that even her grandfather had noticed. After a few seconds of internal fight, her smile fell and there were small tears gathering at the corners of her eyes.
"This place hurts so much. I thought time would help, but it doesn't. It just makes things worse," she sobbed, Mr. Dupain's arms pulling her closer.
Three days after Hawkmoth's defeat, the mayor held a giant comemoration on Le Grand Hotel and commissioned Marinette's parents to make all the baked goods of the party. From cakes to tarts and cupcakes, the Dupain-Cheng's took care of everything.
That night, Chloe decided that she wanted to have Marinette, Adrien and Kagami to sleep over and hold a small pajama party.
On Sabine and Tom's way back home, though, a drunk driver ignored the red traffic light and hitted the bakery's van on full speed.
The van turned.
Sabine died on spot, the car hitting her side.
Tom died on his way to the hospital, a chunk of steel hurting his side and causing extreme blood loss.
Marinette spent three weeks without talking with anyone, working on commissions no end and diving head-first on as many projects she could.
Rolland Dupain, her grandfather by her father's side, ended up with her custody. Even with their uneven relationship, they made it work.
Rolland would spend as many nights needed to follow his granddaughter on hours of stress-baking, he would give her space when she couldn't handle being around people and even allowed her to have her friends over to no-end nights.
She helped him not to feel so lost.
He tried his best because she was all the family he had left.
When Marinette started speaking again, the first thing she did was thank him for his support, for taking care of the bakery that was once of his son.
But even now, almost four years later, she still couldn't stand being on the bakery for long before feeling the urge to cry, the absence of her parents being the worst part of waking up every day.
"You can cry, Marinette," Rolland caressed her black hair, holding back his own tears. "You don't need to be strong forever. Just cry."
And that she did.
For the first time since she came back from Gotham, Marinette cried.
"Jason Peter Todd, no smoking on my balcony!" Marinette yelled, taking the vigilante by surprise. He probably thought that she would be on shower for more ten minutes or so, thus why he took the freedom to try and smoke on her balcony.
"It's just my second, Pixie. No need to get all antsy," he answered, turning to watch the girl sit on one of the chairs and dry her hair with a towel. Once she deemed it dry enough to not give her a cold later, Marinette signaled for Jason to take the other sit.
"Long day?" Jason simply nodded, dropping the tip of the cigarrete on the trash can and relaxing against the chair.
"Damian is almost like a regular gig by now, but the dude just don't gimme a damn break. I mean, yeah, he's the third on command of a fucking three-billion dollars' worth company, but can't he actually act like a fucking adult?!" Marinette giggled on her place, watching as the noon turned into the night behind the buildings of the city of light.
"Well, if he's powerful as you say, then he's doing something right," she snickered, folding her legs under her body. The set of sweatpants pajamas was enough to keep her warm and cozy, even outside.
"Yeah but trying to run away from your bodyguard isn't the best way to set an example," and with that Marinette finally let out a soft laugh, knowing fully well that Jason was all talk.
She had seen him in action before, in Gotham. His aura was completely different from the small banter they were having.
She had decided to grocery shopping last minute to be able to spend the night stress-baking. Unhappily, Marinette's luck wasn't always on time.
She had been cornered by two tugs on her way back, guns loaded and smelling to alcohol. She had nowhere to run.
Her knowledge on self-defense and fight stances were limited to unarmed people and akumas. She could fight, but she couldn't properly aim or control her unhaced force outside of her transformation.
That's when she met Red Hood.
Marinette didn't know he was Jason at that time.
All she knew was the flawless way that his gun moved like a extension of his body, not actually firing, but being maneuvered the same way Chat did with his baton. The difference was that Hood was actually lethal.
"You okay?" he turned to her once both menaces were down, unconscious. Marinette didn't know if Red Hood didn't fired because he didn't want to get attention or to not scare her, but she was endlessly grateful that he didn't.
"Yeah... it was just..." she couldn't explain properly, english and french becoming a mess of words and meanings on her head.
She was brought back to reality by Hood's hands taking the grocery from her arms.
"I'll get you home, okay? And then you can take a moment to breath," she nodded quietly, head spinning.
Red Hood was known for being lethal, and dangerous, and merciless.
But Marinette had always been one to believe in seconds chances, and the man following her home certainly deserved the benefit of doubt.
"How are the nightmares?" Marinette asked, looking at Jason once again. Paris was warm because of the end of the summer and the beginning of fall.
She had three more days before having to fly back to Gotham again.
"They come and go," Jason didn't tear his eyes from the sky, barely caring enough to answer his company, even if he knew that she would understand the lack of any interest in the question. "Yours?"
"They never leave," and, if she was being honest, Marinette knew that she would never get rid of the ghosts of her past and the skeletons on her closet.
At this point, the nightmares followed her around even when she was awake.
