Leave Paris Move to Gotham Chapter 3
I know this is way over due but here it is. Sorry fro grammar error I just finished it.
Fresh cinnamon buns
That was what the bakery always smell on Sunday mornings, mainly because it was the special of the day. On Sundays, Marinette took care of the bakery while her parents where in the back baking special orders. The girl liked the routine that came with cinnamon morning. She opened the bakery prompt at six a.m. for Marinette’s dismay. At six thirty, the first customers came in, usually old people, sorry, elderly people. Mrs. Page always ordered green tea and a single cinnamon bun, and Mister Legrand, her husband, liked to order a cup of black coffee along with three strawberry macarons. The couple always sat near the window next to the door.
It was the little things like Mister Legrand asking Marinette random questions about his crossword, (or how the newspaper boy always tried to ask for her number but ended up with a bag of cinnamon buns), and how the air was just full of cinnamon that made Sunday mornings special.
Yes, cinnamon Sundays were the best.
Marinette sat on the counter while she flipped through the pages of her sketchbook looking for new inspiration. Maybe, she and her parents could go to the movies and then to the park to talk. The commissions and babysitting was taking too much time from her family. Marinette really missed them. She missed their laugh, their warm hugs, kisses on her cheeks, and their affections.
She was looking forward to a day with her parents. That was until the sudden burn smell.
The girl stood up from her chair and ran to the kitchen where her parents were finishing the last set of cinnamon buns. They must have burned them by accident. She kicked the doors of the kitchen just to find black smoke covering the room.
“Ma Mi! Babo!” Marinette tried to scream but the smoke was so thick that it compressed her lungs.
She tried to open the kitchen door so the smoke could get out, but she couldn’t find it.It was just too dark to see.
“Ma Mi! Babo!” she tried to call them again. The air was was hard to breathe and smell like burned fresh instead of burned cinnamon.
She walked deeper inside of the darkness. The only thing that mattered to her was to find her parents. They were somewhere here, waiting for her to save them. She needed to find them.
She needed to save them.
“Ma… Mi… Babo…” she coughed so hard that it burned her throat. It felt almost like if someone was strangling her.
Her body felt so heavy like and hurt as if rocks were falling on her.
After what felt like hours, Marinette collapsed on the dark cold floor.
This was the end.
People said that when they are about to die, they see a light that emits peace. Others think that they heard the voices of their loved ones that went to sleep before them. Marinette didn’t see any light or heard the voice of her mom’s parents.
Everything was so dark that it hurt her to keep her eyes open, but she could hear something: steps. Heavy, strong steps coming to her, but they weren’t her parents. Her mom’s walk was elegant and delicate, and while her dad’s was strong, he didn’t make that sound.
Those steps sound like a beast hitting the ground, a beast coming for her.
The girl tried to stand up, but she fell at the first try. She couldn’t move. She couldn't breath, she couldn't see. She couldn't fight.
She was the prey.
The steps got closer and closer until she didn’t hear them anymore.
The girl was sweating cold because, if she couldn't hear the steps, it meant that either the beast leave her alone or, whatever that thing was, it was in front of her.
Marinette hold her breath trying to avoid any sounds that the Beast could hear. She hugged her legs close to her chest trying to protect herself.
She stayed like that for a while waiting for the beast to get her. She waited, waited, and waited, but the beast never came.
The girl let a broken sob come out as tears fell from her eyes.
All of this was her fault was her fault. If she just had let the door open, if she took the fire extinguisher or a lanter, she would have found and then saved her parents. They would be together in a place so much nicer than this. Maybe they would be in the living room of their apartment, watching an old movie. Maybe Marinette would have fell asleep in the middle of the movie over her father’s shoulder, and then the next morning she would wake up in her bed to the voice of her mother telling her that she was late for school.
But she didn’t.
She was alone. Her parents were lost in the darkness with that horrible smell of burning flesh surrounding them, and there was a beast waiting for her to make a mistake, the tiniest mistake, so he could find her and hurt her.
And it was her fault. It was Marinette’s fault, Marinette’s, Marinette’s...
Her throat burn like if somebody was choking her. If the air was already difficult to breath know was impossible. She kicked and punched the hair in panic.
She deserved the pain.
Marinette…
She deserved the suffering.
Marinette…
But the girl wasn’t ready to give up.
Marinette!
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The Guardian gasped in search of air.
It took her several breath to realise that she had her hands on her neck, and it took her two more to notice Tikki in front of her.
“Marinette, breath, just breath. It was just a nightmare. You are safe. You are with me. We are together, just breath.” The goddess helped the blue eyed girl to take out her hands from her neck slowly.
“That’s it. You are doing great, Marinette.”
Marinette put her hands down. There were nasty bruises forming on her neck. It was going to be difficult to explain it to people.
“I-it was my fault, Tikki. My parents are… my parents are dead because I-I couldn't protect them. I wasn’t strong enough!” A glass in the kitchen’s counter broke down.
Tikki rested on her hands while she pat them.
“No, Marinette. It’s not your fault. The only one that deserves the guilt is Adrien. He burned the the bakery, not you. He kidnapped you. He made the wrong decisions. You, Marinette, you fought them. Repeat after me: ‘It’s not my fault.’”
“I… don’t…
“It’s not, repeat it, It’s not.”
“It’s… it’s not…”
“My fault....”
“M-my fault.”
“Good, now all together.”
“I-it’s not… my fault.”
Tikki smilled. “Again, and don’t forget to breath.”
“I-it’s not my fault… It’s not my fault.” Marinette took another breath. “It’s not my fault.”
Marinette wiped her tears with her blanket.
“It’s not my fault.” this time she was more confident.
Tikki wiped her face and gave her a kiss on the cheek. “Good, know what do you think if we go to the kitchen and we eat some cookies and drink some warm milk? So we can talk about your dream. Would you like that?”
Marinette nodded.
This was going to be a long night.
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It was 4:36 AM, and Marinette and Tikki just finished eating.
The kitchen of her apartment was just besides her bedroom… well, better say the kitchen was part of her bedroom. The walls needed a little paint, the door cracked, the sink dripped, and the heated was broken, and yet there was something about the apartment that made her feel safer.
“Thank you for listening to me, Tikki.” Marinette took the last sit from her cup.
By then, it was normal for Marinette to wake up from a nightmare, but the bruises and the choking were new. It made her feel terrified, useless, and… and dead.
“You don’t need to thank me.” Tikki finished the last cookie. “Would you like me to sleep on your chest tonight?”
Marinette nodded “Yes, but I don’t think I can sleep just yet… I need to take a walk.” The girl stood up, put on a black hoodie that was on her closet.
No, she couldn’t go back to sleep. The idea of dream of that darkness was just awful.
“Wait, Marinette. Where are you going?”
The guardian opened up the window of her room just to be received by a cold wind along with tiny snowflakes. Dear lord, Gotham was so somber and cold that it snowed in the middle of Summer.
“I need to take a walk, Tikki. I won’t take long.” Got out through the window to stand in the fire stairs and them closed the window.
“But, Marinette, you are shoeless!” But the pink-haired girl was already climbing to get to the roof.
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Being Ladybug came with sacrifices: her friends, her partner, her parents, her life. Sure, the miraculous gave her powers, but at the great cost of being alone. Sometimes Marinette questioned if the path that she took was really worthy.
This was one of those moments.
The roofs of Gotham were completely covered with snow, which made even more difficult for Marinette to jump and land on them. She jumped and ran throw the cold snow. She almost fell two times and kissed the floor of the roofs three, but it was somehow good for her. The adrenaline rushing through her veins, the snow touching here bare legs, the feeling of falling made her feel alive.
There was a point in which the guardian couldn't run anymore and so collapsed on the tick snow.
Marinette was breathing fast (she literally just run a marathon). The snow was soft but cold against her skin. She took a little to feel how it melted.
“I am alive” She said as she felt her heart pumping.
“It’s not my fault.”she said as she took a little bit of snow and put it where the nasty bruises were.
“I don’t deserve this.” she said as the snowflakes landed on her as if they were cold blanked.
Marinette closed her eyes.
She was tired, physically and psychologically. She couldn't rest because if she did the memories of her past would hunt her. She couldn't talk with anyone because that would jeopardize her identity, and yes, she had Tikki, but sometimes, it was not enough.
This was just adequate.
The snow was freezing, but it didn’t hurt her. Being Ladybug for a long time gave her the consolation gift to being able to adapt to any environment. A desert? She could survive years without water and food. A tropical forest, mosquitos and humidity would do nothing to her. So, lying down over a freezing snow blanket will do no cold bite or give her hypothermia, yet it was cold enough to keep her awake, just what she needed at that moment.
It was peaceful and all because of the snow kept her mind occupied. It felt cold, soft, and wet. What did she expected? Snow is made of water after all. Marinette’s hoodie and yellow shorts were starting to get soaking wet, bug it didn’t make her feel uncomfortable.
She could have stayed like until sunrise, but the sudden feeling of pressure on her sensitive neck made her jump and instintaly cover her neck.
In front of her, a dark figure kneeled down. He was wearing a dark gray spandex-like suit with a black cape covering him. His face was hidden under a mask that only permitted her see his mouth with that serious expression.
As previously mentioned, Marinette decided to stay in Gotham due to the large number of vigilantes and villains. She hoped that if she kept a low profile and stayed out of problem, she would be lucky enough to never meet one in their spandex suits. Guess, she wasn’t as cautious and lucky as she was supposed to be. So much for lady luck.
The man tried to reach her with her hand, but she pushed herself away from him.
“I’m not going to hurt you.” the man said in a deep voice. Marinette could clearly tell that he was forcing it. “Can you understand me?”
It didn’t matter if the man in front of her was a vigilante or a villain. Both would try to hurt her in different ways. Villains may kidnap her, toture her, and/or kill her. Vigilantes will put her identity at risk by turning her in the government.
She needed to get out there, but she couldn't run. The man will follow her. Fight him was a foolish idea because if she showed to be a threat, he may turn her or kill her. She had only one option.
“Why did you touch my neck?” Marintte asked the man as she put her hands on her neck.
The man kept looking at her, or at least, she thought that he was looking at her. That mask made difficult to read him.
“I thought you passed out. I was just checking your pulse.” The stranger said as he took out one of his gloves. Then he gently offered it to her. “Can you squish my hand?”
Marinette stared at him. What ever he was playing, she had to be careful.
“Why would I do that?”
“To know how much time I have left to take you to the hospital before you get hypothermia, so now take my hand.” this last part sounded like a polite order.
The girl hesitated for a moment, but in the end she took it and squashed it hard. The man was surprised not only for the strength of the tiny girl but by the fact that her hand was warmer than him. He turned her hard and put two fingers in her wrist. Her pulse was normal considering that she was just covered with snow few moments ago.
“You don’t need to take me to a hospital. I’m perfectly fine.”
“Sorry, lady, but no, person in a right state of mind would be in the middle of a weather like this, less wearing pajamas, so why are you out here? Do your parents know that you are out here?” When he finished that sentence, Marinette let go of his hand and lost herself.
Her parents…
Marinnete hoped that they weren’t watching her. She she hopes that, if they were in whatever comes after life, they weren't watching the failure of daughter that she was.
All her mistakes, all her fears, all her shame… She hoped they weren’t watching her.
Suddenly she went back to reality.
Marinette took a deep breath. “I live alone… well not alone. I live with my cat, who must be worried sick because I told her I would take a quick walk, and it’s almost sunrise, so maybe I should head back to my apartment.”
The girl stood up quickly and attempted to go back to her apartment, but she was stopped by the mysterious man.
“I cannot let you go.” The man put a hand on her shoulder at which she tensed. The man seemed to notice and quickly took his hand off her.
“Oh yes, you can. You just stay here or walk in the opposite direction from my apartment. It’s not impossible.”
The man didn’t seem to share her sense of humor.
“You are not thinking straight. I’ll take you to the Wayne Hospital.” He took off his cape just to try to put her on her shoulders, but she took a step back.
“I’m sorry, but I don’t know you. Although, I am thankful that you are being so nice to me, I can’t go with you, sir.”
The man looked at her as if he was judging all her sins. Then he tried to put her cape on her shoulders just to this time succeed.
“Okay, this is why are we going to do.” he said as he fixed the cape. “I am going to ask you some questions, and if they are adequate, I will take you to your apartment. If not, I will take you to the hospital.”
That wasn’t fair.
“That isn’t fair for me. If I lose you take me to a place where I don’t need to be, but I win you will know where I live.”
Marinette tried to the man’s reaction, but he was as blank a white page before a college student began their essay. It was hard to read him.
Marinette singed, it was obvious that this man would not let her go on her terms.
“What’s the first question?”
The man in black took a step forward. “Why are you here?”
“‘Why are you here’ as in ‘why are you doing this roof in the middle of a blister in pajamas’ or as what is my purpose in the universe and why I was born?’” Marinette said awkwardly.
Again that man didn’t share her sense of humor.
“I’ll take that as the first option… so… well… I…” Marinette had to take a deep breath to keep going. “I-I had a nightmare, and it got so real that I needed to take a walk.”
“In the middle of a torment”
“Y-yes, and in pajamas. Maybe, it was not one of my top ten decisions, but I really needed to get out of my apartment to clear my mind, to feel that I was alive. T-that’s why I was lying on the snow, to feel alive.”
Okay, maybe it wasn’t a good idea a stranger all this intimate things, but it felt so well to get out this pain out of her chest.
Marinette watch the stranger not react at her confession. The coolness of the man made her feel insignificant.
“How did you got the bruises around your neck.”
The bruises, she forgot about the bruises.
“Like I said, my nightmare got a little bit too real…” Slowly, she put a hand on her neck.
It was a little bit to real that made her choke herself. The girl hoped that she never experienced something like that ever again. Marinette tried to breathe slowly. Thinking of having another nightmare like that made her uneasy.
The stranger didn’t say anything for a long time, and then he offered his hand to her. Marinette froze at the sudden movement of the man.
“Let’s go, I’ll take you to your apartment.”
Her mind went to a Shakespeare play.
To go or not to go with him. That was the question. Was it better to trust this stranger that declared to be onto something good or to run away far from him…
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Tikki was going to kill her for trusting strangers.
After a lot of thinking, Marinette risked it and agreed to let the man take her to her apartment, but only because if she didn’t agree to it, he would take her to a hospital. The man carried her like a fireman while she was still covered by his cape. Her body was tense and ready to fight the man if decided to ignore her directions to get to her apartment.
It was a stupid desition to run on the roofs of the city of crime and not expecting to find people like this man… who she didnt’t even knew his name or better say his identity name.
The last time that someone carried her through roofs on a dark night, she was kidnapped by her ex-partner, but there was a big difference between the man and Cha… Adrien.
Adrien carried her as if she was a bag of diamonds, close to him like if he let her go someone else would take his treasure, his property. This man carried her tightly but it didn’t feel like if he wanted to hurt her, it weirdly felt like the way her dad used to carry her… he carried her like a dad. Marinette could not help but wonder if the man behind the mask had children, maybe some nieces or nephews.
“My building’s roof is the next one.”
The man just nodded. He was a man of few words; Marinette really appreciate that.
He put Marinette down. Her feet felt cold on the snow, maybe she should have worn some shoes.
“Thank you for bringing me here, sir.” Marinette put the cape on the man’s hands. “I really appreciate it, and I hope you have a good night, sir.” She bowed in signal of respect.
“If you accept an advice, don’t go out at night, less on the roofs. There are many villains rounding in this city.” He stood up on the border of the roof. “And respecting your nightmare, talk to someone with a degree. There are many gratuite institutions that offer help.”
The man jumped from the roof into the nothing. Marinette run to the border of the building just you let a breath go when she was the man get on the next building.
Marinette let her knees hit the show in real hard.
This was a crazy night, no scratch that. This was a really close night. She pushed her luck too much. She shouldn’t do it again. Maybe next time she would be found by a person who wanted to hurt her… She really should look up who that man was.
Gotham was a really strange city.
It was 5:49 in the morning, and the sky just cleaned up. The first rays of the sunrise were lighting the snow from the gothic buildings. It was a totally completely different city. It was as if the snow was a gift wrap paper over a worn down carton box.
It was just beautiful that made Marintte let go a few tears, but those tears were tears of relief. Somehow, being in the snow calmed her down.
If hell was made of flames, then heaven was made of pure snow.
And that was the day Marinette realised what her cure was: coldness. Because if snow could make pretty this city of atrocities, it could also make her soul appear pretty. The colder she was, the farther her memories the bakery were.
After looking to the sky for at least five minutes, Marinette dragged her cold wet body back to her apartment. She had to get ready to go shopping for her materials for school. Then she had to go the boutique to show the suits to the Waynes.
Today was going to be a long day.
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Selina Kate, aka the semi-retired Cat Woman, was many things: a thief, a feminist, a beautiful woman, a trickster, and more recently a hair dresser, but she never imagined to be a babysitter.
“You want me to do what?” Selina asked incredulously to her boyfriend?... lover?... partner.
“Keep an eye on this girl. She lives a few blocks from here.” Said Bruce as he took off his mask and sat on the couch of Selina’s apartment.
“And what should I do that?””
“Because she is Diana’s employee, and she asked me to keep an eye on her.”
“She asked you, not me.” Selina took another sip from her coffee. That was why Tim and her got along so well. They both were coffee addicts.
“I feel that you would be really helpful to keep an eye on her white I can’t.”
Selina looked at Bruce.
Years of having a complicated love-hate-back-to-love-hate-again-and-so-far-love has taught Selina when Bruce is interested in somebody, not romantically, but as a child. A child that is in problems. Selina knew that his dad intuition was almost flawless.
“Tell me, did she escaped from an abusive relationship or is a target?” Selina asked him with a little hint on sad curiosity on her voice.
Bruce stop for a moment to think of the answer.
“I look her up in the system. Her name is not there. For the interaction that I had with her, I believe she is here illegally, most likely from France.” Bruce took the mug from Selena hand and took a long sip. He also had a problem with coffee. “Diana knows it too. That’s why she asked me to keep an eye on her. I was only going to patrol more often this area, but after what happened today, I would like you too also keep tags on her.” Bruce said in a soft tone.
Oh, shit.
Oh, mother fucking shit.
This was serious of Bruce used that tone.
“What do you mean ‘after what happened today?’”
And then Bruce told her everything. He told her how he found the girl lying down on the snow. Her skin looked so pale but it didn’t look like if she was being affected by the coldness. In fact, he could dare to day that she had a small blush on her cheeks. He rushed to check the pulse of the girl and hoped that she wasn’t death, and if she was, he hoped she had enough time before the hypothermia killed her. It surprised him when pink haired jumped from the snow.
“Wait, did you say pink haired girl? Asian heritage? Pretty blue eyes?” Selina asked him.
Curious how she knew all this information from the girl, Bruce just nodded.
“I know her. I paint her hair pink a week ago. Oh, god, please tell me that she is okay. She looked so weak when she came to my salon.
He told her about their little talk and the little nightmare that she had. The bruises on her neck were deep purple and black like if they were made by an extremely strong person, not a little girl like her.
“She clearly has problems and no adult supervision. That’s why I am asking you to keep an eye on her, until Diana comes back and we figure a plan.”
Selina bit her lip. She couldn't help but think about the poor girl.
“Okay, I’ll do it, but only if you promise me that you will not adopt this girl until we know more about her situation.”
Bruce frounced, “I am not going to adopted her.”
“I don’t know about that Bruce. You tend to adopt every child that has blue eyes. I bet you she is gonna be a Wayne.”
“Her last name name already is Wayne. Marinette A. Wayne.”
Selina just look at him.
“God dammit, Bruce.”
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