Chapter Text
A store being robbed in Gotham is not uncommon by any means. Any bat could deal with a petty theft from a chain store in their sleep. So it shouldn’t be surprising when a local fabric store’s alarm is set off during the bat family’s nightly patrol, other than the fact that it’s a fabric store that, according to a quick search from Tim, has no history of previous break ins.
Robin arrives on the scene first. Realistically he knows he can apprehend a thief by himself, but that’s not gonna stop his brothers from checking out the scene as well.
He was not expecting amongst the broken glass of shattered windows to see a girl about his age shoving various fabrics in a bag without a care in the world.
Her black hair is pulled into pigtails, hot pinks highlights peeking through. She’s wearing a sparkly rose pink tee shirt under a denim jacket covered in various patches and lavender overall shorts with a pink tulle tutu over them. Her hightop sneakers and knee socks are dirty and run down and her yellow fingerless gloves are ripped. As he looks closer he can make out white stars painted on her cheeks and a pair of pink heart shaped sunglasses perched on her head.
She’s humming merrily as she shoves the fabric in her big cloth bag, not bothering to be discreet or quiet in the slightest.
Robin narrows his eyes.
“Hey!” He yells, causing the girl’s head to snap up. Though instead of freezing like a deer in headlights or bolting out of the store like he was expecting, she just stares back at him, seemingly unbothered.
“..what?” She asks, raising an eyebrow at him. “Can I help you with somethin’?”
Damian blinks in surprise. Young thieves aren’t usually so blasé about being caught. He can’t count the amount of times he’s made kids twice his size practically piss themselves just by showing up, but this girl doesn’t seem to care at all. In fact, she rolls her eyes at the boy wonder and goes right back to stealing the fabric.
He slowly approaches her, keeping a watchful eye on her body language in case she decides to attack him.
The girl doesn’t budge as he comes closer, doesn’t even look his way until he’s standing next to her. Her blue eyes flicker over to him and blink as he stares at her. She turns to him, stepping closer until she’s in his face. Then she blows a big, pink bubble with her gum and pops, grinning at the slight grimace Robin gives.
There’s something weirdly familiar about her that he can’t place.
Shaking himself off, he steps back, glaring at her.
“I have wasted enough time on you. Now, are you going to surrender quietly or do I need to apprehend you?” Robin asks, irritated. The girl gasps in mock surprise, holding a hand to her chest.
“Who, lil’ ole me? I’m not botherin’ you, little birdie. Didn’t Daddy Bat teach you not to pick on girls?”
“So you do know who am I.” Robin confirms, crossing his arms over his chest.
“Why wouldn’t I? You’re kinda famous, ya know.” The girl rests her arm on the ransacked shelf next to them.
“Because most kids have enough sense to run when I get here.” Robin answers to which the girl throws her head back in laughter.
“Is that what you expect me to do, little birdie? Run away from the big scary traffic light? Cower in fear at yer feet? Funny little guy, you are.” She wipes a make believe tear from her eye.
Robin glowers at the girl. He doesn’t appreciate the traffic light comment.
“Who are you?” He snaps, losing his temper. The girl doesn’t so much as bat an eye at the volume.
“Marinette Dupain-Cheng, nice to meet’cha!” She says with far more cheer than one would expect from someone being confronted by a Bat. She sticks her hand out to shake. Robin just looks at it in apprehension.
“You just gave me your name? Just like that?” He asks. This girl must be stupider than he thought. She retracts her hand.
“Yeeaah, it’s about time I introduced myself.” The girl smiles, her gum peeking out from between her teeth. “Harley’s told me all about ya.”
This made Damian pause.
“..Harley?” He asks, brows furrowing thoughtfully.
“Yeah, Harley Quinn! I’m her ward.” The girl, Marinette, smiles proudly, holding her head up high. Robin looks at her skeptically. So that’s why she seems familiar. Even still-
“I don’t think so. If Harley Quinn had a ward, we’d know about it.” Marinette just laughs again.
“Really now?” She challenges, agitating Robin further with that smug look on her face.
“Nothing happens in Gotham without us knowing about it.” He deadpans. Marinette snorts.
“Nothing happens without you knowin’, huh?” She shakes her head with another laugh, pushing herself off the shelf to pace lazily around the room. She’s dragging around a bat covered in various stickers. Robin lifts a hand to his katana just in case. “Then how come when Ace Chemicals blew up, only the GCPD was there? How come there was a half million dollar bounty on my head, and I never had no bat tryna protect me?”
Marinette makes her way back to Robin, leaning on her bat a with smirk on her face.
“How come I’ve been in Gotham for months and you had no damn idea?” She pushes an accusatory finger against his chest. Robin smacks it away hastily.
“Back off..” He growls, pulling out his katana. Marinette sticks her tongue out at him.
“Who do you think took down Sionis? It certainly wasn’t you goody-goods.” She scoffs. “You’re welcome, by the way.”
“You killed Roman Sionis?” He narrows his eyes, pointing the katana at her. Marinette doesn’t flinch.
“Yeah, man. He had a fucking knife to my throat!” She twirls her bat around absentmindedly. “Harley and I blew the creep up. Good fuckin’ riddance.”
“Alright, I’ve heard enou-“ Robin begins, but is promptly cut off.
“When was the last time any of you even checked in on Harley, huh?!” Marinette yells. “After she split from the clown, practically the entire city was afta’ her! Even yer buddy Oracle offered support, but where were you?!” She seems actually angry at him, it takes Robin aback.
“Look,” he sighs. Out of all the situations he has to be stuck in tonight, it’s this one? Explaining himself to a moody rogue girl? “If it turns out that anything you say is credible, then there must’ve been a disconnect that kept the situation from our radar. I will speak to Batman about it.”
Marinette looks him up and down as she processes what he said. She finally smiles crookedly at him.
“Alright, I guess I can forgive ya, little birdie. But’cha better tell that Pop of yours to check in on my mentor more often, kay? She’s been real stressed out from this whole emancipation and it’s not good for-“ Robin groans in annoyance before she can finish.
“Do you ever stop talking?” He snaps, raising his katana. “I should’ve had you in the back of a police car ten minutes ago.” Marinette just grins.
“Nope!” She chirps. “Spent way too many years keepin’ quiet, sugar.”
Though that slightly concerns him, Robin shakes himself off mentally, focusing on the matter at hand.
“Either way,” he raises his katana in a battle stance. “I can’t let you rob this store.”
Marinette giggles, raising her bat.
“That’s assumin’ you can catch me.” She smirks, before jumping out of the way as Robin lunges.
She lands with a somersault on the floor and lifts her head up to grin back at him.
“Alright sugar, if you wanna play, we’ll play.” Marinette twirls her bat before using to vault herself at Robin, raising the bat back ups midair. Robin uses his katana to block her bat, locking them in a tight clash.
She pulls back to look at the dent in her bat and grumbles.
“Aww, c’mon!” Marinette whines. “This is my favorite bat!” Robin rolls his eyes.
“Then come quietly next time.” He throws a punch in her direction, which she promptly dodges, as well as the next one, and the next one. She ducks from the fourth punch and immediately shoots back up, slamming the top of her head into Robin’s chin.
He hisses, yanking her free arm with his free hand as she goes to turn, pulling her back against his chest with her arm wrenched behind her and holds his katana to her neck.
He doesn’t account for her speed, however, as Marinette whacks the katana away from her neck. She props her foot up on the shelf to her left and uses the momentum to kick off of it to the opposite shelf.
Suspended against both shelves in a split, she jams her bat behind her into Robin’s stomach, knocking the wind out of him and making him drop her arm.
Marinette places the bat in front of her vertically and jumps off of the shelves just as she lets go of it. She lands with both feet on the flat top of the bat and pushes herself backwards into a backflip as it falls.
She lands on her feet behind Robin. What kind of Flying Grayson type shi-
The boy wonder spins around to see Marinette fish something out of her belt. Was that a yoyo?
He raises his Katana up again just in time for the yoyo to shoot out and wrap around the katana before she yanks it from his hands.
Now disarmed, Marinette wraps the yoyo around Robin’s torso, pinning his arms to his side in the process. Tugging the string back towards her with Robin entangled in it, she pulls it over her shoulder, flipping Robin over her and slamming his back onto the floor.
Keeping the string in hand, Marinette quickly grabs her bat and bag of stolen fabric before approaching a very stunned and very stuck Robin.
“Sorry, sugarpie.” She apologizes as she looks down at him. “Can’t have ya arrestin’ me for something so silly. I mean, do you know how much a yard of fabric is here in Gotham? That’s the real crime.” She shakes her head with a huff.
“I didn’t hurt ya too bad, did I?” She asks, worry filling her pretty blue eyes. Pretty? Where did that come from?
“Why would you care?” he rasps from the floor. Marinette frowns.
“Aw, I know you’re just doin’ your job, little bird. Nothing personal.” She crouches down next to him, looking him over for any injuries. “You look okay. Anything feel broken?”
He just stares at her.
She was fighting him not even five minutes ago and now she’s checking on him? How endearing odd.
The staring contest is interrupted by the sound of three figures dropping down outside. Marinette looks up at the sound.
“Oh! looks like backup’s here. I should probably get going before they call the coppers.” She smiles down at him. “Bye, sugar. It was nice to meet you. I hope I see ya again soon.” And then before he can answer she swoops down, kisses his forehead and skips out of the store, retracting the yoyo as she goes.
Robin is known to have a fast recovery time. He’s rarely down for long unless he’s been seriously injured. But, even after the string of Marinette’s yoyo has left him, he stays where he is on the floor, too stunned to do anything as she walks out of the store and cheerfully addresses his brothers.
In fact, he stays glued in place until his brothers find him and lift him back up.
“Baby Bird?” Dick asks in concern, placing his hands on Damian’s shoulders. “Are you okay? What happened?” Damian looks between his brothers who are all giving him worried looks.
“I’m fine.” he reassures, though his voice is a little breathy.
“Who was that girl?” Jason asks. “And what’s on your forehead? Is that lipgloss?”
Damian instinctually reaches a hand to his forehead, cheeks burning in embarrassment as Jason howls with laughter, Dick and Tim smirking in amusement. Damian huffs glaring at the three of them.
“Harley Quinn has a ward.”