Chapter Text
Marinette didn't want for much, really. At 19, she was quite accomplished; her fashion brand was quickly on track to compete with any other couture label in the business after she'd finally graduated lycée .
On top of that, she had her very own apartment situated comfortably close to her university. Sure, it may have been located in one of the world's greatest hotbeds for crime, but she was independent, dammit!
She'd also successfully defeated her long-time nemesis, Hawkmoth, after years of emotional terrorism, and brought him to justice.
But really, she was just a normal, 19-year-old college student who just happened to be in possession of a collection of super-powered jewelry.
Which brought her back to her current dilemma; her next-door neighbor, a surly, brooding guy she'd managed to befriend somewhere along the way, was standing between her and her Netflix bingeing. Or, more accurately, his wi-fi password was.
See, Marinette, with all her accomplishments and cunning, was still but a scatterbrained klutz who sometimes forgot certain things; things like checking her mail, or forgetting to make a grocery list, or forgetting to pay her internet subscription.
So, here she sat, on one of her rare days off from both commissions and schoolwork, trying to (illegally) connect to her neighbor's (andmaybealsocrush's) wi-fi.
Of course, the real issue wasn't figuring out his password, no, she was (formerly) Ladybug, for goodness sake! No, she had figured out his password, albeit mostly on accident. After several minutes of trying to remember any miniscule detail of his that might clue her in to his thought process, she'd jokingly typed in her name. A name she knew to be uncommon; a name she knew was uncommon to him.
This, of course, led her down a spiral of questions, not the least of which was why on EARTH he would have her name as his wi-fi password. Needless to say, any thoughts of Netflix or chill had been forgotten.
A sudden shuffling of feet and the jingle of keys, no doubt belonging to the man of the hour, brought her out of her stupor and she quickly disconnected from Damian's ( the Damian Wayne's ) wi-fi, shut her laptop, unplugged and shoved it under her couch, and fled to her bedroom, whereupon she, like the mature, independent adult she was, curled up in her closet and shut the doors.
As he shut the door to his apartment, Damian considered the noise he'd heard from his neighbor's place next door. It was rather unusual to hear commotion like this from her. Marinette had a work ethic he could admire and rarely ever caused a disturbance.
Initially, he'd been prepared to make as little contact with his neighbor as possible, but she'd been the one to introduce herself first and inform him of her sewing activities, out of consideration. Of course, he'd already done cursory background checks on every tenant in the apartment complex and was already well aware of her extracurricular business. (Really, he wondered how she thought MDC was some kind of secret identity.)
Nevertheless, she hadn't tried to seek anything from him, or rather, the Wayne name. In fact, she'd proven wholly unaware of his identity. He supposed it wasn't out of the question, considering she appeared to be on student visa from France, if her accent was anything to go by.
Over the course of the following months, they'd developed a sort of repertoire that evolved from a courteous acknowledgement of each other should they happen to pass each other in the hallway to making small talk and occasionally texting once she'd met Titus and demanded he show her photos and videos of said dog.
Perhaps that had been the final nail in his coffin; discovering her absolute love for all animals. She'd offhandedly mentioned meeting a crocodile that belonged to someone she knew, whom he'd deduced had to have been Jagged Stone. In turn, he'd mentioned his cat and divulged his passion for rescuing strays. The look in her eyes when he'd told her this had him pause, and for the first time since coming to Gotham, he felt like he was out of his depth.
A tug on the leash still in his hands brought him out of his reverie. Unclipping Titus's leash and returning it to its hook, his mind returned to the present. The very obvious hasty retreat of his neighbor at the sound of his arrival. She was hiding something. She was hiding something from him.
Tamping down the urge to barge into her place, he opted to slip his phone out of his pocket instead.
Inside of her small, walk-in closet, a vaguely Marinette-shaped cocoon sat, catastrophizing, when her phone suddenly buzzed in her pocket. Against her better judgement, she checked the notification only to find the source of her current distress was messaging her.
Despite knowing that her heart was in no state to be dealing with Mr. Tall, Dark, and Brooding , her curiosity won out and she read Damian's message.
Damian : Are you alright? I heard a crash coming from your room.
She swooned.
It was so like him to ask after her and make sure she was alright. Truly, she had it bad .
So lost in her daydream was she that she altogether forgot to respond, despite knowing she had read receipts on, prompting Damian to try calling her instead.
In a panic, she picked up without having prepared herself.
"Damian!"
Why had she just blurted out his name instead of an actual greeting?!
"Marinette."
And OF COURSE he was unfazed.
A beat of silence passed.
"Marinette? I can hear you breathing over the line. Please let me know if you're alright."
Ok. She could do this! Just a simple 'Oh I'm fine! Sorry to worry you!'
Unfortunately, what came out instead was:
"I'M YOUR PASSWORD!"
Shit.
Another beat of silence passed.
On the other end of the line, Damian was trying to process her train of thought but before he could say anything else, Marinette spoke again.
"Sorry! I'm password! I was just looking at my fine! No! I-I mean! I'm fine! I was just watching tv!"
"Marinette-"
"You know! there's a lot of good movies these days! Oh! Do you like movies? Everyone likes movies! We should go see a movie together! Not! Not together together!! We could invite all our friends! Oh but that's a lot of people so maybe not all of them! Who do you want to invite?! I don't know a lot of people here. I used to go to the movies with Kagami; she's my friend back in Paris, although I guess she's not in Paris anymore! I haven't heard from her in so long! Do you think I should call her? I'm going to call her. Maybe she would wanna go to the movies--!"
"Marinette!"
She paused and jerked her head back to look at her phone which so kindly reminded her she was currently on the phone with none other than her big, fat crush whose eyes were like sparkling Jade, perfectly framed by long, dark lashes that fluttered when he looked down at her and if she juuuust stood up on her toes she could close the distance and--
"-ocus, Marinette!"
"Kiss him!" she blurted out.
"WHAT?! KISS WHO?!! Marinette, are you alright?! Is someone there with you?!"
"Mon Dieu! Sorry! Oh my god! I can't believe I just said that out loud!"
Marinette could feel her face burning and fought the urge to throw her phone into the street and ask Kaalki to send her to an uninhabited island where she would use the local flora to make her clothes.
That deep, dark rumble of Damian's voice, sighing directly in her ear, simultaneously calmed her frayed nerves and caused her heart to skip a beat.
"May I come over, Marinette?"
And really, what was she supposed to say?