Chapter Text
Damian was almost never confused. The rare occurrence of something eluding his intellect would end in one of two ways. The first option for Damian and his confusion led to his immediate obsession with researching and understanding the subject of confusion. The second option was the far more common reaction, Damian would simply avoid the subject of confusion and hate it with all of the rage of an angsty Robin.
This second option full of rage and unreasonable hatred was directed specifically towards soulmates.
When Damian was raised by the league of assassins, yes they told him what soulmates were but they didn’t actually explain. Growing up, all Damian knew was that there was a specific person in the world with blue eyes. He wouldn’t see blue until he touched that person. And when he found this person with blue eyes, they were his target.
However once Damian moved in with his father, he was given a new idea of soulmates. Dick explained that a soulmate was your match, whether it be platonic or romantic. Dick elaborated that the eye color of your soulmate was the color missing from your life, and when you touched for the first time you would suddenly be able to see the color.
Damian didn’t like Dick’s definition of soulmates.
After all, Damian didn’t like people. The idea of someone out there selfishly hoarding the color blue confused him. So he took the second option for his confusion and decided that soulmates were worthless.
Nine years passed and Damian still hated soulmates. He hated that he couldn’t see the color blue. He hated that he didn’t know who this soulmate was. He hated that he might have a romantic soulmate. He hated that he might have a platonic soulmate. But most of all, he hated that no one else seemed to hate soulmates.
His hatred of soulmates was common knowledge, but that didn’t stop people from trying to touch him in the hope to be the soulmate of Damian Wayne, specifically at charity gala’s such as the one he was currently attending.
Damian stood off to the side of the event, his father was in the midst of the crowds and charming at least half a dozen old rich people. Drake and Grayson were together with a smaller group. Todd and Cass were eating at a table with a young man that kept trying to flirt with Cass, and both Todd and Cass seemed close to murder. Damian wanted to see this.
Right as Damian started heading over to help Todd and Cass deal with the flirtatious young man, he heard a distinct voice. A young woman’s voice to be exact.
“I swear if one more person brings up soulmates tonight, I might actually hurt them”
Damian almost gave himself whiplash from the speed at which he turned towards the voice.
The young woman he had heard was barely decent looking. She had extremely long auburn hair, ridiculous fake eyelashes, and she was wearing a green strapless dress covered with glitter. She was walking closer to him while talking with a friend.
She scoffed, “I mean honestly, the next creepy old guy that asks if I have soulmate will face my wrath”
Her friend smiled,“Pop off queen”
“I’m just so tired of soulmates ya know? I kind of hate them”
Damian almost stopped scowling, maybe he might be able to tolerate this girl despite her obvious hair extensions. Father would alsok praise him for seeking out conversation with someone his age.
As he approached, the two girls exchanged a quick look. That didn’t bode well for him. After all, the specific breed of females at these events always exchanged THAT look when they had made a plan to talk with a rich young man and said plan was working.
Damian knew he was walking into a formulated trap now. These young women had purposefully walked by him while discussing a fake hatred of soulmates, knowing he would hear and approach them. Many people had tried this method to approach him, but very few had been as convincing as this girl and her friend.
As much as Damian wanted to turn around and avoid the young women all together, he felt the gaze of his father on his back. Great. If his father was watching then Damian was expected to maintain his course and socialize. What a nightmare.
The two girls tried to maintain their conversation as if they hadn’t seen Damian, but obviously they failed. The hair extensions one kept glancing at him and started to smile slyly.
Damian approached the pair, “excuse me ladies but I couldn’t help but overhear your conversation,” the two girls shared THAT look again so he continued, “I must ask though, what were you planning to achieve?”
The one girl laughed nervously and looked at her friend, who was also wearing a dress drowning in glitter, this dress was a strange shade of red. They looked like cheap christmas ornaments. Ridiculous.
Green dress girl laughed nervously again but tried to mask her confusion, “I’m sorry, what do you mean?”
Damian raised an eyebrow, “you know exactly what I mean, but I will rephrase in case your simpleton brain couldn’t comprehend it,” Red dress girl scoffed but Damian continued, “By attempting to appeal to my widely known hatred of soulmates, what were you hoping would happen? After all you couldn’t possibly be my soulmate as your dress is green”
Realization dawned on the green girl’s face, Damian’s eyes were green. And she obviously could see the color as her makeup matched her dress perfectly.
The red girl gave an unconvincing laugh, trying to alleviate the tension. Red girl glanced at the green girl's dress and quickly tried to pat Damian’s shoulder in a forced attempt at being friendly and to test her own luck. Damian scoffed and side stepped away before she made contact, “Don’t even try”
Green girl glared at Damian and the red girl before she turned her full attention to the red girl. She grabbed red girl’s arm and quickly dragged her away, Damian heard hushed snippets of conversation around the lines of “curse my luck”, or “how did we not know his eyes were green”, and Damian’s personal favorite, “I can’t believe you tried to see if he was your soulmate when we specifically tried to see if he was MY soulmate”
Damian scoffed, all of these girls were the same. They were vain, vapid, and desperate. He had seen more than one cat fight break out over failed attempts to touch him, and quite frankly he was over it.
He looked over to Todd and Cass’s table, making eye contact with Cass who was actually ready to injure the young man that was still flirting with her. Todd looked equally ready to hurt the young man, but Todd’s hand was actually inching closer to the hidden pistol he kept in his suit. Father probably wouldn’t approve of one of his son’s shooting someone at a gala, so Damian started heading over to the table.
He got about halfway there when he ran into a young woman. Literally. The woman was sprinting at full speed and laughing. She turned her head for a second to look at the person running after her and promptly hit Damian with so much force she basically tackled him.
To say that Damian was surprised would be an understatement, Damian had a solid center of gravity and he was pure muscle. The sheer amount of force the young woman must have had to knock him over...
“Oh I’m so sorry Monsieur! Let me help you up!”
Damian was thrown out of his thoughts by the woman’s voice, her words surrounded by a thick french accent. She had already scrambled up and was holding out a hand for him. He glared at her and stood up on his own, dusting off his suit, “Be grateful neither of us sustained damage, miss”
She giggled, “I apologize, I’m very clumsy and my pursuers were relentless”
Damian looked around to see what pursuers she was referring to and saw a small group of children panting heavily from running. There were a few children who looked familiar to Damian, and he recognized them as children and grandchildren of different millionaires and billionaires. A few of the children were talking in hushed whispers and giggling as they kept looking between Damian and the young woman.
Damian brushed off his suit once more, “There was no harm done, so no need to apologize. I was simply caught off guard”
The young woman blushed a bit and her smile was blinding, “I’m Marinette by the way”
She held out her hand again, “and you are?”
Damian refrained from showing any surprise on his face, most people recognized him immediately. He took her hand, “Damian”
“Well monsieur Damian, it was a pleasure. But unless you wish to join our game, I must bid you adieu”
Damian shook his head, “I would not wish to bring shame and disappointment to these children as there is no possibility they could ever catch me”
Marinette laughed brightly, “I bet they could surprise you, but I see your point. Maybe we will bump into each other in the future, adieu Damian!”
And with that she was running again, the children giving chase. As she ran, Damian caught a glimpse of her shoes. High heels. At least four inches. And they were a pretty shade of purple he wasn’t familiar with. Impressive, the only women he knew that could run that well in heels and a floor length gown were all superheroes.
He watched as Marinette ran, letting children catch up to her periodically to keep their spirits up. What an interesting girl.