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Sometimes the universe had to keep throwing people at each other until they stuck. Most people could follow the universe’s plans pretty easily, and for a girl chosen by the literal goddess of creation, it should have been easy to throw her at her soulmate. One meeting and done! That was the plan. Unfortunately, the universe didn’t expect one Marinette Dupain-Cheng, and one Timothy Drake-Wayne to be stubborn and not read the signs. So it took a few tries to finally get them together.
---
The first time Marinette met Tim was a huge misunderstanding.
I know what you’re hiding.
I know you better than you think.
-TDW
The note had been slipped under her door sometime during the gala set up. Someone knew her secret, and whoever they were had access to her room. Marinette stood staring at the note and then spun around when she heard a noise behind her.
“Well, well, well. Who would have thought-” There was a man’s voice coming from the chair by the bed and she grabbed her shoe and flung it into their face.
“Who are you?” “Ow!”
She flipped the light on and grabbed her sewing sheers from her desk holding them in his face. “I said, who are you?”
“You’re not Jason!” He exclaimed and held his hands up in surrender.
She took a step back. “Who?”
He stayed in the chair and gave her a nervous look. “My brother… Jason Todd? Hi, I’m Tim Drake.”
Marinette took a step back and lowered her hand with the sheers. “Timothy Drake? like… like… the guy who…” She looked at her hand. “Oh my god, I threatened you!” She flushed red and backed up from him.
He stood up and held his hands out again. “No! No, don’t feel bad! You were totally justified! A strange man was in your room, I would have been surprised if you hadn’t thrown a shoe at me.”
“Oh my god, I threw my shoe at you!” She gave him an accusing look. “Wait, why were you in here?”
He rubbed the back of his neck and gave her a sheepish look. “I was trying to ambush my brother. He always stays in a different room when he stays at the manor. And when Alfred was preparing this room for the weekend I assumed it was for him. I had forgotten that Jagged and his designer would be here today.”
“So the note?”
“Was supposed to distract him enough to not notice me right away.” He offered out a hand. “I do apologize, and I hope that this doesn’t reflect poorly on me or our company.”
“MDC.” She shook his hand. “So you don’t know something that I’m hiding?”
He laughed and ran a hand through his hair. “Heh, no. I know that Jason poured dye in Dick’s laundry detergent and now all of his clothes are pink.”
She giggled behind her hand and turned to walk back to her desk. Setting down her sheers she turned back to look at him. “Well, not that I didn’t like meeting you, but I do really need to get some sleep. I have a pretty big day tomorrow, as you might imagine.”
“Oh yeah, of course! Have a good night!” He waved at her as he left the room and shut the door behind him.
Marinette walked over and locked the door then laid down on the ground to look under the door and confirm that no one was there. After a quick look around she turned back to her bag. “Tikki! Did that just happen!?”
“Yes Marinette, it really did.” Tikki flew out of her bag and grabbed a cookie from the plate that Marinette had set on the side of her desk.
She held her face in her hands and slid down the wall. “So I really did threaten a really cute guy with sewing sheers.”
Tikki came over and patted her head. “You really did Marinette.”
---
They didn’t really see much of each other over the rest of the week that Marinette was in Gotham, but the universe was going to throw them at each other again.
She didn’t have to wait long, not that she would find that out for a few years.
“Hey! I know you!” Red Robin swung by her window and stopped on her balcony.
Marinette gave him a look and bit her lip. There was always the chance that Diana had written down something about their identities, but she wasn’t sure.
“Oh? To what do I owe the honor of Red Robin coming to my balcony?” She waved to the seat next to her offering him a place to sit.
“You’re that girl! The one Chat Noir talks about.” He smiled and took the offered seat.
She started cursing Adrien in her head, what mess had he gotten her into now? “Oh? I didn’t know that Chat Noir spoke about me.”
He gave her a big grin. “Yeah! He said that the girl who lives above the Sabine and Tom bakery is the go-to person for mid patrol snacks.”
Marinette groaned loudly and rolled her eyes. “He did, did he?” She grumbled under her breath. “See if I let that alleycat eat leftovers ever again.”
“I didn’t mean to get him in trouble.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “I just wanted to say that I think it’s really cool that a civilian would help out their city’s heroes.”
She smiled at him and bit the inside of her cheek. “I just figure that if they are out risking their lives, the least I can do is offer up leftover bakery goodies.”
Red Robin stared at her for a while and she tried to play it cool by returning to the embroidery project she had been working on. “Do I know you from somewhere else?”
She continued to stare at her project as she responded. “I don’t think so?”
“Hmm…” He seemed to think about it for a while before snapping and giving her his best gotcha look. “I know! You were at the Wayne Winter gala that got attacked! You’re uh… MDC! That was it! You’re Jagged Stone’s designer!”
She lept over the chair and held her hands over his mouth. “Don’t shout it! That’s a secret! The only reason you saw me without my mask was because the police made me take it off me before you came into the room.”
He grabbed her hands and gently pulled them from his face. “Sorry, I should know better.”
She tapped his mask and laughed. “Yes, you should.”
---
The third time they met Ladybug was the one surprising him for once. It was a couple of years later and the universe was getting pretty annoyed!
“Hey! I know that guy! He could help!” Ladybug changed directions and swung away from Chat Noir and Rena Rouge to come towards him and Tim had a second of panic.
He hadn’t had the chance to meet Ladybug yet, so he was a little worried that someone who had worked with Team Miraculous had outed him. He also thought back to whether or not Chat Noir would have figured out his identity. Bruce still hadn’t given them permission to do a reveal with the Parisian team, so the boys were trying to be careful around them.
“Hey! You’re Tim Drake, right?” She asked him as she landed next to him on the roof of the hotel. “Chat Noir said when he was working in Gotham that your family had the coolest snacks available for their heroes.”
“Vigilantes.” He corrected on instinct.
She laughed and held out a hand. “Well, it’s nice to meet you! I hope that you’re having a good time in Paris, Mr. Drake.”
“Please, call me Tim. To what do I owe the honor, Ladybug?” He shook her hand and then looked past her at where Chat and Rena were across the street from them.
She looked back at them and then laughed when Chat made a motion with his hands. “Oh! We’re playing a game and I thought you might be willing to help.”
He smiled at her enthusiasm. “What’s the game?”
She looked back at the other two. “Well, we’re on a scavenger hunt that Bunnyx set up, but they used a riddle that we’ve been struggling with. I know that Gotham has the Riddler, so maybe as a native Gothamite you might be able to help us?”
“What’s the prize?” He smirked at her.
“Who said anything about a prize?” She kept glaring daggers at Chat Noir and looking around.
“Well, what fun is a game without a prize?”
She glared at him and then crossed her arms. “Okay, you got me. Carapace, Viperon, and Queen Bee are competing against us and the winning team gets to pick the movie for movie night for the next month.”
“And a commission from MDC!” Rena Rouge shouted across the street and Ladybug’s eye twitched.
“She never agreed to that!” Chat slapped Rena’s arm and glared at her.
“So you see, we are trying very hard to win.” Ladybug smiled sheepishly. “Do you think you’d be up for helping?”
“Well~, I would be willing to help.” He said in a sing-song voice. “On one condition.”
She bit her lip and stared at him. “What’s the condition?”
He thought about how Dick had broken into his apartment three times in the last week to steal his food and mess with his case files and knew what he wanted. “I know that you guys have paired up with the bats a couple of times. So I was wondering, next time you pair up with them, would you punch Nightwing for me?”
She burst up laughing and held out her hand. “It’s a deal! If we win the game I will punch Nightwing for you.”
He shook her hand. “So, what’s the riddle?”
She stood up a little straighter. “Okay, it’s this. More than sixteen hundred steps to climb to me, yet I can be gotten to in an instant. I cannot be seen from the ground, yet you all know where I alight. If you want to win this game, tell me, where am I?” She relaxed a little. “See what I mean?”
He thought it over. The Eiffel Tower has 1,665 steps, but most of them weren’t open to the public, though the heroes might be allowed to use the upper level of stairs. They could travel up and down really fast, so that still made sense, but was there a secret place there that only the heroes knew about… “I think I got it, but I’m guessing a little.” She nodded at him so he continued. “Do you guys have a secret base at the top of the Eiffel Tower? It has over sixteen hundred steps, and you wouldn’t be able to see it from the ground. You guys can get places really fast and-”
She cut him off and looked at the other two. “I think you’re right! Oh, shoot! We have to move!” She turned back to him and hugged him. “Thanks, Tim! Gotta run, Bug out!”
---
It was time, the universe was done messing around and it was TIME. They were going to find each other and stay by one another and if someone had to die, well nothing was off the table at this point.
It was all hands on deck for six days. The Justice League had called in The Titans, The Young Justice, and, after the pressure from the younger heroes, The Court of Paris. They had been fighting for six days, and it was only due to Marinette’s healing ability and Nino leading the effort to get civilians out of the way that they hadn’t lost any lives yet. The older heroes had been annoyed at the fact that the Parisian team seemed to sit back at first, but when they saw that the team was actually positioning themselves each day in the most likely attacked area and getting people out of the area WonderWoman was finally elected to tell them about the team’s more interesting powers.
At the end of day six, they had finally gotten the alien invasion under control and the leaders of the opposing force were sitting down with the League to discuss terms of surrender. Each of the younger teams had sent a proxy to sit in on the meeting.
Marinette was standing between Nightwing and Red Robin while they listened to Superman and Batman make a deal with the aliens. After the meeting was finally adjourned she turned to the boys and smiled.
“It was a pleasure working with you all!” She gave Nightwing a look of apology. “I am so so sorry about this by the way, but I gave my word and I can’t break it.”
Nightwing tilted his head in confusion. “What are you- Ow!” He doubled over in pain and Batman came over to grab her around the waist.
She winced. “I’m so so sorry! But I made a deal!”
Red Robin stared at her in awe. “Oh my god, she really did it!”
Batman kept a hold of her. “Ladybug! Stand down!”
Red Robin was doubled over laughing and Batman was still holding her when she went completely still. “Oh my god, I know you.”
Red Robin bolted up and stared at her, she knew he had to be completely wide-eyed behind the mask. “No, you don’t!”
“Oh my god you’re brothers aren’t you?” she groaned and hung her head. “I should have guessed, you guys fight exactly like Chat and Queenie.”
“Ladybug?” Batman prompted. “Why did you hit Nightwing?”
“Because I made a deal with Tim Drake that the next time I saw Nightwing I would punch him for him.”
Red Robin looked between Batman and her while Batman just let her go and sighed. “Red, do you have something to say?”
“I didn’t mean to out my identity this way?” He gave Batman a sheepish look.
“Well, we might as well have this discussion with the rest of your team Ladybug.” He waved her forward and she pressed a button on her communicator. “I just let my team know we’re coming.”
---
“Mommy, how did you and Daddy meet?” Hannah asked Marinette at bedtime, making her laugh.
She picked up her daughter and placed her into bed. “Well, what time do you want to hear about? Because Daddy and I met each other four times.”
“Tell her the one about punching Uncle Dick!” Reece chimed in from the door to the bathroom where he had just finished brushing his teeth. “That’s my favorite one!”
“Well, it happened during a meeting with the Justice-”
“No mommy!” He cut her off. “You have to start with the alien battle! Tell us about Uncle Adrien helping you save all those people.”
She laughed again and pointed to his bed. “Okay, I’ll tell the whole story, but you have to get into bed, mister.”
Tim walked in and kissed the top of her head. “Well, kids, what’s the bedtime story tonight?”
“How you and mommy met and Uncle Adrien defeated aliens!” Reece cheered.
“Oh, well I do want to hear this one.” Tim went to kiss the top of Hanna’s head and then walked over to sit on Reece’s bed. “Tell us the story, love.”
Marinette laughed and then started the story. Their life wasn’t perfect, but it was full of love and family, and in the next few months they would be adding a third child to their home. Their love story took a while, but the universe got its way. Marinette Dupain-Cheng and Timothy Drake-Wayne now had a perfect little family.