Chapter Text
Third Person POV:
It had been three years since Marinette had moved to Gotham City to study design at Gotham Academy. As usual she went to one of her favorite coffee shops in Gotham so she could get some energy after pulling all nighters for the past month and just living off of coffee. After walking 6 blocks from her apartment she got to the coffee shop, Loca Mocha (Ty Sabs). She went inside and ordered her usual, a six shot latte with cream, whipped cream on top and salted caramel sauce drizzled across the top (idk if that would actually taste good but I don’t drink coffee so don’t mind me). She went to find a seat and was unsuccessful until she found a free table in the far back of the coffee shop, however, someone else was looking at the same table at the same time as her and they ended up bumping into each other while not paying attention and heading towards the same table.
“Sorry sorry, I’m insanely clumsy.”
“No it’s alright, I wasn’t looking where I was going.”
“That makes two of us, I should’ve paid more attention. I’m Marinette by the way.”
“I should’ve paid more attention too. I’m Tim, it’s nice to meet you Marinette.”
“So I guess we both just had our eyes on the table huh?”
“Yeah.”
“Should we just sit together then? There’s no other empty tables or seats.”
“That’d probably be easiest.”
“I have an order for a Marinette, six shot latte, with cream, whipped cream on top and salted caramel sauce drizzled on the top,” one of the baristas yelled.
“I should go get that, I’ll be right back.”
‘She seems like an interesting person, I kind of want to get to know her’ Tim thought. Marinette came back to the table and sat down, Tim already had his coffee since he had ordered before Marinette came into the shop. Marinette was about to pull out her laptop to start working when Tim stopped her. She looked at him confused,
“I- I wanted to get to know you better before the both of us have to leave,” he said nervously.
“Oh, I supposed I understand that,” she said and put her laptop away.
“So, what are your hobbies?” Tim asked her.
“Well, I love designing. It's my passion and dream to be a designer and I’ve been doing it my whole life so I guess I could count that as a hobby. I also bake a lot, my parents are bakers so I’ve been taught by the pros,” she said, the last part with a joking tone.
“Those are a lot more interesting than my hobbies, all I do with my life is work and then work some more, get some coffee and sleep once a month,” Tim said jokingly.
“I’m sure you have more hobbies than that but okay.”
They continued to learn more about each other and got more and more interested in the other every second. Customers came and went and eventually it was 1pm. The tables were full again and another customer walked in, this time, however, Marinette and Tim watched them order. Marinette just happened to recognize the customer as Lê Chiến Kim. Kim ordered his drink and went to look for a table when someone caught his eye, Marinette Dupain-Cheng.
“Long time no see Mari-bitch.” Kim said to her, clearly trying to offend her though it didn’t work.
“Nice to see you too, Kim.” Marinette replied calmly.
“Still sending death threats to Lila?” Kim asked snottily.
“Still a sheep following around a liar with no evidence?” Marinette said smoothly.
“You still don’t believe Lila huh? You know she’s friends with the Waynes right? Plus she’s dating the youngest Wayne son and she could get 15 lawsuits put on you with a few words. All she’d have to do is tell her boyfriend that you sent her death threats and bullied her in highschool.” Kim said stupidly in front of the second youngest Wayne son.
“Hi, Kim right?” Tim said stepping in.
“Yeah? And what’s it to ya?” Kim replied in a rude tone.
“I’m Tim Drake, and I sure as hell think I’d know if my younger brother was dating a lying bitch. Damian is smart enough to avoid people like that and this ‘Lila’ person seems like a golddigger, my brother also isn’t the type to cheat on his boyfriend.” Tim said, glaring at Kim.
“What do you mean? You just said your last name is Drake, that’s not Wayne you dumbass.” Kim said, thinking he knows everything.
“The thing is Bruce Wayne, my adoptive father, has adopted all of his kids except for Damian and we all kept our last names. Damian is the only biological child of Bruce that we know of and he most definitely is not dating anyone named Lila, he’s dating Jonathan Kent. I would, however, like to know the last name of this Lila.” Tim said.
“Oh Lila’s name is Lila Rossi, I’m sure you’d love to meet her, you see she knows tons of celebrities and she even taught MDC how to design, though, MDC did steal some of Lila’s designs.” Kim said, completely oblivious to the fact that he just landed Liar Grossi- oops, I meant Lila Rossi about seventeen lawsuits.
“Thank you for the name, now if you don’t mind I’d prefer if you just leave.” Tim said.
Kim left and forgot about the coffee he ordered.
“So...what was that about?” Tim asked.
“Well, it’s kind of a long story…” Marinette responded.
“I’m willing to listen to any story coming from you no matter how long it is,” Tim said without thinking. (The amount of cheesiness in that sentence is the reason why it pained my soul to write that)
Marinette laughed, “Whatever you say.”
And so we start from the beginning of Sophomore year at Francois Dupont Highschool. (Idgaf if it’s a middle school)
“Well when I was in my freshman year of high school I had a pretty good year, I was class president, I was friends with everyone, had a crush on a guy I thought was nice, and thought that nobody would ever believe someone they just met over myself. Then, Sophomore year came around and there was an exchange student, Lila Rossi. She claimed to be best friends with one of Paris’s heroes, Ladybug, and my best friend was obsessed with Ladybug so she automatically became friends with Lila. I, however, knew that Lila wasn’t friends with Ladybug because I myself was friends with her and knew that she would never become friends with someone that easily. I confronted Lila about her Lies about Ladybug and a few other famous people but she ended up threatening me. She told me that she would take all my friends and make everyone hate me, she almost succeeded completely but I still have my friends Chloe, Nino, Kagami and Luka. She told everyone that I had bullied her and that I had sent her death threats, though, she had no proof and everyone believed her because she said she knew celebrities which meant she would always tell the truth to them, they didn’t need proof. They ended up bullying me to teach me a lesson in their words, one time I almost died, they beat me up and stabbed me in the stomach multiple times resulting in me going into a coma for months. Lila also told my biological parents these lies and sadly they believed all of them, when I tried to explain it to them they just ignored me and became distant with me, they ended up disowning me and my honorary uncle adopted me with his wife, I applied for a few colleges after I graduated and even though I was accepted to harvard something just called me to go to gotham academy instead so I did, I don’t regret it to this day, I’ve learned a lot more about design and myself than I would have learned at harvard or any other school. Plus, I found Loca Mocha and like- this place has amazing coffee, I could never say no to it.”
“Wow, you weren’t lying, that is a really long story. But it was an interesting one and one that made me want to murder whoever this Lila person is.”
They talked for a while more just talking about ways to murder Lila for just being a bitch. The one they decided on was to torture her and make her wish she were dead and then give her a very slow and painful death and then chop up her limbs, throw them into a volcano, collect her ashes from said volcano and place them in a separate galaxy. Eventually it was 7pm and they didn’t even realize the amount of time that had passed until one of the baristas asked them to leave as the coffee shop was closing.
“Um Ma’am? Sir? We’re closing up soon, I hate that I have to interrupt but it would probably be easiest if you guys left before we start closing up.” The barista said.
“Oh, sorry I guess we didn’t realize what time it is, we’ll get going now.” Marinette and Tim said at the same time.
The two collected their belongings and walked out of the coffee shop hand-in-hand. Eventually they got to a crossing point between Wayne Manor and Marinette’s apartment so they had to part ways, not before exchanging phone numbers of course. Tim told her to text him immediately once she got home so he knew that she got home safe.
Marinette got home about five minutes later and texted Tim once she unlocked her apartment door. She made herself some ramen for dinner and binge-watched Haikyuu. She was in the middle of watching Tadashi yell at Tsukishima about being more excited about winning when Tim texted her saying that he was home and asking if she wanted to meet at Loca Mocha again the next day. She, of course, said yes and told him she’d see him the next day. A few hours later, while Marinette was working on one of her projects at two in the morning, Tim texted her asking if she was awake. She texted him back once she saw it and asked him why he was awake.
Coffee Addict: I could say the same to you -_-
Workaholic: Well I have a reason to be awake, I’m working on design projects. What’s your excuse?
Coffee Addict: Insomnia. Work. Patrol. Coffee.
Coffee Addict: Ignore the patrol part.
Workaholic: You’re a coffee addicted insomniac obsessed with getting their work done and you’re a hero?
Coffee Addict: ...you just met me yesterday you shouldn’t be able to know me that well.
Workaholic: I’m good at reading people.
Coffee Addict: Damn
Workaholic: You should be asleep, go to sleep
Coffee Addict: I have patrol tonight though.
Workaholic: Ask someone to cover for you because someone you met at a coffee shop who also happens to be a sleep deprived insomniac is telling you to sleep.
Coffee Addict: Fine but only if you agree to go to sleep too.
Workaholic: Okay :)
Coffee Addict: I got my sister to cover for patrol for me.
Workaholic: Now sleep then
Coffee Addict: Fineeeeeeeee
After a few minutes of back and forth telling each other to sleep they both said goodnight and went to bed.
~Time skip brought to you by who gives a shit~
Marinette woke up at 8am as usual and got ready to meet Tim. She wore her hair down and wavy, put on some light makeup, some black doc marten combat boots, light wash ripped jean shorts and a black crop top. Once she was ready she left to go to Loca Mocha. Time woke up at 7:30 am, a little later than usual. He got up and styled his hair, put on some jeans, a plain t-shirt tucked into his jeans, and white converse hightops. He went downstairs to get some breakfast from Alfred when everyone looked at him weirdly.
“Are you guys okay... “ Tim asked.
“Tim- what are you wearing? Why are you dressed up casually instead of your usual work suit? WHAT IS GOING ON?!?! WHY DON’T YOU HAVE COFFEE? WHY DO YOU LOOK AWAKE AND SANE?!?!” Jason asked, starting to think that he was drugged.
“Oh well yesterday I met this girl at Loca Mocha and I spent the entire day getting to know her and last night at two in the morning I asked if she was awake and she made me go to sleep after I asked Cass to cover for me on patrol. I’m meeting with her again today.” Tim explained in a hurry to get to the coffee shop.
“You landed a girl who can get you to sleep- how the hell did that happen?” Jason asked.
“I’m still not completely sure myself. But I’m glad I met her.” Tim replied with a smile.
Everyone else in the room just stared at Tim expectantly.
“What?”
“When do we get to meet her???”
“UM- NEVER THANK YOU VERY MUCH!!!”
“YOU CAN’T DO THAT!!”
“Oh yes I can and I will.” Tim said and walked out of the manor.
When Tim got to the coffee shop he waited for Marinette, at 8:15 she texted him and told him she was on her way, Tim realized he might have gotten there a little earlier than he had to. He waited for a while knowing she would probably get there around 8:30. By the time it was 8:40 he started to get worried but stayed put just in case, once it was 9:00 he couldn’t help it, he got up and started walking towards her apartment, once he got there he looked for her and asked people if they saw anyone who looked like her until he turned his head to an alleyway and was horrified at what he saw…