Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“I had it handled traffic light. Besides, your form was off.” Of all the things Damian expected when he got his soulmark, this was not one of them, but he knew one thing for sure his brothers could never know.

It was Damian’s 16th birthday, he knew that he would have to get out of bed at some point, but today was the day that he had been dreading. You see, in this universe, on a person’s sixteenth birthday, writing would appear on their arm with the first words that your soulmate says to you. Soulmates were important, but they did not make a relationship.

Damian’s parents were a great example as they were soulmates, but because of the corruption in his mother due to her environment and upbringing, their relationship quickly turned toxic, meaning they were no longer together. In some ways, that was good because his father ended up meeting Clark, who didn’t have a soulmate due to being an alien.

He was deep in thought when a knock came from the door. “Master Damian, breakfast will be ready in half an hour. I expect you to be prompted and ready Master Dick has been planning this for some time.” Of course, his birthday had to fall on a weekend, meaning that no one was working, and Dick could go full out “to express his love for his little brother,” in his words.

“Thank you, Pennyworth. I will be down promptly.” Luckily Alfred had a hand in planning today’s activities, meaning that Damian could at least know this would not get too out of hand.

Damian slowly arose, putting on long black pants and formal black sneakers (A surprising insightful gift from Dick, finding a way of convincing Damian to wear comfortable shoes for once), knowing that there would likely be a lot of activities and, finally, a black long sleeve wool turtleneck to hide the soulmark. He quickly styled his hair and headed downstairs to face his loving family (the lion’s den).

Knowing there was no escape, he headed downstairs dragging his feet only to face Dick, Tim, Jason, Cass, Stephanie, Duke, Bruce, Barbra and Alfred among an array of fruits and savoury vegan breakfast items. (It definitely didn’t give Damian a warm feeling seeing that someone had remembered that he was not a sweet person due to the food he grew up eating.)

Tim was nursing a cup of coffee but looked more alive than normal for the morning, suggesting this wasn’t his first cup. Cass, Steph, Babs and Duke looked to be having a quiet conversation that stopped when he entered, similar to Dick and Jason. While Bruce read the paper with his own cup of coffee, which he put down at Damian’s entrance as Alfred brought out more food.

He took a seat next to Bruce, who was at the head of the table, with Dick next to him and Tim across from him. He slowly started to fill up his plate with food, noticing Dick practically vibrating next to him with everyone else giving him questioning looks.

“So?” Dick asked, looking ready to jump on him if he didn’t give him the answer to the question Damian definitely wasn’t answering.

“So what?” Damian responded, raising an eyebrow at his excitable brother.

“So, did you get your soulmark?” Dick asked, getting more excited.

Knowing there was no way out of this and that if he lied, they would want proof (And Cass would be able to tell he was lying), he responded with a curt “Yes”. Not that he was going to say anymore, but even if he did, he wouldn’t have gotten a word out with Dick’s squeal and everyone’s congratulations.

It took several minutes for everyone to quiet down before Tim, always one to need to know and categorise everything, asked, “So what does it say?”

“Tt, None of your business Drake,” Damian said before trying to go back to his breakfast.

“That means it must be good. Come on, cough it out, squirt,” Jason piped in. Suddenly everyone was very invested in seeing Damian’s soulmark.

“You don’t have to, but remember, Dames, no one here is going to judge you.” Bruce, Alfred, Duke and Cass start nodding while Babs, Tim, and Stephaney all make vague gestures.

While Jason pipes up, “Fuck no-” Alfred coughs in the background. “Speak for yourself. I will definitely be judging.”

This is where Bruce finally decides to pipe in “Damian does not have to tell anyone if he does not want to”.

“Thank you, father.”

“Besides Alfred and I”, he adds after.

“But fath-”

“There will be no buts, but you may wait to tell us later.”

“Tt”, Damian scowls (cutely pouts).

“Damian”, Bruce’s voice went deeper and more stern.

“Yes, father, I will inform you later.”

Bruce stands up from his chair. “Good, now I must go get ready for the day. Dick, will you be keeping today’s plans a surprise or informing Damian now?”

Dick looks up and is thoughtful for a second before stating, “I’ll tell him now so he can make sure he brings everything he wants.”

“Good.”

At this point, Alfred comes forward and says, “I shall start cleaning and putting away the used dishes while Master Damian finishes eating, and you inform him of today’s plans.”

There is a chorus of “Yes, Alfred”, “That would be great, Alfred”, and “Thank you” before Alfred collects the plates and dishes before he leaves for the kitchen.

“Ok, so Damian tod-” But before Dick can say any more, Tim springboards off his chair over the table onto Damian, pushing him to the ground, trying to pin him while also reaching for his wrist.

“Ah, get off of me, Drake,” Damian says while trying to regain control, ending up with them both just rolling around while the others watch, contemplating on whether to get involved or not.

“I will. Just let me see your soulmark.” He says, trying to wrangle the unruly child. “Hold still. I just want to know what it says.”

“No, get off of me.”

This is where Dick decides to step in, pulling Tim off of Damian. “Chill, Timmy. If Dames doesn’t want to tell us, he doesn’t have to.” He waits for Tim to calm down before letting him go. “Now go take a seat while Dames finishes his breakfast, and I tell him what we are doing today. Ok?”

“Ok”, slumping in defeat, Tim treads back to his seat, collapsing in a huff. “I’m going to find out what his soulmark says.” Tim finally muttered under his breath while Dick let out a big sigh.

Dick looks back to where Damian had gotten back in his chair while slumping into his own. “So, dames, the plan for today is we will be going to the zoo for a couple of hours after it opens at nine. Then we will head to the arcade for a while before coming back here for a party with the Titans plus Jon and a few others before finally the Gala to both celebrate Damian’s Birthday and raise money for the charity of his choosing.” Dick said, getting more and more excited.

“Breathe, goldilocks. Don’t forget to breathe,” Jason adds once Dick is finished.

“Sorry, it’s just so rare for us all to be here to celebrate a birthday, especially on the weekend, so no one has to work. That reminds me, once Bruce and Alfred get back, we are going to do presents, so we should all move to the sitting room.”

“How did that remind you of presents?” Tim piped in, still pouting from not being able to see Damian’s soulmark.

“Simple, I was talking about work which made me think of Bruce, so I then thought about who was present. Present presents,” Dick responded with wild hand gestures. “Now, come into the sitting room.”

Chapter Text

They all headed into the sitting room with Damian in an armchair while Dick, Jason and Tim, who was still glaring at Damian, sat on one of the couches. Across from them, Duke and Cass were sitting on the other couch, with Barbra parked beside them in her wheelchair and Steph on the floor at their feet. Finally, Bruce was across from Damian in the other armchair, with Alfred standing behind him.

Everyone was stuck in some form of awkward limbo, no one wanting to go first until Dick asked, “So who wants to go first?”

*Crickets*

“I guess I will, as all of you are too chicken,” Barbra says as she starts moving to Damian with her present in her lap. “Here you go, Dame. I hope you like it. This is actually from both me and Tim.” Damian gently tore open the paper to reveal a new tablet.

“It’s a drawing tablet with some different art programs installed, but if you take a look at this one, we upgraded and rewrote the code to have extra abilities and functions as well as just making the quality better. You mentioned recently that you were interested in trying a new medium, so we thought this would help.”

“Thank you, Gordon, and you as well, Drake.” From his seat, Tim raises his mug but stays quiet. “It will certainly be interesting to try. This is very thoughtful.”

“I’ll go next,” Steph says, jumping out of her chair and handing Damian a small box covered in vibrant purple wrapping.

“This could burn out someone’s eyes by the colour alone.” He opens the present to find a photo of a white tiger as well as a stuffed toy version and a certificate.

“Congratulations, you are now the proud owner of a white tiger... that lives in India and will never be coming here”, She adds after seeing Bruce’s face. “So what happens is if you donate a specific amount of money, you get this certificate stating that you own a white tiger and the money that is donated goes towards preserving the species within the area.”

“This is thoughtful of you, Brown.”

She moves back to her chair, doing a small fist bump. “Nailed it.”

“I guess it’s my turn. Here you go, demon.” Jason states while tossing him a small box.

“Really?” Damian pulls out a Red hood action figure that they give out in Batburger kids’ meals. A loud groan filled the room at the sight of the toy. “I can’t believe that you brought this up again.”

“Really, Jaybird, we really don’t need to start this again,” Dick complains upon seeing the toy.

You see, a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, Dick, the true instigator of everything in one way or another, had taken Tim, Jason and Damian for some brother bonding BD (Before Duke) to Batburger where Damian received a Red Hood toy with his meal and in true Damian form instantly started complaining about so when he was distracted Jason stole it from him. This resulted in the fight to end all fights. It started with Damian shoving his meal in Jason’s face. It escalated to an all-out war lasting a full year of breaking into each other’s houses to steal the toy. This escalated once again to booby traps. Needless to say, people got caught in the crossfire. It was not pretty; Bruce ended up trying to step in, resulting in him breaking a leg putting him off Bat duty and Alfred stepping in.

Now one thing you should know is that Alfred rarely ever stepped in when the boys were fighting, like ever, and when he stepped in, everyone knew to duck and cover. He never raised his voice and never lost his cool, but it is the scariest thing one can ever witness. Needless to say, the doll action figure went to Alfred, and it was never brought up again until today.

Damian held the doll action figure closer. “I mean, it’s not even the real thing, and it’s been so long. Why bring it up now.”

“Of course, it’s not the real thing like I would risk stealing from Alfie. It’s the first part of your present- Wait, how do you know it’s not the original?”

“I installed a microscopic tracking device into it after the second time I reclaimed it. How did you think it took me a day at most to steal it from you while it took you months.”

“YOU PIECE OF SHIT, DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW MUCH TIME I WASTED STEALING THAT THING”

“Yes, it was quite entertaining,” Damian said in his usual calm and emotionless voice.

Jason started to get up, but both Tim and Dick grabbed him. “Once again, Jason, why did you bring this up? We don’t need any more broken bones over a doll.” Dick said, trying to distract Jason.

“It’s an action figure.” Damian and Jason said at the same time. Jason had calmed down a bit, still really pissed but not ready to murder Damian.

Taking a deep breath, Jason continued. “My present to Damian isn’t a Red Hood action figure; it was simply a segway. My real present is this.” He pulls out an action figure of the current Robin. “I convinced them to make an action figure of the current Robin. They aren’t out yet, but they gave me one early because I was the one to push for them.” He threw the action figure over to Damian. “Happy birthday, brat.”

Damian just sat there looking at the action figure in shock. It even had a mini katana. It distracted Damian enough that Tim was able to get close enough to jump on Damian taking another shot at his wrist. Damian, being so deep in thought, reacted on pure instinct, punching Tim directly in his solar plexus, winding him instantly and scrambling off, getting into a fighting position and observing his surroundings before realising where he was and relaxing. He picked up his action figure and sat back down. At that point, Tim had regained his breath and started to return to his seat, with everyone looking on with various levels of amusement.

“You’re going to have to do better than that, Drake, and thank you, Todd. This was well thought out.” Jason just nodded, looking like he was having a hard time not laughing at Tim.

“As interesting as that all was, I believe that it is Alfred and I’s turn”, Bruce chimed in once everyone had calmed down enough.

Bruce stood up and walked across the room to Damian, only to give him an envelope. Several groans were heard throughout the room. “Seriously, B, I thought we had gotten past the envelope stage.”

“You all have too little faith; it is not what it looks like. Besides, did you not hear me state that this was from both Alfred and me.”

That seemed to get everyone’s attention. There was no way Alfred would let Bruce take the easy root out and just get Damian gift cards or straight-up cash. Bruce passed the envelope over to Damian, but before he could read it, Bruce started to explain. “I have set up a gallery exhibition for your art in six months. I know art takes time, so I did not want to spring it on you. You can use both old or new art that you create. Obviously, there is to be no art on the league of Assassins or our nightlife, but other than that, you have free rain. Just try to keep it on the less gory side.”

“Thank you, father, Pennyworth; maybe I could even do a bit of digital art with the programs Drake and Gordon have gifted me. I could also set up a screen display to show the art that does not make it to the gallery.”

“You have plenty of time to plan, Master Damian.”

“I guess it’s finally my turn. Saving the best for last,” Dick practically bounced.

He walked over to Damian and handed him two boxes, one fairly big and the other small, which looked to be a jewellery box. “Start with the big one.”

Damian opened the box to find a beautifully handcrafted katana. “Thank you, Richard, this is beautiful.”

“Now, the second one I want to explain. Within my mother’s culture, a soulmark is seen as something to only be shared once you have found your soulmate. So when a person receives their soulmark, they would wear these.” Dick pulls out a beautiful black woven bracelet with beads covering the top sparsely.

“This is a family heirloom passed down from generation to generation, one of the few things I managed to keep after the circus. My mother wore this until she met my father; she then gave it to me. I wore it once I got my soulmark as a way to honour her, even though I chose to share my soulmark with other people. I stopped wearing it once I met Wally. I am now giving it to you whether you choose to share your soulmark or not.” Dick then gently tied the bracelet around Damian’s arm without looking at his soulmark while Damian looked on with pure awe, carefully running his hand over the beads.

“Richard, I… This… Thank you.” Damian gently pulled Dick into a hug, and if either of them got teary-eyed, no one would say anything, as they were all a bit guilty of that.

Jason, never being one for emotions, decided that it was time for a joke to lighten the mood by fake whispering to Tim. “I told you Dick had a favourite.” This sent everyone into a laugh and resulted in the end of Dick and Damian’s hug.

“Aw, don’t be like that, Jaybird. I love you all very much, but we all know that Dames and I have a brother/father relationship while the rest of you are my very much loved siblings, but I love you. All you need to do is ask if you want more love.” Dick said, taking advantage of Jason’s joke to tackle him into a hug dragging Tim along with him. Cass, Steph, Barbara and Duke soon join from the sides as Damian being the asshole that he is, just jumped on top of everyone, sending them all crashing to the floor.

After a few minutes of Jason’s futile attempts at escape, lots of complaints about being crushed and Bruce getting enough photos to satisfy him, Alfred finally calls off the cuddle pile assault (Tim definitely didn’t try to take the whole cuddle pile to his advantage and try to see Damian’s wrist only to fail.).

“How I hate to interrupt, but we do have a packed day, and some of us need to finish getting ready.” Slowly the pile untangled themselves with quite a few elbows to the face and stomach before everyone was off to finish getting ready.

Chapter Text

They had spent around three hours at the zoo. Damian used the time to look at the animals and make preliminary sketches that he could finish later while everyone else explored but mainly stayed close to Damian. Dick and Stephanie had eaten so much sugar that Cass and Barbara had been put on watch duty either for puke, sugar coma, or just to prevent them from doing something stupid in their sugar craze.

Jason and Bruce mainly just watched Damian as he sketched, making conversation or commenting on Damian’s art because god forgive Jason and Bruce have a normal conversation. They had been a lot better over the years but were still not that great and never spent time together without the other despite Bruce’s attempts, but they had gotten to the point of being friendly. With no small part to the MVP, that is Alfred.

Duke chose to stick close to Alfred and help him. Who was totally not secretly taking photos of everyone for the totally not real scrapbook that he keeps up to date. He had picked up the habit after he realised there were only a couple of non-formal photos of Bruce and his parents.

Tim was taking photos of the animals, which he promised to send to Damian in case he needed a reference, but the main thing that Tim was doing was plotting. He just had to know what Damian’s soulmark said. I mean, for Damian to hide it, it had to be either something really embarrassing or something really bad either way. He had to make sure it wasn’t something that put them at risk. Tim knew that was the reason Bruce was told, but there were so many what if’s. What if Bruce wasn’t there to help? What if Damian needs help? What if? What if? It felt like the thoughts were drowning Tim. He just needed to know.

He knew that he needed a plan; just jumping on Damian had proven to not work; he would have to catch him when he was fully convinced that Tim would not do anything. He knew just what to do, but he couldn’t let Damian catch on that he had a plan, or he would get more paranoid than he already was. So Tim would have to spend the rest of the time until the plan pretending to try and see Damian’s soulmark, and if he just so happened to see his soulmark, then nothing was lost.

They had about another hour left at the zoo, and Damian was sketching a baby elephant and its mother while they bathed. Bruce had gone to refill the drink container, and Jason had gone off with Alfred, Dick and Steph to get lunch.

While Duke, Cass and Barbara went to look at the penguins after they missed them, trying to convince Dick and Stephanie that they should not get a third churro on top of the other sugary food they had already consumed. That just left Tim and Damian.

“What are you doing, Drake?” Damian says, not looking up.

“I’m just looking at your drawing. I didn’t know you were so talented.”

“Well, you wouldn’t know because you have never taken an interest in my art before. Besides, if you were interested in my sketch, then you would be looking at my sketch, not my wrist. Stop plotting whatever hair-brain scheme you have come up with. It won’t work on me; besides, it will give you grey hairs and wrinkles, especially with the way you contort your face. You look constipated.”

“Why you little-” Queue Tim tackling Damian to the grown. “Show me your soulmark.

“No, get off me, you crazy loon.” Damian rolls on top of Tim only to get pushed back down. They struggle like this, unaware of the growing crowd and the news spreading across the park to security.

***

Meanwhile, on the other side of the zoo...

“Come on. I want to eat”, Dick whined.

“The food should be ready soon, Master Dick.”

A group of teen boys suddenly start to push past Jason in an attempt to get past him. “Oi, watch it, will ya? What’s the rush anyway?”

“A fight broke out at the elephant exhibit.”

“These two guys are going at it.”

“Apparently, it’s over a soulmark.”

“Yeah, I bet this guy’s girlfriend is the other one’s soulmate.” The group then run off, not wanting to miss the action.

“I feel sorry for whoever has to deal with that.”

“Master Dick, wasn’t Master Tim and Master Damian at the elephants?”

“Ha, good luck with that one, Dickey.”

“Why don’t you both go down and check on them.”

“What, what about Steph.”

“Mistress Stephanie is currently struggling to stand due to a sugar overdose. I will handle the food you go.” They looked over to see Steph lying on a table, practically passed out, gaining odd looks from the other patrons. Yeah, probably not best to bring her in this state.

“Come on, Jay, we should probably head over there.” Dick starts to lead Jason with an arm around his shoulder.

“You don’t have to look so smug.”

***

Over at the drink stand…

Bruce had just refilled the drink containers and was heading back to Damian, completely unaware of what was going on.

***

Meanwhile...

Duke, Cass and Barbs were chilling out watching the penguins when they overheard people talking and rushing in a different direction. “There is a fight going on at the elephants. Come on. I don’t want to miss it. I heard that it’s over a soulmark.”

“I heard it was some of the Wayne boys.”

All that the three could think was to question what the boys had done now. Knowing that they would have to go break it up from the sounds of it.

“Heard that it turned out that Damian Wayne’s soulmate is actually Timothy Drake-Wayne’s girlfriend, Stephanie Brown.”

“Ok, that one doesn’t even make sense. Tim and Steph broke up six years ago. Come on. We better make sure they don’t kill each other or spread any more rumours.” Barbara said, sensible as always. Duke and Cass just nodded as they headed over, already regretting leaving them together.

***

Still lightly tussling, this was the point where Damian and Tim realised a crowd had formed, but it was too late as security had just arrived.

“Well, shit.”

Chapter Text

“Well, shit.”

There were three members of security; despite the fight clearly ending, one when and grabbed Damian, the other grabbing Tim, both hoisting them off the ground in a rough manner as they talked over each other, trying to explain. The final one getting in between the two brothers, started to speak. “Both of you be quiet. You will both be coming to the security office and explaining this mess in an orderly fashion, where we will then decide on further action. Do I make myself clear?”

Now you know that I know Damian and Tim could take these people down with the flick of their wrists, and if Damian was still the ten-year-old that originally showed up in Gotham, he might have, but now he knows that it would put their identity at risk and likely only make the situation worse.

“Look, we are terribly sorry for the disturbance. Damian and I, my brother, were just playing around.”

“Does it look like I care? I am simply doing my job. You two have caused havoc, chaos and could have caused an accident. So you will be facing repercussions for your actions. I don’t care who you are or what your excuse for this behaviour is. We will be discussing this in the security office to prevent more of a scene.”

This is where Dick and Jason turn up. “Ok, what the fuck did you to gremlins do now?”

“Jason. But really, what is going on?”

“Well, you see, Grayson-” Damian started, only to be cut off by the security guard.

“Are either of you these two’s guardians?”

“No?” Dick responded with a question, even in his own voice. It was still a bit unclear after he had adopted Damian, only for Bruce to come back and take over.

“O god No, no no no no no.” Jason responded in comparison, sounding horrified at the idea.

“Then neither of you are permitted to speak with them until they have been released after dealing with the situation or you get approval from a legal guardian.”

“I’m twenty-five.”

“You think I believe that you couldn’t be more than sixteen.”

“He is twenty-five. Besides that, don’t you think that is a little extreme? We clearly know each other?”

“Sorry, we don’t make the rules; we just follow them. Now you have distracted us long enough. Come on, get a move on.” As the security guard said this, the other two started to push Damian and Tim along, only to be stopped by the arrival of Barbara, Duke and Cass.

“What is going on?” Barbara asked as they approach

“These two idiots managed to get themselves put in custody for… Wait, what the hell did you do?” Jason asks

“Well, you se-” Damian is once again interrupted by the security guard.

“Look enough; you people have caused enough of a scene. Do you not see this crowd? We need to deal with this properly. There is already a safety risk with a crowd this size. We will deal with this in the security office,” Behind the guy who was talking, the security guard holding Damian bent him over at an awkward angle, pulling and hurting his arms, making Damian gasp for air.

Now before that, most of the siblings were either finding this funny or content to just let it play out, but it was as if there was a switch flipped. Every single one of the siblings immediately started moving forward at that. “Let them go now.”

“You’re hurting him.”

It was at this point that Damian was ripped out of the security guard’s arms by Bruce, who had just arrived, pulling Damian behind him. This triggered everyone else to move.

Jason pulled Tim from the other security guard, pushing Tim behind him with Duke coming up to stand with Tim as Cass when and stood next to Jason as a secondary shield. While Dick went behind Bruce to Damian and pulled him into a side hug so that he could check his arms while watching what was going on but still be in between the guards and Damian.

The one who was talking had not seen what his colleague had done, instead watching as the crowd became rowdier due to the family’s movements. Fearing the crowd turning sour and putting more people in danger, they put their foot down.

“Enough, all of you, to the security office. We will deal with this there.” They said, pointing at the family.

Everyone just held there, not sure what the next move was. This was the point where Alfred and Steph appeared. Steph was doing a lot better, but that is mainly because she threw up a couple of times, so she was walking on her own. “What is going on?”

No one made any move to speak, unsure how to describe what had just transpired. Until Cass started speaking in sign language (Cass can speak, but she doesn’t often, usually using sign language, as speaking makes her uncomfortable, especially in public.) “*Damian and Tim got into trouble with the security guards due to their fight but when Damian tried to explain the man that was holding him pulled up his arms hurting him.*” The guy speaking was getting more irritated by everything happening.

“Enough. We are going to the security office to deal with this.” Now that everyone was there, they slowly shuffled into the security office, leaving the guy holding Tim to disperse the crowd.

“Now, which one of you are those two’s guardians?”

“This one is mine,” Bruce said, putting his hand on Damian’s shoulder before gesturing to Tim. “He is also my son but is twenty-five. What happened?” The main guy sat behind the desk, booting up the computer, while the other guy stood to the side, still having not said a word.

“These two were brawling in the middle of the zoo. This is a huge problem as a safety hazard. It could have freaked out the animals endangering the handlers. It was a danger to themselves and caused a big crowd to form, which is also a huge health and safety risk. On top of that, all of you refused to cooperate and got physical with my colleagues.” Bruce let out a sigh. Knowing his kid’s antics, he could see they were just trying to keep everyone safe, but that didn’t mean he was letting the other one off for intentionally hurting his son when he was not physically resisting.

“Now, sadly, due to these two’s behaviour, I will have to ask you to leave for the rest of the day and make a record of this incident. If there is another incident, they will be banned. I will also need you to sign a release form just stating that you have been told the consequences and agree this is fair repercussions. Hang on, and I will give those to you now to read over.” He opened a draw next to him, practically oozing tired energy without having to worry about the crowd. Everyone relaxed a bit, seeing what the main guard was like now that they were out of that situation.

“That seems perfectly reasonable, but before that, I believe we need to talk about that security guard,” Bruce responded, pointing to the other security guard. “I apologise for escalating the situation, but he had pulled my son’s arms purposely when he tried to explain, causing him pain.” The head security guard turned to look at the man behind him, who stood firm but looked frustrated at being called out. Letting out a deep sigh, the head security guard turned back.

“Rest assured that I will deal with it. Is there anything else?” The security guard sighed, taking out more forms.

“No, that is all, thank you.”

“In that case, I just need you all to quickly give a written statement before you leave.”

Everyone quickly wrote their statements before leaving. While this sort of thing does happen, thankfully, it’s not often. They eventually started to move out to the car bringing the food with them, not wanting to be out in the open for much longer. They all make it to the car eating in silence until Tim speaks up. “Damian, I’m sorry that happened. It was my fault for picking that fight and getting us in trouble.”

“It’s fine, Drake. The actions of that man are not your responsibility. Besides, we were both involved in the fight. Now I believe you promised we would go to the arcade. It has been too long since I have smashed Todd on the DDR machine, and I will not let being kicked out of the Zoo ruin Grayson’s carefully planned day.”

“In your dreams, kid, like you could ever beat me on the DDR machine, I simply let you win those other times.”

Chapter Text

After all that, they headed off to the arcade. Despite what had happened at the zoo, everyone was still in fairly high spirits though everyone did stick closer to Damian, deciding that they would go through the arcade together as a big group. Due to the previously set challenge, they all started over with the DDR machine, with Damian and Jason having the first go.

“You have no fu-” Alfred coughs. “I’m going to wipe the floor with you.” Jason started as they loaded up the song going for the hardest song on the highest setting.

“You can try Todd, but I have been practising with Logan. He has been trying to beat me since we went to the carnival. While you could have only grown rusty in your old age, your fragile bones will only slow you down. You are the one with no chance.”

This was the point that Bruce stepped in. “Now, this is a non-contact game, and it is to be kept that way. Smack talk is allowed, but past trauma is strictly off-limits. There will be no damage done to the game if you lose and/or are losing, and finally, neither Tim nor Barbra are allowed to alter, hack or reprogram the game in any way. Is that clear?”

“Yes, father.”

“Sure, whatever”

“Ok, you may begin but remember we will all be watching.”

Watching on, Duke whispered to Alfred, “Do I want to know what happened the last time these two played DDR?”

“No, Master Duke, you do not.”

The game is started both evenly matched with fast-paced movements and a lot of awkward shuffling. This goes on for some time, with both intensely focused on the movements rather than each other as they start to draw a crowd. Despite Jason doing better than most people could do, Damian was ahead, and his lead was only expanding as Jason started to slow down from putting too much energy into the start. Finally, the game ended with Damian coming out as the victor.

“What happened, Todd? I thought you were going to wipe the floor with me. Did your tired, old, desecrated body finally surrender to the insurmountable concept that is time and age or is that too complicated for you to understand? Let me dumb it down for you. You lost and are old.”

“Please, kid, I just let you win because it’s your birthday.”

Tim chose this time to come up and step in between Damian and Jason. “As entertaining as it is to watch you get owned both game-wise and verbally, Damian promised me a game of ultimate mega strike three. Now, if you will excuse us.” At that, Tim takes Damian’s hand (The one without the soulmark as much as Tim wanted to know Damian’s soulmark as well as prevent him from getting suspicious he wasn’t exactly enthusiastic about getting into another fight, especially after last time.) and pulled him over to the machine.

Tim played using a horse-themed mega, while Damian used a black cat-themed one. They ended up having three games, with Tim winning all three, absolutely demolishing Damian. “Ha, take that, Demon. I am unbeatable.”

“I could have easily won if you hadn’t cheated.”

“How dare you? I would never cheat. The fact that you would insinuate such a thing is absolutely ridiculous, utterly ridiculous. I am simply the superior player.”

“Ha, you have lost your mind. You are even starting to sound like that Bourgeois girl from our last gala.”

“I almost forgot about that,” Tim said, struggling not to laugh. Dick chose this time to come bouncing up to them.

“Come on, Damian, I want to verse you at Mario kart.”

“Alright, Grayson, but after you have to protect me from the others so that I can obtain one of the stuffed toys and some tokens from the machines, there is also something that I wish to acquire from the gift shop,” Damian said already on his way to the machine.

“You got it, but I get the first pick of the character.” Dick and Damian ended up playing five rounds, with Damian being the ultimate winner.

Damian then headed over to one of the claw machines after several attempts, winning a stuffed cat that looked like Alfred the cat, while Dick warded off his other siblings.

“I thought that Alfred would like it,” Damian said as he held out the toy to show Dick.

“Human or cat?”

“The cat”

“That is very nice. I’m sure he will appreciate it.” A couple of months later, Tim would find the toy on his bed with the head ripped off after he had accidentally stepped on Alfred’s tail. Damian swore it wasn’t him, so Tim checked his cameras only to freak out when he saw Alfred the cat had done it himself before staying with Kon for a while.

They then headed over to a machine where you could play Deal or No Deal. Not the most complicated or interactive game, but it was a good way to get a lot of tickets quickly. Damian ended up playing twice the first time, making a deal for two hundred and fifty tickets and managed to get the five hundred cases the second time. He then got another Three hundred and sixty-eight from various throwing games adding up to a total of one thousand one hundred and eighteen tickets.

He exchanged one thousand for a poster that said ‘Everything is under’ with a computer control key displayed under it (Something that will totally not magically turn up on the wall in Tim’s room later), the other hundred on a small pack of fruit bursts he gave to Dick as well as his remaining tickets having no use for them.

Damian then went to play another round of DDR with Steph, less for winning and more just to play around. They ended up switching between the mats and adding dance moves on top of the step sequences. He then joined Barbra, going back and forth, taking turns playing Crossy Road to see who could get the farthest. Barbra beat Damian by two hundred and ninety-nine points. It turns out that typing improves your finger reflexes as she also beat the machine record taking the top spot on the scoreboard.

Finally, as they were running low on time, everyone gathered together to take a turn playing Pac-man. Bruce gathered everyone’s attention. “Ok, everyone’s here. Let’s get started. The birthday boy goes first. Alfred will be keeping score as he will not be playing.”

“Come on, Alfie, are you sure that you don’t want to play?”

“I am quite content keeping score but thank you, Master Dick.”

“Ok, so the order will go Damian, Duke, Tim, Stephanie, Cass, Jason, Barbra, Dick and then me. Now, this is a non-contact game, and it is to be kept that way. Smack talk is allowed, but pass trauma is strictly off-limits. There will be no damage done to the game if you lose and/or are losing, and finally, neither Tim nor Barbra are allowed to alter, hack or reprogram the game in any way. Is that clear?” A chorus of yeses was heard in response.

“You know you really should get that speech trademarked.”

“Jason”

“Yes, fine, don’t blow a fuse.”

“Ok, Damian, you’re up first.”

“I don’t even know why we got the no cheating speech Father when you are clearly cheating by manipulating us into playing a game so ancient that none of us has played it before except for you due to your increased age.”

“What the gremlin is trying to say is your old.” Jason decided to pipe in.

“Says the person making a Gremlins reference.” Damian piped up.

“Hey, Gremlin is a classic known to all generations.”

“Let’s just get started. We have to get back to the Manor, in case you forgot. Go ahead, Dami.” Dick stepped in before things could escalate.

“Thank you, Grayson.”

The game started with everyone taking their turn, but ultimately Bruce was the winner, with Babs and Cass coming second and third, respectively. Once the game was over, they all packed up and headed back to the Manor to get ready for the parties.

Chapter Text

After getting home, everyone headed off to get ready for the parties, while most of them didn’t live there anymore. They spent enough time there to have their rooms filled with all the stuff they needed to get ready, especially since they had all decided to get ready for the party at the Manor a while ago.

Jason lived in an apartment close enough to the crime alley to get there quickly and to soothe his anxiety. Not that a person like him, who had died and was brought back by the Lazarus pit, would have anxiety. But it was far enough away to live in a good apartment and soothe Bruce’s anxiety.

Dick is currently living in a small apartment with Wally in Gotham but is always staying or visiting the Manor to see Bruce, Alfred and his siblings.

Tim lives in the Manor half the time and the other half. He stays with Kon-El in their apartment in Jump city, where they work with the Titans. He is working as Bruce’s co-CEO at Wayne enterprise, mainly looking after the tech departments either in person or online.

Cass, Duke and Damian are permanent residents in the Manor alongside Alfred and Bruce, except Cass tends to travel most of the time using the Manor as a home base. Also, Clark is basically living in the Manor despite how much he and Bruce deny it, meaning Jon spends a lot of time there hanging out with Damian while the rest of the time is spent at Lois’s.

Finally, both Barbra and Stephanie have their own place, but both still have a room at the Manor that they can crash in if they don’t feel like going home after patrol or when they are just over.

For Stephanie, it was also where she was studying for nursing school because, apparently, her apartment didn’t have the right vibe for studying. Everyone soon figured out that she just needed someone in the room to study. Because of this, she was often found in someone’s room, having taken over their desk or in the kitchen as Alfred prepared meals.

After getting ready, everyone but Alfred and Bruce all migrated to Damian’s room to hang out beforehand. Dick, Duke and Cass were genuinely there just to hang out with Damian. Stephanie and Barbra wanted Cass’s help to finish their hair. Tim was there to not so subtly try and see Damian’s soulmark while he finished getting ready, you know to keep his cover for the plan. Finally, Jason was there because he didn’t like being in the Manor without someone around and had taken a liking to Titus, not that he would ever admit that.

“So, dames, what do you think your soulmate will be like” Dick began after a bit of talk between everyone.

“They’re meant to be your opposing force to balance you while also being similar enough to, you know, be able to put up with you.” Stephanie piped in.

“They must be an angel then,” Jason called from the bed where he was lying with Titus.

“Jason” Dick abolished. “Come on, little D, what do you think?”

“There is no purpose in guessing they will be who they are. Besides, I should not be expecting anything out of this relationship, soulmate or not. It could still fail but look at Father and Kent. They are in a reasonably successful relationship without being soulmates.” Damian quipped from the bathroom where he was fixing his hair.

“That’s true, but come on, demon “guess the soulmate” is a time-honoured tradition,” Tim added from the corner. “I think Jason is right. They will be an angel, super into animals, umm…”

Dick continued when Tim started lagging. “They are going to be very social, loved by basically everyone they meet right off the bat and have a very strong ethical compass…”

Stephanie then jumped in. “They will be pedantic and all over the place tending to worry over the little things…”

Duke added, “But you will be there to keep them grounded, and they will be very adventurous in ways that you are not and will push you to try new things and experiences.” Damian couldn’t help but find it amusing that this is how a bunch of highly trained detectives use their skills.

Damian chose this time to walk back into the room and sit next to Dick at the end of the bed. “I don’t know. I just can’t help but think of the whole thing negatively. I mean, look at the league’s point of view on soulmates. You have to either recruit them or kill them. I may no longer be a part of the league, but I still have the connection whether I want to or not. What if they come after my soulmate?”

“Look, don’t worry about that now. Knowing you, your soulmate will be that subtle type of badass who comes off as really sweet but can and will kick your ass, and you will still think they’re the sweetest person in the world, and if they aren’t, we will have their back” Jason reassured him.

“Yeah, little D and who knows, they might even be a hero themselves. We can’t know until you meet them.” Dick said, leaning over to put an arm around Damian.

“But just in case, you should probably tell us what your soulmark says.” Groans could be heard throughout the room.

“Tim. Come on.” Dick chastised them and started bickering back and forth.

“Oi, listen up Cass is trying to talk,” Stephanie called from where she was sitting next to Cass.

“*Damian, you should not worry over what could happen but celebrate that you have gained and passed such an important milestone in your life. What will happen will happen for all we know, they could be more powerful than Superman. Only time will tell, and when it does treasure it, I am sure that they will be amazing. Also, Tim, knock it off.*”

“Hey.”

“Thank you, Cassandra.”

They all just chatted about casual topics after that, catching up on each other’s lives until they were interrupted by the front doorbell ringing.

Chapter Text

“I guess we better head down to the dining room now. Damian, why don’t you grab the door.”

“I will meet you in the dining room after everyone has arrived.” Damian then travelled down the stairs to open the door to find Jon and Clark Kent.

“I don’t know why you insist on ringing the doorbell. You practically live here and have your own key.”

“It is always polite to ring the doorbell, you know, instead of climbing in through a window,” Clark said, giving the boys a pointed look. Ignoring his father’s comment, Jon redirected the conversation going over to give Damian a hug.

“Happy Birthday Dames. How has your day been?”

“It has been quite enjoyable. I will inform you of the specifics later once everyone has arrived. For now, why don’t you two head to the dining room? Kent, I am sure my father will be happy to see you.”

“Thank you, Damian and happy birthday. I am glad to hear that your day has been going well.”

“Thank you. Besides, maybe next year, you two will join the family fun day, as Grayson calls it. After all, you are father’s significant other.”

“That would be nice. I’m sure we would love to do it next year. I will see you later.” The two walk off to see the others in the dining room.

After greeting Damian, Clark went over to Bruce. “I think Damian just invited Jon and me to the family time for his next birthday. That’s a good sign, right? I mean, he specifically called it family time. Does that mean he accepts me as family now? Is that how the others feel? This feels big. Bruce say something.” Clark panicked.

“Take a deep breath. This is a very good thing. Just breathe. Everything is ok. It looks like Damian had a gift of his own.” Bruce chuckled.

You could not have wiped the smile off of Bruce’s face if you tried, he spent the rest of the day smiling like an idiot, well, except for that thing that happened at the gala, but we’re not there yet.

***

Damian had just finished greeting everyone, which included Jaime, Koriand’r, Garfield, Raven, Jon, Wally, Conner and Clark. Everyone just mainly hung out, chatting and having a good time catching up with each other until Garfield suggested they participate in a time-old tradition of betting on what a person’s soulmate would be like.

“Ok, here are the rules because Damian is choosing to keep his soulmark a secret; no one who knows can participate, which is just Alfred and Mr Wayne. There will be no changes to the bets and no additional bets after this point. Cass will be keeping track as she is the fairest and has decided not to play. Cass was sitting up the front of everyone with a notepad balanced on her leg to take notes. The way the betting will work is you can suggest a bet that must be accepted by another person who is betting something contrasting but still related to the bet. Now I will get the ball rolling. I bet fifteen dollars that Damian will take after Dick, and his soulmate will have red hair.”

Jason was the first person to pipe up. “I will take that bet. I bet that he will actually take after Bruce, and the person will have jet-black hair.”

“*Any adding bets?*” Cass sighed from the front while Damian translated.

Conner put his hand up. “A soulmate has to be a reflection of the other person. I think they are going to be more on the wild side with non-natural coloured hair to represent that.”

“*Any more?*” No one said anything. “*Ok, noted, next bet.*”

Raven put her two cents in this time. “Ok, I think they are going to be a business mogul running their own company that they started themselves and will put ten dollars on it.”

Duke pitched in this time. “Nope, I will take that bet they are definitely going to be in the art or design field to help bring out more of Damian’s artistic side.”

“*Anyone else? Ok, moving on*”

Jaime spoke up. “I bet they are going to have at the very least two pets at five dollars.”

Tim was the one to take him on. “Ok, I will take that one.”

“*Excellent next.*”

“I bet twenty dollars that Damian’s soulmate will know Jon’s soulmate,” Jason added from the sideline.

Jon had originally been two years younger than Damian, only to go to the future in the process, disappearing for a week only to come back older than he should have been. Resulting in him being a year older than Damian, aging three years. To not cause suspicion, both he and Damian transferred to Gotham Academy, with Tim just changing some of Jon’s records. This also resulted in them being in the same year as Bruce had let Damian skip a year but no more, so he was around kids his age. This brought him and Jon even closer.

Since Jon was a year older than Damian, now he had already gotten his soulmark which currently said, “It’s ok, but since you spilled your coffee on me, how about we go grab some together, Soulmate.” Jon had agonised over how his first interaction with his soulmate would be spilling coffee on him for months after receiving the mark.

Damian, who had been just watching up till this point, decided to speak up. “Do you know the chances of that happening?”

“Who knows, maybe we will get lucky.” Jon piped in.

“Please, unless his soulmate has super luck or something, it’s not happening.” Jaime jumped in.

This continued going to some very outlandish places, just playing around and being silly. Dick even goes as far as betting they could beat Jon in an arm wrestling match. This continued for a while until they moved on.

“Ok, everyone, gather around. I have a special gift for the birthday boy,” Raven called out, getting everyone’s attention. “I found a spell that will allow a person to get a glimpse at their soulmate, but it only works within twenty-four hours of getting your soulmate if that is what Damian wants.”

“We have got to do this. Come on, Damian, it will be fun.”

“Fine.”

“Yes. Ok, just give me a minute.” Raven cast her spell, sending it onto the ceiling, working similarly to a projector.

An image appears with nine people in an apartment surrounded by boxes. There was a blonde girl sitting on the couch with her phone. Three people were across from her setting up a TV, one male of smaller build and glasses programming and setting up the cables while an athletic build male wearing a red sweatshirt and a girl with bright pink hair also of athletic build did the heavy lifting.

Then there were two in the kitchen putting away utensils and kitchen supplies. One was a female with a dark short pixie cut and a male with shaggy black hair with blue tips. There were also two people bringing in two boxes, a blonde male and a female with dark blue hair and bluebell eyes.

Finally, there was a guy with glasses and a baseball cap who came in behind the blonde and bluenette. “Ok, dude and dudette, you are officially moved in. These are the last boxes,” he said as he put down a box. “It would not have taken so long if some people helped.” He said, directed at the Blonde girl lounging on the couch.

“Hey, you all know that I don’t do manual labour. I am simply here for emotional support.” The blonde responded.

The blue-haired girl jumped in before a fight could ensue. “And we really appreciate that, Chloe. What do you think, cat.” She said, turning to the blonde boy.

A blonde boy walked up to her and put his arm around her shoulder. “I think it’s perrrfect bug, just what we needed for a new start. Hey, how about we order some pizza to celebrate.”

Everyone in the room cheered before the image went black and disappeared.

“So, which one was Damian’s soulmate…”

“Wasn’t that Chloe Bourgeois or something.”

“What did they say? That was all in French, and despite most people in this room being able to speak French, some of us need a translation.”

“So what now?”

Chapter Text

The party went on, and everyone ate a bunch of junk food while more gifts were exchanged. No one could figure out what to think of the scene they had just watched, but Damian’s brothers did know one thing, they had the biggest hint about Damian’s soulmate with Chloe being in the vision and were already scheming to get all of those people to Gotham. Hey, there are no specific rules on soulmates; if Damian happened to meet them sooner rather than later, then that was what was meant to be.

Eventually, the titans headed off, leaving the Waynes, Kents and Wally to finish getting ready and head out to the Gala. Yes, sadly, Wally, Conner, Jon and Clark were all being dragged to the Gala as well due to being significant others, being known to the public and, in Jon’s case, being Damian’s own personal social shield from the vultures that thrive off of these events, as he put it.

Damian knew without a doubt that many of them would pretend to be his soulmate, but he had a secret weapon that guaranteed proof that they weren’t his soulmate which up till now he did not have with people insisting that they would be soulmates.

The Gala had been what they were expecting, with only a few notable moments.

***

Thirty-four minutes into the event

A woman well into her late forties came up to Damian and Jon. “Damian, thank you for inviting me. This is a great event. Oh, who is this with you? Your soulmate, possibly? You know I am actually an ally of the LGBIQ community” Damian gave the woman a dry look.

“It is nice that you could make it. This is Jonathan, he is a close friend of mine, but that is so nice of you.” Jon could practically see the sarcasm wafting off of Damian. However, it seemed that this woman was quite dense and looking for some gossip.

“Oh well, that’s ok if you are not ready to come out, but if you ever need someone to talk to, I’m here for you.” Jon, seeing that Damian was about to say something he would regret, decided to do his best Damian impression he often uses at Galas to get people to go away.

“Yeah, because it’s not like most of his family is actually a part of the LGBTQI+ community because, unlike you, a person who can’t even get the name right, they have no experience with this topic, and it’s not like Damian came out as bisexual two years ago. Oh, wait, he did.” The woman stood there for a few seconds, unsure of what to do, before turning and stomping off in a huff.

“You know you’re getting pretty good at that.”

“I learnt from the best.”

***

Two hours and sixteen minutes into the event

Damian and Jon had headed back over to their fathers as they socialised with the guests in attendance. Mr and Mrs Wingate had just left to go and talk with a family friend as they had not gotten a chance to catch up as they claimed when the gap was filled with the queen of style herself, Audrey Bourgeois, followed by her daughter Zoé Lee.

“Ah, Bruce dear, it has been too long. I don’t believe that any of you have met my daughter.” Zoé stepped forward, putting out her hand.

“Zoé Lee, pleasure to meet you.” She said as she shook everyone’s hand.

“It is nice to meet you too.” Bruce stepped in, drawing Audrey’s attention as Damian grabbed Zoé’s attention back, mouthing, pulling her a bit to the side to get a break from her mother, seeing that she looked like she was about to collapse from exhaustion. They had all met Audrey at this point, so they knew what she was like.

Dick stepped into the conversation after making his way over with Tim, Conner and Wally after seeing Audrey. “Speaking of daughters, how is Chloe? It has been a while since we have seen her?” Damian caught on quickly to what they were planning, glaring at them while they smirked.

“She is back in Paris. We invited her to join us, but she had something on. I think she was helping two of her classmates move.” Zoé provided.

Tim stepped in this time. “If they are Chloe’s classmates, they should be in their final year. It would be a bit hectic to move now. How come they are moving?”

“Smooth, Drake,” Damian mumbled in the background as Jon snorted.

“Oh… um… I don’t really think it is my place to-” Zoé started before being interrupted by her mother.

“Both their parents were found to be neglectful, so they were taken out of their care and won custody over themselves instead of being put into the foster system as one was old enough and both had a high enough income. Well, one had enough income, and the other had saved enough money after working for his father before he was incarcerated for being the emotional terrorist Hawkmoth for the past three years, which I am sure you know resulted in the temporary deaths of thousands and traumatisation of all of Paris.”

Crickets. Nothing but crickets.

“No, we did not know that.” Bruce slowly spoke while the rest just stood there in shock.

“Mum, don’t you think that was a bit too much personal information,” Zoé said.

“Nonsense. Oh, come Zoé, I must talk to Miss Cleverly about her plans for next year.” Audrey said, pulling Zoé away.

“We are looking into that later, right?”

“Definitely.”

***

Four hours and forty-seven minutes into the event

The event was scheduled to end in thirteen minutes, so everyone was slowly leaving, with a fair amount already gone. The entire family was exhausted after keeping their public faces on for so long but still held on strong as they counted down the minutes. Everyone was at their most vulnerable, and it was time for Tim to enact his plan.

Duke, Jason, Cass, Barbra and Stephany had all left to go on patrol to protect Gotham, so Tim didn’t have to worry about them. Alfred was out the back dealing with the caterers as they packed up, so they wouldn’t be a problem.

Bruce and Clark were both by the door, farewelling guests as they left, meaning to intervene, they would have to make it basically across the whole venue. Dick and Wally were busy talking to Gordon about work as they both worked for the Gotham police department under Gordon. Meaning they would have their full attention on him, and they were a fair way away from Tim’s target.

Finally pulling his unsuspecting boyfriend into the mix, he had Conner pump Jon full of drinks throughout the night, then have Conner offer to take Jon to the bathroom so he can not interfere. Now he just had to wait for the drinks to kick in.

***

Four hours and fifty-two minutes into the event

There were only eight minutes left, witness numbers were low, and Jon had just left with Conner.

It was time.

Chapter Text

Now don’t get me wrong, Damian wasn’t stupid. He knew something was going on. It was too late into the event for a rogue attack. The event was winding down, so there was little chance there would be a problem with the guests. That just left his brothers. He had been keeping an eye on those who were left. His father and Clark were off trying to get everyone out the door so they could leave, Dick and Wally were off talking to Gordon, Kon and Jon had gone to the bathroom, and Tim was… Tim was… He had lost sight of Tim. Damian swears he had just seen him. Damian tenses, turning just in time to see Tim tackle him to the ground, grabbing his wrist, pulling down his bracelet, and reading his soulmark.

“…”

There was silence. Damian was in shock, laying on the floor with Tim on top of him, the remainder of the guests not knowing how to react, the family equally stunned.

“Ha ha ha ha.” Tim was the first to break out of the trance of stillness rolling off Damian bursting into rounds of laughter, starting soft only to grow louder, snapping everyone else out. The whole family moved quickly towards the pair while Clark ushered the last of the guests out of the ballroom.

“Oh my god.” Damian was the last to break out of the trance at Tim’s words that had broken through the laughter. Just as the family reached the pair, Damian jumped to his feet, ignoring the round of protests, going out to the car to wait for Alfred.

“You up now. We will discuss this in the car.” Bruce boomed, pulling Tim off the floor to his feet. At this point, Jon and Kon had come out of the bathroom after hearing the whole altercation. Jon sprinted ahead to get to Damian while Kon went to Tim’s side, looking really uncomfortable.

Everyone headed out to the car with Tim still snickering, trying to compose himself. They found Jon outside the car looking mad, which was quite off-putting from his usual bubbly nature.

“Damian’s sitting up the front with Alfred for the drive back.” He informed everyone before growling at Tim. “You’re lucky I haven’t punched you for that stunt.”

The usually open divider was closed when they got in the car, blocking everyone from the front. Tim had finally started to calm down, taking in everyone’s faces. They were all mad, most glaring at him for what he had done, except Jon, who was more concerned about Damian sitting closest to the divider, staring at it, wanting to be close to him.

“What were you thinking? You had no right to do that to Damian?” Dick scolded.

“I know, but I just had to know. I mean, do you have any idea how hard it is for me not to know?”

“We all know your need to know everything to feel in control, but you had no right to invade Damian’s privacy like that.” Dick rebutted, with Bruce following up.

“We do know, Tim, but you knew that Damian felt uncomfortable with us knowing his soulmark. You violated his privacy. What if it had been something that wasn’t embarrassing but mournful? We all know that soulmarks aren’t always good or work out. Look at me; I hide mine for a reason. Talia was meant to be my soulmate, but because of how she was raised and the Lazarus madness that runs in her family. Damian’s family. Not everyone is as lucky as I have been to find Clark. What if Damian’s soulmark wasn’t good? Hell, you’ve read it. They don’t exactly start off on the right foot. What if Damian feels he will have the same fate as his mother? Losing his soulmate over his past. Did you ever consider that?” Bruce scolded as Clark took his hand, and Tim looked down

“No. I’m sorry.” Tim responded softly as Kon put his arm around him.

“It’s not me you need to apologise to. We will also be having a family meeting when we get home. The others should be back by then.” The rest of the car ride when by in silence, just waiting to get home.

***

You see, Bruce had learned a long time ago that his children didn’t respond to normal punishment, so he had to get creative. He had decided that when an incident was big enough, or a promise was broken, they would have a family meeting with whoever was available. Each person would have a chance to suggest a punishment that would either be accepted or vetoed by him or Alfred.

It ended up working really well as, most often, the punishments that were most effective were not ones of labour, grounding or things being taken away but punishments of embarrassment and his kids could get creative. Plus, they were sometimes good for the person or someone else, but they simply didn’t want to do it.

For example, when Dick pretended to fall off a building and die to scare the family, he triggered many panic attacks and, in Bruce’s case, PTSD flashbacks to Jason. He had been forced to clean all the Batsuits, a tried and true method of punishment, and spend the next forty-eight hours by Bruce’s side, but worst of all, he had to post a video emitting that he was afraid of monkeys with a video clip of his fear being triggered which was provided by Barbara. Let’s just say he has yet to try and scare anyone on patrol again.

The rest of the car ride was spent in silence. When they pulled up to the manor, Damian was the first out of the car, with Jon going up to him, putting his arm around him for support.

“Damian, I’m s-” Tim started, only to be interrupted by Damian.

“I would like to talk to everyone during the meeting that I assume will be occurring.” With a nod from Bruce’s head, Damian continued. “Jon and I will be in our room until you have caught everyone else up and are ready for the meeting.”

“Dami, would you like me to-” Dick started, only to get cut off.

“I will see you all for the meeting. Come on, Jon.” Damian said, leaving with Jon following closely behind.

***

After some more intense yelling and anger, everyone settled into the living room.

“I shall go and gather the young masters from their room,” Alfred stated after everyone was settled, walking out of the room.

Damian and Jon are very close after a rough transition period meaning they had plenty of sleepovers, with Jon staying in Damian’s room. When it became clear that he and Clark would be sticking around, they converted the room next to Damian’s into Jon’s with a door connecting them, so the family just said their room.

Once Damian entered the room, he began speaking. “My soulmate says, ‘I had it handled traffic light, besides your form was off’. I just thought you should know since some people…” he looked at Tim. “Don’t know what privacy is-”

“Damian, I really am-” Tim tried again.

“It is out in the open now, so it doesn’t matter.” Damian finished

“Damian, you really didn’t need to tell us, but we appreciate that you trusted us with this information,” Dick spoke up.

“Thank you, Damian, now you all have heard what has happened, so it is time to decide on a punishment. We will be going around giving ideas. Dick, would you like to start.”

“The batsuits need cleaning.”

“Approved. Barbara?”

“I need help with a couple of programs on the batcomputer.”

“Done. Duke?”

“He has to have a written favour that can not expire to Damian within the parameters that no one, including Tim, gets hurt?”

“Wait, come on, he is just going to hold that above my head for the rest of our lives.”

“That’s the idea.”

“Approved. Stephanie?”

“We remove the door to his room at the manor for two weeks, and he is not allowed in Kon’s room, taking away his privacy.”

“Wait a second.”

“Tim, no interrupting. You know the rules. Approved, but for only one week. Clark?

“I’m satisfied.”

“Ok, raise your hand if you have any other ideas.” They often did this to save time because there are so many of them. Both Jason and Jon raised their hands while Damian looked to be considering motioning to let them go first.

“Jon?”

“I think that since Tim decided to medal in Damian’s life, we should do the same thing to him. So I think he should be limited to three regular cups of coffee a day and go back on a planned sleep schedule for one week.”

“Approved. Jason?”

“Tim, I will let you have a choice because I have two ideas; you either have to let each of us release one level 3 blackmail material that Bruce will approve of, or let Barbra release one level 7 blackmail material.”

“Um… The first one?” Tim stuttered out.

“Only five of you will release something but approved. So it is agreed that Tim will clean the suits, help Babs program the computer, owes Damian a favour, will go one week with limited coffee, no door and a sleep schedule and finally will allow the release of five level 3 blackmail material without interfering. Everyone is in agreement.” There was a chorus of yeses. “Damian, are you satisfied?”

“Yes, father.”

“Good. Now I hope you all take something from today and all realise that this information is not to be shared not only because it disrespects Damian’s privacy but it could put our identity at risk as it is likely Damian will meet his soulmate as Robin. It has been a long day, so we will implement Tim’s punishments tomorrow. Let’s all head to bed. Goodnight.”

That night Damian thought a lot about his soulmate. What would they be like? Would they like him? Would they like his family? What would they think of his past? Would they only like him for his inheritance? Would they want him to change? Would he? These questions circled him for most of the night.

All Damian knew was that he was going to have to wait and see.

Chapter Text

Marinette’s whole life changed just after she had turned fourteen when she received the Miraculous of the Ladybug, turning her into the superheroen of Paris, fighting alongside her partner Chat Noir as well as the temporary heroes that she chooses to fight against Hawkmoth and later Mayura. As they sent out their senti-monsters and Akumas to destroy, maim and kill anyone that got in their way.

The only thing that kept the citizens of Paris from being lost forever was her power to reverse anything caused by another Miraculous, but that left their lives in her hands which weighed heavily on the young heroine’s shoulders seeing all the dead bodies of her family, friends, teammates and even herself.

Things only got more difficult when Lila joined the school. She waltzed in with her pretty lies and simmering personality charming all those around her. Except for Marinette, she might have fallen for her tricks if Lila hadn’t claimed to be friends with Ladybug. It all unravelled from there the lies about Jagged Stone which Marinette knew from her commissions from him.

Marinette knew that the girl was only putting herself at risk. She tried calling out her lies at school, but it only turned people against her. The most shocking being Alya who quickly dropped her for Lila wanting any connection to Ladybug she could get. Marinette decided to take drastic actions after she found out that Lila had tried to claim to be a hero herself, possessing the fox miraculous to Adrien. She approached her and Adrien as Ladybug to talk to Lila.

***

Marinette was swinging around looking for Lila when she came across her in a secluded part of the park with Adrian.

She swung down and approached them. “Lila Rossi? I have been looking for you. May I have a word?”

Lila was obviously nervous to anyone who looked close enough. “Yes, Ladybug, oh, don’t worry about Adrien; whatever you have to say, just say it.” It was a ballsy move but a smart one. Having someone around would make most people back off, but this was Ladybug.

“Miss Rossi, I have been informed that you have been lying about being my friend. Now, I understand that it can be difficult to make friends in a new school, but lying is never ok, and by doing so, you are only putting yourself in danger. Anyone associated with me will be a target for Hawkmoth, so I must ask that you retract your statement and inform everyone that you were lying. I know a fair amount of people at this school due to them being Akumatized in the past. I am sure they will understand. This is for your own safety and others.” Ladybug responded in a calm and soft tone.

Lila quickly looked over to Adrien and then back to Ladybug. “I completely understand, Ladybug.”

Ladybug, satisfied, swung away before doubling back after getting a weird feeling in her stomach, only to hear Lila talking to Adrien. “Sorry about that; she can be such a worrywart. It just shows you how much she cares about me.”

She leaned over the edge and spoke again. “You have forty-eight hours before I go forward myself.”

***

Needless to say, Lila never came forward. Instead, she was akumatized. When Ladybug went forward, Lila framed it as Ladybug just trying to protect her. Everyone ended up believing her. Because of this, Lila had a vendetta against both Marinette and Ladybug. At every turn, she tried to make her life a living hell.

Lila had managed to turn nearly everyone against her at school except for Nino, Adrien, Chloé, Max, Kim and Alix, which became a tight-knit group along with Luka and Kagami.

Lila had gotten too confident, Chloé had not believed her from the very beginning, and after hearing Ladybug talk to Lila, Adrien too lost faith in her lies. Kagami and Luka followed after, Kagami through her connections and Luka due to her heart song. Luka had long ago found out he was a meta having the ability to hear other people’s true selves through a melody that resonated off of them, preventing people from hiding who they are as a person or their identity.

Kim and Alix were tipped off after Lila had overheard them talking about a famous sprinter who had retired sixty years ago and the contributions he made to the sport because he had died recently from old age, but apparently, Lila hadn’t heard the whole conversation because she came over saying that she and the sprinter were old friends and she could introduce them if they wanted and she might even be able to get them sets for their next race.

Meanwhile, Max was slapped on the back of his head by both his mum and Markov for not checking his sources. Finally, Nino, like the decent person that he is, actually listened to his childhood friend and best friend, looking into everything that Lila had said, discovering that Marinette was telling the truth and Lila was lying.

Unfortunately, Alya had become one of Marinette’s main antagonists in the ‘defence’ of Lila. Due to their behaviour, Marinette was forced to renounce them as Miraculous holders. Nino and Alya also broke up because of her behaviour.

With life constantly throwing twists at Marinette, she was bound to make a mistake at some point, but she had not expected to lose her mentor and be named the Guardian of the Miraculous. She was just lucky that none of her team was revealed. After that point, Marinette knew things had to change; she gathered Kagami, Nino, Chat Noir, Luka, Chloé, Max, Kim and Alix. They needed to know each other’s identities.

Ladybug, Pegasus, Chat Noir, Ryuko, Carapace, Viperion, Honey bee (Chloé’s new identity), Roi Singe and a firstly transformed Bunnix all assembled in an abandoned building.

“I would like to thank you all for joining me and Chat Noir. After the last battle, some of you might know, the Guardian of the Miraculous was lost, resulting in me becoming the new Guardian. Due to this loss, it has come to my attention that things must change; therefore, I have decided that you will become full-time wielders. However, this does not mean that you will be needed to be in every battle. Can I trust you?”

“I would be honoured to work by your side, Ladybug,” Kagami answered while everyone else nodded along.

“There is one more thing I would like for us all to reveal our identities, including Chat Noir and me, but this is up to you. If one of you disagrees, then none of us will. We are a team now, so we make decisions as a team.” Ladybug continued.

Chat Noir stepped in at this point. “Are you sure, my lady?”

“I am sure. All those in favour say I.”

“I.”

“All those opposed say nay.”

“…”

“So it is agreed.” Ladybug said, taking a deep breath.

“…”

Chloé was the one to interrupt the silence. “So how do we do this? Like one at a time or…”

After a lot of screening and complaining about being dense, the team came together. With everyone’s identity revealed together, they were able to help Marinette get a hold of being the Guardian. They became an unstoppable team both in and out of costume.

Everything was going as well as it could for the time being, but it was still taking too long to find Hawkmoth and Mayura. It was two months and three weeks until Marinette’s birthday when it all went downhill.

Chapter Text

Felix had once again decided to visit his cousin when he had approached her as Ladybug. It was a tough discussion as he revealed Hawkmoth to be none other than Gabriel Agreste. It had been a hard fight, even harder for Adrien, but they managed through wielding the element of surprise.

When Marinette imagined the day that they finally won, this was not what she had imagined. The battle was surprisingly similar. The aftermath was anything but. She thought there would be nothing but celebration, relief and happiness; instead, she was faced with grief, sadness and loss.

Amongst the arrest of Gabriel and Nathalie, Lila was taken into custody after Gabriel was offered a restricted sentence if he cooperated and handed over any and all accomplices. He ended up testifying against Lila that, combined with the statement from Ladybug, she was taken into custody but pleaded that Gabriel was controlling her and she had no control over her actions. That, combined with the overflow of personal references, she was let off of all charges.

But she used the situation to her advantage to make the final move on Marinette’s parents. After Lila turned the school against her, she moved on to Marinette’s parents.

Things started off slow with an odd comment or two about Marinette to her mum at the art class about Marinette tripping and accidentally pulling her down or spilling something on her. She then moved on to tell full stories about physical and verbal attacks against her when she would get pastries from the bakery.

Marinette’s parents started to treat her differently over time, getting colder and colder towards their daughter and spending less time with her. Soon they moved on to verbal assaults. Because of this, Marinette began spending less time at the house.

Before long, they started grounding her and taking away her things. Luckily Marinette started to realise what was happening and moved all her commission stuff to Chloé’s house at her insistence and eventually her personal items as well.

Since she was Ladybug, she was forced to break her grounding a lot, only proving in their minds that they had lost control of her. Before long, there was nothing in her room but a mattress, a bare desk and her school supplies. They later installed locks on all her windows and doors. It was horrifying to both her and her friends, but it did allow her to develop lock-picking skills.

Lila started coming in covered in special effect makeup, looking like she had been in a bad fight claiming that Marinette was responsible. That was the first time that they had gotten physical with Marinette, but she was Ladybug; she could handle this. She was lying to herself.

Her friends knew what was happening. They had tried to convince her to move out, but despite how bad things were, she was too scared to do it on her own.

The final straw had been after Hawkmoth’s defeat, and Lila had been released. She had gone to Marinette’s parents, telling them that she had been arrested for working with Hawkmoth after Marinette told him to testify against her because Marinette had been working for Hawkmoth to get people Akumatized and that she had been targeting her.

After hearing this, they immediately called the police only to be told there was nothing that they could do as there was evidence for a conviction. Still, her parents were convinced that Lila was telling the truth. They then decided to kick her out of the house with nothing but the clothes on her back and her purse containing the miraculous box shrunken down, her phone and her wallet.

With Gabriel and Nathalie gone and the house under investigation, Adrien had nowhere to go, so Chloé invited both him and Marinette to stay at the Le Grand Paris Hotel for the time being. Marinette immediately got back into designing and commissions. With the help of Jagged Stone and Clara Nightingale, her career continued to skyrocket. She had stopped at the time due to time constraints and a lack of inspiration due to stress.

Because her last store was bombed with negative comments by her former friends about ‘stealing’ Lila’s designs, she told them that she would now be going by her initials and would be working anonymously to drive in more interest and asked them not to tell anyone.

They quickly agreed, and from then on, she was known as MDC. She, fortunately, had not informed her parents, not wanting them to control what her money was used for and opened a new savings account. Her new website blew up thanks to recommendations from Jagged and Clara Nightingale.

She became one of the most sought-after designers due to her only taking a few commissions at a time and only through a personal recommendation, but she was known for working with some of the most famous and powerful people. Her anonymity only helped grow her brand, with people trying to find out who she was, and with Gabriel leaving a massive gap in the fashion scene only helped.

Then Style queen released a review of MDC, which was nothing short of a glowing review; her popularity grew overseas, becoming more commonly known everywhere. Marinette was in shock from the response, having an overflow of requests for her commissions.

After only a month, she and Adrien, who had gone back to modelling after the government had reclaimed his dad’s money and company, were soon able to put a down payment on a three-bedroom apartment. Two bedrooms and one office for them to work in, all while maintaining their schooling. It wasn’t long before they moved in with help from Kagami, Nino, Luka, Chloé, Max, Kim and Alix.

They had some fear about Marinette’s parents still having custody over her as she was nearly sixteen while Adrien was eighteen due to her skipping two grades, but luckily she was able to file for emancipation which her parents were all too happy to sign.

Chapter Text

Things had just started to settle down when Marinette met Talia Al Ghul. Even after Hawkmoth’s defeat, the group decided to continue patrolling to remove excess energy and relax. On this day, Marinette had decided to go by herself just to clear her head, mainly keeping to the shadows, not wanting to deal with civilians. It was at that point she was stopped by a figure in black.

“Ladybug, I come forth as a representative of the League of Shadows. After we were informed, you knew not of our existence and connection to the Order of Miraculous. Do you have the time to talk?” Marinette warily stepped forward, keeping a close eye on the woman in front of her.

“What do you wish to inform me of?” Stepping forward, Talia displayed a dagger with the Orders symbol carved into it.

“My name is Talia Al Ghul. I recently became the leader of the League of shadows. As the Guardian of the zodiac box, you hold the highest authority within the Order, so I come to you to update and inform you of my organisation as it has come to my attention that you are not aware of its existence.”

“Since the beginning of the Order, there have been two branches, the Guardians and the warriors. The warriors, when by the ‘league of shadows’, they were trained to protect the Guardians and, if needed, wield the miraculous themselves. It worked as a symbiotic relationship. The warriors protected the Guardians, and the Guardians provided for the warriors with shelter, food, and anything they could need, including a pit of clear liquid used to heal them after a battle.”

“However, when the Order was destroyed, the League of Shadows was left with nothing but the pit that remained. With no way to provide for his people, my father led the League to work as assassins to provide for his people. However, as their actions became corrupt, so did the pit, further contaminating their minds and leading the League down a very dark path, becoming known as the League of assassins, which caused a major imbalance.”

“When you returned the Order, they saw what had happened to the League. They offered us a deal so we could return to the symbiotic relationship, we would have to retire our assassin ways, and they would take away the pits due to their corruption and the possibility of becoming corrupt once again. Those who disagreed were cast out as they reclaimed the temple and destroyed the pit. My father was too corrupt to save dying with the pits due to the codependency he had developed with them, making me the new head of the League. As my first act under the Order, I was to come here to inform you and dispose of any former league members that may come after you for your own protection.” Marinette was shocked by the onslaught of information and had so many questions.

Over the next few months, things got a bit more hectic, having several attempts on her life, while scary, were sadly nothing new. The real chaos came from Talia herself. Over the time they spent together dealing with the former League members, they ended up getting to know each other. While not as mental as most, Talia showed herself to be quite the sociopath containing no empathy for human life.

For someone who was taught to be tight-lipped, she also clearly wanted someone to talk to, demonstrated by her long rants about her life and family. Especially her son, who was apparently Robin, now that caught Marinette off guard. For several days only being able to question Batman’s sanity, choosing to have relations with the assassin that stood before her as she was forced to listen about their great betrayal.

But Marinette continued to play nice for the sake of her already tense relationship with the Order and fear of ever getting on this woman’s bad side. However, by some miracle, Talia ended up liking her, even to the point where she kept bringing up how Marinette would be the perfect match for her son. Which didn’t even make any sense because, as far as Marinette knew, Talia was on the outs with her son, but now she was trying to set them up.

Needless to say, Marinette hated every minute of their interactions, having to deal with Talia’s convoluted and slightly unhinged nature, celebrating the second she left to return after taking out the last former league member. Marinette decided she wasn’t even going to get into how she took care of them, especially after Talia said the Order declared they had to give up on being assassins, but she dealt with it, and it was over now, so Marinette could finally relax, which was a bit hard after a couple months of strait Talia.

Luckily there were some upsides to Talia’s presence, offering additional training in some of the League’s less deadly techniques upon Marinette’s request. Despite learning inaction, Marinette still found it important to learn as many fighting styles as possible to always be prepared and even feel comfortable fighting without a Miraculous. It was one of the reasons she had sought out Hippolyta and the Amazonians in the first place, as well as many more. Because of this, Marinette had quite a fun time surprising Talia with how advanced she was.

Due to her stature and age, Marinette was often underestimated; because of this, she found it quite enjoyable to catch people off guard and surprise them with her abilities, greatly enjoying the looks on their faces as they tried to figure out what happened.

After that, things were able to settle into a new normal Marinette and Adrien would get up, feed the Kwamis, get ready, and then head to school, where they would have to deal with Lila’s Bullshit and Ayla’s pathetic lapdog routine. After school, they would do school work before working or get together with their friends and hang out.

Despite Hawkmoth being gone, all the Miraculi remained active; some may call Marinette paranoid; she would say that she just trusted her friends and didn’t want to separate them from their Kwamis if she didn’t have to.

Chapter Text

Around three weeks after they had moved in, it was Marinette’s sixteenth birthday. After all the hardship they had faced, they were excited to have a reason to celebrate, so they decided to get together at Chloé’s place and have a sleepover in order to see her soulmark as it appeared.

They were all gathered around Chloé suites, having gone all out for the celebration. Snacks and food were laid out on some side tables while the floor was covered in pillows and blankets, and a big screen on one of the walls queued up to play their selected movies. The day had been amazing for the most part.

The day before her birthday had started like any other. Marinette was prepared for what the day had to throw at her; she just had to keep her focus, knowing that the school day would end soon so she could escape with her true friends and finally know what her soulmate’s first words to her would be.

Marinette was up the back of the classroom next to Adrien, with Alix, Max, and Kim squeezed into one row in front. In the years since finding out they were soulmates, they had been sad when Ms Bustier told them they couldn’t sit together because the sets were made for two. However, when Lila had the seating plan changed, the triad put their foot down, finally seeing some of Ms Bustier’s flaws and just sitting together like they had wanted to do in the first place.

Everyone had been surprised when Kim had woken up with a soulmark on each wrist, having been the oldest of the three, but even more so when it was revealed that Max and Alix were his partners as it was extremely rare to find your soulmate so early after receiving them but the class was overjoyed for the triad.

After the seating plan changed, they refused to sit apart because the desks were made for two people to sit at, stating that by sitting apart, they would be conforming to society’s expectations of pairs due to there being so few polyamorous soulbonds. They would often change who was sitting in the middle, depending on how they were feeling that day. This often caused Chloé to complain about their disgusting overly cuteness.

Then in front of them were Chloé and Nino, who had become close, discovering that they actually balanced each other out nicely, often consulting each other on how to persist in tricky situations. Chloé convinces Nino to fight for what he wants rather than take what comes, and Nino works to convince her that it’s okay for things to be out of her control.

There were still four minutes before class was meant to start. Marinette had long since gotten over her tendency to be late. As it turns out, she doesn’t have bad time management skills. She just had too much on her plate, removing her shifts at the bakery that she had been doing for free, Hawkmoth and responsibilities to the class after they removed her as class president because they can’t have a ‘bully’ representing the class she actually had time for sleep.

They were discussing the party they were planning for the night when Lila and Alya entered the room, causing the rest of the class to swarm them to talk. They were all talking happily before Lila clapped her hands to get their attention.

“I have some very exciting news. As you sadly know, my house is under construction, causing us to cancel the sleepover, but the Dupain-Chengs were kind enough to lend their converted addict for the sleepover tonight with snacks provided by the bakery as an apology for all that I’ve been through.” The class confronted Lila while some, mainly Alya, gave Marinette side eye, having also been told Lila’s story.

Chloé, seeing Marinette upset, retorted. “What are you celebrating? Did you finally get accepted into a compulsive liers anonymous group?”

Just as expected, Alya then stepped in. “Lila is not a liar. You’re just jealous, Bourgeois that you don’t have the connections Lila has. I mean, look at her jacket. It’s an MDC original that she got as a favour from the artist.”

Marinette was horrified that such an ugly jacket would ever be mistaken as one of her designs. God, she hopes no one important actually believes she would make such trash.

Lila, not liking that the attention was no longer on her, chose this as a talking point to bring the attention back. “Oh, Alya, I forgot to mention this earlier, but I was talking to MDC just last night. You know, I actually introduced MDC to uncle Jagged and we’ve been friends ever since. He actually asked me out once, but I had to turn him down because, sadly, we weren’t soulmates, and I could never do that to my Damibear.” And they were off back in their own little bubble, but the miraculous group couldn’t wait to pop it.

Marinette was deep in thought when Adrien tapped her shoulder. “Hey, are you alright?”

“Yeah, it still hurts, but there is nothing that I can do, and besides, as Chloé says, if that is the type of parents they are, then what is the point of having them? Just… Just give me a minute.” She whispered back, sniffing slightly.

It had still only been a month since they had kicked her out, and they had just moved on so quickly, treating Lila more like their daughter than they had in months to Marinette, who they had raised for almost sixteen years.

But had they really? Sure her parents had a more hands-off approach than others, but they were busy with the bakery and believed in giving their child independence and choosing their own life by learning their own limits.

Take bedtime, for example; for as long as she could remember, they had told her to set her own bedtime. Marinette was seven when she stayed up five days straight and ended up collapsing in class and ending up in the hospital.

From then on, she tried to be as strict with herself as possible, but she was only a child and still slipped up, especially with how packed her schedule was, but she made it work. Her parents saw the whole thing as a learning experience, and that was just how they parented.

So Marinette raised herself, and compared to some people cough* Lila cough* cough*, she would say she did a pretty bang-up job. So who needs them anyway. She just had to wait for her head to catch up with her heart.

Chapter Text

The school day had just ended while they were planning to go to Chloé’s, the smaller group had decided to go to André’s cart before heading to the hotel where they would meet with Kagami and Luka as Luka had work and Kagami had fencing practice with her mother. It was a Parisian tradition to go to André’s cart before getting your soulmark as a sign of good luck.

***

They were walking up to his cart when he spotted them. “Why isn’t it some of my favourite students? What brings you here today? Could it be that the lovely Adrien has found his soulmate?”

Most people were expecting something sophisticated and classy, assuming that his soulmate would be a lovely polite girl with a good (read ‘rich’) family. Well, that was at least what his father wanted and what everyone expected.

What he got was entirely different but exactly what he wanted. “Oh my god, are you ok? It was an accide… holy Jesus, you’re hot.” What can he say? He has a type. The good thing that came from this was that Lila could no longer make people believe that they would be soulmates.

Despite the group coming to the cart with no special occasion in mind, André had developed a habit of asking each time Adrien came after Adrien went on a whole rant about how excited he was to meet his soulmate and promised to bring them to the cart when they met.

“Tomorrow is my birthday, so we are celebrating with a sleepover, but it wouldn’t be complete without coming to see you before I get my mark,” Marinette announced as they got closer.

“Oh, how wonderful. Let’s see what we have here; blackberry for his dark past, which gave him his strength, blueberry for those who brought him out of the darkness and finally, lime for the eyes that see the world from a different point of view that search for you. Something that from a certain view tastes bitter but is full of natural sweetness and packed full of flavour to make a nice treat.”

“Thank you,” Marinette responded before heading off the bridge to wait while her friends got their ice creams.

Chloé ordered plain honey to enjoy just as a sweet treat. From the very beginning, when she got her soulmark, Chloé decided she wanted nothing to do with it, stating that if she found love, she would find love. Due to this, she always wore something to cover it, never letting anyone see it, including herself.

While Max, Alix and Kim got special ice cream. The way it normally worked was that if you hadn’t found your soulmate yet, you would receive an ice cream that purely represented your soulmate that included three flavours. If you had found your soulmate, you would get three flavours one that represents you, one that represents your soulmate and one that represents you together.

Due to being a triad and having already found each other, André would make them a special ice cream bowl with four flavours, one for each of them and then one that represented them all that he specially made after discovering there wasn’t the right flavour for them that he was missing from his flavours.

Alix was given a rocky road to represent her tuff and adventurous nature. Strawberry chunks to match her hair, mint leaves for clothing accents and brown and dark chocolate to match her clothing.

Kim was given raspberry cheesecake for his overall sweet and protective nature, with a raspberry tang to represent his fierce competitiveness. The raspberry chunks matched his sweatshirt, then tan ice cream with cookie chunks for his hair.

Max was given a blackberry tart to represent his blunt but caring and overall sweet nature, Blackberry chunks for hair and hero costume, cookie chunks for the base to represent the costume detailing and leaves of mint for his normal shirt.

Then for the new flavour, André called it ‘Bakery’. It was like nothing that anyone had tasted before. It was sweet with vanilla cookie chunks and tasted of caramel chocolate with a tang that could only come from natural berries, but no one could place which type of berry.

Adrien was up next. He was given natural raspberry, honey and blueberry. To represent their sweet and natural nature, with earthy tones to represent their down-to-earth personality, with flavour and personality that could fly you to the moon.

After everyone got their ice cream, they went to sit along the canal to eat. “Marinette, how’d it go? Still got dark and mysterious. All you are just missing is the tall, which for your height won’t be too hard.” Chloé said as she sat next to Marinette.

“Watch it, Queen of mean, if you are not careful, you might get hit by a bus.” Marinette shot back.

“Or a house, but who would inherit the shoes my bets on Adrien? I think he could pull off the hold dress and basket. Plagg could even be Toto.” Alix tacked on.

Adrien made an out-cried noise. “You are so mean. You have no heart. I guess that makes you the tin man.”

Alix then stretched up, putting an arm around Kim. “Only if I get to take my Scarecrow”, she then put an arm around Max “and my Lion.”

Both boys made an affronted noise as Marinette snorted. “As long as we all agree that Lila and the classes are the Wicked Witch of the West and her flying monkeys, I’ll allow it.”

Nino then jumped in, “If only it was that easy, we would just have to wait until it rained, so there is no murder on our hands.” Everyone burst out laughing.

They sat around laughing and talking for a while as they ate their ice creams before they all got up to head back to the hotel as it was getting late, and they wanted to get at least three movies in before midnight when Marinette’s soulmark would appear.

Chapter Text

“Luka, you’re finally here” Luka was tackled from the side as Marinette bowled into him, sugar-crazed and overly excited. It was nice to see her like this, as she didn’t get this way often. She was either a stone-cold leader, as Ladybug, tired and just trying to survive the day at school, professional with clients or don’t talk to me, I’m working mode.

“Yeah, I’m here. Sorry, it took so long; there was a last-minute delivery I had to make.” Luka was the last to arrive, with everyone else chilling in the living room, with the group arriving half an hour ago and Kagami only arriving ten minutes earlier.

“It’s ok, but be quick getting changed into your PJs; everyone is getting antsy to start,” Marinette said, talking faster than normal as she pulled him along and passed him the pyjamas he had left here earlier.

“What movie are we going to watch first?” Luka called through the bathroom door as he got changed.

“Oh, didn’t anyone tell you Adrien convinced us to binge ‘Heartstopper’ instead of a movie marathon? It just came out, and he has been waiting to watch it since reading the graphic novel.” Luka then came out, and they started to head to the movie area.

“Yeah, he showed me the trailer. I wanted to watch it as well.”

“Perfect then”

***

One TV series later…

Just as the last episode ended, Chloé stood up and clapped her hands. “Ok, everyone, we have half an hour until midnight. It is time to come up with your predictions about both the mark and Nette’s soulmate. Everyone gather around.” Everyone clapped and cheered while Marinette blushed as they got up to make it easier to talk to each other.

They ended up with Kim, Alix and Max leaning against the end of the bed in a little huddle, having Alix leaning against Kim with Max in her lap. Next to them was Luka, fully lying down, making the group question if he was asleep or had gone into one of those really relaxed states where he just feels the music of the room and didn’t really talk.

On the other side of the triad, Kagami was snuggled up in a cocoon of blankets and pillows so that you could only see her head popping out of the top. Then next to her were Chloé and then Marinette using each other to lean on, with Adrien curled up next to them, sticking his feet under Marinette for warmth. Before finally, Nino was seated between Luka and Adrien, with the whole group forming a circle.

Chloé then quieted everyone down. “Alright, I will be going first. Let’s see, I predict that they will be a very social person who is good with a lot of people and is very outgoing to help balance Nette’s social awkwardness.” Adrien then jumped in.

“Yes, I bet that they are going to be a very laid-back person who takes things as they come to counteract Marinette’s tendency to panic and fixate on the smaller things.” They all laugh at that after seeing Marinette pout.

“Thanks, guys, really feeling the love.” Chloé put her arm around Marinette.

“Come on. You know we love you, right.”

“Yeah,” Marinette said, leaning further into Chloé’s side.

“Anyway, let’s move on to a different topic.” Alix jumped in. “Mari is definitely going to meet them similar to Adrien, just full-on run into them on the side of the street while not paying attention, and he is going to be all gentlemanly like all ‘Oh, it’s no problem, don’t worry about it’”

Max then spoke up from her lap, “Well, from my calculations, Mar meets seventy-four per cent of new people through MDC, so it can be presumed that they will likely either meet at an event or they will be one of her clients.” Kagami then spoke from over in her nest of blankets.

“Given Marinette’s luck, I would not be surprised if they met while she was Ladybug. Destined to be apart until she can reveal her identity.”

“Manga?” Marinette asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Come on, it’s good. Besides, it’s not like crazier things haven’t happened.”

Chloé lent over from her other side and wrapped an arm around Kagami. “Whatever you say.”

Kim then jumped in. “I bet they are going to have a really big family that all love each other and hardly ever fight.”

“Um, it would be nice to have a big family. I never really had that. I hope their family likes me.” Chloé leaned back over to Marinette.

“They are going to love you. Don’t worry about it. Anyway, next career, I say they are going to be a teacher or something like that, leaning into the social aspect, great patients and would go with the whole aesthetic.” Nino snorted from his spot.

“Watch us all just be completely wrong.” Max pushed up his glasses and snuggled closer to Alix before butting in.

“That is highly likely. I mean, none of us are exactly detectives, and the only paired couple we know have either been together too long to know their dynamic in how they are paired, or they are Alix, Kim and I, which is not exactly standard formatting.”

“Oh, guys, it’s almost midnight,” Chloé yelled.

Everyone looked at Marinette as she held up her arm to angle it so she could only see it followed by a few minutes of tense silence.

“Oh my god, it’s happening… What the hell we talked about, sweet and patient meet-cutes not judgmental and downright condescending.” Appalled sounds were heard around the room, and Luka sat up, clearly disturbed by the break in the laid-back nature of the room.

“Wait, let me see, it can’t be that bad,” Chloé said, and Marinette handed over her arm only for Chloé to take a sharp inhale. “It could always be worse; maybe it’s just a bad introduction?” Chloé said, not sounding all that convinced herself.

Alix, starting to get frustrated with the suspense, called out, “Well, what does it say?”

“You know a woman like yourself shouldn’t be out this late. It can be very dangerous; you could get hurt.”

Chapter Text

It had been a couple of months since Damian’s birthday, and the whole family had been looking into the present developments in Paris as it had taken a while to get all the information together from over the past few years. They wanted to get all the information before stepping in, as there was no immediate problem. The most shocking, however, was when they discovered distress calls to the Justice League.

***

Green Lantern had been stuck on monitor duty for the last week and had another three weeks to serve due to an injury that took him out of the field when he got the first call.

“You’ve reached the Justice League emergency line; this is Green Lantern. What is your emergency?” After saying this, he looked up only to see a little girl in red spandex with black dots and ponytails. God, he did not have the patience for this.

“Hello, Green Lantern. I am Ladybug heroine of Paris as of recently. I am calling to inform you of the recent developments within Paris regarding the villain Hawkmoth and to ask for the League’s help. You see, Hawkmoth has gained access to the butterfly Miraculous, a magical brooch that grants him powers. My partner and I have the ladybug earrings and black cat ring, respectively.” Did she think he was an idiot? I mean, magic jewellery? She couldn’t be more than twelve. Where were this kid’s parents?

Letting out a deep sigh, he interrupted her. “Look, I’m going to need you to stop right there. The League’s time is very precious; we don’t have time for your little pranks. Shouldn’t you be in school? Please don’t contact this number again.” Before hanging up. He couldn’t wait to get back into the field.

***

Two weeks later…

This time Green Lantern was working alongside Cyborg when Ladybug called again. Cyborg was working on some coding off to the side when the call came through. As soon as Green Lantern saw who was calling, he hung up.

This piqued Cyborg’s interest. “What was that? Did the connection drop?”

“Nah, just this kid that keeps calling trying to pull a prank.” This gained even more of his interest walking over.

“You sure?” Green Lantern couldn’t believe that he doubted him.

“Positive” Cyborg thought it was weird that a kid was ballsy enough to try to prank call the Justice League, but if Lantern had checked it out and given the all-clear.

“Ok, we can’t block any calls from being received due to policy, and it will likely flag that the person as bad, which we don’t want to do because they’re just a kid, but I can override their calls to be recorded and sent into a separate filing system.”

***

Ladybug could not believe this. Not only did Green Lantern not believe her and hung up on her before she could finish explaining, but when she called again, hoping to reach a different person, he didn’t let her get a word in. Now the number wouldn’t even accept her calls, only letting her send a video recording “to be reviewed later”.

Well, this, as she later realised, was probably a good thing. If those calls had gone through, they would have rushed in, not listening to her and taken over, probably getting Akumatized in the process, which she would then have to deal with, and she doesn’t think she could handle an Akumatized Superman when she already struggled with civilians.

But she couldn’t just ignore them like they were doing to her, so she created a video that fully explained the situation to her knowledge. She would update them periodically when things changed, like the temporary heroes, Mayura, and even her identity being revealed as Multimouse.

After Chatnoir, she found it a great cover, especially when Tiki needed a recharge. Paris started seeing them as almost a tag team, using illusions periodically to show them switching out. She was just lucky her identity was revealed when she was Multimouse and not Ladybug.

There were some questions about the lack of involvement from the Justice League. She would always avoid these questions. That was until one fight.

***

It had really been a tough fight, especially after the loss of Master Fu. It had taken an emotional toll on Marinette. So when a reporter approached her, she was not in the right headspace to deal with them.

“Ladybug, Ladybug, I have to ask why hasn’t the Justice League had any involvement in the Paris situation?”

“Because Fuck Green Lantern.” Everybody froze; not only had Ladybug finally given an answer, but she just swore out a Justice League member.

Ladybug had quickly swung away after realising what she had said. She felt awful about what she had said, especially due to Paris’s quick response to hate the hero despite not knowing the situation due to her not giving a follow-up.

However, she didn’t feel nearly as bad when they made tee shirts quoting her, which most, if not all, Parisians owned at least one. There were even some sold internationally, but she doubted they knew the context.

Green Lantern had been solidly unimpressed when he saw Jason wearing one during the larger meetings or if he was over at Batman’s place.

***

The Batfamily was about ready to contact Ladybug when the news broke that the team, while still being around, would not be continuing their patrol route anymore now that Hawkmoth and his associates had been defeated with their Miraculi reclaimed into the right hands. The Batfamily was happy that the heroes were likely trying to get back to normal life now that the battle was over, but there was still a lot to do due to all their hero complexes making them feel guilty for not helping.

After consideration, several decisions were made. To start as civilians, they decided to create a foundation that would provide therapy support across the city for all who were affected, as well as putting the annual Wayne ball’s benefits towards the foundation.

The second decision was to get into contact with Ladybug, which was proving to be difficult as they could only reach Ladybug’s communicator when she was out. However, now they were no longer patrolling, it was incredibly rare that they were out, and reports of the heroes being out often reached them only after they had gone back due to their shorter times out.

Their plan was to invite the team to the next Justice League meeting to explain what had happened in Paris and their future plans with the possibility of the team becoming a branch of the Justice League. This would allow each team to be able to contact the other for assistance when needed and to keep the other updated on current activities and involvements.

Due to this, they were not in a rush as the next major meeting was two months away. They finally gained contact after one and a half months. (Very close after Marinette’s birthday.)

Chapter Text

The whole miraculous group had gone out for a swing to destress as Marinette had recently been overthinking her soulmark. They had been out for about an hour longer than they usually would, but they didn’t think it could hurt.

When Ladybug’s yoyo intercepted a call signalling the team to pull up onto a rooftop, she looked at the caller ID, only for it to say Batcave causing her further confusion. She set it up so that only she could be seen in the video call when fricking Batman popped onto the screen.

She couldn’t understand why he would contact her now after the battle was already over. She was in such a state of confusion she let the first thing to her mind slip.

“What the fuck.” Before realising what she said, going still.

“Sorry to have called unexpectedly; however, I have only recently found out about the situation within Paris and would like to formally apologise for my colleague’s mishandling of the situation and his grave oversight. The reason for my call is to invite you and your team to the next Justice League meeting.” After hundreds of messages and years of battle, they only just found out, she was furious, but after so many Akumas and fighting, she knew that wouldn’t help her here.

It obviously wasn’t Batman’s fault, and she needed to keep up her professionalism if she was going to meet the rest of the Justice League. It would also be nice to meet Hippolyta’s daughter. Having found out that Hippolyta had wielded the Ladybug Miraculous in the past, Marinette had visited her under Tiki’s guidance to train with the Amazons several times.

“We shall be there; however, I must ask you to go over any dismissed messages by Green Lantern despite it turning out well in the end, and it is probably better that you didn’t come at the risk of Akumatization there could have been a lot less heartache with your help especially since none of my team are detectives or had the resources to be so. I would hate for something like this to happen to someone else.” She said, keeping a concerned but monotone voice.

“It has already been done, and he will be retraining on receiving distress calls. Luckily, you were the only real situation that was dismissed. The meeting will be in two weeks exactly. I will give you all temporary zeppelin tube access. The meeting starts at 10:00 pm your time.” Ladybug shifted slightly to look at Pegasus, seeing him give a little nod.

“No need. Just send us the coordinates. We will get there ourselves.” Batman could understand this as they didn’t currently have her trust, and since the satellite was constantly moving in the atmosphere, there would be little risk, especially if they could already get there themselves.

“I will meet you once you arrive to introduce you in the meeting. There are ten of you, correct?”

“That is correct. Is that all?”

“That is all. I will see you there,” Batman finished before hanging up. The team stood around for a couple of seconds to absorb what just happened before Chatnoir spoke up, often being the one to break the tension.

“Did that really just happen?” Catnoir questioned.

***

The miraculous team had spent the last two weeks preparing for the meeting, putting together all the information, researching the league members and deciding what to tell them about. Especially concerning Lila and Marinette. There were only thirty minutes until the meeting, and they were all going over the plan before teleporting.

They had recently discovered that it was not their age that prohibited them from staying transformed after using their powers but a combination of their body’s ability to withstand the heavy use of magic, maturity and experience. This resulted in them gaining the ability to stay transformed for longer periods of time, and for some, like Max, use their ability multiple times.

The side effect was the more their power was used and the longer they stayed transformed, the more dangerous and draining it became for them to maintain. At this time, most could last two hours transformed if they only use their power once.

For the meeting, they had decided that Max would transport them up and Kagami would use the fox Miraculous in case anything went wrong. That way, Multimouse could also attend as she was a repeatedly used wielder, and it would be weird if she wasn’t to attend.

“All right, are we ready?” Ladybug questioned just before it was time to open the portal.

“We shall show this Green Lantern that we are not to be trifled with, and despite our age, we are powerful,” Kagami responded.

“You’ve all been briefed. Remember, only I will be talking as Chatnoir translates everything into French as only Chatnoir, Honeybee, and I are fluent in English.” While Luka, Kagami and Max were just short of fluent. In contrast, Nino, Kim and Alex went off of survival English, but they were all practising.

Everyone nodded along as Ladybug reverberated the plan, having gone over it multiple times but knowing it helped her anxiety about the meeting.

“Ok, open the portal.” Max stepped forward, calling on his power. Once they stepped forward, they were met with the sight of Batman standing stoically in a pristine white hallway. Ladybug was the first to step forward to meet Batman.

“Ladybug, thank you for coming today with your team. I would understand your reservations.”

“I appreciate the concern; however, our only real reservation is concerning Green Lantern.”

“Which is well warranted… Shall we head in?” Batman thought this was going quite well; he had been worried that they would hold a grudge against the Justice League.

“Please lead the way.” As soon as Batman turned around, Ladybug shot a look back at the team, getting the same look back. Maybe this wouldn’t be so bad, but if that conversation was anything to go by, it would be incredibly awkward.

As they walked in, they were met with the core members of the Justice League, Wonderwoman at the head of the table, Superman to her left and the right was empty for Batman. Down Superman’s side were the Flash, Green Lantern and Green Arrow. On Batman’s side were Aquaman and Martian Manhunter. All other associates and members were calling in from various locations shown on the table, like a giant zoom meeting displayed on the table.

Upon seeing the team, most remained neutral. However, Green Lantern, Aquaman and Wonderwoman all responded in vastly different ways. Green Lantern’s head dropped, muttering a low “Fuck”. Aquaman, after seeing them let out a yelp dropping to hide under the table. In contrast, Wonderwoman stood before kneeling, pulling Superman down with her drawing surprised looks from the other members of the Justice League and Green Lantern to sink even lower in his seat.

“Please, there is no need to kneel. It is an honour to meet you, Wonderwoman. I have seen the great things you have done for this world. You have done your mother’s legacy a great justice.” Ladybug said, bowing at the waist. Wonderwoman stood, retaking her seat with grace as Superman stumbled back into his.

“Thank you. I must ask about your presence here and the activation of so many Miraculous?”

“I shall get to that, but first, I believe we must address the Atlantean under the table. Would you like to come out and join us or keep hiding?”

Chapter Text

Everyone’s vision swerved to the empty chair where Aquaman was sitting. Except for the Flash, who was focusing on his friend, who sank lower and lower into his seat over the conversation, looking as green as his mask.

“I’ll… I’ll join. I apologise. I was caught off guard.” Aquaman said, pulling himself back into his chair, looking a little shaky.

“I am Ladybug, guardian of the miraculous as of recently and leader of the team we have been working out of Paris against the villain Hawkmoth, holder of the butterfly and peacock Miraculous, who sought to gain the ladybug and black cat Miraculous.” You could see Wonderwoman and Aquaman pale.

“That is horrible. We will back you with any support you need.”

“That won’t be needed as they were recently defeated after three years of battle. We are here not for help but to explain what happened.” Flash raised his hand before speaking when Ladybug gave the go-ahead.

“Wait, I’m a bit lost. How do they know you but not the situation? What are these Miraculous? And why have we never known about this?” Wonderwoman jumped in before Ladybug could answer.

“The Miraculous are magical jewellery based on the fundamental principles of the universe. The two most powerful are the earrings of creation and the ring of destruction. I know of them as my mother was once a wielder of the Ladybug Miraculous.” Aquaman then spoke, having not taken his eyes off the group.

“I know of them as the Miraculous are what sank Atlantis.” If anyone looked over which most of the Miraculous team were doing, a person could see Green Lantern practically on the floor, looking like a pile of goo.

“Wait, are you saying that she is on par with your mother?” Flash jumped in, talking to Wonderwoman, ignoring his friend at this point.

“Oh, I wouldn’t say that.” Ladybug jumped in, only for Wonderwoman to continue.

“Of course not. The Amazons used to work very closely with the Order of the Miraculous as the Guardian of the zodiac box; she holds a higher position, and my mother would likely report to her.” The whole room went silent for a few seconds to absorb that information. However, a small whimper could be heard from the puddle of goo formerly known as Green Lantern.

“I must question how we were not informed about the situation. Why did you not contact us?” The Martian Manhunter spoke up.

“I did. I called at the very start to ask for help as, at the time, Chatnoir and I were the only ones and had no mentor, training or prior experience, but sadly, we were ignored, being written off as a prank call and blocked from ever reaching out again.” Ladybug spoke formally directly to Martian Manhunter as the Miraculous team glared at Green Lantern, drawing looks from the other League members.

“Look, I made a mistake. I have already had Spooky up my ass about it, and he gave me a full class on proper protocol. Besides, no one died, no injury reports and only one instance of destruction, which was minor before the villain stopped because they didn’t show up.” Kagami thundered forward for her spot.

“HOW DARE YOU.”

*Trigger Warning* For Death, Blood and Graphic Violence.

“How dare you. Do you know how many people have died? How many times we have died? How many timelines have been erased?” Suddenly the whole room transformed into the Parisian streets full of people as a tidal wave crashed through the streets, taking people with it as it continued leaving the streets flooded in water, reaching the highest rooftops.

“Syren, the boy she liked, rejected her because he was already in a relationship. The city was flooded; only four hundred made it to the rooftops out of Paris’s population of two point one million.” The scene morphed to show the water filled with floating bodies as Ladybug and Chatnoir are seen swimming through them, having to push a few away to get past.

The scene changed again to show Chat Blank, the moon shown carved in half, and the city in ruins with the remains of people being nothing but black figures. “Chat Blank, Chatnoir got Akumatized due to the miss management taking down Hawkmoth. Everyone on earth was killed, including all of you. This entire timeline had to be reset.”

The scene ripped out to show the heroes mid-battle; everything was destroyed, the streets lined with bodies covered in blood. The Akumatized person came into view. She was covered in all black with a veil, and her skin turned grey, the only sign of colour being the red blood dripping from her hands.

“Mother, a woman gave birth to a stillborn. She wished for other people to feel her pain. She hunted for children and babies, killing them.” It showed a mother having a baby ripped out of her arms as its head was ripped clean off, dripping blood onto the mother.

“And any parent who got in the way.” A man was then shown cradling a seven-year-old girl, the Akuma looming over them, reaching through the man’s chest before pulling the girl’s still-beating heart through his body.

“May I remind you that we are children too?” The scene changed again to show all of them dead on the ground.

“This time, you did come to try and help, yet we were still the ones who had to fix it using time travel.” The whole Justice League is shown in Paris as they try to take down Mother with very few left standing.

Nightwing is shown discovering a surviving girl as her hiding spot is exposed, causing Mother to see her heading straight for them, being unable to stop her, Green Lantern gets in the way only to be torn in half, allowing her to grab and strangle the girl, killing Nightwing as he tries to interfere. The girl soon dies after a struggle and horrid choking noises before Mother drops her body to the ground, moving on. Batman’s horrified expression is the last thing shown as the scene drains from the room.

“While nothing was permanent, the trauma is, the memories are. No matter what, we will always know who we couldn’t save. We will always know how it feels to be drowned, burned alive, beaten to death, or frozen alive, amongst other things. We will always be haunted by the experience of death. You don’t get to minimise that because you are ashamed of your own negligence.” The teams are left in a state of limbo as Ladybug holds Ryuko’s side, whispering reassurances.

Chapter Text

Quite a few of the newer heroes calling in had left the screen to take a breather, and a few even started throwing up. While the more experienced stayed through in shock, looking green or pale from the scene. If you looked close enough, one could see that all of the Batfamily had left their individual screen to huddle in Nightwing’s.

Green Lantern was one of the worst off, having most of the scene directed at him, knowing the part he played in what he had seen. Despite not showing it, Batman wasn’t much better after seeing what had happened to Nightwing, wanting to join his children in their huddle.

Ladybug stepped forward, passing Ryuko over to Viperion. “I apologise, but as you can understand, this is a very serious issue that we are very close to, so we don’t appreciate people making light of the situation.” Martian Manhunter was the first to emerge from the state of shock overlaying the League.

“It is alright. Why don’t you start giving us more information about the situation?” This definitely wasn’t going to plan for either side.

“Ok, I guess I will start with the involved personnel.” She looked back to see most of the team still glaring at Green Lantern as Viperion continued to comfort Ryuko as he gave her a small nod.

“As I said, my name is Ladybug, and this is my current team. None of our identities that are not already known will be shared. This is my partner Chatnoir, holder of the black cat with the power of destruction. Viperion holder of the snake, power of second chance, Pegasus holder of the horse, power of teleportation. Bunnix holder of the bunny, power of time travel. Honeybee holder of the bee, power of immobilisation. Roi Singe, holder of the monkey, power of power disruption. Carapace holder of the turtle power of protection. Ryuko, holder of the dragon and temporary holder of the fox, has the power to transform into elements of water, wind and lightning and temporarily create illusions. And finally, Multimouse temporary holder of the mouse, power of multiplication” As she went through the team, they indicated who she was introducing.

“We have had temporary heroes in the past. Alya Césaire, wielder of the fox, went by Rena Rouge, who was removed due to unethical practices as a civilian. Chloè Bourgeois, wielder of the bee, went by Queen Bee, was removed after revealing her identity, and as I introduced, Multimouse, otherwise known as Marinette Dupain-Cheng, is emergency backup after her identity was revealed.” Batman, despite already knowing their identities, was once again surprised by how open they were with this information, especially with Alya’s identity. In reality, after Alya’s lap dog routine, the team usually takes any chance to drag her name down.

“As for our villains, we had our main villain, Hawkmoth, who was revealed as Gabriel Agreste, the fashion designer. Gabriel wished to gain possession of the Ladybug and Black Cat Miraculous, which, when combined, would grant a wish. Gabriel wished to bring back his wife, who at the time was put in a coma after using the damaged peacock Miraculous.” Green Arrow raised his hand before being signalled to speak.

“Why couldn’t he make the wish if all he wanted was his wife?” This kept getting off track as Ladybug had hoped to get all the information out at once, but when there was so much, it was hard to tell where to start.

“The Miraculous were made and are used to maintain balance within the world. When a wish is made, there is a counteraction. A man in Europe wishes for his family to never know illness. The Black Plague landed on the shores the next day.”

“A boy who had only known war his entire life asked for the fighting to stop. His city sank, killing 80% of the population, and the other 20% discovered they could breathe underwater. The balance must be maintained. It could be the purest wish in the world, but evil will always follow.” This drew looks to Aquaman, who went pale once again at the reminder.

“Shadowmoth had two partners, Mayura, wielder of the peacock miraculous, who was revealed to be his assistant Nathalie Sancoeur. Nathalie used the peacock Miraculous before it was fixed, which greatly affected her health permanently. Gabriel and Nathalie were arrested and charged for their crimes while both Gabriel’s son and all remaining staff were cleared.” Martian Manhunter called forth next.

“What of the third party?” Ladybug looked back at the team for a bit of reassurance before continuing.

“Hawkmoth also had a civilian aside. She worked to gain intel and create Akumas. She specifically targeted Marinette.” Ladybug turned, gesturing to Multimouse as she stepped forward.

“Marinette has never been Akumatized due to having strong control over her emotions, being one of the very few in spite of some incidents. She has a background in martial arts and gymnastics. She also has a heightened intelligence being the one to discover Lila’s intentions and inform us. Marinette got on his radar after winning a design competition he was judging. This made her one of Hawkmoth’s targets which were only amplified after her identity was revealed.” The group had decided what Ladybug was going to say about herself as she was biassed, often underplaying herself and was not very comfortable talking about herself.

“Lila is often underestimated, but due to her influence in attempts to get Marinette Akumatized, Lila has destroyed her businesses credibility, manipulated her parents into becoming abusive rather than neglectful before they kicked her out, and turned all students and teachers against her so that they waited on Lila hand and foot.”

“She is a compulsive liar, manipulator and very dangerous to herself and others. Despite both Hawkmoth and our testimonies, she has received no punishments and is claiming that Marinette was working with Hawkmoth. Luckily while some do believe these claims, no charges stuck.” Batman, ever the adoptaholic, jumped in.

“May I ask what the living situation is for Gabriel’s son and Marinette? I would be able to set something up if needed.” The entire Batclan could be seen face-palming.

“They were both friends, so they decided to move in together, both having solid funds to do so.” While disappointed, Batman still promised to investigate the situation later.

The rest of the meeting was pretty uneventful, going through a couple of Akumas and providing more information, as well as answering any questions that were left. Until finally, they got to the plans for the future.

Chapter Text

“Now that Hawkmoth has been defeated as a group, we have decided to work on correcting balance across the globe. While there are quite a few things that need to be finalised, however, with Batman’s permission, most of us were thinking of starting in Gotham due to the major imbalance as well as opportunities for us.” They had talked about it for a long time, and Gotham sounded like a good starting point.

It was in desperate need of help but had a good university for Chloé to get her business degree as she wanted to take over her mother’s company. Max had always wanted to work at Wayne Industry in research and development, so where better to start than the CEO’s headquarters?

Kim and Alix weren’t too picky and were happy to follow Max as they were just getting temporary jobs so they could save up to own and manage their own gym.

Marinette had practised in the past with her international clientele, so she felt comfortable working anywhere. Several prominent clients even lived in Gotham. Also, with Gotham’s ridiculous wealth in the higher class, she had something to fall back on.

Adrien, after a lot of thought and deliberation and trying more than a few things, had fallen in love with looking after children after helping to babysit on more than a few occasions. He decided to get his degree in primary education at the same university as Chloé though he said that he would like to teach somewhere other than Gotham, but that still gave him around five years.

For Luka, it had been extra exciting as that was where his Dad was from, knowing Jagged would likely follow, only really staying in Paris for him at that point as they reconnected, especially after their falling out with Juleka.

Nino had already decided he was going to give up his Miraculous and stay in Paris for his career. It was the same for Kagami but instead, travelling to focus on her fencing career and compete until she retired to run the family company.

It was sad, but they all knew that they would all step back at one point, especially with Chloé’s plans to move to New York and Max, Kim and Alix planning to move to a different branch where it was safer to start a small business and settle down.

Only Luka, who had decided to wait to see how things when in Gotham and Marinette, who would be the Guardian for the rest of her life, didn’t have plans to settle down and give up their miraculous when the time came except for Adrien who said he would decide after getting his degree or if they left Gotham.

Although after they graduated, everyone except for Nino agreed they didn’t think they could live in Paris anymore due to all the memories.

Breaking Ladybug out of her thoughts. Superman spoke up after mainly keeping quiet due to knowing Batman’s hatred for metas, who think they can just jump in and fix Gotham. While Batman was deep in thought, probably waiting for more information.

“Wait, are you saying that Gotham is the way it is because it’s out of balance, and if you fix it, Gotham would just be a normal city?”

“No, of course not. Gotham would still be Gotham. By fixing the balance, the change would be more subtle. Like there would be less misfortune, which would drive fewer people to crime, death and injury rates from major incidents would go down, and the chances of the rogues breaking out of Arkham would go down. Even just small things like the weather and plant life would improve. Besides, Batman would still be in charge.”

“We wouldn’t need to be too involved. Just our presence, when transformed, would do a lot. I would be correcting the balance while Chatnoir makes sure there isn’t an overcorrection while the team minimalise side effects from being created due to the readjustment while also helping.”

“For example, Viperon would raise the number of people who get a second chance if they have already fallen into criminal activity. While Honeybee would help people break their paralysis and take action within their life and so on and so forth.” After Ladybug finished explaining, Roi Singe decided to add a comment in French to try and make a joke upon seeing Ladybug lock up at the thought of imposing on another hero.

“And Multimouse so Ladybug can have her side piece.” This drew an exacerbated sigh from Ladybug, who never really liked the inside joke. Followed by a comment from Batman, also in French.

“Strange from what I saw, the media always paired her with Chatnoir.” Roi Singe choked on air at the reply, not expecting anyone to know French, thinking he could get away with their inside joke. Ladybug and Multimouse, due to Ryuko’s amusement, went bright red from embarrassment. Chatnoir had wisely decided not to translate what was said in French, causing confusion amongst the League, excluding Wonderwoman, the Bats and a couple of others due to their knowledge of French.

Batman then made the wise decision to switch to English and move the conversation along. “That should be fine. However, we will need a separate meeting for the specifics. How long until you plan to move?” They were planning to move once they graduated, so they already had somewhat of a timeline.

“In two to three months. We still need to get some things in order.” Batmen knew they would need lessons and training to work in Gotham, but at least they understood that they couldn’t rush in and fix everything before giving up and leaving. They were also willing to work with him rather than undermine him and his team, so it wouldn’t be too bad.

“We were having trouble contacting you earlier. Is there a way for us to contact you out of costume? That way, we can each reach out for help in the future, especially if you were to come to Gotham.”

“I would need to talk to my team before we commit to getting involved in League matters. However, I can provide you with the number for my burner phone. I do hope, however, that you will unblock my number from your system.” Ladybug finished in a lighter tone.

“It has already been done. Now, if there is nothing else, I believe we shall end it here.” Batman stated, looking at not only the Miraculous team but the League as well.

“I probably should mention that the French citizens know that the reason the Justice League wasn’t involved was because of Green Lantern, so I would suggest he stay out of France for a while.” With that, Ladybug signalled Pegasis to create a portal as they left. After she left, Wonder Woman turned to Green Lantern.

“Lantern, you and I will be having a talk after the rest of this meeting. So don’t run away.”

Chapter Text

Throughout the craziness that was dealing with the Paris situation, the Batboys had not forgotten about Damian’s soulmate. In fact, the situation had provided the perfect excuse to invite the majority of the group on a trip to Gotham through the charity foundation set up to help Paris by providing services such as free therapy. All they had to do was convince Bruce to join the plan.

***

Bruce had been invited by the boys to participate in a meeting, only they hadn’t told him what it was about, but as soon as he stepped into his study and saw the slide projector up, he knew they wanted something. As he sat down, his vision switched between Tim, who was sitting in front of his computer, most likely working on the slides. Dick, who was standing up front, was most likely the one to do the speaking while Jason and Duke sat to the side, the latter looking uncomfortable, so they likely dragged him along for numbers. Damian was absent, so it was either about him or their asking for something ridiculous enough that he didn’t want to be apart despite his hatred for missing out. Though with the second option, Damian would likely be beside him, arguing against his brothers.

“Bruce…” Oh dear god, what had they done to get Dick to call him by his first name?

“We came up with an interesting idea to get further involvement within Paris.” The slide started showing the words’ Internships’ in bold letters.

“We thought that we could select a class for Paris that was highly affected by Hawkmoth to come to Gotham for a month to do an internship with Wayne Industries. This would not only help get them out of the city to improve their mental health but improve their resume as their grades would have been affected by the constant attacks.” The slide changed again to show the Wayne botanical gardens.

“On the weekends, they could tour Gotham or possibly take a day trip to Metropolis, improving their international knowledge. Among this, it could also help develop their English and the employees working with them on their French.” This didn’t actually sound like a bad idea, but where does Damian come into play?

Even with his development, he has still shown interest in taking over Bruce’s position to become Tim’s co-CEO, so he should be involved. Especially with his recent plots to prove that when he graduates in a year having skipped a grade, he doesn’t need to go to university before taking over. That’s when it hit him that Damian’s possible soulmates lived in Paris.

“And I suppose that you have already chosen a school?” The slides flipped again to display the front of Françoise Dupont.

“Well, that is where it gets even better. It turns out that the most affected class included one Lila Rossi. This could allow us to look further into the situation, and due to the Wayne’s status, she will likely lie about us, which she has been shown to do, allowing us to catch her and justify looking deeper into her past. If what Ladybug said was true about the testimonies against her, if we remove her credibility, it would make sense for them to reinvestigate.” That does seem like the perfect opportunity, but with such a fragile relationship with the miraculous team, it might not be worth the risk.

“What about the Miraculous team? They wouldn’t like us meddling in their affairs, especially if they aren’t involved?” The slide changed again, displaying the class photo confirming Bruce’s suspicions that this was about Damian’s soulmate seeing most of the people from Raven’s vision in the photo.

“That brings me to our next point. Marinette Dupain-Cheng is also a member of the class. Having her there would mean we could work with her while taking down Lila. Thus, not undermining the team if we are working with a member of said team. Not only that, but we could also get to know Marinette as we will be working with her in the future, improving teamwork and our connection to the Miraculous team.”

“Plus, this would also help Marinette allowing her to visit and stay here before she moves to another continent. You also stated that you wanted to look into her living situation further to make sure she is alright.” They had clearly put a lot of thought into this, as they were making some very good points. As Bruce processed, the slide changed again to display Adrien Agreste.

“That leads me to my next point. Adrien Agreste is also a part of the class, allowing you to check up on him as well, following on with what you said earlier. The timeline also lines up perfectly. If we do it in two months’ time, they will be able to make it to the Wayne Foundation Gala, which is raising money for their city. We could even have some of them do a speech at the event, and it would be after they graduate, but before university, so they would only miss a week of school after the exams, which is put aside for their end-of-year trip.” The slide changes to show all of the people that were in Raven’s vision.

“Now, to make my final point. The majority of Damian’s possible soulmates are in this class as well, excluding Luka Couffaine and Kagami Tsurugi, both of whom have been invited to the Gala through their parents. So this way, we can also meet Damian’s soulmate in a specific time frame, so we have a bit more control, and Damian doesn’t have a chance to hide them away from us. Besides Damian’s soulmate, there are so many reasons that we should do this to the point that we came to you so you can help instead of going behind your back.” That was true. There were so many reasons to do this.

It’s almost like the author intended to do that, planning for this point for almost a year now so that everything lined up perfectly, giving a possible reason why the class would go to Gotham of all places and why Bruce would go along with his boy’s hair-brained scheme to meet Damian’s soulmate.

“Ok, let’s do this. We will need to get in contact with the school. There is a lot to do. I’m assuming you guys want to handle this personally?” All the boys nodded.

“So ‘personally’ that we will be the tour guides on weekends.” Then it was settled they were coming to Gotham.

Chapter Text

“Good morning, class”, Ms Bustier called, clapping her hands to gain the attention of the class. Marinette had originally liked Ms Bustier. She had a different style of handling student issues than most, believing that it is important for students to handle their own issues so they could take what they learnt further in life which, for the most part, worked.

That was until Lila came along, showing her to be too passive and easily manipulated due to her forgiving nature, but it did teach the important lesson that you can’t always rely on your superiors.

“I have some very exciting news. Due to this being your last year and the extensive experience this class has been through, we have been gifted a class internship in Gotham by the Wayne Industries relief foundation. This will be a great opportunity to practise in your future career and add to your resumé.”

“This could also be a great opportunity to work on your English for some; however, if needed, you will be given access to a translator for your phone.” Marinette thought that this was quite convenient, considering the meeting with the Justice League was only two weeks ago, but she wasn’t going to complain. This could actually be a great opportunity.

While Marinette was good at team management and design, she was still learning the intricacies of running her own business despite the degree she got through online schooling. She would have to look into Wayne’s connection to Batman, though, which could be a pain.

At least she got to look around before moving there. Maybe she could even tour a few apartments without having to teleport there, which could be a problem if she is seen by Batman or his family. Marinette was brought out of her deep thought by a banshee-like noise.

“Aw, my Damipoo shouldn’t have.” The attention was taken from the teacher at the sausage hair’s outburst.

“What do you mean, girl?” Lila smirked at drawing them into her latest lie.

“You know how I’m always going on about my soulmate? Well, I guess I can tell you now. It’s my childhood friend. You might know him as Damian Wayne. I was just telling him how hard it has been to deal with Hawkmoth and everything.” Queue the glares at Marinette.

“I haven’t been able to visit lately due to how busy I have been, and I miss him a lot. He must have pulled some strings.” Most of the class was thoroughly enwrapped in Lila’s story as the rest rolled their eyes, waiting to get back to the announcement.

“Oh my god, girl, you are soulmates with Damian Wayne? You have to tell us about him and his family.” You could hear Marinette’s head hit the table, knowing this would take a while.

“Oh yes, our families have been friends for years. They are all so sweet. Bruce’s daughter and I are thick as thieves. We would talk all through the night when she first arrived, and I would stay over. She is so talkative.” Max’s face palmed, being a big fan of Wayne industry’s work, so he knew a bit about the Wayne’s.

“Damian is the youngest. He is the same age as us but had to repeat a year due to his struggles when learning English. We were so happy when we found out we were soulmates. He is so sweet. I didn’t tell you guys because of how shy he is. I’m sorry.”

“Don’t worry, girl, we understand. Right guys?” The rest of the group hurriedly reassured her.

“Thanks, you guys are truly the best. I knew you would understand.” The class looked pleased due to the compliments, having done their job of looking after Lila.

“Jason is next; we have always been really close. I met him when he lived on the streets and actually introduced him to Bruce.” Alya gasped.

“Girl, that’s amazing. You have done so much for so many people. It’s ridiculous.” Marinette mumbled from the back from where her head was on the desk.

“Ridiculous is right, at least.” Bustier frowned, clapping her hands.

“Marinette, that is enough. Lila, please continue.” She said, drawing a grown from Alix.

“Thank you, Ms. Anyway, as I was saying. Tom is the second oldest; he is the embodiment of a healthy lifestyle despite taking over the company at such a young age. Originally the oldest was meant to take over, but he fell into drug problems. He got so bad that most people just call him ‘Dick’ instead of Richard. Even his own family does.”

“Luckily, I was able to convince him to get some help. He still calls me at times to get support.” Max let out a noise similar to a dying animal, which was heard over the sound of his head hitting Kim’s hand as he had put it on the table to stop Max from hurting himself as Alix rubbed his back.

“I’m practically family. If it wasn’t for my mum, Bruce probably would have adopted me. It will be so good to see them in person.” There were so many problems with what she had just said, but it was pretty impressive that she had this lie laid out.

Kim, losing his patients and growing more concerned for Max, yelled out. “When is the trip, Ms?” Alya turned, scowling at Kim for interrupting.

“Good question Kim. We will be leaving in one month and two weeks. Now you must understand that this is not just a holiday. You will have to work during your internship. Due to Wayne Industries’ many facets, you will need to fill out a form to decide where you will work based on your interests or planned careers. Some of the options include PR, advertising, management, assisting and even product development and testing. So be careful when filling out the form because it will be due in a week. If it is not in your roll will be selected at random.” Ms Bustier continued as she handed out the forms.

“You guys will be working from 8:30 to 5 from Monday to Friday. The rest of the time will be used for sightseeing and planned activities, including a trip up to Metropolis. This trip will be four weeks, not including three days at the start to get over jet lag. The trip will also end with the Wayne gala, so make sure you bring some formal wear. You will all be provided with more information in the full packet and when things are formalised closer to the trip.” Once she finished, Alya turned to Lila excitedly.

“Ah, Lila, if we go to Metropolis, you could set up a meeting with Lois Lane for me or maybe even an interview with the Waynes.”

“We will have to see. You know how much she travels, and you have to understand that the Waynes are very private people” And they were off once again.

The rest of the lesson was spent listening to Lila’s lies as she went on about all the people she knows, with the class gushing about how thankful they are that she got the trip for them. The Miraculous group meanwhile blocked them out, beginning to work through their forms.

Chapter Text

Lila was very proud of the life that she had created. Everything was going her way designed to get her ahead in life. She had a job anyone would be begging for, legions of followers that would back and support her in any way and all it took was a bit of influence.

Her mother had made it very clear that she was not to use the family gift, but what was the point of such a useful gift if they didn’t use it to get ahead in life? So what if she used her gift to get people to listen to her?

You see, Lila came from a long line of meta’s, their powers being the dominant trait. They had the ability to manipulate the mind. All it would take is a few words, and people would believe anything. The only problem was if there was solid evidence against what they had said, all control over that person would be lost forever. Lila was lucky, however, being more powerful than most of her family, being able to convince people to ignore most evidence unless irrefutable.

In the beginning, Lila had listened to her mother, trusting her, believing she knew everything. It changed, however, when her mum got a new job working as a secretary for the embassy, causing her to move around. It started small, making people more open to friendship with her, but it quickly became addicting. With each new school, her lies became more extravagant as she was able to fine-tune her powers.

It ended when she was caught out in a lie by another student humiliating her in front of everyone, but that did not matter; she would just have to do better at the next school, and she did. The instant someone discovered her, Lila went on the attack dragging the person under and isolating them all too easily. She found it quite the trill each time taking further actions against the next person that discovered her lies.

Lila always got more enjoyment when there was someone to go up against. They never posed a challenge, only bringing entertainment, especially when they had a strong personality and interest. It made them all the more fun to break, which was certainly better than their classmates that jumped like dogs. Any hint of personality was an annoyance that she was obligated to pay attention to; otherwise, she could lose them.

She never meant for anyone to die, but she never cried if they did. It just showed how truly weak they were. However, that one measly death had scared her mother enough to move them all the way to Paris, where she joined Françoise Dupont. It was there that she discovered her first real problem, specifically Marinette Dupain-Cheng.

From the very beginning, Marinette didn’t fall for her lies, but Lila didn’t think much of it, believing she would just be another pawn to fall. Instead, while she gained allies, so did Marinette splitting the class and putting Lila in the middle of the conflict.

While Lila thrived off of attention, she always kept herself out of the conflict so no one would pin anything on her. This meant she was at a higher risk of getting caught and called out, which she had not been for a long time; because of this, she had to be smart from then on. It was obvious that she had gotten too cocky with her abilities, so from that point forward, she would have to actually plan things out, which was a pain.

But then she made herself a very powerful alliance in Hawkmoth, better known as Gabrial Agreste. For the amount of power he had, he was easy to manipulate. She guessed it came with the grief and the clear insanity he displayed. She only really had to worry about Nathalie, but she was too concerned with her health and Adrien to look deeper into Lila's intentions.

Through Gabrial, she secured herself one of the most sought-after jobs modelling with Adrien. Gabrial was also perfect for breaking Marinette, being one of the tops in her chosen field of profession. Destroying her career was almost too easy, needing basically no influence from Gabrial. Just a few comments about her stealing some of the designs she planned to show Gabrial and the class tour down any reputation Marinette had.

The problem was the man was an obsessive idiot who never thought ahead. Being too obsessed with Ladybug, he lost sight of his goal. The only reason he made it so far was Nathalie and that he hid behind his creations.

Despite all this, Marinette had been unable to shake any of the footing Lila had gained. The first time Lila was ever actually afraid was when Marinette was revealed to be Mutimouse. It gave her more credibility against Lila, especially concerning the lies she had told about Ladybug and her team, as well as the ones made against Marinette’s character. Luckily she was able to talk to the class before Marinette swayed them.

Lila had told a sob story about how much trouble Ladybug was having, especially seeing her teammates getting hurt because she needed help during dire situations. So Lila had come up with the idea to use Marinette as death fodder in tricky times as punishment for her treatment of Lila and something else that she was not at liberty to say at that time.

Sure it was true Marinette only came out in dire situations, but even Lila was surprised she got away with that one. The truth was she was getting more powerful with how much practice she had using her powers.

The second problem arose when Hawkmoth exposed himself, losing the final battle to Ladybug and her merry band of idiots. Having watched Hawkmoth’s growing chaotic behaviour, she had planned for his downfall. It even allowed her to put the final nail in the coffin for Marinette’s parents.

She thought that would be the end, but it seemed no matter what she did, Marinette would just come back seemingly unaffected. At some point, it might seem better to just drop it, but she had become too much of a liability to let things lie.

Gotham was the perfect place to do this, the Crime Capital of the world. If Lila were lucky, one of the Rogues would do her job for her, and if not, all it would take is a push in the right direction to get her right where Lila wanted her.

Chapter Text

It was the night before the flight to Gotham. The last month and a half had been hectic due to final exams. Though it did not mean much to Marinette, as she already had her business degree and a stable business, she wanted to try her best and offer support to her friends.

Despite the stress, Max and Marinette both did find it a bit funny how annoyed their friends got over not copying them and getting the necessary degrees for their chosen field over the school years online, being the little geniuses they are, thus making the final exams insignificant.

They were all glad to have them over and done with so they could focus on their trip. Depending on what classes everyone took, everyone had between one to two weeks of break before the trip. During that time, the miraculous court worked to figure out what to wear to the Gala. Everyone in the group decided it would be easiest to wear one of the formal outfits that Marinette had designed for them to wear at previous events.

Marinette, however, decided to make a design she had previously created for herself but had not had the right excuse to make it as there were no upcoming events. She was hoping to gain some more clients at the event because while she could still design for people based in Paris and France, the shipping would be more difficult, as well as communicating with the clients due to time zones, let alone if alterations are needed. It would be unpreferable for her business.

Despite this meaning, she would need to pack her sewing equipment, not including the fabric she would purchase when she got to Gotham. There was still extra room in her suitcase to pack more clothing, including her many options for work outfits.

“Hey, Cat, have you seen my blazer?” Adrien poked his head out of his room with a curious look.

“The pink interior or the one with shoulder pads?” Marinette came fully out of her room, holding some clothing in her arms.

“The bulletproof one.” They don’t really talk about it, but Alix had insisted she make one that had built-in bulletproofing. It had never come in handy, which made everyone nervous, but the team had learnt that when Alix gets that look on her face, you listen and don’t question.

Marinette had mainly decided to bring it due to Gotham’s history and reputation. Besides, it couldn’t hurt, and Marinette was really proud of her creation. It had taken a bit of trial to fully hide the bulletproofing and make it look like her natural figure, but it had turned out amazing.

“It should be in with the dry cleaning that I just picked up. Check there.”

“Thanks”

***

They had an early flight, for when they left, Marinette, not feeling comfortable leaving the miraculous box, had it shrunken down in her carry-on disguised as a key chain. There were no real problems besides the usual airport fan fair, something everyone was grateful for.

The problem started after they reached the hotel. The host foundation was really generous, putting them up two to a room at a nice hotel with proper security. Roommates were separated between girls and boys because while most were eighteen, it was still a school-organised trip. Because of this, Kim and Max, Nino and Adrien and Marinette and Alix were roommates while Chloé paid to stay by herself.

They arrived around 2 pm Saturday, having the rest of the day and tomorrow to recover from jetlag. They would then start their internship Monday. Since there was still quite a bit of time left in the day, Marinette decided to head off to a fabric store that was open a couple of blocks away, allowing her to walk.

Now Marinette wasn’t stupid; she knew how dangerous it was, but she felt confident enough as a civilian, and it was early enough in the day to be alright, so she headed off while her friends got settled.

The first shop was only five blocks away, so it was a brisk walk where she was able to get most of the fabrics she needed for her dress. The missing fabrics she got from the next store nine blocks over. She, unfortunately, lost track of time, only starting to head back after the sun had set.

She was only two blocks away from the hotel when she noticed someone starting to follow her. He was a large burly man standing a full two heads taller than her. Taking a look around, she noticed a man coming out of an alley up ahead, walking towards her and one across the street coercing her into an alley to avoid crossing them, where at least one other person was probably waiting.

Well, too bad for them; that wouldn’t work out very well for them. Marinette was going to make sure they weren’t going to bother anyone else. Making the decision, she turned down the alley, stopping not far from the opening, keeping the bags in her arms and turning to watch the men enter.

“How can I help you, gentlemen?” The men continued to approach.

“Why don’t you just come with us without causing us any problems.” The man in the middle answered as all of their eyes flickered at different intervals to a single spot behind her left shoulder. So there were only four of them. It didn’t seem too hard at all, really.

“Well, I really don’t want to cause any problems, so why don’t you boys just head on your way.” Seeing the shift in the men, Marinette quickly turned around, hitting the knife out of the fourth man’s hand before punching him on the underside of his jaw, causing him to pass out.

“You’re in for it now, girly.” The first guy stepped forward, taking a swing at her. Just as all his momentum peaked, Marinette kicked his front leg out from under him, causing him to faceplant.

However, before she could incapacitate him, the other two lunged, making her take a step back, causing them to stumble forward. Spinning away from the second guy’s grip, she roundhouse-kicked the third, taking the chance to step away from both the first and fourth men. The third guy went down like a stone hitting his head against the wall of the alley, knocking himself out.

As she watched him, the second man tried to attack again this time, however, when Marinette moved out of the way, she grabbed his arm, flipping him over her shoulder onto his back, winding him. As he tried to regain his breath, she kicked the side of his temple, effectively knocking him out.

Hearing a thump behind her, she saw Robin now standing behind the first guy, having gained the ability to stand again. Turning to fight Robin, he raised his fist. However, instead of ducking out of the way or grabbing his wrist, Robin clutched his forearm, allowing the criminal to get a grip on the back of Robin’s wrist. Robin retaliated by punching him in the face to knock him out.

“You know a woman like yourself shouldn’t be out this late. It can be very dangerous; you could get hurt.” Marinette couldn't believe that he had just said that to her face after seeing her take down three men with ease, especially after he had made such a blatant mistake.

This was Talia’s son who was meant to be this great warrior, ‘Son of the Bat’ and ‘Heir to the league of Shadows’? It was appalling, really. She didn’t even give herself a second to realise that he had said her soulmark before responding.

“I had it handled traffic light, besides your form was off.”

Chapter Text

Robin glanced at the woman in front of him, recognising her from Raven’s vision. She froze after replying. Not knowing what to do, Robin waited for her to get over her shock.

“Does yours? Are we?” Robin nodded slowly, watching her come out of shock only for her face to drop blank and start walking forward, swerving around him and out of the alley.

“Where are you going?” Robin called, rushing after her as she waved her hands wildly despite being restricted by the bags still in her hands.

“I’m not doing this right now. I am tired from flying all day and need to get back to my hotel before anyone freaks out that I am not back yet. Besides this,” She said, pulling up the edge of his cape before dropping it when he caught up to her. “is too much for me to deal with, let alone comprehend right now.”

“How am I meant to contact you? You haven’t even told me your name or anything about yourself.” They were both speed-walking to the hotel at this point.

“Names Marinette Dupain-Cheng. I’m 16. I just finished school and am here on a trip, but I will be moving here at some point. I own and operate my own business and am the hero Multimouse, which you should already know due to my team’s plan to work with yours. The rest is not important at this very moment. As for how to contact me, I will contact you, not the other way around, when I am ready and have processed all of this. Until then, it was nice to meet you.” With that, she turned into the hotel letting the doors close behind her leaving Robin standing on the curb.

“What the Fuck just happened.” After a while, he went back to patrol, still trying to process the whirlwind that was his soulmate.

***

Back at the hotel room, Chloé had finished unpacking and setting up her things, so she joined Alix in her and Marinette’s room to hang out and wait for Marinette to return. Seeing that it was getting dark, they had begun to worry about Marinette and were preparing to get an adult when the girl burst into the room in a panic.

“IjustmetmysoulmateandwentintoLadybugmode.” Marinette word vomited as she flopped onto her bed. Moving over to Marinette’s bed to comfort her, Chloé brushed some of her hair off the pouting girl’s face.

“Honey, I got none of that. Take a breath and try again.” Chloé requested, rolling the girl over, so Marinette faced her with her head in her lap.

“On my way back, these four guys tried to jump me. I had taken out three of them when Robin dropped down and knocked the last guy out. Poorly might I add? But then it’s revealed that he is my soulmate, which I mean if Talia was to be right about one thing, it just had to be him. Anyway, with the recent fight, my adrenaline pumping, his condescending ass comment and just the sight of a mask, I switched into Ladybug mode. Which, as you know, isn’t the best for making friends. Especially when there is a mission which at the time was to get to the hotel. Ah, he probably hates me already.” By the end of the explanation, Marinette was hyperventilating and on the verge of a panic attack.

“Ok, first of all, we are going to calm down. This is nothing we can’t fix, if it even needs fixing, to begin with.” Chloé soothed, stroking Marinette’s hair as Tiki and Mullo flew out of Marinette’s bag to hug her to provide comfort.

“She is right. Don’t worry. Meeting your soulmate is a very stressful time for everyone. Very few have a perfect moment. I’m sure he will understand.” Tiki comforted, rubbing against her cheek as Alex chimed in.

“Yeah, besides, what can you do right now? Take the time to process; then, if you want, tomorrow, we can head up to the rooftops and kidnap him or something.” Marinette giggled, thinking of what Batman’s reaction would be like if they actually kidnapped Robin.

“Let’s do that. Thank you. I was really starting to panic for a moment there.” Getting up from Chloé’s lap, she shuffled back onto the pillows at the end of the bed, followed closely by the girls and Kwamis.

“Well, it is still early. How about we watch a movie to get our minds off everything?” Snuggling closer, Marinette hummed in agreement.

***

Once Damian had got back to patrol, he was immensely glad it was a quiet night because while he was trained never to let anything throw him off his game, his soulmate was evidently a weak spot for him, which was not helping with his nerves concerning how unhappy his soulmate was to meet him.

Though that wasn’t entirely fair considering the way they met wasn’t exactly ideal, plus there was the fact that he was in uniform at the time. He did find relief at the very least that she was somewhat skilled as a civilian, let alone that she was also a hero despite not being one full-time. Meaning she wasn’t completely defenceless, and it would make it easier for her to understand his work as a vigilante.

With all the new information circling through Damian’s head, he had managed to make one significant error by forgetting about his family. That was until Barbara made the call to head back to the cave, where they would debrief about the night. He dreaded the fact that he would have to tell them, choosing to drag his feet, knowing he was only delaying the inevitable when Barbara chimed in from his comm.

“You’re moving a bit slow, Robin. Don’t forget that I was manning the comms, meaning I saw and heard everything. I already have it playing on repeat in the cave, so if I were you, I would pick up the pace.” She updated him with a giggle in her voice.

“You know, for someone who brags about escaping Father’s adoption habits, you sure have the older sister role down.” Robin snarks back as he speeds up, jumping onto his bike. It was too late to beat everyone home, but he could hopefully stop any plots his siblings would come up with.