Chapter Text
The carriage that took people on rides was presently doing a loop. They would have a small wait. As they waited, Marinette became acutely aware that she was still holding his hand. Did he even realise he was doing it? Did he want to? Was it just because of her freak out earlier? Did he feel bad for her still and this and the hayride was some way to make it up to her? Was that all this was? Pity? He felt bad about taking her somewhere that scared her?
She hoped it was more than that, but knew it probably wasn’t. Damian had quite the reputation it seemed.
“Are you still joining me in the corn maze after this?” he asked, bringing her out of her thoughts.
“Yep!” she agreed immediately. “If you still want me to, that is.”
“I…” he hesitated, “I do.”
She opened her mouth to ask him something, when suddenly screams came from several directions. She was about to suggest that they split up, so that she could transform if needed, when he yanked her behind a gigantic hay bale.
Damian peered around it, looking to see what was happening. Marinette ducked under him arm, trying to peek out as well. She caught sight of a clown and several men with guns before Damian tried to push her back. The Joker if she remembered correctly. Gotham had its own set of bizarre villains with no fashion sense. They argued for a moment about her getting seen – as if he wouldn’t be as well, the hypocrite – before he decided to pull her away from the scene. She was caught off balance in the process, and dropped her basket. He attempted to drag her further away into the trees nearby. There was no way she would leave the kwami. Sure she had the cat and ladybug miraculous on her, but Kaalki’s glasses were still in the basket. Nothing, not even a cute boy, would make her leave those behind. She wrenched her hand away and out of his grip, and ran for the basket.
She vaguely heard him whispering at her that she was insane and that they needed to go, but she didn’t respond until she had grabbed the kwami and made it to the tree cover with him. They ran for a bit through the trees until they came upon a washroom. He yanked on the door, but it was locked.
“Fuck,” he whispered angrily. “We need to hide you somewhere.”
“Me?! What about you?!” She needed to get him to safety and then find a way to separate from him. Maybe she could pretend to leave or something. She couldn’t in good conscious leave him in a forest full of men with guns. The Waynes had been hostages in the past. If they found him, he would become one for sure – assuming they didn’t shoot him on sight.
“I’ll be fine.”
“No way. I’m going with you.” Someone had to protect him. He had shown absolutely no fear at all so far. Guaranteed he would go and do something stupid, like try to fight them off.
Marinette sighed quietly as the boy was determined to save her, pulling her back into the trees out of sight of the gunmen. A small smile set on her face, looking at how hard he was trying to protect her. It was nice to be on the innocent civilian side of things for change, rather than the protector. It was incredibly sweet, especially since he didn’t have powers and couldn’t just whisk her away instantly like Chat Noir had. He was trying so incredibly hard, slinking between trees, keeping an eye out. Still, she really did need to go and transform.
They hadn’t gone far when she saw off to her right, a set of hostages that had been caught in the first wave of the attack. A small girl and what was clearly her older brother, huddling together, crying.
“We need to go help them!” Marinette whispered.
She moved to go and help, but was blocked by Damian’s arm. What the hell? He would help her, but not small children? She attempted to push past him, but he grabbed her wrist with a strong grip that was just shy of painful, and started to drag her away. She dug her heels into the ground in protest. It created lines in the ground. Hopefully the Joker’s patrols were too stupid to look for tracks, because otherwise she was leading them straight for Damian and an untransformed hero.
Damian must have noticed too, because he growled in frustration before hoisting her unceremoniously over his shoulder. She was surprised he could do that considering how much fight she was putting up. She started flailing her legs, and whispered, “We need to go back! We have to help them. We need to go back!”
“We need to get you somewhere safe. If a hero, like Robin, was here now, would you stay put? Let them handle it?”
Sure. She would let them handle it. And provide a ton of backup while he was at it, because there was no way one vigilante, trained or not, could take this many guys on by himself. It would be a death sentence without magical powers and enhanced abilities. But Robin wasn’t here. It was a moot point.
“No! They can’t take out all those men by themselves, and what about the hostages?! Even if a hero was here, they would need help!”
More screams sounded from the pumpkin patch behind them. She didn’t have time for this.
They had almost made it back to the parking lot when a round of patrols went by. Marinette stopped kicking and remained still and silent until they passed.
When they made it back to the parking lot, he finally let her down. Him carrying her had really slowed them down, though not as much as she had expected. It was impressive, actually. He pushed her into a nearby car, and joined her a few moments later, now with a fancy suitcase in hand. She looked at it, confused. He sat down and unlocked the case. He stared at the contents for a long time, clearly lost in thought, before he looked up at her and ordered her to ‘avert’ her eyes.
“Avert? What is avert?”
He responded angrily in French, “Avert - to turn away or aside one's gaze in avoidance.”
She wasn’t stupid! “I know what avert means. I just didn’t know the word in English!” she spat back, now angry herself.
“Now avert your eyes.”
She turned away huffing. She looked into the basket at the kwami, who were all peering up at her questioningly.
“What do I do?” she whispered to them in the Guardian language that Su-Han had taught her.
Tikki shrugged. Plagg floated beside her, his eyes squinted into a glare. Kaalki was frowning.
“I need to go help. Even if the heroes do show up, they will need help. There’s just too many of them.” She looked out the tinted window. No one would be able to see in. It was an ideal place to transform, if only she could ditch Damian somehow.
The kwami were all nodding in agreement. They were willing to take the exposure risk to help.
“Are you sure you won't just… stay here?” he asked suddenly from behind her.
“Never. There is nothing you could do to stop me from going back there and helping,” she said somewhat angrily.
The kwami looked at her exasperatedly. She knew she should have said she would stay there while he went out to help, but it had just spilled out before she could stop it. Why couldn’t she have said yes?! Once again, her mouth had betrayed her. She put her hands on her face and groaned silently into them.
There was silence for a bit before he suddenly exclaimed, “I had a tail on this whole time, and you never said anything?!”
How the hell was she supposed to know he wasn’t supposed to have a tail? It was a Halloween costume for heaven’s sake! He had the ears, why wouldn’t he have the tail?! She growled back in anger, “Were you not supposed to? You were a bunny after all.” Besides, then she would have to admit that she had been staring at his ass. And that was not going to happen. Just like admitting that she had stared at his arms. Or his chest. Or felt his abs and chest under his shirt when she clung to him in the haunted house. Not happening. No way.
“…I apologize. My anger was at my family, who should have told me. Not at you.”
“Okay.” She sighed. Damian Wayne was a complex person full of contradictions. She wouldn’t mind deciphering them. At least he seemed to know when he had truly screwed up. She had an odd feeling he didn’t apologize often.
She played with Plagg’s ring while she waited for… whatever he was doing, and had Kaalki’s glasses in her other hand, ready to store them into her yoyo, or at least to ensure she didn’t lose them with the basket again.
It was silent for a bit, before he blurted out, “Look… I’m going back in, and you can come. BUT – you will stick to the woods and escort hostages out. Understood?”
She scoffed, a puff of air escaping her by accident. There was no way in hell she would be doing that. Tikki sighed at her. She mouthed ‘sorry’ to her. Her mouth was really getting her in trouble today.
“You can turn around.”
When she did, she was shocked at what she saw. “You- You’re Robin.” The comments he made earlier about if Robin were there made so much sense now. He had been talking about himself. No wonder he hadn’t said Batman. But if he was Robin…
Oh. His whole family were the bats. Hah. Her thoughts about Tim being a bird were more true than she would have ever been able to guess. She just had the wrong kind of bird. She hadn’t seen his father around – Batman was likely on patrol then? But the rest were there – somewhere. They would likely be coming to get their gear as well. Her luck really had been in overdrive all night. She had managed to meet almost every single vigilante in Gotham separately throughout the night. And here she thought she was just a rich kid magnet. Apparently she was a hero magnet as well.
“…Yes.”
“So not only are you the infamous Damian Wayne, but you’re also Robin?”
“Yes. You knew who I was?” He seemed surprised, and confusingly, relieved. Did he really think she didn’t know who he was all this time?
“Of course I did. Does it matter? You’re another person just like everyone else. I’m friends with models and heiresses back home. They’re regular people just like me. Did you want me to treat you differently?”
“No… I was glad you didn’t.” She took the mask he was fiddling with, and placed it gently on his face.
“So, Robin, I guess that means your family are the rest of the bats?” She was sure she knew the answer already, but it helped to check. It was the only thing that made sense.
“Yes. They will not be happy that you know. You have to keep this a secret.”
“I think you’ll find that I’m good with secrets, bat boy” she said with a smirk. She nodded once at Tikki. Him being a hero made everything so much easier. Her decision was made. “Now… let’s go rescue those hostages. Tikki, spots on!”
She gave a little curtsy and waited for the shock to wear off, a smug look on her face. “Ladybug, hero of Paris, at your service.”
“You’re a hero?!” he practically screeched at her. He probably wouldn’t like her calling it that. Masculinely. A masculine screech.
“Yes – now let’s go. We can talk later. Saving kids now.” She exited the car, not bothering to wait for him, stashing the ring and glasses as she ran.
Two patrolmen came out of the cover of the trees. Robin was closer to one, so she let him handle it. She sent a swift kick to the other one’s head, and he dropped to the ground. Knowing the bad guys were actually bad, rather than mind-controlled civilians was oddly freeing. She hated to hurt anyone, but knowing they were causing harm to others of their own free will, rather than as a pawn that would have no recollection of it, certainly lessened her inhibition of harming them. Still… if she could get future people to surrender or run, it would definitely be preferrable. She didn’t like hurting people in general. Robin seemed to have no qualms about it. She reminded herself once again that it was a different place with a different set of villains. Ones that would kill everyone, and if she wasn’t magically involved, there would be no coming back.
After they were down, Robin rounded on her about her reactions at the haunted house and why she was so different now when real danger was present. It was true that her reactions to the haunted house were overboard. She knew it. She also couldn’t help that the haunted house was so much closer to the akuma battles she faced than any regular human hostage situation or mugging could ever be. As they bickered and she attempted to get Damian to understand, they took out three more men. She had used a bit too much force on the last one – she was still getting used to fighting humans rather than magical monsters made from her loved ones – and Robin went over to check on him. Seemed he would be okay, so she tried to put it out of her mind… and remember to use less force in the future. She wondered vaguely if the Supers had that problem as well. She could probably ask them. Batman and Robin were known to have worked with them, both in and out of the Justice League – they likely knew who they were outside of the suit. It would be nice to talk to someone else about the extra abilities.
Robin had just finished checking on the man when another appeared from behind him, gun raised and already pointed at his back. She darted forward, beginning to swing her yoyo to create a shield. Two got through before the yoyo was spinning fast enough. The impact hurt, but could not penetrate her suit. That was really good to know. She probably should have asked Tikki first if gunfire could harm her. Her left shoulder and her lower left of her stomach ached. She knew they would bruise. It was still better than the shots aimed at Robin’s head as he had been standing up. She cringed a bit and aimed her shield so the ricochets did not hit the man and kill him accidentally. When one clipped his shoe a tad, the man freaked out and ran.
She smiled at Robin, happy to have saved him from dying. Damian dismantled the guns as he started to yell at her. “Do you have no training?”
Well, that killed her mood. “Of course I do!” she growled back angrily. Sure, her training was in the Guardian language, defeating other miraculous users, potion making, and the history of the miraculous… but it was training! She had taken the few defense classes she could in Paris without rousing suspicion too.
“Then what the hell possessed you to jump in front of gunfire?!”
The stupid fool didn’t realise how close he had been to dying. It was her get hurt or him die. Her anxiety ramped up. She didn’t want to lose someone else. Unfortunately, her anxiety came out as anger, as it often did when she was in stressful situations like akuma attacks. “I blocked it from killing you. You could just be thankful!” She went to help him, bending the barrels instead and removing the cartridges. Good enough.
“I should be thankful you just about killed yourself instead?!”
She mumbled quietly, “I was never really in danger. Magic suit and all.” But it fell flat. He likely didn’t hear her. He had been worried about her. It took the wind out of her sails to argue more.
The men were out cold and weaponless. They threw the useless weapons in the bushes and prodded on. The next group to attack likely found them because they were screaming at each other loudly. She let Robin take them on himself, able to provide backup if needed as he sliced his way through them. She did manage to convince one to run away, so it was better than nothing. The others would need medical attention, much like the one she had rammed into a tree.
Unfortunately, her letting him go led to another argument about harming (or not harming) the hired help. She didn’t feel like explaining her rationale and her lack of experience with everyday villains in the middle of what was essentially a battlefield!
“Then what the hell was that earlier? Why are you even a superhero if you don’t want to hurt people? It’s part of the job!”
“Earlier?” she frowned at him. “Earlier? Earlier you were about to DIE!” She could not watch another friend die. Hell, she would admit it, a crush. She could not watch another crush die. She wouldn’t be able to handle it. This one wouldn’t come back from the dead if he were hit by a bullet that she had no magical influence over.
“You’re always about to die fighting villains! What the hell kind of villain did you fight?”
“The kind where the magical damage caused was something I could reverse!”
“… what?”
Her mouth rambled on against her will, rambling about magical damage. Having to fight Chat Noir. But it was over now. She kept having to remind herself of that. He wasn’t coming back. Her friends and family were safe. They continued to bicker as they moved slowly through the trees, finally making it to the kids that she had wanted to save earlier. They waved them forward after Ladybug’s yoyo had taken out their guard with a swift knock to the back of the head.
After they had been sent on their way, Robin commented to her in a defeated voice, “Your damn bleeding heart is going to get you killed one day. Or both of us.” She gave him an odd look at that, so he continued, “I have an odd feeling you are going to be the death of me. I’m just not sure how.”
She attempted to fight off the blush forming on her face. He was going to work with her in the future! He wanted to be around her. And… didn’t Americans use the ‘you’re going to be the death of me’ to often refer to loving emotions, or at least affectionate ones? Did he…? Did he like her?
A crash brought her out of her musings. They focused and went silently about their business this time… at least until Robin said randomly, “You could use some real training.”
Guess he didn’t like her after all. That hurt. He just meant that she was incompetent earlier. There was no hidden meaning to his words. “Why are you being so rude to me?”
“Excuse me? Pointing out your flaws is not being rude. It is prudent. You need training. Your sloppiness is going to get us both killed one day.”
“If you don’t like me, why are you bothering to spend all that time with me today?” she screamed at him. He tried to answer, but she continued as if he never spoke. “Why did you bother buying me a ticket? Why didn’t you just leave?!”
“Because I like spending time with you, okay?!” he yelled to be heard over her questioning.
She froze. Did he actually like her after all? Was that why he had been so mad at her taking the bullet? Her lack of training? He was just worried he would lose her?
She replied softly, “I like you- I like spending time with you, too.” Oh hell, she had said she liked him! Why could her mouth never cooperate around cute boys?! She began wishing that the ground could swallow her whole. She was about to say something to try to explain or say that it wasn’t what she meant… until she saw his face. It was beet red. He was smiling.