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“What other secrets did you keep from me?”
“It’s not what it looks like.”
“Oh really? It sure looks like you have a girlfriend.”
“I told you, if we get caught kissing in a small, dark, kind of shady alleyway, it’s on you.” Marinette sighed as she slid out from between Jason and the brick wall. Nightwing stood at the end of the alley, looking at Jason and her bewildered.
“Your point?”
“Nothing! I just… didn’t realize that you had one…”
“Look, would you stop treating me like something you’re trying to fix? It’s been years since the Lazarus Pits, I am fine. ”
“It's not that! Jason-”
“Oh my gosh, Jason, you didn’t tell me you knew Nightwing personally!” Marinette cut in dramatically. She, of course, knew everything. From his street days to Red Hood, just as he knew about Ladybug and her fashion industry. Relationships needed communication to be healthy, and Marinette and Jason had agreed on no secrets unless absolutely necessary. They helped each other chase away the phantoms of their pasts, finding non judgemental companionship.
—
It had been a cruel summer when the two had met. Marinette had finally escaped Adrien and made her way to Gotham to hide. Jason had started to “tame out”, so to speak. They had met after Marinette beat up her would-be-robber, Red Hood had dropped into the alley and immediately started correcting her stances. Offended, Marinette started cursing and criticizing his costume. Thus started their unlikely friendship.
At the time, Jason had had another girlfriend. A girl named Artemis, an amazonian. Initially, Marinette was terrified of her until she realized that Artemis was more socially awkward than Marinette was as a teen. They would spend hours sparring together, then wander around town looking for things to do. Whether it be going to a fair, or fabric shopping. They became closer, and it was Artemis’s idea for Marinette to become a vigilante, and become one she did.
Initially, Jason was weary of Marinette becoming a vigilante. But as she fought off more drug dealers and gangs, he grew more and more comfortable with the notion. It had been around that time that Marinette began to fall in love with Red Hood. It was only natural, as they had to trust one another and they were almost in constant proximity. The timing was horrible, he was dating someone else and suddenly she was starting to become Clumsy Dupain-Cheng in civilian life. Something Jason had noticed, and had thus started to cut back on her patrol time. Thus, cutting down the time they spent together as well.
It was towards the end of the summer, and one of those times that Jason was on patrol alone that Marinette went out to the fabric store. Yes, she knew she wasn’t supposed to be out after dark. It was Gotham, after all. Inspiration had hit though, and Marinette needed to create. She was on her way there when she was dragged in an alley. How stereotypical and predictable. Of all times, it had to be when Jason was out.
The men in the alleyway had covered her mouth, trying to knock her out. Locked in a tangle of arms holding her still, Marinette started to thrash. The edges of her vision began to fog up as the chloroform started to take effect. How annoying. She continued to try and fight to no avail, being thrown in the back of a van and tied up. What unfortunate timing.
However, Marinette wasn’t as terrified as she should have been. She was an ex-superhero and a current vigilante. Sure, she was tied up, but that tended to happen a lot in the hero business. Either way, if she could get to their boss maybe she could take the assumed human trafficking ring down. After all, why else would they take her- unless they knew about her identity as Bluebird. Even then, they would have taken more precautions so it was unlikely.
The van she was in started to move, and Marinette sighed in exasperation. She started to count the path they were taking, but when they reached circle number eight Marinette lost track. They reached a warehouse by the pier eventually, where Marinette was thrown in a dark storage container with a dozen other terrified girls. Things had just gotten all the more real.
Marinette reassured the girls that the Bats and other vigilantes of Gotham would surely save them, but as hours turned into days (as expressed through the small meals they received), she began to lose hope. Jason would have noticed her missing by now, and at this point he must have gotten help from more people. She began to doubt that the Red Hood would save her.
It must have been a week or two by the time the traffickers began to move everyone on a ship. Time was running out, and soon she would never see her friends or Jason again. It was like there was a clock ticking in her head, and when it chimed Marinette would be forever gone. She had tried to fight her captors a multitude of times, to no avail. She had become weak due to the lack of food, and had been constantly bound due to her “fighter” status.
She would never see the clouds again.
It was on the final night before the ship would depart that things changed. Of course, Marinette was unaware of the peculiarity of this particular night, of what had become her normal. It wasn’t until the fighting was heard clearly from her prison. Now in a storage container with just herself, it wasn’t hard to hear the outside. For the first time in awhile, Marinette began to feel hope.
The fighting seemed to settle down, and the containers were being opened. Good gracious, she was going to be free now! Suddenly the doors to her shipment container opened and moonlight fled in. There, stood in the opening, was Red Hood.
“Jason?”
“Shit, Marinette!” He cried out before rushing into the container. He slid onto his knees, coming to a stop right before her. Taking off his helmet revealed a stressed, worried, and relieved boy before he took his face in her hands and kissed Marinette. “God, Marinette, I've been so worried about you.”
“Jason, wait,” She replied, pushing at his chest. “What about Artemis? She’s your girlfriend.”
“We tried, but it just didn’t work out.” When Marinette’s hand lost its weight against his chest he brought her into a hug.
“Can we go home now?” She asked.
“Of course. You have a lot to catch up on,” Jason started. “There was this water balloon fight my brothers and I had that Damian brought flour to that made everything so much more chaotic…”
It hadn’t taken them long to start dating after that cruel summer.
—
Jason smirked, looking at Marinette. “Yeah, babe. I saved his ass one time back in Bludhaven. You should have seen it!”
“Oh wow, that’s so cool! Nightwing, did he really save you?” She asked, turning to the man who was looking more and more confused by the second. He was still at the end of the alley staring at the two.
Jason had apparently gotten bored with the conversation and started peppering kisses all over Marinette’s face and neck. Something she was not objecting to, but had wanted to mess with his brother a little longer. Oh well, they would have more time for that. Her and Jason weren’t planning on telling his family for a while, as they wanted to troll them first. Blackmail material and such. Soon enough Nightwing left and the two were free to head back to the apartment and continue their research on the human traffickers that had taken Mari.
Later that night Bluebird and Red Hood would be found running on the rooftops, and eventually interrogating a man in garish yellow. The man in question was talking in circles and creating long spindly stories in his nervousness.
“And the moral of this story?” Jason asked, cutting to the chase.
“Not everything has a moral. I don’t have one either.” Marinette replied sarcastically.
Red Hood started to crack up. “Oh that was a good comeback, babe.”
“I have my moments.”
“That you do.”