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Chapter Text

Damian didn’t like high school. The people were loud and obnoxious and he knew everything they taught here anyway. There was no reason for him to attend. But his father insisted, something about practice makes perfect and him needing to learn how to socialize. Damian could have told him that there were definitely better ways to make him interact with other people than Gotham Academy but his father wouldn’t have listened anyway.

As Damian walked through the hallway to his first class of the day, physics, he heard people talking about a new student. Apparently, they were in the same grade as him. It had been a while since someone had joined the school, especially someone his age. They were almost always new to Gotham and would leave the school as well as the city as a whole as soon as they came.

He hadn’t expected to run into the new student so soon. He thought that he would see them in one or two of his classes or maybe in the cafeteria, not for her to literally run into him while he was on his way to his second period.

“I’m so sorry. I didn’t see you. Are you alright?” she quickly apologized with a slight French accent.

“Of course, you didn’t, otherwise you wouldn’t have run into me,” Damian stated.

“Yeah, you’re right. I’m sorry. Do you want a Macaron as an apology? I made them for my class but it looks like you attend all your classes with different people so I might as well give them out to anyone I see,” she said, holding out a box full of colourful macarons.

“No, thank you. I do not know you and I do not wish to be poisoned,” he responded. She looked at him as if he was joking, still holding out the box. “I was being serious. Now if you will excuse me, I need to head to my next class. I do not wish to be late and I would recommend you to do the same,” Damian said before making his way to the next class.

Art was usually Damian’s favourite subject. Not today though. The new student, Marinette Dupain-Cheng, how he learnt was making small-talk with everyone. All while distributing Macarons and working on the drawing they had been tasked to make.

Damian couldn’t see what she was drawing but it was probably very well done judging by the many compliments she got from her classmates. At some point, she had tried to talk to him as well and even offered him another Macaron. Damian had simply ignored her. 

The rest of the day wasn’t enjoyable either. In the first break, right after Art, Dupain-Cheng introduced herself to even more people. She offered everyone she interacted with a Macaron which they all gladly accepted. She got a lot of compliments for them too.

He had French afterwards which he was really looking forward to. He was fluent in it so he was always finished earlier and was able to work on his drawings. And the chance of Dupain-Cheng being in his class was low as well. It made no sense for her to choose a subject in which she was already proficient.

Apparently, the universe hated Damian and logic. Dupain-Cheng was in his French class and was sitting right next to him. She finished the tasks as fast as he did so the teacher told them to make small talk and get to know each other. Fun. 

“Why did you choose French when it is your mother language?” he asked her.

“S'il vous plaît, parlez français,” the teacher called out. He repeated the same question in French.

“I don’t know. I thought it would be fun. The other subjects I could have chosen instead weren’t really that interesting and I need to speak French from time to time so I don’t forget how to speak it,” Dupain-Cheng responded.

“Tt, do whatever you please but don’t expect me to reply,” he said before taking out his sketchbook. Dupain-Cheng surprisingly did the same. Her drawings were acceptable. Although he did not understand why she would waste her time drawing clothes instead of objects or landscapes. It was probably a personal preference, he concluded.

After realizing that he meant it when he said that he wouldn’t reply, she started to explain to him how to make Macarons. He didn’t know if talking helped her concentrate or if she did it to please the teacher but he did not care either way. It was rather easy to ignore her rambling. 

The Chemistry lesson was as awful as the rest of the day. The teacher forced Damian to sit next to Dupain-Cheng as they were doing an experiment to present to the class. He could have told the teacher that he was perfectly capable of placing a piece of sodium in a bowl of water but it would have been useless. In the end, Dupain-Cheng ended up doing the experiment in front of the class while he explained the chemical reaction.

He was glad when the lesson and with it the school day finally ended. He quickly made his way to the gymnasium where he had mixed martial arts training that the school offered. His father had insisted on him joining the club as it would explain his more than average knowledge in that field in case he was ever forced to defend himself outside of the mask.

It also gave him the perfect opportunity to let out his anger after a long school day. Now imagine Damian’s surprise when the sole reason for his anger came into the gymnasium five minutes later. 

Damian was furious. He had at least three of his ten subjects with her as well as his bi-weekly martial arts lessons. Knowing his luck and the fact that Dupain-Cheng seemed to enjoy drawing almost as much as he did, she would probably join the art club as well. That meant that Wednesdays were the only possibly Dupain-Cheng free schooldays as it was the only day on which he did not take any extracurricular activity. He made a note to himself to look up Dupain-Cheng’s timetable as soon as he was home.

Surprisingly, Dupain-Cheng did quite well. Her fighting style was odd, a mix of different things that had nothing to do with each other. But she made it work. It was a combination of gymnastics, Chinese martial arts, fencing and many other things he wasn’t able to identify. She used her environment to her advantage and her plans in taking down her opponent were very creative. Her punches and kicks looked surprisingly powerful and she easily took down most of her opponents.

Damian didn’t get the chance to fight against her that day but he was looking forward to fighting against her eventually. He would win but she brought change and a challenge. And Damian loved challenges.

Chapter Text

There had been a lot of reasons for Marinette to change schools and move out of Paris. The main reason was that she didn’t think that she could suppress her negative emotions any longer. And she could not risk getting akumatized under any circumstances.

It was a hard decision to make but she had to do what was best for Paris. And moving to another city was what was best for Paris, no matter how much she would have loved to stay here with her family and the few friends she still had. 

She could still remember Tikki telling her about the costs of taking away the civilians’ memories of themselves dying during the Akuma attacks. She had accepted immediately. Back then she had reasoned that it would make her job easier if the Parisians didn’t have to remember themselves dying over and over again. But now that her own mental health was suffering due to nightmares that reflected every memory she made the civilians forget, she realized that the one person in Paris, who could never get akumatized remembering every wound and every death from every Akuma wasn’t one of her best decisions. She didn’t regret it, though. The Parisians didn’t deserve to suffer just because Hawk Moth couldn’t care less for their mental health. 

That didn’t mean it was good for Marinette’s own mental health though. After Syren, nightmares of herself and occasionally a loved one drowning had haunted her for over two weeks. She hadn’t been able to go anywhere near a swimming pool for over four months after that. 

Her class didn’t help either. They were still hell-bent on believing Lila’s lies and calling Marinette a bully. They had even gone as far as to report Marinette’s apparent bullying to the principal who had, despite being there when Lila had admitted to lying about Marinette bullying her, believed Lila.

After things went a little too far, Alix, Max and Kim had spoken with her. They had realized that Lila was lying after she had claimed that a napkin could poke out Max’s eye even though he was wearing glasses. After that, they had written down every single one of Lila’s lies and gathered proof of her lying. Markov had even recorded some of her most outrageous lies. They had apologized to her and offered to anonymously publish the proof for everyone to see.

Marinette had asked them to wait until Hawk Moth was taken care of to tell everyone about Lila’s lies. She hated to agree with Adrian but she really couldn’t afford a mass akumatization right now. Back when Lila’s lies had started, exposing them wouldn’t have been a problem but now, over one year later, the truth would cause a major backlash.

And it would have been okay. Usually, Ladybug and her team would have been able to deal with it. But Ladybug didn’t have a team anymore. She couldn’t trust any of her temporary heroes anymore. Sure there were exceptions like Kagami, Luka and surprisingly Chloé who had admitted her mistakes and even apologized to Marinette. But Luka had graduated already and was busy with his music career while Chloé was in New York with her mother.

Despite having Ryuko at her side, fighting and winning against that many Akumas wasn’t very realistic. Maybe she would have had a chance if it weren’t for Chat Noir always fooling around during the attacks. Fighting alone was now easier than fighting with him there. She had contemplated taking his ring on multiple occasions but could never bring herself to do it. She knew that she had to do it eventually but didn’t know how to. Did she allow him to keep his identity a secret? And if she didn’t, should she tell Paris too?

She hoped that a new start and a change of scenery would help her deal with everything. And Gotham seemed like the perfect opportunity. It was far enough away from Paris and nobody from her class would even think about coming even near Gotham. Another pro was that her Uncle Jagged grew up there and was going to live in Gotham for a while right after he finished his US Tour.

Gotham Academy was a good school and even though she had the grades for a scholarship, she didn’t need one due to MDC becoming more and more popular after Jagged had officially announced her as his official designer. 

She had known that Gotham Academy was a prestigious school with way too many rich kids that thought too highly of themselves. What she had not expected was to be hated on the very first day. Maybe it was because she had bumped into him that morning or maybe it was really just him being him how the other students had claimed, but the guy, Damian how she had learned, hated her for seemingly no reason. And she hated it. She hadn’t done anything wrong, yet he treated her like she was his personal hell. And the worst part about it was that she had six of her classes as well as both her extracurricular activities with him. That meant him glaring at her for the majority of her day with Wednesdays being the only exception.

The rest of her first day went surprisingly well. Everyone loved the Macarons and she had promised herself to bake a tray of them for everyone's birthday. The majority of the students she talked with were actually very nice and she was looking forward to spending more time with them. There were a few not-so-nice students as well as Damian who had continued to glare at her for no apparent reason.

There had been that time when she had hit him with the ball during Zombie ball, an elaborate version of dodgeball where everyone played on their own and the only chance of joining the game again after you were hit being the player that hit you getting hit by another player. No one had wanted to hit Marinette after she had successfully taken out Damian which had led her to win the game. Damian had been furious. She had to admit, it was a little funny.

Other than that, she tried to be nice to him and maybe get him to stop hating her. She wasn’t very successful. It didn’t stop her from trying, much to Damian’s demise.

Everything was going well. That was until her phone rang in the middle of the class. She had made sure that the alarm was quiet enough to not disturb the lesson yet loud enough for her to hear. Sadly, her neighbour heard her phone too. To make it worse, that neighbour was none other than Damian. He looked at her suspiciously when she made an excuse to go to the bathroom. He was way too observant. This was going to be a problem.

The Akuma itself was defeated rather easily but with Chat Noir just messing around like always, it still took her twenty minutes to deal with it. When she finally came back, the lesson had already ended. When she entered the Cafeteria after getting her things from the classroom, Damian watched her from his seat at the other end of the Cafeteria. This was definitely going to be a problem.

Chapter Text

Damian had started to observe Dupain-Cheng very thoroughly after she had run off in the middle of Chemistry class, not coming back until lunchtime. She had done the same thing during French class on Friday. He had no doubt it would happen again in the near future. He hadn’t been able to figure out a pattern, only that her phone would ring before she left and that the time she was gone varied.

He had been tempted to place a chip in her phone that would notify him every time it rang but hadn’t had the opportunity yet and observing from afar was enough for now. For all he knew, she could have a secret partner who she met up with at random times of the day. Not very likely but possible.

“Where were you?” he asked her when she came late to Health class on Tuesday. “I overslept, I already told the teacher. Not that it's any of your business,” she told him. He almost believed her. She was very good at lying. But he knew better. Dupain-Cheng wasn’t late. She never was. The only explanation was that whatever her phone alerted her of had been keeping her busy. He really needed to place that chip sooner rather than later.

When Dupain-Cheng ran off during the lunch break, muttering something along the lines of “it’s only been five hours”, Damian smirked to himself. He had been right about her being late to Health class that morning because of her alarm. He added, can lie very well to the list of reasons why Dupain-Cheng was suspicious. He probably needed to write it down on paper soon. He couldn’t risk forgetting anything or worse, his brothers stumbling upon the list while snooping through his phone. Drake especially had taken a liking to invading his privacy.

Dupain-Cheng returned five minutes before Physical Education started, allowing him to carry out his plan to plant the chip in her phone. Twenty minutes into the lesson he excused himself to the toilet. The teacher allowed him to leave and instead of going to the toilet, Damian made his way to the girls changing rooms. He found Dupain-Cheng’s backpack rather easily, it was a deep red and stood out from the other grey and black coloured designer backpacks of the other students. Now that he looked at it, he noticed that her backpack was made out of high-quality material as well. It was well made but he wasn’t able to spot a brand name. He made a mental note to find out who made Dupain-Cheng’s backpack at a later time before going back to searching for her phone.

He eventually found it inside of the backpack next to a necklace with a rose gold guitar pick charm. He had seen her wear it. It was hard not to. She only ever took the thing off if she had to. Looking at it, he didn’t see anything special about it. Just plain rose gold with some engravement. It must have sentimental value for her. Planting the chip in her phone didn’t take long and before anyone could get suspicious, he had joined the others again.

Over the next few days, he observed the alarm through his own phone. It didn’t help him nearly as much as he would have liked it to. The only thing it really did was confirm his suspicions. He also found out that there was a second, silent alert, about five minutes before she would return. That and that the first alarm was connected to a small device in what he assumed was a hair tie of hers that she would wear whenever she wasn’t able to be near her phone. He tried his best to make the information make sense but always ended up blank.

The next logical step was to hack her phone which he could easily do with the chip already placed inside of it. The app that the alarm came from was called Akuma Alert. When he looked the app up online, he wasn’t able to find anything. The word Akuma combined with France or her name didn’t bring up anything either. Not to say, Damian was very frustrated. It was another thing that made her suspicious. The list was getting longer and longer every day.

Her contacts and notes didn’t give him any more information either. She only had a handful of numbers saved. Her parents, a few friends, her uncle and aunt whose full names were nowhere to be found and an old man named Wang Fu. It also looked like she had changed her number recently. 

According to the internet, Marinette Dupain-Cheng did not have any social media accounts, yet, she had both Twitter and Instagram installed on her phone. She wasn’t logged into either of the apps and there wasn’t any login information saved on her phone either. Her notes app and trash were surprisingly empty as well. The only odd thing he found was a note to buy five packages of sugar cubes and a list of everybody’s birthday as well as their favourite sweets. Shockingly, he was on the list too. 

He added ‘gives out homemade sweets whenever she has the chance to’ to his list when he saw Dupain-Cheng talking to someone from their Economics class. It was the girl's birthday and Dupain-Cheng had baked her cookies, her favourite sweet according to the notes on Dupain-Cheng’s phone, as well as a dozen Macarons. She had bought the girl a small bouquet of flowers too. There were two cards as far as he could tell, one with the names and meaning of the flowers on it and another one with the usual birthday wishes. He would have paid the whole interaction no mind if the two girls had been friends but as far as he could tell, they both had barely talked. The other girl thanked Dupain-Cheng before both returned to their respective table. Damian really hoped that Dupain-Cheng wouldn’t do the same thing on his birthday.

Chapter Text

Marinette had decided to get a part-time job at a local coffee shop. She knew that she would miss her home and because helping her parents in the patisserie had been a big part of her life in Paris, she decided that spending every Wednesday afternoon working in a similar establishment would make her feel a little more at home in Gotham. The free coffee and the opportunity to add a bit of cleansing magic to every order were just a plus.

After she had started giving out lucky charms to the Akuma victims, she decided to experiment a bit with her magic and quickly discovered that she was able to solidify parts of her magic in her civilian form as well. After that, she started adding cleansing magic to all the baked goods she helped prepare. She had decided to do the same thing in Gotham because the city of crime definitely needed all the cleansing it could get.

What she had not expected was to befriend one of the customers on her very first day. But who could blame her when he looked just like her after a week of too-long Akuma battles and staying up too late finishing a particularly difficult commission? When he had asked for as much caffeine as they could legally serve him, she could only sympathize. So she did the only reasonable thing to do in a situation like that, she put a little more magic than necessary into his coffee.

“You don’t gamble, do you?” she asked him. And when he told her that no he did not, she added a bit of her special magic caffeine substitute to his drink. Not only did it amplify the positive effects of the beverage but it also reduced its negative side effects. She would have added it to every drink if it didn’t strain her own energy as much as it did and didn’t give the person consuming it unusual luck which would definitely get noticed.

When Tim’s family had decided to replace all the coffee at home with decaf, he had cursed them out. He needed his coffee to function, for goodness sake. So he had done what everyone running on three hours of sleep and way too much coffee would do. He had visited the nearest coffee shop.

He didn’t usually go to coffee shops. Mostly, because the baristas wouldn’t give him more than five shots of espresso. But five shots were better than nothing so here he was. The coffee shop didn’t look too bad and he could see himself coming here another time when his family decided to take away his coffee once again.

He had been a little put off when the barista had asked him if he gambled, because who asked strangers questions like that? But after he had gotten over his initial confusion and had answered no, he got one of the best coffees he had ever tasted. If not the best. He didn’t know how much caffeine was in that drink but it surely couldn’t be legal. Either way, he had decided to come back to the store very soon.

He had quickly realized that the barista that had given him the heavenly drink only worked on Wednesdays so now he stopped by the little coffee shop every Wednesday after work. The second time that he had drunk her coffee, he had asked her if she put magic in his coffee. She had only laughed and replied, “Do you really think that I would serve magic coffee in Gotham of all places?”

They had become somewhat friends after that, talking and exchanging anecdotes from their lives. From a quick background check on her, he knew that she went to Gotham Academy since this year. She was even in some of Damian’s classes so his little brother probably knew her. “How do you like Gotham Academy so far?” he asked her the next time he saw her.

“It’s different from Paris, obviously but I like it. It's definitely better than my old school curriculum-wise because there are more options. Like we just had mathematics, not all of it separate. The people are a lot nicer too. But that might just have been my old class. Well, there is one guy that hates me for no apparent reason but he mostly just ignores me so it’s fine,” she replied.

That was good although he really wondered what her old class had done to make the kids from Gotham Academy seem nice. He had always hated the place. The last guy she had talked about was probably Damian. It wouldn’t surprise him. “I’m sure that this guy doesn’t hate you specifically but rather people in general. It’s probably because you’re new and he hasn’t figured you out yet,” he suggested.

“That’s what the others said, too. But I can’t help but think that he hates me more than the rest. But the only thing I did was bump into him on the first day. I didn’t even make him fall over or anything. He can’t seriously hate me just because of that, can he?” Marinette asked.

“I think you’re worrying too much. That guy might just be an arrogant prick who thinks that he is better than everyone else. Or he just isn’t used to unconditional kindness and is waiting for the other shoe to drop,” Tim responded.

“I don’t know what any of this has to do with shoes but I don’t think that he’s an arrogant prick. In my opinion, the second option is much more likely. He did look at me as I had offered him hydrogen cyanide when I asked him if he wanted a macaron on my first day. I mean he did say that he didn’t want to get poisoned but I just assumed that he was joking,” Marinette said.

“Waiting for the second shoe to drop is an English saying and means that you are awaiting a seemingly inevitable event, especially one that isn’t desirable. And you’re probably right with your assessment about this guy. But honestly, just forget him. If he dislikes you even if you didn’t do anything wrong, it is his problem and not yours. So stop worrying about that one guy from your school that doesn’t like anyone anyway,” Tim replied.

“You make it sound as if you know him. Actually, everybody at my school seems to know him. Which is like really weird. They treat him like a celebrity who has just broken up with their favourite other celebrity,” Marinette voiced her thoughts.

Tim shook his head, “Don’t worry about it. Important is that this guy not liking you has everything to do with him and nothing to do with you”

They continued to chat for a while after that before Marinette’s phone started to ring. She quickly excused herself to the break room and came back a few minutes later, her two necklaces who he could swear she didn’t wear before glowing faintly. But as quickly as the thought came, it was gone again. 

Chapter Text

Over the following weeks, Damian kept observing Dupain-Cheng. She kept her facade up during the entire time. She smiled at everyone, handed out free sweets and wrote everyone a card for their birthday. It was hard to keep up a facade like that, yet, Dupain-Cheng did it with ease. She must have practice, he concluded.

Dupain-Cheng did not stop running off at random times. Although Damian noticed that she would sometimes come back to the class after five minutes. Every time she did, there was something slightly off about her. Damian couldn't seen to figure out what it was though. The days were she came back long before the second alarm rung were almost always days on which she wrote an exam, had a presentation or something else that required her presence for the entire lesson.

The teachers seemed to not care about Dupain-Cheng disappearing for big parts of their lessons, sometimes even the entirety of it. It was yet another thing that made no sense to Damian as well as making Dupain-Cheng even more suspicious. He would add it to his ever growing list later.

Damian had continued to research the Akuma Alarms with no success. He had tried to analyse the information on Dupain-Cheng’ s phone but the only information the Akuma Alarm gave was an odd name, occasionally with a number as well as a region in Paris and a second number. It was very frustrating and Damian had contemplated asking one of his brothers, most likely Drake for help him analyse the data and maybe find out why he could not find anything about this app and its use online.

He had decided against asking Drake for help when his number had appeared in Dupain-Cheng’ s phone. Usually, it would have made Damian feel more comfortable around a person Drake deemed safe. But because this was Dupain-Cheng, he couldn’t be too sure whether she had already started manipulating him. After Damian had not so subtly asked Drake whether he had made any new acquaintances recently, Drake had told him about an employee at a coffee shop he had started to frequent.

Apparently, Dupain-Cheng would always make Drake’s coffee and her coffee was it that kept drawing him in. If that wasn’t proof for Dupain-Cheng manipulating Drake, Damian didn’t know what was. But when he brought it up with Drake, the latter had told him that, “Marinette is an angel and doesn’t need to manipulate people into becoming friends with her”

Damian had simply laughed at his brother and replied, “Maybe a fallen one like Lucifer”

After that Damian had decided that if Drake wouldn’t do a sufficient background check on Dupain-Cheng, he would do it himself. It took a while to actually access Dupain-Cheng’s school file but as soon as he did, Damian was glad that he did. There were multiple bullying reports under her name as well as an expulsion for theft, bodily harm and cheating on an exam. All of them were revoked shortly afterwards. And when Damian tried to find out the reason for them being revoked, he couldn’t find anything. There was a reason listed, he could tell that much but he couldn’t actually see the reason. It was very similar to the way he couldn’t find anything relating to the Akuma Attacks. It had to be Dupain-Cheng and her magic, he concluded. Because he was sure that she possessed magic, there was no other explanation for everyone liking her.

When looking at old posts on her old classmates’ social media accounts, he found out that for the first few years of her life, she had acted the same way that she did in Gotham Academy. With the same result, everybody had loved her and she had even been class president. She had given out p resents and bake d goods back then too. They were most likely what contained the magic she used to manipulate other people into liking her.

After a little more digging, he had finally found the reason as to why her old classmates were no longer manipulated by her. Lila Rossi, an exchange student from Italy hadn’t eaten any of the Macarons Dupain-Cheng had offered her on her first day and, therefore, hadn’t been manipulated by her. She had also been able to nullify Dupain-Cheng’s manipulation on the class up until everyone but the former school bully, who had left the class shortly before Dupain-Cheng, believed the bluenette.

Just before Dupain-Cheng had left Paris, she had been able to put three people from the class under her manipulation again. They were one of the few people who's number Dupain-Cheng had actually saved in her phone. Damian had read parts of their conversations before he had been locked out of her phone all of a sudden. The chip he had placed in her phone didn’t work anymore either. It was very frustrating.

From what he had been able to read, he knew that Dupain-Cheng had made them believe that Rossi was the one lying to the class and not Dupain-Cheng. He did not understand how they could believe that if there was proof for Dupain-Cheng’s mistakes but apparently her manipulation was strong enough to make people ignore facts in favor of her lies.

After that, he had approached Drake again, this time with Dupain-Cheng’s school files as proof. It had quickly ended in an argument between the two. “I thought y ou normally made a background check on everyone you ever interact with. But somehow you did not know about this,” Damian had stated, angrily.

Drake hadn’t looked surprised by Dupain-Cheng’s school files, “I did. And I am aware of that. But as you can see, everything has been revoked. I already asked her about it. She didn’t really want to talk about it but she did say that the students of Gotham Academy were nicer than her old classmates. Well, she did mention a guy hating her for no apparent reason. I’m assuming that she was talking about you. Honestly, I don’t understand why you can’t just be nice to her. She hasn’t done anything”

“Yes she has. She had bullied a former classmate of her. And she is manipulating people with the help of the baked goods she gives out at every chance she gets. They are filled with magic,” Damian argued.

“While I agree that her coffee is magic,” Drake joked before continuing, “she doesn’t use magic to make people like her. She is just a very kind person that likes to give out free sweets. And while they might make people like her more, it isn’t because she puts magic in them but because people like it when other people give them things for free. Especially, things that taste good”

Damian could only pity his older brother. He was already too much under Dupain-Cheng’s control to discuss her faults with him. Maybe Drake would finally listen to him if he got proof that Dupain-Cheng was putting magic into the baked goods she gave out. Zatanna would probably help him investigate Dupain-Cheng’s magic if he asked her. She h ad always loved learning more about the magic of others and was definitely a better person to talk to than Constantine. He contacted her that same day. 

Chapter Text

One month after the new school year had started, Marinette finally decided what to do about the entire Chat Noir situation. She would give him one last chance to be a better hero. If he actually changed to become a partner that took his job seriously, she would let him keep the Miraculous. If he did not, she would take the ring and try to find a new partner. 

After the last Akuma attack, she had told him to meet her at the Eiffel Tower at 7 pm. That’s when she had lunch break and could actually talk to him without missing parts of the lesson. Damian who had been watching her far too carefully for the past week, who was she kidding, ever since she arrived, would notice. But he already knew about her disappearing every now and then, there wasn’t much she could change about it. 

As soon as the class ended, she made her way to the bathroom. Luckily, it was a Wednesday which meant no Damian. He was far too observant for her liking. He definitely would’ve realized that her phone didn’t ring this time and would either ask questions or bug her phone again. 

She suspected that it was him that placed a chip in her phone because nobody else hated her as much as he did. Luckily, Max had found the chip and destroyed it. But who knows how long it had been in her phone? 

When she arrived in Paris, Chat Noir was already waiting for her. He was as cheery as usual, “How has your day been, Bugaboo? Mine is purr fect now that you are here”

“Chat, we need to talk. Please listen to me, actually listen to me. There are a few things that have been bugging me recently and no that pun was not intentional. The first thing is that the Akumas are getting harder and harder and I have trouble defeating them on my own. I need your help as my partner. I know that you have a busy life but so do I. Without you, fighting the Akumas takes a lot longer and people in my civilian life are already getting suspicious of why I always disappear,” she started, remembering the way Damian’s eyes were always on her as soon as she excused herself to the toilet during their shared lessons. 

Chat Noir was about to respond when she continued, “Additionally, your jokes do not make fighting crime easier. They are a distraction and make the fights unnecessarily long. The same applies to your self-sacrifices. I understand that you want to protect me but they are not helping me. There are ways to stop the Akuma from hitting me without you taking the hit for me. 

“And lastly, I really do not like you flirting with me during the attacks. I understand that you like me. But I do not return your feelings. Even if I did, the attacks are something that you have to take seriously. People die, Chat. And yes I can revive them all with my cure, but in order to do that, we have to win first” 

Chat stayed quiet for a moment before answering. “I can understand why fighting the Akumas all alone is hard for you. I will try to show up to the Akuma battles more often. I’m also sorry for me always joking around and all of that, I guess I never considered the possibility of us not winning and considered being a hero as freedom, as a game. But now I can see why it annoys you. Unlike me, you have the pressure to always be there, to always win, to be perfect. It’s too much for you. And I am sorry for not seeing that sooner, for not considering your point of view sooner. I will do my best to take being a hero seriously from now on. I can’t guarantee you that it will work right away, habits are hard to break, but I will try” 

Ladybug sighed in relief. She had dreaded this conversation. But it seems like she had worried for nothing. Chat Noir agreeing and him actually changing were two different things but it was a start. “Thank you, I don’t doubt that you will do your best” 

Chat sighed, “No need to thank me. I made a mistake. Actually, I made multiple. I guess I never thought about how you felt about it all. I should have though. Thank you for giving me a second chance, I will not disappoint you” And with that, he was gone.  

When Adrien got home, he thought about what Ladybug had said. Why hadn’t he realized his mistakes earlier? Why had he just assumed that everything was fine even though it clearly wasn’t? The answer was simple. Ladybug had always smiled and never shown any sign of weakness. But she hadn’t done it because she was happy and everything was alright but because she had to. 

That made him think of Marinette and their last conversation before she had changed schools. She had told him that Lila’s lies were harmful. That they were hurting her. Back then he had laughed in her face and told her that she was just being overdramatic and that Lila would realize that lying didn’t work eventually. 

But now he realized how wrong he had been. How he had desperately tried to convince himself that what he had told Marinette all those months ago was still true, had been true in the first place. But he couldn’t deny it any longer, Lila’s lies were harmful and they were hurting Marinette. Lila wouldn’t realize that she didn’t need to lie to make friends because the others would hate her if they ever found out the truth. If they ever found out in the first place. 

He couldn’t tell all of them at once, that would cause another Scarlet Swarm and they really could not afford another one of those. But if he collected enough proof and told the people individually, everything should be fine. 

Collecting proof that Lila was lying had been easier than anticipated. Finding out that Max, Alix and Kim already knew of Lila’s lies and had even more proof of her lying than he did made things even easier. They agreed that they couldn’t tell the class at once but agreed that they couldn’t let Lila get away with her lies either. So they made a plan to tell each member of the class one by one, starting with the people that would be easily convinced and later having them help convince the others. Thus far they had been able to convince Nathaniel and Juleka who had never really believed Lila’s lies in the first place but still didn’t question them. 

But even now that he was actively dismantling Lila’s lies, Adrien felt guilty. He should have acted sooner. He shouldn’t have dismissed Marinette’s pain and should have instead listened to her. Adrien would do anything to go back in time and tell himself to not let Lila go through with her lies.

Chapter Text

It has almost been two months since the new school year started and Dupain-Cheng joined Gotham Academy. And in those two months, she had gotten Damian to completely despise her. Not only was she a manipulative bully who used magic to make the entire student body love her. She also used it on the teachers in order to get better grades. There was no other explanation for her grades being that good. Additionally, he knew that there was something off about her during the exams. He didn’t know what exactly was off but he knew that it was there. It was there even if the Akuma alert didn’t ring. When it did ring, she would disappear only to come back with the odd thing being multiplied. 

The only reasonable explanation was magic. But even when magic fascinated him, he was not a magic user. He couldn’t prove that Dupain-Cheng was manipulating others with her magic And Zatanna wouldn’t have time to come by until December. So he had to wait one and a half months, 51 days to be exact until he could prove to everyone, especially Drake that Dupain-Cheng was not the sweet, kind and perfect Angel everyone thought her to be. But until then he had to wait and not let her find out that he was onto her. 

Right now she was sitting next to him in Chemistry class. They were currently working on a worksheet on exothermic and endothermic reactions with volume increase and decrease and how they affected the internal energy. It was quite easy and he quickly finished. Dupain-Cheng had finished shortly after him so the teacher had told them to compare their results while the rest of the class continued to fill out the worksheet. 

“The first one is an exothermic reaction with a volume increase. An example is reactions with gas formation,” Damian stated. He knew that he was correct. Comparing his solutions with Dupain-Cheng had no purpose besides showing her that he was better than her. 

“I have the same. The second one is endothermic this time. But it is still a chemical reaction with a volume increase. My example is Sherbet, the fuzzy powder that you put into water that is sometimes in lollipops,” she responded. 

Damian interrupted her, “While I agree with you on the type of chemical reaction that is shown in the visualization, I disagree with you on the example. Electrolysis is the correct answer”  

“Just because you are right doesn’t mean that I am wrong. Two things can be true at once, you know. And I know that electrolysis is a good example of an endothermic reaction with a volume increase. That doesn’t change the fact that the reaction of sherbet with water isn’t one either,” Dupain-Cheng protested. 

“What would you know, Apate?” Damian asked.

“What did you just call me?” she questioned. 

“Apate. The greek goddess and personification of deceit,” Damian responded, smirking. 

Dupain-Cheng frowned. She actually looked hurt. Then a smile overtook her face, all the sadness gone. She was an amazing actor, Damian realized once again. 

“Aw, you gave me a nickname, how sweet of you. You even compared me to a goddess. If you continue people might think that you actually enjoy my presence,” she teased although it sounded more like she was mocking him. 

Damian was about to speak up and tell her that no he did not enjoy her presence and the nickname was him telling her that he knew of her secret and wouldn’t be fooled by her trickery. But then Dupain-Cheng’s smile dropped, her face blank now, “I don’t know what you think you know about my past but whatever it is it is probably a lie. So I suggest you make sure that you aren’t the one being fooled and stay away from other people’s business” 

After that, she went back to her worksheet, doodling a black cat who was trying to catch a ladybug with its paw. He would never admit it but Dupain-Cheng could draw rather well. 

When it was time to compare the results, both Marinette and Damian raised their hands. The teacher chose didn’t choose either of them to answer the questions. It was not surprising as the two were her best students. 

“Does anyone have any questions?” the teacher asked. Two other students raised their hands but the teacher, much to Damian’s displeasure, decided to answer Marinette's questions first. 

“Damian and I were wondering whether the reaction of Sherbet and water is an endothermic reaction,” Dupain-Cheng asked. 

The teacher had a thoughtful look for a moment before answering, “I cannot say that I have heard of this reaction as an example of an endothermic reaction. Electrolysis is the most common example of an endothermic reaction in chemistry. However, I do not know every chemical reaction by heart. Why don’t you look it up on your smartphone after the lesson? 

“Now everybody please open your book on page 30 and read the paragraph about the determination of the heat of reaction otherwise known as the standard enthalpy as a reaction. Please take notes, they will be important in the future, ” the teacher responded. 

Damian couldn’t suppress a smirk. He knew that he’d been right. “Just because you are right doesn't mean I’m wrong. I will look it up after the lesson and prove to you that I was right all along,” Dupain-Cheng said. 

Damian scoffed, “I’m sure you will if your phone doesn’t ring again and you disappear for the rest of the lesson, Apate” Dupain-Cheng froze for a moment but didn’t look as shocked or angry as Damian had hoped she would. She probably already knew that he knew, he guessed. 

Dupain-Cheng didn’t say anything more, she just smiled a fake smile and opened her book. The rest of the students followed her example. Damian was halfway through the text when a student behind him spoke up, “Marinette was right”

The teacher looked up from the exams that they had been grading, “Didn’t I say that you should look it up after the lesson?”

The student shook their head, “I didn’t look it up, it’s in the book. It’s right at the beginning, the fourth sentence actually,” they said proudly. “An everyday example of an endothermic reaction is the reaction of Sherbet with water. The citric acid and bicarbonate are here the reacting parties,” they read out loud. 

Dupain-Cheng had the audacity to smirk, “I told you so,” she said. Damian huffed. But there was no point in denying it, he could see it, black on white right in front of him. 

“Thank you for answering Marinette’s question from earlier. But please go back to reading the paragraph about the determination of the heat of reaction. If you are finished already you can take a look at the experiment portrayed on page 31. You will conduct the same experiment in the next lesson. You will also create a protocol that will be graded. You have one week to hand in the protocol,” the teacher replied. They then went back to grading exams from before. 

Five minutes before the lesson ended Dupain-Cheng’s phone rang. Damian smirked, “I knew that your alarm would ring before the end of the lesson. What I do not know yet is why it is ringing or where you disappear to. But don’t worry, I will find out. It may take a while but when I have set my mind to something I succeed. Your secrets won’t be secrets for much longer Apate” 

Marinette didn’t have the time to think about whatever Damian was hinting at. He obviously knew something. And for some reason, he believed that she was, what, lying to everyone and making them think she was a good person? Was that just him being overly paranoid or could Lila’s lies have reached someone outside of Mme. Bustier’s class? 

She quickly pushed the thoughts away, she had an Akuma to defeat. Luckily, Chat Noir had been showing up to the Akuma battles more frequently. Sometimes he would still make puns but he had completely stopped flirting with her. She was glad that he did. He had been her partner for a long time and she couldn’t imagine protecting Paris all on her own.

Chapter Text

It was a Monday. The weekend had been relatively dull. There had been a few Akuma attacks but nothing out of the ordinary. Everything was as usual. Damian still hated her, her marks were good as always, she still worked at the coffee shop and Tim still came by every Wednesday. Yet, she was on edge. Something big was going to happen. And the worst part was that Marinette couldn’t tell whether whatever was going to happen was good or bad. It frustrated her. On top of that Damian had started to call her Apate whenever they were talking. At first, she had tried to ignore it but now it just hurt. Not that she could do anything against it, Damian would only use the nickname - or was it name-calling - even more. 

“Aren’t you going to tell me how to bake an éclair or the difference between a split stitch and a chain stitch?” Damian asked her when she didn’t start talking the moment that she finished the tasks the teacher had given them for the lesson. 

“You listen to the things that I talk about?” she asked him in disbelief. 

He shook his head, “I do not listen to what exactly you are saying, Apate. Do not flatter yourself. But after sitting next to you for eight weeks I couldn’t help but notice that your favourite topics are baking, fashion and butterflies” 

Damian watched how Dupain-Cheng looked slightly shocked when he mentioned the butterflies. He decided to dig a little further, they must have something to do with her secret. At least he hoped that they did. It was very frustrating that he hadn't figured out the rest of Dupain-Cheng’s secret yet.

“What can I say, I grew up in a bakery and I’m a fashion designer. The butterflies are part of a riddle I haven’t been able to solve yet. It is frustrating because I have been stuck on it for ages,” Dupain-Cheng said. 

If Damian didn’t know about her ability to lie, he would’ve believed her. But he knew better than to believe what Dupain-Cheng of all people was saying. Most of the things she said were lies. 

“Tell me about the riddle. I have been told that I am quite good at solving them. If you haven’t been lying for once and you really haven’t been able to solve it for years, you should probably ask someone for help. And seeing as I am bored and rather interested in this riddle of yours, I will do my best to solve it,” Damian said. 

Marinette contemplated telling Damian about ‘the riddle’ otherwise known as Hawkmoth terrorizing Paris. Not that she would tell him that. But he was right, she could really use some help. And as long as she formulated it in a way that made the whole situation sound more like a riddle than the truth, Damian could maybe actually help her. She knew that she was a good liar. You could only spend so much time with the embodiment of Illusion until their magic started to change you. Not to mention the many times she had to lie to other people to fight an Akuma. 

So Marinette started to explain the situation to Damian the best she could. After her explanation, Damian was still confused. “So there is a guy who can freeze people using a certain device. And then there are other people with a counter device who can unfreeze those people. The first guy can freeze people from far away but cannot freeze himself. And he does that at random times during the day,” Damian summarized. 

“Exactly. He also has a partner who can create a clone of that frozen person that guards them against the people with the counter devices,” Marinette responded. 

“I know for a fact that you are lying because this riddle is ridiculous. However, I am quite intrigued so I will try my best to solve it anyway. It is certainly interesting. From what you told me, the guy with the device has a lot of free time. So he has to be someone who works from home as you mentioned that he cannot freeze someone if another person is near him. So it is very likely that he is rich. Do you have any more information? You must have a list of possible suspects,” Damian said. 

“I do. Originally, there were about 150,000 suspects although I was able to strike the people that have been frozen themselves or don’t have the free time to do so. Additionally, I have been able to strike everyone who has been present while someone got frozen,” Marinette replied. 

“There has to be more information. Was there really no one that you suspected at least at some point?” Damian asked. The riddle which wasn’t a real riddle was confusing him. A lot. But he wanted to prove that he was better than Dupain-Cheng, that he could solve what she had struggled with for years. 

“Well, there was someone I suspected. He has the time and the resources as well as a reason. Additionally, he is in the possession of a manual on how to use the special devices. But then he got frozen so I had to strike him from my list,” Marinette said. 

“Is there a possibility for someone besides him to use the device to freeze him so that you wouldn’t suspect him any longer?” Damian asked. 

“There is. But he wouldn’t trust someone with it. Unless. Of course. It makes so much sense. He would trust his partner, wouldn’t he? She could easily use it to freeze him so that people no longer suspect him. And why else would he have the manual? Oh my gosh, why didn’t I think of that earlier? It makes so much sense. I know that you hate me but thank you so much. You don’t know how much you helped me. I will tell you if you were right but you probably are,” Dupain-Cheng said, pulling him into a one-sided hug. 

For the rest of the lesson, Dupain-Cheng was quiet. She wasn’t even sketching anymore. After the lesson, she disappeared without her phone ringing. 

Marinette was happy. She had finally figured out Hawk Moth’s identity. She could finally free Paris from Hawk Moth’s reign. When she returned to Paris, she ran around the city, hoping that Chat Noir who had started to patrol in the evenings, would see her. She didn’t have to wait long for him to join her on the top of the Eiffel Tower. 

“What’s up Ladybug?” he greeted her, landing next to her. 

“I finally figured out who Haw Moth is. I can’t believe we didn’t connect the dots earlier but that was probably the magic that keeps our identities hidden,” Ladybug responded. 

“That’s good. Who is he and when are we taking his Miraculous?” Chat Noir asked. 

“I say we do it this Thursday. You can set the time. It would be best if he was asleep while we take the Miraculous. And Hawk Moth’s real name is Gabriel Agreste. I know that we crossed him out when he got akumatized. But knowing that Hawk Moth has a partner, she could have akumatized him. Together with all of the proof from before, it is very likely that he is Hawk Moth,” Ladybug explained. Fall break would start on Thursday which meant she had enough time to take down Hawk Moth without missing out on school or trying to get the Miraculous back as fast as possible and messing up because of it. 

Chat Noir frowned, “That, that makes a lot of sense. I can’t believe he tricked us into thinking that he was innocent. And we should probably meet at 22:00. That way we can talk over the plan once more. And he should be asleep by then” 

“That sounds good. Let’s meet here again. And for the plan, we should probably try to sneak in, paralyze him while he is asleep and take the Miraculous from him,” Ladybug suggested. 

“That sounds like a good plan. But we should definitely talk about it again on Thursday. In the meantime we can each think about ways to efficiently take him down,” Chat Noir responded. Ladybug agreed before she headed out, teleporting back to Gotham Academy. 

When Thursday came, Ladybug teleported back to Paris. When she arrived at the Eiffel Tower, Chat Noir was already waiting for her. “I’m glad to see you here,” he greeted. 

They then talked over the plan. Chat Noir offered to take on Hawk Moth, suggesting that Ladybug should concentrate on Mayura. Ladybug tried to convince him to take the villains down together or to at least switch so that she would be the one to take away Hawk Moth’s Miraculous. But Chat Noir argued that Hawk Moth wasn’t able to akumatize someone that fast seeing as no one besides them was going to be awake and in the house. Ladybug used the same argument to deny his request to borrow the bee Miraculous for the fight, claiming that it would be more useful if she had to deal with Mayura and an Amuk at the same time. 

As Ladybug was about to leave, Chat Noir pulled her back once more. “Ladybug, the citizens, they don’t remember the Akuma attacks, right? They forget everything besides the things that are covered in the news? They don’t have to suffer because of the attacks?” 

“The citizens forget everything that caused or would cause them physical or psychological pain. So no, Chaton, they don’t remember,” Ladybug replied. But I do, went unsaid. 

Taking down Mayura turned out to be a lot easier than expected. While she did have enough time to call on her transformation, she wasn’t able to create an Amuk before Ladybug used venom to paralyze her. She then took the brooch before joining Chat Noir who was currently stripping Gabriel Agreste of the butterfly Miraculous. 

“Finally. I can’t tell you how glad I am that this is finally over. I spent over three years of my childhood fighting Akumas while I should have been at the park spending time with my friends,” Ladybug stated. 

“I’m glad that this is over, too,” Chat Noir agreed. But something was off about him, Ladybug could tell. He looked guilty. Now that she thought about it he had looked guilty before too. She had just pushed it away because she was so glad that everything was finally over. 

“Come on, let’s get out of here. I already contacted the police, they will be here any minute to take them in. But first, can you give me the Butterfly Miraculous back? Nooroo probably wants to rest after all those years of being misused,” Ladybug said, holding her hand out for the Miraculous. When Chat Noir didn’t give her the jewel she asked again, “Chat?” 

When she finally looked up, Chat Noir was standing five meters away from her, guilt clearly visible on his face. “I’m sorry, M’lady. But I have to do this. I need to fix my mistakes,” he said before running off. She tried to follow him but to no avail. Chat Noir and with him, the butterfly Miraculous was gone.

Chapter Text

After the fall break, Dupain-Cheng had looked sad. It confused Damian because on the last day before fall break, five days ago, she had smiled as if she had just won the lottery. But right now she just looked exhausted. Damian had asked her about the riddle but she just told him that he had been right. For some reason, the mention of the riddle made her even sadder. Damian couldn't help but think that this was why she looked so sad. He wanted to ask her about what happened, but he had no good reason to do so. Besides, why should he care about her? Sure, her company wasn't that bad, but she was still a manipulative liar. Not even the fact that she looked like her pet had just died could change that. 

Over the following two weeks, Damian kept observing her. She still looked slightly worn out but her smile was back. It looked genuine but Damian knew better than to believe that anything Dupain-Cheng did was genuine. She had also stopped disappearing during the lesson. He couldn’t help but think that it had something to do with the riddle. But as soon as the thought came, it disappeared. It was probably just a coincidence. 

Later that week, he entered the living room to find Drake looking at a website from his favourite designer. Damian wasn’t very interested in it but when Drake scrolled past a backpack, Damian couldn’t help but do a double take. He had seen that backpack before. Dupain-Cheng had that exact backpack. The colour of hers differed but Damian would be a fool not to see the resemblance. 

“What was the name of the designer again?” he asked his older brother. 

Drake looked up from his Laptop. “Oh that. It’s MDC. I told you about them, didn’t I? I really like their things and have been trying to get a commission for a while now. Why do you ask?” Drake answered. 

“Dupain-Cheng has the same backpack in red,” Damian replied. 

“Oh yeah. I saw her today. I still don’t understand why you don’t like her but whatever. I was looking up MDC again because of Marinette actually. I noticed her wearing an Original under her work apron and got curious,” Drake said. 

“How can she afford designer clothes, not to mention the flowers and baked goods she gives away all the time when she has to work at a coffee shop to be able to pay the tuition fee?” Damian asked. 

“Maybe she just likes working at the coffee shop. Her parents own a bakery back in Paris. She could be homesick,” Drake supplied. 

“That’s something that confused me too. Even though her parents own one of the most popular bakeries in Paris, the school money would still make a noticeable dent in their bank account. She has the grades for a scholarship. Yet, she didn’t make an effort to get one. Moreover, her parents don’t even pay for her tuition. She doesn’t either. A random account pays it for her. The same account transfers her money on a monthly basis,” Damian said. 

“Maybe that’s the account of one of her relatives. Her grandparents possibly. It could be hers too,” Drake suggested. 

“No. The account was created here in Gotham a little less than three years ago. It also has a lot of money on it and gets regular transfers from other accounts,” Damian argued. 

“So what? Do you really think she is a criminal? Really? I knew that you didn’t like her but do you really think that I’m that bad at judging people? You just dislike her and are projecting,” Drake said. 

“I am aware of your friendship with her. However, being close to someone can sometimes cloud your mind and make you oversee things. I am simply making you aware of certain circumstances. You can do with that information whatever you want,” Damian responded before leaving. He knew that what he said would make Drake overthink his friendship with Dupain-Cheng. Even if he trusted her, his own paranoia would make him check everything Damian had told him and find out who the account belonged to. 

Unsurprisingly, Drake came to find him one week later. He had one of the coffees from the coffee shop Dupain-Cheng worked at in his hand and was looking a little too smug for Damian’s liking. 

“I told you that she wasn’t a criminal,” Drake said. 

“What is your proof? Because I need a little more than you telling me that you were right to believe you,” Damian responded. 

“I’m glad you asked. After you told me about the account, I looked into it. You were right, the account doesn’t belong to anyone in her family. I did a little more digging and the account belongs to no other than MDC. The account was originally created by Jagged Stone for MDC when they officially became his designer,” Drake informed him. 

“So what? She blackmails MDC. I don’t think that that’s much better,” Damian argued. 

“No, no. You got it all wrong. She isn’t blackmailing MDC, she is working for MDC,” Drake said. 

“How can you be sure of that?” Damian asked. 

“Because I asked her. Well, I asked her about the sweater and she confirmed that it was an MDC original. Then she told me that she had a second job that had to do with fashion. When I asked her if she was a fashion designer herself, she quickly shot me down. She told me that she was the assistant of a fashion designer. When I asked her for their name, she didn’t want to tell me at first. But after I promised her that I wouldn’t tell anyone, she confirmed my suspicion. She works for MDC,” Drake responded. 

“You do know that she could have lied to you. Besides, that still doesn’t explain why MDC is paying for her school tuition,” Damian argued. 

“But she could have told the truth as well. Why would she lie about something like this? What is more likely, someone working for a well-known fashion designer or someone blackmailing them? And for MDC paying for her tuition, I am convinced that they are friends. Why else would she have so many MDC originals?” Drake said. 

“Dupain-Cheng lies because she is a liar. She is a master at manipulating people. And if we weren’t talking about Dupain-Cheng you would be right about it being more likely that she works for MDC. But because we are talking about Dupain-Cheng, it is more likely that she is blackmailing MDC. Just because you can’t see past her glamour doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. Feel free to believe whatever you want. I will continue to keep my distance from her and collect proof that can convince even you that I am right,” Damian responded. 

Even if Drake didn’t believe him yet, he would soon. Damian just had to give him proof that even he couldn’t deny. He only had to wait three more days until Zatanna would come by to take a look at the baked goods Damian had gotten from Dupain-Cheng. Maybe then he could finally prove that he had been right all along.

Chapter Text

Finally, was all Damian could think. Today was the day. Today Zatanna would visit and prove that Damian had been right all along. That Dupain-Cheng was a magic user. That she used her magic to manipulate and trick the people around her into liking her. Into believing all of her lies. Into being one of her pawns, playing her cursed game. 

He would finally be able to free Drake from her clutches. Believe it or not, he actually did care about his siblings. Even if Drake could be insufferable at times, Damian wouldn’t let him get brainwashed and betrayed when Damian was able to stop it.  

His father had been angry with him when Damian had told him that Zatanna would come to Gotham. But when he explained to him that there was possibly an unregistered magic user who used their magic to manipulate people, he eventually agreed. 

“Good afternoon, how have you been?” Zatanna greeted him. 

“I’m alright. But I really need you to look at the sample I brought. I don’t have the sample on me right now, I will get it in just a second,” Damian responded before heading to the shelf in which he stored the Macarons Dupain-Cheng had baked for the birthday of one of their classmates last Thursday. 

Zatanna looked at the Macaron for a moment. She then took it out of the box it had been in. “There is definitely magic in here. Not a lot but enough to have an effect on people if they were to consume it regularly. I cannot tell you whether this magic is good or bad. Not right away anyway. If I were to take it with me, I could probably find out in a few weeks. It shouldn’t take too long but I am very busy so it might take a little longer,” she said. 

A smirk took over Damian’s face, “I knew that she was a magic user. But Drake wouldn’t believe me. But now that I have proof, he won’t be able to deny it any longer. If you have the time, could you maybe wait for Drake to wake up so that you can tell him yourself? He doesn’t really trust me with anything that has to do with Dupain-Cheng” 

“If you can get him to wake up in the next half an hour, I can. But as I said I am really busy at the moment,” Zatanna responded.

Ten minutes later Damian dragged a half-sleeping Tim into the Batcave. When they entered. Zatanna let out a shocked gasp. “What happened to him?” she asked Damian. 

“I got dragged out of bed way too early, that’s what happened,” Tim replied for Damian. 

“That’s not what I was talking about. This magic user Damian was talking about must have it out for you. You are completely drenched in magic. Ancient magic. Really ancient and powerful magic. In the wrong hands that kind of magic could destroy entire cities, planets even,” Zatanna said. 

“What do you mean?” Tim asked, his tone serious all of a sudden. 

“Damian told me about a magic user at his school. He gave me a sample and I could confirm that there is magic in it. And you, my friend, are completely drenched in the same kind of magic. Yours is just far stronger than what Damian gave me to work with. Either this magic user has taken a liking to you or really hates you,” Zatanna said. 

“Wait, Damian was right? Marinette is manipulating me with magic?” Tim asked. 

“I don’t know if she is manipulating you, but she is definitely feeding you magic. And not only you but everyone in Damian's grade too. Just like I told Damian, I don’t know if the magic is good or bad but I do know that it is magic. Very powerful magic, Tim. It would be best if you stopped drinking her coffee until I figured out what it does,” Zatanna advised. 

Tim was frowning, “Okay. I just, I thought I could trust her. And maybe I can. Maybe I am a bad friend for thinking that she would manipulate me into being her friend. But you are right, I haven’t known her for that long. Even if I trust her, the safety of my family and Gotham comes first. I will stop going to the coffee shop starting next Thursday. First, I need to get a sample of the drink she always gives me so that you can analyze it as well. If you are willing to do that, of course,” Tim said. 

“Do that. The other sample would be really useful. I’m sorry that I can’t tell you anything more about the magic as of now,” Zatanna apologized. 

“It’s fine. Thank you for helping us out. I don’t know what we would do without you,” Tim replied. 

“Of course. I will leave now. And if we don’t see each other before New Year, enjoy the holidays and have a happy new year,” Zatanna said. 

“I told you so,” Damian said after Zatanna left. 

“You were right about her being a magic user. However, you have to keep in mind that we do not know what magic it is. For all we know the magic could be giving me good luck. She did ask me whether I gambled before she gave me my coffee. But you were right to be concerned about my safety and I will not go back to the coffee shop until Zatanna is back with the results. But if she tells me that Marinette’s magic doesn’t harm anyone, I will go back again,” Tim responded. 

“Fine. But if I was right you will stop being her friend,” Damian said. 

“Only if you promise to give her a chance if it turns out that I was right all along. I don’t ask you to befriend her just please stop hating her. She is a really nice person if you get to know her,” Tim replied. 

“I won’t because I know that I am right. But sure, if Dupain-Cheng’s magic turns out to be good or whatever, I will try to be her friend,” Damian agreed. Even if Drake was right, Dupain-Cheng would never want to befriend someone who had been rude to her for absolutely no reason, Damian thought.

Chapter Text

Things had been difficult for Marinette lately. After Chat Noir had betrayed her by stealing the Butterfly Miraculous, she felt horrible. She should have seen the signs but she didn’t. She blamed herself for his betrayal even though deep down she knew that it wasn’t her fault. 

Chrysalide hadn’t made his appearance until a month after the takedown of Hawk Moth and Mayura. It was around the same time the trials for them ended. 

The new Hawk Moth had announced himself in a similar way to the old Hawk Moth. Hawk Moth Junior, as he called himself didn’t ask for the Ladybug Miraculous but instead offered to exchange the Butterfly and Black Cat Miraculous for the Rabbit. His attacks were different from the ones of Hawk Moth too. He didn’t attack randomly during the day but instead during the afternoon or night. He also didn’t attack twice a day, usually waiting at least one day in between the attacks. 

But his Akumas were also a lot stronger and deadlier than the ones Hawk Moth used to send. He never akumatized the same person twice and didn’t focus on children but instead on adults who couldn’t be defeated as easily. Marinette guessed that he didn’t hold back like the previous butterfly holder had because he knew that the civilians wouldn’t remember. She cursed her younger self for not telling him that she would remember everything to maintain the balance. Maybe he wouldn’t have done it if he had known.  

At some point, the Akumas had gotten too strong for her to defeat on her own. She had started to use multiple Miraculous at once but even then it still took a long time to destroy the akumatized object and restore Paris. So she had given out a few Miraculous. 

Marinette knew the dangers of permanently trusting someone with the Miraculous but she couldn’t fight the Akumas on her own any longer. And she didn’t have the time to look for temporary holders either. That left her trusting someone in Paris with a Miraculous. 

The only people that she could think of were Alix, Kim, and Max. But due to Chrysalide specifically looking for the Rabbit Miraculous and her needing the Horse one for transport, not to mention their secret identities being known to the villain, she had to choose new Miraculi for the three. She ultimately decided to trust Alix with the turtle, Kim with the Rooster and Max with the Tiger Miraculous. 

Thus far the four had worked together relatively well. Alix, Kim, and Max had to adjust to the new Miraculous so for the first few fights, Ladybug had to guide them. But after a week of Akuma attacks the three worked together just like she and Chat Noir had. The thought stung. It was her old partner they were fighting after all. 

The people of Paris were upset about there now being a new villain but they didn’t complain. They couldn’t most of the time, not when someone was still out there using their emotions to his advantage. The fact that Hawk Moth Junior didn’t attack before 4 pm on a weekday and stuck to the early afternoons on weekends gave the Parisians time to let out their emotions without fearing being akumatized but they were still wary from the years spent under Hawk Moth’s reign. 

Marinette had spent the holidays with her parents back home in Paris and had flown back to Gotham on Monday before school started again. She would never understand why the holidays in the US were the way they were. 

Over the break, she started to talk with Dusuu. She had left the kwami of the Peacock Miraculous, as per Dusuu’s own request in the Miracle Box so that he could catch up with the others and start to heal from his time with Hawk Moth and Mayura. She had made sure that the Miraculous itself was fixed and bought Dusuu’s favourite treat before taking the Miraculous out of the box for the first time since she had placed it in there weeks ago. Dusuu was better than before but still very exhausted. Marinette made sure to give him almonds and other sweets with almonds in them regularly as well as enough time outside and inside the Miraculous box. And slowly but surely Dusuu started to heal. It would take a while until Dusuu was back to normal but the kwami was on his way to getting better and that was all that mattered to Marinette. 

Around the same time as Hawk Moth Junior returned, Tim stopped coming by the coffee shop. He had looked guilty and sad when he had visited her the last time, only asking for a coffee to go. She had made sure to put in some extra good luck. Tim looked as if he needed it desperately. He didn’t return after that and stopped replying to her messages, only sending short affirmations when he did respond. He claimed that he was busy but Marinette didn’t quite believe him. 

She felt bad about lying to him about being MDC’s assistant but she didn’t know him long enough to trust him with her secret. He had seemed happy and excited for her when she had told him but it was the last time they had had a somewhat normal conversation and Marinette couldn’t quite believe that the two things didn’t have anything to do with each other. 

The fact that Damian had started to glare at her whenever he saw her only made things worse. She had thought that they were on somewhat okay terms. She had thought wrong. Damian still hated her and made sure that she knew it. She didn’t know what she had done to make him dislike her that much. Mostly because she had never lied about anything that didn’t have anything to do with the Paris situation or her job as a fashion designer. 

On the other hand, Jagged was finally back from his US tour so she spend a lot of time with him, Penny and Fang. It was nice to have someone to talk to that wasn’t Tikki or one of her new classmates. Not to get her wrong, she absolutely adored Tikki but sometimes she really wanted to spend time with another human. 

And while her classmates were nice, she still sometimes missed the people that knew her a little better than most. A few of her old classmates had reached out to apologize, telling her that Alix, Kim and Max had been able to convince them that Lila was lying to them. She had thanked the three and they had informed her that Adrien had helped too. She was happy that her old friends had realized their mistakes but she was still hurt from when they had trusted someone they didn’t know over her whom they had known for years. With time she would be able to forgive them but things would probably never be the way they were before.

Chapter Text

A month had passed since Damian had given Zatanna Dupain-Cheng’s Macaron. And finally, Zatanna visited again, this time with the results. Damian was very excited when the magic user finally appeared in the living room. 

“Hello, long time no see,” Zatanna greeted Damian and Tim who were both sitting on the sofa, waiting for her. 

“Hello to you too. I assume you figured out what Marinette’s magic does?” Tim asked. 

“I did and I’m quite impressed. Her magic is quite powerful as I already told you. But what I didn’t expect was that it would be so hard to figure out. I managed to figure it out eventually but it still took a lot of time,” Zatanna responded. 

“Okay. And what did you find out?” Damian asked. 

“Her magic is harmless. In the wrong hands, it could cause a lot of harm but she only uses it to help other people. The Macaron you gave me contained small amounts of cleansing energy. They cleanse the soul from all types of bad magic. If someone like Jason would consume them regularly he would eventually be free from the influence the Lazarus Pit has on him. 

“Tim’s coffee contains the same cleansing energy. But it also has a lot of creation magic in it. The magic turns the coffee into some sort of energy potion. It keeps him awake and inspires him to be more creative. The coffee also contained a lot of luck magic so you probably shouldn’t gamble while the magic is still in your system to not raise suspicion. But all in all, her magic is completely safe,” Zatanna informed them. 

“I knew it. I told you so. She is way too kind to manipulate people with her magic,” Tim told his brother. Smiling, all confident as if he had always known that Marinette was innocent. But in reality, he felt as if a weight has been lifted off of him. He couldn’t describe how relieved he was that Marinette only used her magic to help him and others. That she wasn’t using him. 

“Her using this magic for good things doesn't mean that she doesn’t use her magic for bad things too,” Damian argued, stubborn as always. 

“Not necessarily, no. But we now know that she doesn’t manipulate people into liking her. She is just a kind person who likes to help others,” Tim said. 

“Whatever. It still doesn't clear her from the other things. Maybe she isn’t manipulating people with the food she gives out. But we still don’t know why MDC is paying for her tuition. Or why she always runs off during class,” Damian responded. 

“It does not. But it tells us that she is, most likely, a good person which clears her of all the things you accused her of. It also means that you have to befriend her, we made a deal, remember?” Tim said. 

“Fine, whatever. I’ll apologize,” Damian agreed through gritted teeth. He said he would apologize, not that the apology would be sincere. 

“Also, before I forget it. You should stop declining Marinette’s sweets when she gives them out to everyone. Zatanna said that they could help Jason. You don’t have to eat them, just put them in an airtight box. He probably won’t eat them if we tell him to. But maybe we could leave them on a plate in his apartment and hope that he won’t just throw out perfectly fine sweets,” Tim said. 

“Okay whatever. But only because it could help Todd,” Damian replied. 

At some point during their conversation, Zatanna had left. Tim and Damian felt bad for not saying goodbye. They knew that Zatanna wouldn’t blame them but they still felt bad about it. 

Marinette’s week had been weird. It had started with Tim texting her out of the blue. Well, he had done that the Saturday before. But over the following days, Tim started to text her just like before, as if nothing had ever happened. As if he hadn’t ignored her for an entire month. And no she did not believe that he was just very busy. He had been busy before, yet, he had always taken his time to come to the coffee shop every Wednesday, even if it was just for a coffee to go. There had clearly been another reason why he had stopped talking to her. One that Tim didn't want her to know. Was it because he was embarrassed about it or because it entailed something he didn't want her to know. 

Things got even weirder when she opened her locker on Monday morning and found a small bouquet of buttercups and a sunflower. With them was a card on which someone had written in beautiful

‘buttercups - friendship, sunflower - adoration’. And while she had found the gesture quite nice, she couldn’t help but wonder if whoever had sent the flowers had chosen those two on purpose. Because while both of those flowers had the positive meaning that was written on the card as well as a few more, they also had negative meanings, childishness, and false appearance stuck out to her the most. 

But maybe that was just her being paranoid because Damian had stopped glaring at her. Not only that, but he had also stopped calling her Apate and started calling her by her last name again. Normally, she wouldn’t like being called by her last name when she had introduced herself using her first name but Damian called everyone by their last name so it didn’t bother her all that much. 

She had almost forgotten the flowers when she found a bouquet of geraniums and snapdragons in her locker. The card told her that they were supposed to represent friendship and graciousness but a quick google search and her knowledge about flowers told her that they also represented unintelligence and deception. The second one especially sounded like something Damian would give her. 

She debated asking him about the flowers during one of their many shared classes but he managed to avoid her the entire day without looking as if he was trying to. It was quite impressive. 

When she received another small bouquet this time with yellow carnations and tansies, she knew that the person who had bought the flowers either didn’t know anything about flower language or was trying to express their dislike for her while appearing as if they liked her. Because everyone knew not to gift someone yellow carnations as they represented disappointment and disdain. And tansies while tensies were a symbol of immortality, they were also a declaration of war. If Damian wasn’t sending her those flowers, she didn’t know who was. 

After she finally left for her part-time job at the coffee shop, she wasn’t even surprised when she saw Tim sitting at his usual table. They caught up with each other and talked about everything that had happened in the last month for which Tim apologized profusely even though she had already told him over the phone that she forgave him. There was only one reason as to why Tim would act that way. He felt guilty for some reason. Why he felt guilty was another question Marinette couldn’t answer yet. But she had a suspicion that it had to do with the flowers in her locker. 

Thursday came with two new types of flowers in Marinette’s locker, marigolds and orange lilies, confidence and ‘the light inside you’ but also cruelty and hatred. Marinette sighed, she just wanted the week to end already. 

When Marinette wasn’t greeted with a new flower on Friday, she became suspicious. Had Damian run out of ambiguous flowers to give her? Marinette’s question was answered when the guy who had been avoiding her for an entire week approached her after Health Class during their twenty minutes break. 

“I would like to talk to you,” he said. Marinette smiled, nodded and followed him into the empty hallway. 

“I’m sorry for the way I treated you. I shouldn’t have. You were just being kind to me and I treated you as if you were a criminal. I am sorry. I put the flowers into your locker, as you probably already guessed. Most of them represent friendship or other things that I associate with you. I hope that we can start new,” Damian continued. 

“I also got you this,” he added, handing her a yellow rose. She knew that they represented friendship from when Chat Noir had given her one, back when they were still partners instead of enemies. 

She frowned slightly at the thought before smiling again. “Thank you. I accept your apology,” she said before adding, “You know, I don’t know whether I should be worried about the fact that you know how to access my locker or coo about how cute it is that you bought flowers to apologize to me. Although next time you should probably look up the meaning of the flowers before gifting them to someone, some of them have quite negative ones as well” 

“Of course,” Damian responded, smiling a smile that made Marinette think that maybe she had been right. Maybe Damian was just so petty that he gifted her flowers to tell her how much he hated her just to smile at her and apologize, claiming that he wanted to be her friend. Marinette quickly abandoned the thought. She would give Damian a second chance, even if he didn’t actually want it.

Chapter Text

A week had passed since Damian’s apology and Marinette started to believe that maybe it had been sincere. Because Damian had changed his behavior towards her. He was still sarcastic and blunt, sometimes to the point where many would consider it rude. But she knew that this was just the way Damian was. And sure sometimes a comment or two were a little too hurtful to be entirely coincidental but Marinette usually ignored that. She was going to give Damian a second chance because everyone deserved one. 

They were sitting in french class, talking as usual because their teacher didn’t bother to give them extra work. Damian actually participated in the conversation instead of just listening to her or ignoring her. Marinette still didn’t know which one he had done back when he still hated her. 

Suddenly, the topic of the Paris situation came up. Marinette didn’t know how they had ended there but at some point, seemingly randomly, Damian had asked her who her favorite hero was. And without thinking, she replied, “Chat Noir, well before he turned evil that is. Now it’s Tortue Verde” She didn’t realize her mistake at first but when Damian asked her who she was talking about, Marinette could have facepalmed herself. Why did things like that always happen to her?

So now she found herself explaining the entire Paris situation to Damian. When she finished, Damian just looked at her for a while before asking, “So when you talked about that riddle you were actually talking about Paris' villains?” 

Marinette hesitated for a moment before responding, “Yeah. The Hawk Moth situation was actually one of the main reasons why I moved here. I just couldn’t take it anymore. But even here, 6000 kilometers away, I’m still pretty attached to the situation. So I thought why not try to find out who Hawk Moth is? So I tried but it just didn’t make sense to me. I’m pretty sure that the magic kept me from figuring out his identity and that the only reason you were able to figure it out was that you didn’t know what I was talking about. 

“So when I was sure that he really was Hawk Moth, I told Ladybug. Well, I wrote her a message hoping she would see it. And well she did. But then Chat Noir betrayed her and became Chrysalide. So there is still someone dressed as a butterfly taking the entire city of Paris hostage. I mean, he is definitely better than Papillion was seeing as he is just a child and his powers are limited. And Hawk Moth Junior doesn’t go for kids like Hawk Moth did so that’s nice. But well, he's still a villain” 

Damian was quiet for a moment, taking it all in, processing it. “Okay. Do you or the heroes have any idea who Chrysalide is?” Damian asked. 

“Well not really. We know that his dad wasn’t the best and that he saw being Chat Noir as his only freedom. He also didn’t eat enough back when he was still a hero. But that’s it. Ladybug was really big on secret identities so they never talked about personal things,” Marinette replied. 

“Do you think he knew Hawk Moth as a civilian? That Chrysalide saw him as a mentor or idol of sorts?” Damian asked. “Because he names himself Chrysalide which is the transitional state of a butterfly before it turns into a butterfly which was Hawk Moth’s french name. And if my memories aren’t tricking me you called Chrysalide Hawk Moth Junior at some point which I’m assuming is his English name,” Damian clarified. 

“I considered that too. But many people admired Gabriel. I did too. Which makes everything so much worse. Chrysalide probably just calls himself that because he is the new Hawk Moth,” Marinette reasoned. 

“Why was he your idol?” Damian asked. 

“Oh well. I’m a fashion designer. My biggest dream as a child was to become a successful fashion designer just like him. I even once won one of his contests,” Marinette answers, grimacing slightly at the memory. 

“That makes sense, I guess,” Damian said. 

“Yeah. Can we maybe talk about something different? Talking about the Paris situation is still hard for me. I know that the cure erases all the bad memories and physical injuries and all that but it’s still a difficult topic for me,” Marinette responded. 

“Of course. What do you want to talk about?” Damian asked. 

“Uh, why don’t we talk about the holidays? Do you celebrate Christmas with your family?” Marinette asked. 

“I do. My father insists on it even though none of us are Christian. I don’t really care all that much for the holiday but I got a few new sketchbooks and a set of chalk pastels so it was okay, I guess. Did you celebrate?” Damian replied. 

“I did. We aren’t religious either but we still celebrate. I spent the holidays back in Paris with my parents. My grandparents came by too. It was fun and it was good to see them again. Is it weird that I miss them already?” Marinette asked. 

“No, I don’t think so. Most people miss their family when they aren’t with them. Did you stay with them until the New Year? My father always holds a” Damian hesitated for a moment. Marinette for some reason didn’t know that he was a Wayne which was oddly satisfying. And for some reason he wanted it to stay that way. 

“Party of sorts. And the firework always looks quite beautiful. But it scares Titus, my dog, so I always stay inside with him,” he continued. 

“We don’t really celebrate the new years you are talking about. My father never really cared for it and my mother always celebrated Chinese New Year with her family back in China but never the other one,” Marinette said. 

“Do you celebrate? It’s tomorrow, well the day after tomorrow, isn’t it?” Damian asked. 

“It is and yes we do. It’s going to be different this year though. Because I won’t be with them in person and all. It’s going to be the first time that I’m not with them and I hate it. I mean, I knew that I wouldn’t be able to be with them when I decided to go to school here but I’m just now realizing how different everything is going to be. We are going to video call on both Saturday and Sunday but it won’t be the same. 

“Normally, we would be cleaning the patisserie together tomorrow afternoon. My parents always close the patisserie for the entire afternoon so that we have enough time to clean it and our apartment and prepare all the food because, you know, can’t use knives on new years. And there are so many other small things that we usually do that I can’t do this year like my mother cutting me my hair a few days prior or me gifting them new clothes I made myself. I mean, I did make the clothes and left them with my parents when I visited during the break but I just, ugh, why can’t I be with them?” Marinette said. 

“Sorry, I was rambling wasn’t I?” she apologized, burying her face in her hands. She got flustered way too easily. 

“No, it’s fine. I don’t mind listening to you. I didn’t complain about it when I still disliked you so why would I complain now that we are somewhat friends,” Damian responded. 

“Oh, so you were listening. If I remember correctly you told me that you just overheard the general things I talk about,” Marinette said. 

“Well, I might or might not have lied. The truth is, I liked listening to your rambling. It calmed me down and some of the things you talk about are rather interesting,” Damian replied. 

They continued to chat until the lesson was over. When Marinette left the classroom she was hopeful. Sure, their conversation had been a little awkward at first but after they had found something to talk about, the conversation had flown easily. She could see them becoming good friends eventually. 

When Damian left the classroom, he was determined to find out more about the Paris situation. Now that he knew what an Akuma was, he knew what to look for. He needed to find out why Dupain-Cheng always ran out of the room for Akuma attacks and only came back after they had ended. Her having trauma from the attacks would have explained her absence but she had claimed that the cure erased those memories which excluded that possibility. There was also the fact that she used to idolize the villain. Sure, it had been his civilian identity that she was a fan of but it was still suspicious.

After two hours of researching, he finally had a theory. He had found out that Dupain-Cheng had been the hero Multimouse for the entirety of one battle before she got retired. She had foolishly revealed her secret identity in front of Chat Noir and her old chemistry teacher and had been indefinitely benched afterward. 

That wasn’t the odd part. It made a lot of sense to retire a hero after their identity got revealed. Especially, when they were so easy to replace like the Parisian ones. No, the weird part was that a few of the other heroes had been used even after their secret identities had been exposed. But for some reason, Dupain-Cheng was different. 

Damian’s theory was that Dupain-Cheng had gotten angry at Ladybug for retiring her. That had led her to plot with Chat Noir who had visited her on her balcony one too many times for them not to know each other. The way she spoke of the villain held fondness that you usually didn’t have for a villain. It was crystal clear to Damian. Dupain-Cheng was working with Chrysalide. 

Chapter Text

A few weeks had passed since he had apologized to Dupain-Cheng and he had started to think that maybe Drake had been right and maybe she really was just a normal person. There was still the entirety of the Paris situation which Damian couldn’t really categorize. Just thinking about it made his head fuzzy. He guessed that it had to do with the magic Dupain-Cheng had mentioned. 

Damian had considered talking to his father about it. But he quickly threw the thought out of the window. There was no way that the Justice League would ignore something as big as an emotional terrorist unless they had a good reason to do so. And the possibility of them not knowing about the situation was unthinkable. They probably feared that a trained hero or even a villain would get akumatized and make everything harder for the heroes of Paris. That was why the Justice League stayed out of Paris, it had to be. Besides, the heroes were good. They weren’t trained but they knew what they were doing. 

Even Drake had noticed his change in behavior towards Dupain-Cheng. Or she had simply told Drake. They were friends after all. It didn’t matter how Drake had found out, the only thing that mattered was that he did. He probably knew about the flowers too which Damian should have considered when he had decided on a way to ‘apologize’. But what was done was done. And Drake hadn’t brought it up besides a quick, “I knew you’d come around. She’s a great friend when you give her a chance” on Thursday morning so he must believe Damian’s lie. Dupain-Cheng did too which was probably good as well. Now Damian only needed to pay attention not to fall for her charms and tricks. She might not use magic to make people like her but that didn’t mean that she didn’t act like the perfect friend before suddenly dropping them like a cold piece of meat. 

Damian was currently working on his literature homework which meant reading a book and analyzing it. The task was dull but at least the book wasn't as dull as the one his last literature teacher had covered with them.   He had just finished his analysis when his clock vibrated in an all-familiar pattern. Drake was in trouble. Apparently, Scarecrow had decided to attack a coffee shop. A coffee shop in which Drake and Dupain-Cheng had met up today. 

Damian quickly put on his Robin uniform before heading to the coffee shop. When he arrived, most of the civilians were sitting at the back of the coffee shop, being held back by a few henchmen. In the front of the coffee shop, right next to Scarecrow stood Drake and Dupain-Cheng. Because, of course, they would. 

He was sitting on one of the rooftops near the coffee shop, observing the entire situation. It didn’t look as if anything was happening and bursting in without a plan usually didn't work out. He should probably knock out the henchmen first before taking on Scarecrow. The rouge acted out of character today seeing as no one was screaming in fear under the influence of the fear toxin. But who was Robin to complain? 

When he had successfully taken down the henchmen in the back of the coffee shop and led the civilians out of the backdoor, he approached the front of the shop. Drake was looking at his own watch, probably asking himself where Robin was. 

As he got closer, Robin started to understand pieces of the conversation. Drake was begging Scarecrow to stop and not give her another dose, her most probably being Dupain-Cheng. Scarecrow on the other hand was looking at Dupain-Cheng with fascination. Dupain-Cheng meanwhile was muttering about butterflies and white cats, silent tears streaming down her face. 

Robin approached them from behind. Scarecrow didn’t notice, too fixated on Dupain-Cheng. Drake didn’t either as he was busy trying to comfort Dupain-Cheng. He had a feeling that Dupain-Cheng would notice and attack him if he didn’t hurry so he did his best to get rid of the henchmen scattered around the trio as fast as possible. Of course, Scarecrow noticed him but by the time the rouge did, Robin had already made sure that the henchmen wouldn’t get up any time soon. He quickly passed Drake the antidote before taking on Scarecrow, knocking the rouge unconscious and handcuffing him. He gave Drake a look that said ‘we will talk later’ before ensuring that Scarecrow got back to Arkham without any complications. 

When he got back home, Drake wasn’t there. He had probably stayed with Dupain-Cheng for a while. Damian checked his messages and yes, Drake had texted him that he was currently ensuring that Dupain-Cheng was alright. 

“What took you so long?” Drake greeted him when he came back one hour later. 

“I made sure that the other civilians were fine because to me it looked like you were doing alright,” Damian snapped back. 

“Well, we fucking weren’t. I was but Marinette was not. They gave her three doses, Damian, three. And you know what she did, nothing. She looked scared for maybe two seconds before she managed to hide all her emotions. It was scary, Damian. She managed to hide all of it. She didn’t even shake. Only when they gave her the second dose did she start crying and the muttering started after the third. I was completely helpless. I couldn’t even take down the goons without compromising my secret identity. 

“And don’t get me started on everything she told me afterward. Apparently, Paris has a villain which you know of but didn’t bother to inform me about. And because of that villain, Marinette learned to hide her emotions so that she doesn’t become one of his pawns. Hell, she even fought that guy as a temporary hero. She was only active a couple of times but the few times she did still managed to scar her for life,” Drake shouted. Damian hadn’t seen him that helpless in a while. 

“I recently found out about the Paris situation through Dupain-Cheng. She told me that the civilians don’t remember anything and that children were no longer being targeted. I didn’t tell you because I thought that you were aware of the situation. And even if you weren’t, I assumed that you would tell father or fly to Paris yourself. And we all know that that would be a bad idea because you would most probably get akumatized as soon as you landed. And I'm assuming Dupain-Cheng told you enough about the situation for you to know that that would have been problematic,” Damian responded. 

“Of course. But still. We could have helped. But instead, we ignored them and let a couple of untrained teenagers fight giant babies and stone monsters,” Drake said. 

“Don’t forget Syren, she drowned most of Paris and was the deadliest Akuma recorded. But that’s beside the point. I know that you think we could have helped but the reality is that we couldn’t have. As soon as I found out about the situation, my brain would always become fuzzy whenever I thought about it. Our best bet would be to give all the information to someone who doesn’t know about the situation and let them solve the case for us. That’s how I found out who Hawk Moth was,” Damian replied. 

“I guess. Wait what do you mean how you found out who Hawk Moth was?” Drake asked. 

“Dupain-Cheng informed me about the Paris situation in form of a riddle last November. I solved the riddle and realized who Papillion was. Dupain-Cheng then found a way to give that information to Ladybug who proceeded to defeat Papillion. But her partner, Chat Noir betrayed her and took Papillion’s source of power and became Chrysalide, the new villain of Paris,” Damian explained 

“That's a lot. Can we please sit down and talk about this in detail so that I can understand everything? This is a lot to process,” Drake asked. 

“I have homework to do,” Damian said. 

“You do not,” Drake replied. 

“I do not,” Damian agreed, walking away nevertheless. 

Chapter Text

It was a late Monday afternoon. Tim was doing something on his Laptop, a cup of coffee in hand, as usual. Damian was drawing with his new pastels on a table nearby. They often spent their evenings before patrol in the living room together. Tim said that he enjoyed having his little brother next to him. Damian claimed that the lighting was better than in his own room. Both knew that he was lying but neither acknowledged it. 

“What are you drawing?” Tim asked. 

“Why do you care?” Damian responded. 

“Can’t I be interested in what my little brother is doing in his free time that makes him almost as happy as fighting criminals in the middle of the night?” Tim teased. 

“Tt. I suppose you can. I am drawing a bouquet of flowers,” Damian replied. 

“Ooh, can I see?” Tim asked. 

“I will consider showing you the finished drawing if you leave me alone now,” Damian responded. 

“Okay fine. Sorry for trying to have a conversation with you. Well, whatever. I have something better to do. And because I know that you don’t care about what I am doing and therefore will not ask, I will simply tell you. I am currently trying to figure out MDC’s secret identity,” Tim said. 

“Didn’t you say that you wouldn’t want to disrespect their privacy like that?” Damian asked. 

“I did. However, I will find out their identity this Thursday anyway because they will come to the Winter Gala. Additionally, Marinette told me that MDC would be fine with it. I even got an email from MDC confirming that it was okay for me to do my best to figure out who they are as long as I don’t tell anyone else,” Tim informed. 

“That makes sense. I still think that Dupain-Cheng is hiding something. She doesn’t even know that I am a Wayne or she just pretends that she doesn’t. She is an excellent actress and I can never tell when she is lying,” Damian stated. 

“Yeah, that confused me too. She didn’t know I was Timothy Drake-Wayne, co-CEO of Wayne Enterprise either. Well, until Scarecrow attacked and called me by my last name. And I know that she is a good liar and hiding things. But just like with the magic, those things don’t have to be bad, you know,” Tim pointed out. 

“I am well aware. In the past weeks, I have spent enough time with her to realize that she isn’t the monster I thought she was. I judged her without having any proof that she actually did something wrong. I suppose it was a mistake on my part,” Damian admitted. 

“It’s good to see that you finally realized your mistakes and started to see the good in her,” Tim said. 

“Do not misinterpret my words. Just because I admit to judging her too soon does not mean that I trust her. As I said, there are secrets she keeps and as long as I don’t know what they are and if they are harmful, I will not be able to trust her,” Damian responded. 

“Yeah yeah, whatever. Let’s get back to MDC. Did you know that Jagged Stone gifted them a guitar pick necklace for their 16th birthday? It has MDC’s whole name on the front and the outlines of a guitar on the back. It’s rose gold, and I heard that they wear it all the time. There’s not much more information on the internet but if I manage to find whoever made the necklace, I could find out what exactly they engraved, and voila, I have MDC’s full name,” Tim said. 

Damian was suddenly reminded of the rose gold necklace that Dupain-Cheng always wore. Could it be? It would definitely make sense. It would explain everything from the many designer clothes to MDC paying for Dupain-Cheng’s tuition. But Damian shouldn’t act on a hunch. He needed to make sure that he was correct before acting. He needed to make sure that Dupain-Cheng’s necklace really was that of MDC. And he needed to make a plan on how to get it back from Dupain-Cheng before the gala where he could give it back to MDC. Because if he was right, then Dupain-Cheng was blackmailing MDC with the necklace and maybe their secret identity as well. It was disappointing, really. Damian had just started to respect her. 

It was the next day, a Tuesday, and also Valentine's day. Damian had never liked the day. He never understood why people felt the need to celebrate romantic love in such an unnecessary and extravagant way. That hadn’t stopped him from buying a red rose and hanging it upside down inside of Dupain-Cheng’s locker. Giving someone a flower upside down reversed the meaning of said flowers. That’s at least what Damian had read somewhere when he had researched the best way to express his dislike for Dupain-Cheng. He didn’t know if Dupain-Cheng knew what upside-down flowers meant but he didn’t bother to care. He knew that he was being petty but if he was right and Dupain-Cheng was blackmailing his brother's favorite fashion designer, Dupain-Cheng deserved the pettiness. 

It was easy to sneak off during physical education. Just like the last time, he made his way to the changing room where he quickly located Dupain-Cheng’s backpack. He found the necklace rather quickly. It looked exactly like Drake had described it. Next to it, were two other necklaces. One had a pink foxtail pendant while the other had a greyish-brown Chinese coin tied to a cornflower bluish-black string. He grabbed those as well, quickly dropping them in his backpack before joining the other students again. 

Marinette’s last class for the day had almost ended when her hair tie started to vibrate. Max had made it for Ladybug for when she didn’t have her phone on her. It was linked to the Akuma Warning App and started to vibrate when there was a new Akuma. At first, she had been skeptical but it had proven to be useful at times. 

Marinette quickly made an excuse to leave, noticing Damian slipping back into the gymnasium on her way out. When she reached the toilet, she quickly transformed and teleported to Paris. She knew that there would be an Akuma today. It was Valentine's Day after all and Chrysalide had always been a helpless romantic. 

When she arrived, Gallus, Panthea Tigris, and Tortue Verde were already fighting the Akuma. It was another love Akuma, who would have guessed? The Akuma had been cheated on and made everyone feel the pain of the person they had hurt the most. The person hit would experience the same pain but physical. All around them were people screaming in pain. Some were on fire while others were being chased by a bunch of hornets. It was awful to watch and the four heroes were determined to end the fight as soon as possible. 

It didn’t take too long to defeat the Akuma, especially since Viperion had joined shortly after Ladybug had. But during the fight, Gallus had been nearly hit twice and Viperion had had to reset multiple times. Both had put Ladybug on edge. Because the person he had hurt the most was Marinette Dupain-Cheng and Ladybug didn’t know if the pain he would feel from her would be limited to the one he had caused or if he would feel everything. Either way, he would be in a lot of pain that Ladybug didn’t want him to feel. And if the advice Viperion had given them was anything to go by, they would lose if one of them got hit. 

As soon as Marinette got back to Gotham, she changed into her normal clothes. The lesson had ended ten minutes ago and the changing room was completely empty. She was about to put on her necklace when she noticed that it was missing. She checked again only to realize that the Miraculous of the Fox and the Mouse were missing as well. She looked everywhere but couldn’t find them. Tikki tried to calm her down but even she couldn’t get through to the teen. 

By the time she had changed and was sitting in the art club room, Marinette had calmed down a little. It wouldn’t help her to think about what happened. What was done was done. What she could do was try to figure out who had stolen the necklaces. There weren’t many suspects. Only the students with whom she had physical education and the teacher. 

“Do you know if someone touched my backpack while I was gone, my necklaces went missing,” Marinette asked one of the girls from her PE class who was also part of the art club. 

“The red backpack? No, not that I know of at least. Maybe ask the PE teacher if she found anything,” the other girl suggested. Marinette thanked her for her help and went back to her table. 

The only way someone could have stolen the necklaces was during the lesson. Sure, somebody could have stayed in the changing room until the others were gone but that would’ve looked suspicious. And the only person who had left to go to the toilet was Damian. Damian who used to hate her. Damian who had once placed a chip in her phone, probably using the exact same method to do so. 

The only question was why. Why had Damian decided to steal her necklaces? Marinette had thought that they were friends. That Damian had stopped hating her. It had certainly looked that way to her. But maybe Damian had only apologized to, what, hurt her even more? It would explain the ambiguous flowers and the upside-down rose in her locker this morning. She still didn’t understand why he would do something like that. She knew that he knew that she lied sometimes and that she kept secrets. But that wasn’t a reason to hate someone. Either way, she needed to get the necklaces back as soon as possible. She only had to find out how to do so.

Chapter Text

Damian was pacing up and down in his room. Why had he taken the necklaces? And why not only the guitar pick one but the other two as well? He could have just talked to Dupain-Cheng about it, for goodness sake. But no, he had to go and steal them. And then he didn’t even bother to look at the name on the necklace. He had told himself that it was to protect MDC’s identity but in reality, he just didn’t want to be proven wrong. In beautiful spelling, it read Marinette Dupain-Cheng right on the back of the necklace pendant. He was definitely screwed 

He felt like a fool. He should have made sure that he was right before acting on a hunch. He had wanted to make sure. But then he didn’t. Why didn’t he? 

Damian had thought about anonymously giving it back to Dupain-Cheng or writing an actual sincere apology and giving it back. But he hadn’t seen her since art club on Tuesday where he had run away before she could talk to him out of guilt. 

He still didn’t like that he didn’t know why she ran away every time there was an Akuma in Paris or why her body was covered in scars. But that didn’t mean that he should disrespect her privacy like that. People were entitled to their own secrets. Hell, he had his own load of them. So why had he done it? 

His thinking was interrupted when suddenly a blue portal opened in the middle of his room and a woman dressed in red and black spandex stepped out. He blinked. Was that Ladybug? What was she doing here? 

“Uhm, hello. Why are you here?” Damian asked. 

“I’m here to get back what is mine,” the heroine replied. Her tone was cold and void of any emotion. 

“I am not sure what you are talking about,” Damian said. 

“Yes, you are. I’m talking about the necklaces that you stole yesterday,” Ladybug responded. Damian flinched. 

“Ah them. I didn’t have the chance to give them back to their owner yet. I know that I shouldn’t have stolen them in the first place and I deeply regret it. I honestly don’t know why I did what I did. But unless you are Dupain-Cheng I can not give them back to you,” Damian replied. 

Ladybug looked confused for a moment. “So you realized that you shouldn’t have taken the necklaces?” she asked. 

“I did. Just after I did it, actually. But then I felt guilty for it and ran away instead of giving them back. But then I felt even more guilty because I know how much they must mean to her. And then I wanted to slip them back into her backpack without her noticing. But then again, she deserves an apology. So I decided to wait for the gala and give them back to her and hopefully apologize for the things I have done. This time sincerely,” Damian said. 

“It’s good that you realized your mistake. But I still want to know why you did it,” Ladybug responded. 

“I don’t see why this is any of your business but I feel bad and need someone to talk to so I guess I will tell you anyway. I found Dupain-Cheng suspicious for a long time. It is obvious that she is hiding things. And well, I may or may not have hacked her files and found out that she regularly gets money transfers from one account that also pays for her tuition. I know that I shouldn’t have done that and I have no excuse for doing what I did. Anyway, I found that suspicious. So when I realized that her necklace is MDC’s, I connected the dots wrong. Just like I had done before. I thought that she was blackmailing the fashion designer and acted without thinking. I still don’t know why exactly I did what I did. I know that it was wrong and I am sorry,” Damian said. 

“I am not the one you need to apologize to. And trust me, a simple I’m sorry won’t be enough. I am only here because you didn’t only steal Marinette’s necklace but also two Miraculi,” Ladybug replied. 

“That’s why you are here. For a moment I thought that, never mind. I am sorry for taking the Miraculi. But if I may ask, why are they with Dupain-Cheng and not in Paris where they are needed?” Damian asked. 

“I gave them to Marinette for safekeeping reasons,”  Ladybug vaguely responded. 

“But that’s not the entire reason, is it?” Damian asked. 

“It’s not, no,” Ladybug said. 

“Okay, but how do I know that they are really Miraculi? I am aware that you are a hero but sometimes even heroes do wrong things,” Damian replied. He sounded bitter. 

“Ah, right you are Robin, aren’t you?” Ladybug responded, avoiding the question. 

“I have no idea what you are talking about,” Damian said. 

“Oh but you do. It’s okay, I won’t tell anyone,” Ladybug assured. 

“How did you figure it out?” Damian asked. 

“Honestly, I always kind of suspected it. Not you perse but the Wayne family. And then I saw the way Robin and Tim interacted back during Scarecrow and well,” Ladybug explained. 

“How do you know about Scarecrow?” Damian asked. 

“You probably won’t believe me if I tell you that I watched the camera footage, would you?” Ladybug responded. Damian shook his head. “Okay well. I guess I do need to explain this after all. So where do I start? Right, Paris. During the Akuma battles, a lot of people get hurt. Now with Chrysalide more than back with Papillion. But even then it was horrible. And while the cure can restore the buildings and everything inanimate without any problems, healing humans and making them forget the trauma they just experienced is something the cure cannot do. At least not without something else to balance it out. 

“And I decided to do that by transferring everything to me. So every night in my sleep, I would relive the deaths and injuries of the civilians who got caught in the battle. They would forget about it and the memories would rest in the back of my mind unless triggered. And it worked for a while but then I started to attract Akumas in my sleep. I can’t afford to be akumatized. So I was desperately looking for an alternative. 

“And then Marinette became Multimouse and after her identity was revealed to the public she asked about the cure and I answered. I shouldn’t have. She insisted to take the pain instead of me. I tried to convince her not to but to no avail. So I asked my kwami if it would work and she told me that it could. So then I created this link between Marinette and me. And from there on, she had the nightmares and woke up with scars on her body from wounds that weren’t hers.

“What I didn’t know back then was that the link not only transferred the pain for a lack of better word but also connected our memories. So everything that she knew I knew and vice versa. This made it even riskier for her to balance out the cure because she couldn’t get akumatized. Ever. And that put her under a lot of pressure. Add to that everything that happened at her old school. If she had stayed in Paris, Marinette would have gotten akumatized and Hawk Moth would have won,” Ladybug explained. 

“That is a lot. But it makes sense, I think. I’m not a magic user although magic has always fascinated me. I don’t like that you make a civilian suffer instead of yourself. But I understand why you made the decision and I probably would have made the same if I had to decide,” Damian said. Ladybug grimaced. “Wait does that mean Dupain-Cheng knows that I stole her necklace?” Damian added. 

“She knew before. But at least she now knows that you are sorry,” Ladybug responded. 

“I guess. Dupain-Cheng, I am sorry. I shouldn’t have stolen your necklaces and I know that just saying sorry and admitting that I was wrong isn’t enough. But I really am. The reason why I did everything that I did was because I didn’t trust you. You were too kind for your own good and I didn’t trust that. And then I invaded your privacy and found out things about you that led me to believe that you were a bad person. And even when I was finally proven wrong I insisted that you were still hiding something. 

“But then you gave me a second chance that I really didn’t deserve which I carelessly threw away. What I didn’t expect was that I started to enjoy your company. I didn’t lie when I said that I enjoyed listening to you talk back during french. But instead of embracing the friendship, you offered me, I got scared. And then when it looked as if you may be in the wrong. When there was only the slightest possibility of you doing something bad, I got scared because all my life I have been betrayed by the people that I trust and I couldn’t handle getting betrayed again. I couldn’t afford to trust someone with secrets. 

“But that doesn’t justify my actions. What I did was wrong. And I can understand that you don’t want to talk to me ever again. I understand why. I treated you badly. Really bad. And invaded your privacy. Without having a reason to do so. I shouldn’t have. Instead, I should have listened to my brother when he told me that you were a good person. I am sorry and I hope that you can eventually forgive me,” Damian said. 

“As sweet as that was, you should probably apologize to Marinette in person,” Ladybug replied before adding, “she understands why you did what you did. But she can’t forgive you. Not yet. She thinks that maybe with time she will be able to forgive you but what you did hurt her, a lot and she needs time to think” 

“I can understand that. Thank you for listening to my apology,” Damian said. 

“You’re welcome. But back to the Miraculi, I need them. Now, preferably,” Ladybug replied. 

“You still haven’t answered how you know if they are Miraculi,” Damian pointed out. 

“You touch them and then a kwami comes out. It’s rather simple, really,” Ladybug explained. 

“Well, the kwami didn’t come out when I touched them,” Damian said. 

“What, that’s not. Just show me the Miraculi,” Ladybug responded. 

“Here,” Damian said, handing her the camouflaged mouse Miraculous. Ladybug inspected it. It looked the same as it had when she had worn it. Which didn’t make sense because it should have changed the way it looked the moment Damian touched it. She put it on but no sign of Mullo. She even tried to transform, to no avail. 

“What have you done?” she asked Damian. 

“What do you mean? This is the necklace that I took from Dupain-Cheng’s backpack. You were the one who said that it was a Miraculous,” Damian responded. 

“Because it is. But usually, there is a kwami with the Miraculous,” Ladybug explained. 

“Why don’t you ask your own kwami, maybe they know something” Damian suggested. 

“That’s not that bad of an idea. Tikki spots off,” Ladybug said. A bright light engulfed her as her outfit changed to be completely brown. A red blur flew out of her earrings. “Tikki this is Damian, Damian Tikki,” Ladybug introduced them. She then took a Macaron from somewhere and gave it to the fairy-like being, Tikki. 

“Tikki do you know why Mullo isn’t here with us?” Ladybug asked Tikki as soon as she had finished eating. 

“It’s because the Miraculous is locked. It’s a self-defense mechanism. When someone who shouldn’t have a Miraculous takes it while not knowing that it is one, the Miraculous will lock itself. By doing that it protects the kwami from being abused and misused by its holder. If someone knows that they are holding a magic object the Miraculous will have the magical abilities the other person knows of but the kwami will still be locked inside of the Miraculous. If someone realized that it is a kwami during the locking process the Miraculous will break just like the peacock Miraculous did,” Tikki explained. 

“Okay, and how do I unlock the Miraculous?” Ladybug asked. 

“There is a spell in the grimoire. Unlocking the Miraculi should be rather easy because they have only been locked for a day and you are already in tune with them. If a Miraculous is locked for a longer time period, it will reflect badly on the kwami's mental health. Especially, if they have been used as magical objects. It's even worse if they have been used for evil,” Tikki said. 

“That’s good. Can you confirm that those two are Miraculi?” Ladybug asked the kwami, pointing to the Miraculous she was still holding and the one in Damian’s hand.  

Tikki flew closer to Damian, hovering over the Miraculous. Tikki opened her mouth, probably to confirm that Damian was indeed holding a Miraculous when suddenly her eyes widen.” What happened to you?” she asked him. 

“What do you mean?” Damian responded. 

“The chaos shard inside of you. Not to mention the taint of the Lazarus pit on your soul,” Tikki explained. 

“I don’t feel comfortable talking about that and I don’t see how it is important right now,” Damian said. 

“Well, it is very important. Faul destruction energy has never mixed well with pure creation magic. No wonder you were so set on hating Marinette,” Tikki responded. 

“What are you trying to say?” Ladybug asked. 

“The Lazarus pits were created by a wish of the Miraculi. They can heal almost every physical injury and even death. To keep balance, you lose part of your sanity. The chaos shards are a little different but work by the same logic. You lose a part of yourself to heal physical wounds, at least that's how they were used in Damian's case. Normally, that doesn’t lead someone to do what Damian did and I will not lie and say that the things he did were entirely the magics' fault. But the faul magic imbalanced him. Add to that that Chrysalide stopped using the Cat Miraculous which caused Ladybug’s balance to be off as well which also affected Marinette due to her connection to Ladybug. 

“So when Damian started to spend a lot of time near Marinette, the imbalance wanted to even itself out. But because he didn’t trust Marinette and kept his distance, it never could. That led to the imbalance enhancing his negative characteristics and feelings when it came to Marinette, driving him to do things he normally wouldn’t. 

“It doesn’t justify the things he did. Damian decided to do them himself. But the magic made him do things without thinking about them first and led him to distrust Marinette more than he usually would, believing things that spoke against her rather than facts,” Tikki explained. 

“That makes sense. It confused me why I stole the necklaces without collecting proof even though I had decided to do so before. Is there anything I can do about it? Because I really don’t want this imbalance to affect the people around me more than it already did,” Damian replied. 

“There is. The Macarons and other baked goods that Marinette always gives out can help you balance yourself due to the cleansing and creation energy in them. They should have fought against the imbalance n ow that you started to accept them. But they didn't change anything. Why didn’t they help you?” Tikki asked. 

“That’s probably because I didn’t eat them. I accepted the first one to find out if there is magic in the baked goods. When I found out what they did I accepted them to give them to my brother, Todd to help him as he was resurrected with the Lazarus pits,” Damian explained. 

“Huh, okay. Well, you should probably start to accept the Macarons and eat them yourself if you want to balance yourself,” Ladybug suggested. 

“But then I won’t have any for Todd and he really needs them,” Damian argued. 

“You can always take two. I’m sure Marinette wouldn’t mind,” Ladybug said. 

“How would you, ah right, magical link. Thank you. And again, I really am sorry. Even if the magic drove me towards it, I made the decisions myself. It was wrong and I regret it,” Damian replied. 

“Okay. I will take the Miraculi with me and you can give the necklace back to Marinette tomorrow during the gala. You will explain to her why you did what you did and apologize again. This is a conversation the two of you need to have. I can’t promise you that she will forgive you but she will hear you out. The fact that you were imbalanced by the magic might help your case but in the end it’s not my decision to make. I hope that the next time we see each other will be under better circumstances,” Ladybug said before opening a portal and leaving. Damian was left alone in his room, planning on how to properly apologize to Marinette. 

A few minutes later, Tim burst into Damian’s room, “Guess what I just found out?” 

“What?” Damian asked, quickly putting away the necklace he had been playing with. 

“Marinette is MDC,” Tim said.

“Didn’t you promise not to tell anyone else?” Damian asked. 

“I did but you would have found out anyway. Besides, you two are friends, aren’t you? I’m sure she wouldn’t mind,” Tim replied. 

“If you say so,” Damian said. 

“You don’t look surprised,” Tim noted, cocking his head and eyeing him warily. 

“I’m not,” Damian affirmed, suppressing a smirk. 

“So you knew,” Tim concluded. 

“I did,” Damian responded. 

“How?” Tim asked. 

“That’s for me to know and you to never find out,” Damian answered. And he meant it. He really hoped that his brother would never find out just how big Damian had messed up. He would understand if Dupain-Cheng told him about it. The two of them were friends after all. But Damian himself would never bring this up ever again.

Chapter Text

“Tikki what do I do? Do I forgive him? He was influenced by magic after all. And that was partially my fault too. If it were any other person he wouldn’t have acted that way. Sure he wouldn’t have been nice to them but still,” Marinette debated. 

“He was influenced by magic, yes. But he wasn’t imbalanced because of you. And your personal imbalance wasn’t caused by yourself either. That is entirely to blame on Chat Noir. And the imbalance didn’t make Damian do things he usually wouldn’t have, you have to remember that. It made him jump to conclusions and act on them much faster than he usually would have. It made him not question things he normally would have. Add to that the magic protecting your identity and his usual mistrust which made him come to the wrong conclusions. 

“The situation is very complex. And it is your decision whether you want to forgive him or not. He didn’t treat you like he should have and even without the magic influencing, he wouldn’t have. Things wouldn’t have been as bad as they were but he still would have treated you badly. It is okay for you to feel betrayed and not want to talk to him. 

“I would advise you to hear him out today and if you think that his apology was sincere, which I believe it was judging from what he told you as Ladybug, you can think about forgiving him. You do not have to forgive him right away and I would recommend not doing so. He made mistakes and he is to be held accountable for them. If you see that he changes, naturally and not just because of the imbalance being evened out, then you should consider forgiving him. At the end of the day, it is your decision and I trust that you will make the right one for yourself. Remember, you do not have to forgive everyone, you come first in this case,” Tikki stated. 

“I guess you’re right. Thanks, Tikki,” Marinette said. 

“Of course. I still don’t understand why you didn’t sue him for theft,” Tikki replied, muttering the last part under her breath. 

“I didn’t because it wouldn’t have used anything. First of all, I would have to prove that it actually was him first which would have taken a lot longer than I would have liked. I couldn’t just leave the Miraculi with someone I don’t trust for that long, now could I? Second of all, he wouldn’t have learned from it. Sure, he probably would have had to pay me money or something as compensation but people like him have more than enough money. And maybe his father or Tim would have lectured him but at the end of the day, he wouldn’t have learned. A conversation about what he did wrong evaluating all the different factors and ensuring that he wouldn’t do it again seemed more plausible to me,” Marinette reasoned. 

“That does make a lot of sense. Also, Trixx and Mullo wanted me to tell you that they are already better. They would like to stay here for the evening to spend time with the other Kwami. They should be back to normal by tomorrow morning,” Tikki informed Marinette. 

“That’s good to hear,” Marinette replied. Turning to Wayzz she then added, “I trust you to ensure that the others behave. I know that they can be chaotic sometimes, especially Trixx and Xuppu. And they are allowed to have a little fun but I would prefer if my apartment didn’t look as if a bomb had just exploded when I return” 

“Of course, guardian,” Wayzz responded. 

“Thank you, again. I will see you all in a few hours, please listen to Wayzz and don’t have too much fun,” Marinette called out before exiting her apartment and making her way to the gala. 

After arriving at the gala without any of the Paparazzi noticing her, Marinette tried to find Tim. She knew that she had to talk to Damian eventually but she would rather chat with Tim first. She found him at the buffet with a flute of Champagne in his hand. “Isn’t the MLDA in the United States 21?” Marinette teased. 

“It is. However, I wouldn’t be able to go through this without at least a bit of alcohol. I usually don’t drink more than a glass or two anyway. Besides, I’m almost twenty-one anyway what difference do a few months make? But let's not talk about that. How have you been?” Tim replied. 

“I’ve been good. I found out that the not-so-nice guy from my school is your brother, which by the way, why didn’t you tell me? But otherwise, everything is alright. I had a few problems with one or two misunderstandings but that should be mostly sorted out by the end of the night. How have you been?” Marinette answered.

“I’m good as well. I finally figured out the secret identity of my favourite designer last night, can you believe that? In hindsight, I should have realized sooner but well” They continued to talk for a while until Tim had to leave in order to talk to some other socialite he really didn’t want to talk to but ultimately had to. 

As soon as he was gone, Damian approached Marinette. “Good evening. I’m assuming that you are aware of,” he paused for a moment, “everything. I would like to formally apologize to you. And I’m not doing this because,” another pause, “she told me to but because I want to. If you would follow me to a more quiet area” 

Without waiting for her, Damian walked away. Marinette quickly followed him. After a few minutes, they ended up in what looked like a living room. Damian sat down on a couch and gestured for Marinette to do the same thing. 

“What I did was completely wrong and there is no explanation for the way that I treated you let alone the things that I did. It was wrong. I judged you without knowing you, invaded your privacy, pretended to be sorry even though I wasn’t, stole from you and forced you to reveal things that you wanted to keep a secret. My behavior was awful and I shouldn’t have treated you the way that I did. I understand that my behavior hurt you, a lot. I am sorry. I hope that you can eventually forgive me but I understand if you can’t,” Damian apologized. 

“Okay. Thank you for apologizing. The way you treated me at the beginning hurt a lot. Especially, because I didn’t do anything wrong. Sure, I kept secrets but so do you and everyone else. People are entitled to their secrets. And I know that you are scared of people keeping things from you but you need to understand that you don’t need to know everything about a person. The fact that you pretended to be my friend hurt me a lot too. Because I was ready to forgive you and you betrayed that. I already gave you a second chance and you threw that away. And then you stole my necklaces. I know that your intention was good and that you wanted to give them back as soon as you realized but it still hurt. 

“However, I am aware that there were certain factors that neither of us could control that influenced your decisions. They do not justify them but I am more willing to accept your apology because of them. I know that you are sincere about this and truly feel bad and guilty about the way you treated me. And that’s why I will accept your apology. However, I will not forgive you. Not yet. Maybe never. What you did hurt me a lot and I need to see that you actually learned and changed. I will give you a third chance but do not expect a fourth,” Marinette responded. 

“I understand that. I made you out to be Loki while you were Sigyn all along. Thank you for giving me a third chance, I will not throw this one away,” Damian said. 

“Don’t you mean Apate?” Marinette teased. “I’m kidding, I understand how you came to that conclusion. And while I don’t condone the way you acted, I know why you did it. And between the two of us you definitely have more resemblance to Loki than I do” 

Damian was about to protest when he considered her point. Loki was the god of mischief. And while Damian didn’t consider himself to be mischievous, some other trait of Loki’s definitely fitted. Loki usually helped Odin and Thor, sometimes causing difficulties along the way. That was definitely something he did as Robin. And Damian would be lying if he said that he never enjoyed pulling a trick on one of his brothers. So yes, maybe Dupain-Cheng was right about him having more similarities with Loki than she did. 

Marinette took Damian’s silence as a sign that he agreed with her, smirking in triumph. Damian rolled his eyes, “Tt. Whatever” 

Marinette just laughed in response. “Okay now that we have that sorted out, where is my necklace?” she asked. 

“Here,” Damian replied, giving it to her. 

“Thanks,” Marinette responded. 

“There is nothing to be thankful for. It is yours. Me giving it back to you is expected after what I did,” Damian insisted. 

“I know, it’s just etiquette,” Marinette said. 

“I am well aware of that. By the way, how are the kwami?” Damian asked. 

“They are better. It would have been a lot worse if they had been locked up in there for longer. It’s nothing worse than a light fever, really,” Marinette assured. 

“That is good to hear. I also wanted to ask you to deliver a message to Ladybug. I know that she isn’t professionally trained. I am. I could, if she wanted to, train her once a week for a few hours in hand-to-hand combat,” Damian offered. 

“That sounds like a good idea, actually. It would help her a lot. And while her suit is pretty much indestructible, professional training would definitely help her. When do you have time?” Marinette asked. 

“Saturdays and Sundays. My week is pretty busy due to the clubs that I attend. And I have therapy on Wednesdays. Father insisted that all of us go from a young age on as adoption or in my case suddenly living in a different country with a different culture together with people you do not know is traumatizing,” Damian said. 

Marinette nodded, “That works for her as well. How about 10 am our time? She would just teleport here although it would be good to know where exactly so she doesn’t end up in the kitchen. There is a reason why most superheroes don’t know about the situation”

“That sounds good and she can just teleport into my room. We sometimes eat breakfast a little late on weekends so she might have to wait five to ten minutes occasionally. She could also come later if she prefers that. Otherwise, she could just wait in my room for those few minutes. And what reason are you talking about? I know the reasons Ladybug gave me but you seem to be implying something else,” Damian pointed out. 

“She will probably just wait. You mentioned having a dog, didn’t you? Ladybug would probably come early just to pet him, she loves animals. And you are right. There was a hero that found out about the Paris situation once - Nightrunner. He is a Parisian hero after all. He wasn’t there at the beginning because he was on a mission in a different part of France. When he returned to Paris, he wasn’t aware that he had to hide his emotions and got akumatized. It was very hard for the heroes to fight him and they almost lost. After that, he agreed to move out of Paris so that he could never get akumatized again,” Marinette explained. 

“Nightwing told me about him once. But why didn’t he inform Batman of the situation?” Damian asked. 

“Because by the time that he returned from his mission, the Justice League, Green Lantern specifically, had already written us off as a joke. He also saw the problem more trained superheroes and vigilantes, let alone metas would cause,” Marinette explained. 

“That makes sense,” Damian agreed. 

As the gala went on, the two continued to talk. At first about superheroes and their own experiences, then about martial arts and why Marinette had joined the club, apparently it was illegal in Paris as the sport was deemed too dangerous and the government didn’t want trained civilians to be akumatized, and lastly about art. Damian ended up showing her his art room and a few of his drawings. Marinette then told him about some of her designs and where she had hidden her signature. Damian started laughing as he realized that she signed everything with her first name and not just her initials. Had his brother looked at one of her designs more closely, he would have figured out her identity immediately. Damian was looking forward to pointing them out to him. 

Chapter Text

When Ladybug teleported to Damian’s room the Saturday after the winter break, Damian wasn’t in his room. She knew that he had told her that he might be a little late due to his family eating breakfast together but she didn’t expect him to be late the very first time she was there. 

She didn’t mind too much. It gave her time to take in his room and play with Titus who was lying on the bed. As soon as the portal closed, the Great Dane jumped off of the bed and approached her. After observing Ladybug for a while, he sat down in front of her and let her pet him. 

That’s how Damian found the two when he walked into the room fifteen minutes later. “Sorry that it took so long, Drake for once slept in so we all had to wait for him to wake up,” Damian apologized. 

“It’s fine. I don’t mind, really. Titus is great company,” Ladybug assured him. 

“Okay. Can you open a portal to the training room beneath? That way we won’t have to walk there and the chance of someone seeing us is smaller,” Damian asked. 

“Sure,” Ladybug agreed. She then pulled a pair of glasses out of her yo-yo and put them on. “Kaalki, let’s gallop,” she called out. “Voyage,” the superheroine, now donning a new costume said, opening a blue portal in front of them. Ladybug then entered the portal, and Damian followed shortly afterward. 

The two of them spend the next hour assessing Ladybug’s abilities before Damian started to train her in the fields she lacked. He started with the basics, the things that would help her in Paris. They could focus on other things she might need in different battles later. For now, she needed to learn how to take down the Akumas more efficiently. Luckily, Amoks were no longer a problem of hers. 

“By the way, why did you call Marinette Apate?” Ladybug suddenly asked. 

Damian flinched slightly but didn’t stop his attack. “I did a background check on her. It wasn’t as thorough as it should have been and left me with information that I interpreted falsely. I foolishly assumed that her classmate Lila Rossi was being bullied by her and not vice versa. I thought that Dupain-Cheng was utilizing her magic to manipulate her classmates and that Rossi freed them from her manipulation,” Damian admitted. 

“Huh. I didn’t expect that. I suppose it makes sense. Everyone believed Lila’s lies so the pictures that they painted must have reflected that,” Ladybug said. 

“It was still wrong of me. I didn’t give her the benefit of the doubt,” Damian insisted. 

“What’s done is done. The only thing you can change is the future, make sure to never do those things again. It’s okay to not trust people immediately and question their motivations but don’t go around accusing people of things you barely have proof for,” Ladybug advised. 

“You’re right. And normally, I do that. But with Aletheia it was different. I suppose the magic is partly to blame for that,” Damian replied. 

“Aletheia?” Ladybug asked. 

“She is the greek goddess of truth and kindness. The opposite of Apate. After I found out the truth about Dupain-Cheng, I needed something else to call her because, in my head, I still called her Apate even if I had stopped calling her that out loud. It’s fitting and I can’t call her Sigyn anymore,” Damian explained. 

“Why can’t you call her Sigyn anymore?” Ladybug asked. 

“Aletheia compared me to Loki,” Damian said as if that explained it. Ladybug looked at him questioningly. “Sigyn was Loki’s wife. If she called me Loki while I called her Sigyn, people might assume that we are in a romantic relationship,” Damian clarified. 

“I suppose that makes sense. Marinette wouldn’t have called you that, she prefers nicknames that have to do something with the name of that person. But she will probably start to call you Loki just to tease you,” Ladybug said. 

“That does sound like her. I haven’t known her for that long but from what I know from personal experience and what Drake told me, she is a kind soul but can be quite the tease,” Damian agreed. 

“Yeah. I know that she considered you a friend before the whole betrayal thing and that you had started to open up to her a little as well but where do you stand now?” Ladybug asked. 

“Why are you asking all those questions? Couldn’t you just ask Dupain-Cheng? You share your memories with her after all,” Damian responded. 

“I mean I could do that, but that would only give me her perspective. Besides, there is nothing else we could talk about without me giving out hints about my identity. And while I trust you can keep a secret, I know that your loyalty lies with Batman and I can’t trust that,” Ladybug said. 

“I suppose you have a point. To answer your question, I consider Dupain-Cheng a friend. She is one of the kindest and most forgiving people I know. She gave me a third chance even though I barely deserved a second one,” Damian said. 

Ladybug was about to respond when someone knocked on the door, “Damian why did you lock yourself in there? And who are you talking to?” Tim asked. 

“That’s my brother. You should probably teleport back into my room. I’ll join you as fast as I can,” Damian told Ladybug. 

“Of course. Am I allowed to give Titus treats?” Ladybug asked. 

“Sure,” Damian responded. He then walked to the door. “I made a phone call. Now, why are you here? Don’t you normally have other things to do at this time of the day?” Damian asked Tim through the door. 

“Normally, yes. But Jason just called. He was babysitting Lian and she ate the macaron we left for him. Jason wants to know if we could get him more,” Tim answered. 

“I’m assuming he did not eat any of the baked goods before?” Damian asked. 

“No, he threw all of them away. I already told him that they aren’t poisonous and what they do and now he wants more. He made fun of us for thinking that he would just eat food that was left in his apartment,” Tim said. 

“It would be quite foolish to do so. But why did you feel the need to talk to me about it?” Damian responded. 

“I know, right? But to be fair, I was sleep deprived and you were all messed up because of the whole Marinette situation. And to answer your question, mostly to ask you whether you think Marinette would make a special batch of Macarons for Jason. She would definitely agree if I asked her, that’s just how she is. But I don’t know if I can expect that from her so I decided to ask you what you think I should do. You guys are friends, right?” Tim asked. 

“I suppose you’re right. She would definitely agree if you asked her. You should explain the situation to her. If you feel bad about requesting baked goods for free, you could always offer to pay her for the effort. Not that she needs the money or would accept it but you should still show that you don’t take her kindness for granted,” Damian advised. 

“Thanks, I will do that. Who were you on a call with, by the way?” Tim asked. 

“Dupain-Cheng,” Damian answered. He couldn’t say that he was secretly training a superheroine from a different continent, now could he? 

“Huh. I’ll let you get back to training then,” Tim said before leaving.

Damian put the training equipment away before he walked to his room. “I apologize for it taking that long. There was a problem with my other brother, the one with the magical imbalance. He didn’t eat the baked goods because we didn’t tell him why we left them there and now that he knows he wants more,” Damian greeted Ladybug who was currently playing with Titus who had definitely taken a liking to her. 

“It’s fine. I’m assuming that this has to do with Tim asking Marinette to make him a set of Macarons with a lot of cleansing magic. And I didn’t mind waiting, Titus is good company,” Ladybug responded. 

“If you say so. I think we should end the lesson today. You’re a quick learner which should make everything easier. Until next week,” Damian said. 

“Yeah. Thanks for helping me, again,” Ladybug replied. She then opened another portal, muttering something about sugar cubes, before leaving. The comment reminded Damian of something but he couldn’t quite place what his brain wanted to tell him. He supposed that it had something to do with magic.

Chapter Text

Two weeks had passed since Damian started to train Ladybug and she had already started showing improvement. She would need many more lessons but the things Damian had taught her already made fighting the Akumas easier. 

Damian’s and Marinette’s relationship had improved as well. After Damian had told Ladybug that he saw Marinette as a friend, the latter approached him in school to tell him that she saw him as a friend as well. Their friendship had made school, both the lessons and extracurricular activities, more bearable and even fun for both of them. They started to talk more about their shared interest and Damian found that talking to someone without having to be scared of them figuring out his secret identity was a lot easier. 

But now that they weren’t glaring at each other anymore and were seen talking during the breaks, the teachers started to pair them for group projects more often. It made sense. Both were at the top of their classes. Damian due to his training in the League of Assassins and Marinette due to a lot of free time from her previous loss of friends and the harder curriculum in France.

As a result, both of them were currently sitting in Damian’s room and working on a group project for their shared Health class. Titus wasn’t there due to a vet appointment which upset Marinette. She had grown quite attached to the dog during her time of waiting for Damian before their weekly training. They had spent about five hours training the previous day. Titus had waited with her for Damian to finish eating breakfast back then. 

“Our task is to re-read the texts about basic first aid and further inform ourselves about it. Afterward, we have to create a poster with the information we gathered. We also have to be able to demonstrate first aid skills,” Damian summarized their task. 

“I already did some research during the class after I finished reading the texts and writing down the most important things. I assume you did the same?” Marinette asked. 

“I did,” Damian confirmed. 

“Okay then let’s start with the poster. Afterward, we can practice first aid if you want to. But I don’t think that’ll be necessary as I took a first aid course back in Paris and you probably have to deal with a lot of injuries due to your nighttime activities,” Marinette said. 

“That sounds plausible,” Damian replied. 

After they finished the poster, Marinette suggested they bake some Macarons. Damian said that he would help her as long as she could convince Alfred that allowing them in the kitchen was a good idea. Alfred had agreed after Marinette had informed him about the bakery her parents owned in Paris and she had assured him that she knew what she was doing.  

“Baking is a lot easier if you have someone telling you what to do,” Damian stated. 

“That’s probably because you’re used to following orders with precision if you deem them capable of the task. Do you think I should add magic to them?” Marinette asked. 

“I guess you're right and I would appreciate that. Would it be possible to add more cleansing magic to this patch? That would balance both me and Todd out faster, correct?” Damian responded. 

“It would. You would just have to make sure that no one that is already balanced eats too much of them. Because that would imbalance them in the same way that Ladybug and I are unbalanced which is a lot harder for me to fix,” Marinette said. 

“Your connection to Ladybug is the reason why are you able to perform this kind of magic, right?” Damian asked. 

“Yes. Balance must be maintained which means that I get both negative and positive side effects from Ladybug,” Marinette lied. 

“That makes sense. And you do not have to worry about other people eating them. Father doesn’t like sweets. Neither do Alfred or Drake,” Damian said. 

“I do like sweets if they’re coffee-flavored,” Tim interrupted. 

“Were you listening the entire time?” Marinette asked. 

“Nope, I just came here. I heard your voice so I came to say hi,” Tim replied. 

“Okay. Well, hello to you too,” Marinette said. 

“Weren’t you here yesterday already? I didn't know you were so close that you now spend every free minute together,” Tim asked, making Marinette freeze. Had Tim figured out her secret identity? He couldn’t have, right? The magic would prevent that from happening. 

“I already told you that I was just calling her while I practiced. Bluetooth headphones are rather useful for things like that,” Damian responded in Marinette's place. So Tim didn’t know. Damian had told her that he explained him talking with someone during their practice as him calling Marinette. 

“Right. I’m glad that you two made up, by the way. I really thought you two would hate each other forever. Well, Marinette never really hated Damian but you stop being nice to someone eventually when all they do is insult you,” Tim said. 

“Of course. His apology was so sweet. He even bought me flowers, didn’t you, Loki?” Marinette asked. 

Damian gritted his teeth, both at the reminder of his previous behaviour and the nickname she had given him for the sole purpose of annoying him. “Of course, Aletheia,” he replied. 

“Wait, you two have nicknames for each other? I thought you didn’t do nicknames, Dames?” Tim asked. 

“I usually don’t. But I used to call Dupain-Cheng Apate out of spite. The habit stuck,” Damian answered. 

“That does make sense. But why are you calling him Loki?” Tim asked Marinette. 

“When Damian apologized he told me that he saw me as Loki while I was Sigyn all along. After that, I compared him to Loki and he stopped calling me Sigyn because she was Loki’s wife and Damian feared that people might think that we are in a romantic relationship if we called each other that. So I call him Loki to make him realize how trivial that is,” Marinette explained. 

Tim furrowed his brows but didn’t say anything. “The Macarons should be finished. Drake, you can eat one if you want to. The rest are for me and Todd,” Damian said. 

“Sure. I’ll see you next Wednesday I guess. You too have fun,” Tim responded. He then left the room. 

“He was acting weird, right?” Marinette asked. 

“Definitely. I will inform you if I find out the reason for his sudden change in behaviour as soon as I find out,” Damian answered. 

“Thanks. Now, what do you think about your first time making Macarons?” Marinette asked. 

Chapter Text

When Damian didn’t come to school on Monday, Marinette asked herself if he was okay. On Tuesday, she got anxious. On Wednesday, she got scared. “Is Damian alright?” was the first thing Marinette asked Tim when he visited the coffee shop that Wednesday. 

“Yeah, he just had to stay at home for a while. Why didn’t you ask him, I thought you had his number?” Tim asked. 

She had Damian’s number. And she had texted him. She had done so on Monday already. But he had simply told her that he was alright and that she shouldn’t worry about it. She knew that he was lying. 

“I did but he sometimes pretends that everything is fine even though it isn’t,” Marinette explained. 

“That does sound like Damian. But I promise you that he’s fine. He should be back next week,” Tim reassured her. 

When it was time for Ladybug to train with Damian, she immediately noticed that he slightly favored his right side. He was injured. From patrol, probably. He was a vigilante, after all. Ladybug sometimes forgot about that. 

She was about to ask him if he was alright when Damian raised his hand in a shushing gesture. “Don’t. I know that you mean well but I’m fine, really,” he said. 

“If you say so. I won’t ask further. But don’t expect the same from Marinette,” Ladybug responded. Damian just glared at her. 

“What happened,” Marinette asked Damian as soon as he walked into the Art room on Monday. 

“The lesson is about to start,” Damian tried to avoid her question. 

“Fine. Tell me after the lesson. Twenty minutes should be enough and we have the class afterward together anyway so you can just tell me on the way there,” Marinette said. 

“Tt, I don’t have to tell you anything” Damian replied, rolling his eyes. The small smile on his face told Marinette that he would tell her anyway. 

“Okay now tell me. What happened?” Marinette asked. 

“I got injured during my," a small pause, "extracurricular activities,” Damian said. 

“Extracurricular activities, so that’s what you call it now? What happened that made you stay at home for an entire week?” Marinette responded. 

“It’s nothing. I could have gone back on Wednesday but Alfred insisted I stay home to heal properly,” Damian replied. 

“I can’t help but notice that you’re evading my questions. Why do you try to hide what happened so badly?” Marinette asked. 

“I’m not hiding it. It is simply not important,” Damian insisted. 

“I don’t believe you. You’re trying to hide something. And I know most of your secrets so there is no reason for you to hide what happened. Except if what happened would worry me. That means you either got stabbed or shot or something along those lines. But seeing as you wear Kevlar, the former would require a lot of force. You got shot,” Marinette concluded. 

“I sometimes forget just how smart you are,” Damian said.

“So I was right,” Marinette responded, smiling in victory. Suddenly her face fell as she realized what that meant, “Wait, you got shot. Are you okay? You shouldn’t be at school, should you? Oh gosh, you got shot” 

“And that’s exactly why I didn’t tell you,” Damian said. "And be quiet. I do not want other students eavesdropping and finding out things they shouldn't," he added. 

“You’re my friend. Of course, I’m worried. I’d be a pretty bad friend if I wasn’t,” Marinette responded, a little quieter. 

“I know and I’m thankful to have you as a friend. But if you want to stay friends with me and Drake you should probably get used to it. Getting hurt is part of the job,” Damian said. 

“But it shouldn’t. Ladybug never gets hurt like that,” Marinette insisted. 

“Because she has a cure that fixes all the injuries. You should know that you are who balances it out after all,” Damian replied. 

“The cure is different. The only injuries I get are the ones of the civilians involved in them. Ladybug’s suit is magic so an average gun and even most of the ones the Akumas use have no effect on her,” Marinette argued. 

“She has a magic suit then. That doesn’t change anything though. Not everyone has a magic suit,” Damian responded. 

“That’s it. You just need a magic suit,” Marinette said. 

“What? Do you really think Ladybug would just give me a Miraculous?” Damian asked. 

“She would if she thought that she could trust you,” Marinette insisted. 

“But she doesn’t,” Damian said. 

“You don’t know that,” Marinette replied. 

“Even if she would, it would change my suit. Father would notice. Drake too and maybe Todd. I would have a lot of explaining to do,” Damian argued. 

“Not if you cast an illusion. Just like I do when I’m gone during the attacks,” Marinette said. 

“Why do you have to do that? I don’t think you ever explained,” Damian asked. 

“Well, firstly, people would notice when multiple scars suddenly appeared on my body. Additionally, I feel the entire physical pain as soon as Ladybug’s transformation drops. Even I can’t mask that pain sometimes. And this pain sometimes comes with the memories of prior attacks. I already told you that I relive every death in my sleep. And usually, that’s it. I don’t remember the deaths that I didn’t directly see. But sometimes the pain triggers some of the memories I forgot. Only the ones that are very similar or identical but that's still a lot,” Marinette explained. 

“That makes sense. I know that you wanted to take the pain instead of Ladybug and I know why you made that decision but you shouldn’t have to go through that. Just remember that, please. It’s not your, nor Ladybug’s fault. It’s Papillion’s and now Chrysalide’s. Only theirs,” Damian said. 

“Thanks. But back to what we were talking about. I could totally teach you how to make the suit appear like yours and how to hide the Miraculous. And I don’t need the fox Miraculous during the night anyway. I would just give it to you every day after school and you would give it back to me the next morning in school. Ladybug’s fine with it,” Marinette responded. 

“I would love to, really. I am very fascinated by magic. But father doesn’t tolerate magic in Gotham. I know that you do good so I won’t tell him but you can’t ask me to betray my father's ideals,” Damian stated.

“What Batman doesn’t know won’t hurt him. Besides, you would use it to do good as well. You don’t even have to use your powers. Just wear the suit so you don’t get hurt and I can sleep knowing that my friend is safe,” Marinette argued. 

“Tt. Fine. I’ll consider your offer,” Damian said. 

At the end of the day, Damian approached Marinette and asked her to teach him how to cast an Illusion that made the magic suit look like his Robin one. Marinette, of course, agreed. Two weeks later, Marinette and Damian would be seen talking and exchanging a small box of what looked like Macarons to everyone else, at the beginning and end of every school day.

Chapter Text

A few weeks before Damian’s birthday, Tim approached him and asked him whether he wanted to invite Marinette to his birthday party. 

“Why would I invite Dupain-Cheng?” Damian asked. 

“You spend more time with her than with any of us. In and out of school,” Tim insisted. 

“We do not,” Damian protested. 

“Yes, you do. Or have you forgotten that you spend several hours with her each Saturday or Sunday depending on the week. Not even Jon is allowed to be present during your personal training time. And that doesn't even include lessons or extracurricular activities,” Tim argued. 

“When I call her, we talk about our joined lessons, there is a difference,” Damian insisted. 

“Do you really think I don’t notice when you suddenly use different training equipment? Especially, if you use more of the equipment. I know that you are training her. I don’t know why but there is no point in denying it. You can stop trying to hide it and just invite her normally,” Tim said. 

“Tt. I guess you are right. And to answer your question, she is in the mixed martial arts club of the school and I offered to teach her a few things. But I will ask her,” Damian agreed. He had to talk with Dupain-Cheng about this development later, Damian noted. 

Marinette, of course, agreed. And Damian wasn’t as upset about it as he pretended to be. He actually did enjoy spending time with her. She had grown on him over the past months. 

Damian’s birthday fell on a Saturday that year which meant that they celebrated on the same day. It also meant that Dick would be there. Jason was there as well although he didn’t spend much time with the family and instead read in the library. But it was the thought that counted.

Jon together with his family was visiting too. They arrived at around 2 pm, one hour before Marinette would be there. That gave them time to talk about their superhero slash vigilante lives freely before they had to pretend to be average citizens for the rest of the day. In reality, they wouldn’t have to because Marinette knew their identities but they didn’t know that, and Marinette and Damian had agreed that it was safer to keep Marinette’s connection to Ladybug secret. 

Marinette arrived on time, ringing the bell. Damian quickly stood up from where he sat on the couch playing video games with Jon to greet her. “Is that your new friend you told me about? The one you hated at first?” Jon asked. 

“It is. She is too nice to be genuine about it. But in her case she really is just that kind, just like you,” Damian replied. He then made his way to the door, where Alfred was already greeting Marinette. 

“Aletheia, it’s good to see you,” he greeted her. 

“I thought her name was Marinette,” someone muttered in the background. 

“You really need to stop calling me that, people might think that it’s my real name. But it’s good to see you too. Happy birthday, by the way,” Marinette responded. She then turned to the others, “Hello, it’s nice to meet you. My name is Marinette Dupain-Cheng and I’m one of Damian’s friends from school. He gave me the nickname Aletheia a while ago,” she told them. 

“It’s nice to meet you, too. Tim told me a lot about you. Damian not so much but he doesn’t really talk to anyone besides Jon about personal things,” Dick replied. 

“Hello, I’m Jon, Damian’s best friend. He probably mentioned me at some point. He talks about you a lot. Especially, back when he still hated you,” Jon said. 

“I heard a lot about you from both Damian and Tim but it’s nice to finally meet you in person,” Marinette responded, addressing Damian’s family. “Also, before I forget it. Here’s your present,” Marinette held out a beautifully packed packet, “I also brought flowers,” she held out a bouquet that looked oddly familiar to Damian, “And I baked Macarons and Corniottes because I know that they’re your favorite,” she told Damian. 

“Uhm, Marinette. You do know what those flowers symbolize, right?” Tim who had taken the flowers to put them into a vase asked. 

“Of course. They symbolize friendship, adoration, graciousness, protection, confidence, apology, and in the case of the Marigolds the light inside of you,” Marinette responded, a smirk making its way on her face. 

That was when Damian realized why the flowers had looked familiar. He glared at Marinette who smiled even brother at his reaction. “It is an inside joke of sorts. When I apologized to Dupain-Cheng, I decided to gift her flowers. But because of my lack of knowledge of the language of flowers I picked ones that all had a negative meaning attached to them as well. It made my apology come off as half-hearted,” Damian explained. 

“Right, she told me about that. Well, I’ll probably go back to Conner. Feel free to come by later,” Tim said before leaving the living room. 

“It’s good to see you. Marinette, was it? I’m glad that Damian made another friend besides Jon. I’m sorry for the way Damian treated you in the past,” Bruce, who had finally come back from his discussion with Clark, greeted Marinette who was watching Dick and Damian play Ultra Mecha Strike III. 

“Hello. It’s good to see you as well. And it’s fine. Damian has been a good friend. He just had to realize that not everyone is secretly trying to betray him first,” Marinette responded. 

Damian scoffed, “Tt. You were acting suspiciously. It is called self-preservation” 

“Of course. The last stunt you pulled, especially,” Marinette replied. 

“What I did was wrong and is not justifiable. I regret it and I am very sorry for it,” Damian said, suddenly very serious in contrast to the previous playful tone. 

“It’s alright. I understand why you did it. That doesn’t mean that it wasn’t wrong because it was. But you apologized and I know that you meant it,” Marinette responded. The I haven’t forgiven you yet but I can see that you’re trying to make up for your mistakes went unsaid. 

“Well, I’ll leave you to it. Please let Marinette play as well. She probably enjoys the game just as much as you do,” Bruce said, already turning to the door. 

“Wait. Before you go, there is a riddle that I’ve been trying to solve. Damian has told me that you’re very good at solving them. Also, they don’t let me play with them because I’m too good at the game,” Marinette responded. 

“I do enjoy solving riddles. But maybe you should ask Tim, I’ve been told that he is a better detective than me,” Bruce replied. 

“That is not an option. He already knows certain things that make it impossible for him to solve it. So do Dupain-Cheng and me,” Damian said. 

“Hm, fine. I’ll try my best,” Bruce responded. 

“Okay. There are four people who are important in this riddle, to make it simple we will call them 1, 2, A, and B. And the riddle consists of two parts. Damian already solved the first part but later learned certain things about it that now stop him from solving the second part. The first part could be important for solving the second part though,” Marinette said. 

"That sounds interesting. I've never heard of a riddle that gets unsolvable as soon as you find out too much about it. Do tell me about it," Bruce responded. 

“Okay. 1 has a device that allows them to freeze people. They can do that from anywhere in the world as long as no one besides 2 watches them. They are usually alone for the entire time that person is frozen. Who the frozen person is is not important for the riddle but in the first part of the riddle, they are people from all age groups, including babies. In the second half, they are only adults.

“2 has a device that gives them the ability to create a clone of the frozen person. 1 and 2 are the evil people in this riddle. They work together and know who the other is. A and B are the heroes in this scenario. At least in the first part. 1 wants the devices of A and B. A and B do not want to give up their devices. Together they free the frozen people and delete the clone,” Marinette explained. 

“The clone isn’t a real clone, it’s just a bunch of magic that looks like the frozen person and cannot think and only follows the orders of 2 so clone is probably the wrong term,” Damian added. 

“That too. In the first part of the riddle A and B considered 1 to be their villain but threw the thought away because 1 got frozen. It turned out that 2 used 1’s device to do so. Damian figured that part out. 

“In part two of the riddle, A and B confronted 1 and 2 and took their devices. But B betrayed A and stole 1’s device and is now freezing people. 1 and 2 are out of the picture, their identities are known. B is only freezing adults and only in the afternoon whereas 1 had a very free schedule and attacked throughout the day. The goal of the riddle is to figure out who B is,” Marinette said. 

“Alright. Do you have any more information about them? Like maybe their age or interests. You said that A and B were partners so A probably knows a few things about B that could help them figure out who B is,” Bruce responded. 

“1 and 2 were adults. A is a teenager and B should be around the same age. B is in love with A. Also, B’s goal is another device A keeps but doesn’t bring to the fights,” Marinette answered. 

“B also defended 1 a lot when A and B suspected 1 first. Additionally, B named themselves after 1. We suspected that B was 1’s protege of sorts,” Damian added. 

“That is not a lot of information. My best bet would have been the protege as well but I can’t tell you more right now. But I promise you that I will think about it as soon as I have the time to do so. If you remember any more clues, please tell me. I will inform Damian should I find out more. But I really have to leave now. And please let Marinette play with you. Training with someone that is better than you helps to improve better than training with someone with your capabilities does,” Bruce said. 

“Thank you for helping, we greatly appreciate it,” Marinette responded. 

“So you decided that Bruce is going to solve the problem for us,” Tim stated. 

“Father isn’t called the world's greatest detective for no reason. If someone can solve the riddle, then it’s him,” Damian replied. 

“I thought Red Robin was the world's greatest detective? Bruce is way too old to be him. The only Gotham vigilante who is in his age range is Batman himself,” Marinette said and Damian quickly realized his mistake and the reason why his brothers had glared at him a few seconds prior. 

“It’s just an inside joke in our family, don’t worry about it. But I’m pretty confident that he can solve it. Do you think you could inform A about what he figures out about B?” Tim told Marinette. 

“I did it before, I can do it again. Thanks for helping me out with this, it means a lot,” Marinette replied. 

“What was that all about?” Dick asked. 

“I’m confused as well,” Conner agreed. 

“Don’t worry about it. It’s better if you don’t know what we’re talking about. It gives you the chance to figure out things about B. If you knew, you wouldn’t be able to anymore,” Marinette said. 

Before any of the two could respond, Damian spoke up, “Aletheia, have you met Titus yet? He wasn’t here when you visited and you told me that you liked dogs” 

Marinette instantly began to smile, “I would love to,” she said. Shortly after, the Great Dane followed Damian into the room and instantly made his way to Marinette. He sat down in front of her and started to lick her hand. Tim gave Damian a knowing look, referencing their earlier conversation where he had suggested that Damian was secretly training Marinette.  

“You cannot tell me that you have never met Titus before. He treats you more like family than me and I’ve known him for multiple years,” Dick said.

“Well, I never met him before. I guess animals just like me,” Marinette responded. 

After the Kents had gone home, Damian brought Marinette to the door as well. “Drake found out that I’m training with someone. He suspects that I’m training with you. I sort of confirmed that statement. He now expects you to visit tomorrow,” Damian told Marinette. 

“I could probably come instead of Ladybug. Everything she knows, I know. That extends to fighting knowledge. The only difference would be that I don’t have a yo-yo but I could probably train with a rope dart instead,” Marinette suggested. 

“That sounds like a good idea. It is a better cover as well,” Damian responded. 

“Then it’s settled. I’ll come a quarter hour later than she did so that I don’t interrupt breakfast. Also, there is one more basket with macarons for you and Jason,” Marinette said. 

“Of course. Thank you. I am glad that you were here today. I enjoyed spending more time with you,” Damian replied. 

“I had a lot of fun as well. I’ll see you tomorrow,” Marinette said.

Chapter Text

Robin was patrolling just like he normally did when suddenly, a portal opened next to him and Ladybug stepped out of it. He hadn’t seen her since he had started to train Marinette instead of her. Which, admittedly not even three weeks ago. But instead of saying something, Ladybug patiently waited. It took Robin a moment to realize that she wanted him to deactivate his comm. As soon as he did, she spoke up. “I need your help,” the superheroine said. “Tt. Is it really that important that you have 

to interrupt my patrol for it?” Robin asked. 

“It is. I finally found another locked Miraculous. Tikki, my kwami recently told me about them. Did you know that there’s a bunch of Miraculi all over the universe? Probably not seeing as you didn’t know about the Miraculi until I told you about them. But there are. You probably heard of a few of them without knowing that they’re Miraculi,” Ladybug told him. 

“Are you perhaps talking about the Lantern rings?” Robin asked. 

“Indeed I am. And after Tikki told me about them, I was a little confused. Because someone with a Lantern ring, Green Lantern, didn’t believe me when I asked for help a few years ago. Which doesn’t make much sense because as a Miraculous user he should know about the Ladybug and Black Cat Miraculi. And even if he didn’t, his kwami should have told him about them as soon as he transformed,” Ladybug explained. “That leaves only one option, his Miraculous is locked and has been since he got it,” she concluded. 

“That is bad. I remember how long it took the kwami to heal after they were locked for a bit more than a day. I can’t imagine how they are after being locked for multiple years,” Robin said. 

“Exactly. That’s why I need your help. It won’t take long but I cannot do this alone. And all my other temporary heroes are asleep right now. If you really don’t want to help me, I can manage alone. But it will be harder,” Ladybug responded. 

“We’re doing this so that the kwami doesn’t have to suffer anymore and to help them heal. If you really think that my presence will help you with the mission, I will be there with you. But we need to hurry. Batman will notice my absence after a while,” Robin said. 

“Okay great. And you don’t have to worry about Batman, he won’t even notice,” Ladybug assured him. She then opened a portal to Coast City. To an apartment complex, to be precise. The nameplate read Hal Jordan. “Nobody besides him is here. Also, before we enter, you need a change of clothes. You already have experience in wielding a Miraculous so you know how to deal with it,” she offered him a silver hair comb that changed to a black hairpin as soon as Robin touched it. “This is the Bee Miraculous. Should Green Lantern try to resist, you will use this to temporarily freeze him. It would be best if you unified Trixx and Pollen. Your power is ‘Venom’. You will return the Miraculous back to me after the mission,” Ladybug said. 

“Of course,” Robin agreed. He then dropped the Illusion and put the hairpin on, unifying the two Miraculi. His outfit wasn’t too different from the one he had with the Fox Miraculous which made sense as he was still transformed with it. Should someone find out that he wielded the Fox Miraculous at some point and how he had looked with it and how the person that had assisted Ladybug in taking Hal Jordan’s Miraculous, they would be able to connect the two relatively easy but it wouldn’t be their first thought? 

When Harold Jordan was given a green ring that granted him superpowers by an alien, his entire life changed. Some would say it had changed for the better, while others insisted that it had gotten worse. Hal was convinced that it was a mix of the two. 

On the one hand, it had been a big change. He suddenly had a lot of responsibilities and a lot of guilt when he failed to protect everyone. On the other hand, he loved being a Green Lantern. He loved protecting people and was fascinated by the powers his ring granted him. Additionally, he had made great friends working with various superheroes, vigilantes, and the other Lanterns. 

He wouldn’t give that up for anything. And he hadn’t wanted to give it up right after he received the ring either. So he had done everything in his power to keep the ring. That included lying to the other Lanterns about the well-being of his kwami. Because opposite to what the Lanterns believed, Abin Sur did not have enough time to tell Hal about the Miraculi before he died. He had first heard of them and the beings that were usually inhabiting them when he had trained with the other Lanterns. 

At first, he thought that it had something to do with the fact that he was a human. Only later did he find out what a locked Miraculous was. And that none of the Lanterns knew how to unlock them as it had never happened before. It had taken him even longer to find out that there was a way to unlock them and what happened with the kwami while they were locked in the Miraculous.  After that, Hal was convinced that should a guardian find out that his Miraculous was locked, they would take it away from him and he wouldn’t be able to help people anymore. So he kept it a secret. 

There were moments when he felt guilty. Not about the people that he wasn’t able to save but about the creature whose power he used every day. He usually tried to push those thoughts away because the guilt wasn’t manageable otherwise. 

When a pair of Miraculous users contacted the Justice League one day, he thought that they found out that his Miraculous was locked and were contacting them to take it away from him. He had reacted out of fear. Only after he had claimed that he didn’t believe them did he realize the gravity of the situation and how bad it would be should someone find out about it. So he had done his best to hide the information. And thus far he had been successful. 

That’s at least what Hal had thought. When there was suddenly a knock on his door at 9 pm on an evening when he did not expect anybody, a feeling of dread crept over him. He tried to ignore the door at first but the person – or were it, multiple people? – kept knocking. Hal tried to rationalize his fear. There was still an evil Miraculous user in Paris who was attacking the city and nobody had tried to contact the Justice League ever since he had first denied them. Nobody had come after him in five years, why should they now? This was probably just a neighbour who wanted to borrow flour or something. He really hoped that it was a neighbour. 

His hope collapsed like a building without its support beams when a portal opened right in front of him. He tried to transform but found that he was frozen in place. “You know what we’re here for, don’t you?” the woman, Ladybug, asked. 

Hal swallowed. This was bad. This was really bad. He had continued to inform himself about the Paris situation so that he could interfere should the heroes not be able to do so anymore so he knew that Ladybug was the new guardian and was currently fighting her old partner. He did not recognize the man beside her but he was probably one of her new partners. He had also been the one to freeze him. 

“I know that you know what the Miraculous are. And I know that you know that your Miraculous is locked. I also know that you knew how serious the Paris problem was and still is and that you ignored it out of fear. I think it’s only fair, to the kwami, me, and all of the Parisians that got hurt, that I take your Miraculous. I will ensure that the kwami heals and afterwards, I will let them decide what they want to do. If they want to stay with me, go back to the Lantern Corps, or reunite with you. If I were you, I wouldn’t hope for their forgiveness,” Ladybug said, taking the ring from him. Hal had never felt this vulnerable before. The mix of relief and sadness was new too. 

The two heroes left shortly after that and only seconds after the portal closed behind them, Hal was able to move again. He immediately went to his room and went to sleep. He didn’t want to think about it right now. He didn’t want to think about it ever but he knew that he had to eventually. 

Chapter Text

“Father, I wanted to know whether you had time to look at the riddle already?” Damian asked his father. 

“Don’t you see that I’m busy right now? I have better things to do right now,” Bruce replied. 

“I was not aware that you are busy. And it is not simply just a riddle. And before you ask, no I cannot tell you why, otherwise, you wouldn’t be able to solve it. What happened, maybe I can help,” Damian said. 

“I know. I’m sorry for snapping at you, it isn’t your fault. I’m just really frustrated. Green Lantern stopped responding to messages, both about League business and private ones approximately last Wednesday. He is still alive but has apparently lost his ring. He didn’t tell us much about how it went missing, only that we shouldn’t intervene and that it was his own fault. That was the last time we heard from him,” Bruce responded. 

“I do not understand why you are trying to intervene when Green Lantern clearly stated that you shouldn’t,” Damian said. 

“Opposite to what you might think, Green Lantern is a very important ally. He also guards the sector Earth is located in. He saved countless lives. But he did all of this with the help of his ring. Without it, he can no longer protect Earth. Furthermore, the ring is very powerful and could cause a lot of damage in the wrong hands,” Bruce explained. 

“But he said that it was his own fault. He also said that you shouldn’t intervene. If the ring was in the wrong hands, he wouldn’t have said that,” Damian argued. 

“While Green Lantern might have believed the ring to be in good hands, I do not trust his judgment. The fact that somebody was able to take it from him this easily proves that there is a great security risk. They might have only taken Green Lantern’s ring but who says that they will stop at that? They managed to figure out his secret identity so who says that they won’t figure out other League members’ secret identities as well? I am convinced that I am rightful in being scared and investigating on my own,” Bruce said. 

“I understand your concern but I am convinced that Green Lantern is capable of assessing the dangers of a threat. For all we know, the Lantern Corps could have taken his ring due to a mistake he made. It is very likely as he said that it was his own fault,” Damian replied. 

“And while you’re probably correct, I still need to investigate. You can never be too careful,” Bruce responded. 

“Of course. But please do remember your other responsibilities and your private life as well,” Damian said. 

“Yeah. And you know what, I might not be able to listen to your riddle right now but why don’t you make me a list with everything you know and give it to me? Maybe I’ll have a free minute or two later this week,” Bruce replied. 

“I will do that. Thank you,” Damian responded. He then left the room. Marinette was going to visit soon for their weekly training. 

“Hello. How have you been?” Damian asked as he and Marinette walked to the training room. 

“I’ve been alright. The week was okay and the Akumas weren’t too bad. Yesterday was different though. The Akuma attack was bad, really bad. About half of Paris died. I’m going to have nightmares for the entire next week,” Marinette responded. 

“I’m sorry to hear that. How do you feel about sparing?” Damian asked. 

“It’s fine. I’m used to it. And I’d like that,” Marinette said. 

“How is the kwami?” Damian asked. 

“They’re good. They’ve been very disoriented when she first freed them but they have been getting better. They should be almost back to normal within a month,” Marinette responded. 

“That’s good to hear. I’m glad that they’re free now,” Damian said. 

“Me too. They really didn’t deserve that,” Marinette replied. 

“Did your father figure out anything about the butterfly situation?” Marinette asked Damian on Monday during their French lesson. They hadn’t been able to talk during the art lesson as they both had been working on a project. 

“No. He is quite busy. An ally of his has not responded to his messages and father is worried about a security risk and the ally’s old powers being in the wrong hands,” Damian said. 

“The one that you and she visited last week?” Marinette asked. 

“Yes. And I agree with my father. While he made a lot of mistakes, he was also very good at what he did and helped a lot of people,” Damian said. 

“What are you implying?” Marinette asked. 

“I am asking you or rather her if I was allowed to inform my father why he should not worry about the situation,” Damian informed. 

“Don’t. You couldn’t even explain it to him without revealing the Paris situation. And then he’d try to intervene making it even harder for the heroes. Furthermore, he wouldn’t be able to solve the riddle anymore,” Marinette said. 

“Of course. But you understand why I feel the need to tell him about it. I have never kept secrets from him before. Could Ladybug at least consider giving GL another chance once they are better? He is needed,” Damian responded. 

“While I understand why you want to tell your father about it, it is very important that you keep this a secret. And she will not consider giving GL another chance. He decided his fate when he rejected to help children who had to deal with a terrorist. He ruined their lives. He ruined mine. She will find a suitable replacement,” Marinette said coldly. 

“I know that your opinion of him is influenced by his past decisions. However, you once told me that you were glad that he wrote you off as a joke as you didn’t want someone like my father to be turned against you and used as a tool by Papillion. You had the opportunity to inform the Justice League but decided against it. Furthermore, if they had found out, you wouldn’t be here and I wouldn’t have solved the riddle,” Damian argued. 

“That doesn’t justify the way he treated them. It is their decision alone if they want to return to him. Right now, they need to recover without expectations being put on them. Should they, in one month decide that they want to return to GL, they shall. If not, Ladybug will find an alternative to your problem. Do you trust that she will make the right decision not only for her and the kwami but for everyone?” Marinette asked, knowing fully well that she just asked Damian to decide who he would listen to and follow the orders of, his father or her. 

“Very well. I will respect her decision,” Damian answered after a while, ignoring that he was betraying his father’s trust in favor of a hero he had known for half a year at most. 

Chapter Text

A month later, Green Lantern returned more powerful than before. He still felt guilty about what he did but after talking with Ladybug and his kwami, he felt better. He had apologized for what he did and while he hadn’t been forgiven, the fact that Ladybug gave him another chance gave him hope. He would be a better hero from now on. 

Green Lantern had not told the other Justice League member about what exactly happened only that someone had taken his ring and returned it and that the other members didn’t have to worry about them. 

After that, Batman had been more relaxed. He had not been able to find much on whoever had taken the ring which had frustrated him greatly. But now that the problem was solved as far as he knew, he could focus on other things. Namely, the riddle that wasn’t actually a riddle Damian’s friend had told him about. 

The riddle fascinated him in every way possible. There was not much information that they had given him. Even with him now knowing the names of the villains, Papillion and Chrysalide in the french version and Hawk Moth and Hawk Moth Junior in the English one, he didn’t know what else to do. He has asked Damian whether they had confirmed that none of the mentees was guilty. Damian had told him that none of them was the hero-turned-villain they’d been looking for. 

It was very frustrating. He went over the information in his head once more. The chrysalis was the quiescent insect pupa of a butterfly. The villains both were butterfly themed but that could just be due to them using the same device. A chrysalis would turn into a butterfly, once fully grown. But they’d already known that the villain was a teenager. Why the creator of the riddle had decided to make a teenager the villain of the story he did not know. 

Damian had also told him that the power the villain was after was time travel. Their goal was to fix a mistake of theirs. If their theory about Papillion and Chrysalis knowing each other as civilians was correct, the mistake they were trying to fix could be that they let their emotions influence their rational thinking when the heroes had first suspected Papillion’s civilian identity to be the villain. 

But then they wouldn’t have named themselves after the prior villain. From what Damian had told him both heroes hated the villains. So there must have been a connection to the villain. Something that could make him betray his long-time partner.  But what mattered to a child more than their morals? What role could the older villain have played in the younger villain's life? Who could make a child ignore everything they had ever believed in? 

The situation reminded him a bit of when Damian had come to Gotham. It had been a while since then but in the years that he has spent with Bruce, Damian’s morals had turned completely. Bruce knew that Damian wouldn’t have done that for just anyone. No, Damian had respected and trusted him, to some degree. But not because he was Batman but because he was his father. 

That was when Bruce realized the thought that had been sitting in the back of his mind for the entire time. Everything suddenly made sense. Chrysalide was the child of Papillion. It explained why the former had let their emotions influence their ability to make decisions and why they had been especially affected by the reveal of Papillion’s secret identity. 

Bruce immediately called Damian. The latter had shown that he deeply cared about the riddle being solved as soon as possible. Damian immediately picked up. “Why are you calling me, father?” he asked. 

“I solved your riddle. At least I think I did. It’s obvious when you think about it. And the fact that you didn’t think of it confirms my theory as you mentioned that you wouldn’t be able to solve the riddle,” Bruce responded. 

“You really did? Thank you. Really. Who is it?” Damian asked.

“I suspect Chrysalide to be the child of Papillion,” Bruce told his son. 

“That makes so much sense. Thank you, again. I will tell you whether or not Chrysalide turns out to be who you suspect them to be,” Damian said. 

“I’m glad that I could help you. I have to get back to work though. I’ll see you this evening?” Bruce asked. 

“I’ll probably be busy this evening as will therefore not be attending patrol. I should be free tomorrow evening though,” Damian responded. 

“Okay, have a great day,” Bruce said before Damian hung up. 

“What was the call about?” Marinette asked Damian. They were currently eating lunch together in the cafeteria. 

“I will tell you later. But first I need you to tell me everything you know about Adrien Agreste,” Damian replied. 

“Okay, sure. Adrien used to work as a model for his father’s company before he was revealed to be Hawk Moth. His father never really let him go out and he didn’t attend school until shortly after Hawk Moth’s debut. I think he used to have a crush on Ladybug. I used to know everything about him because I had a huge crush on him. My behavior was problematic and I wish someone would have told me instead of encouraging me. I have since moved on from it. 

“Adrien was also the only one that knew that Lila was lying. At first, he told me to take the high road. Later, when I had already left Paris he realized his mistake and apologized for what he did,” Marinette said. 

“And when was that?” Damian asked. 

“At the beginning of October. Roughly, a month before you found out Papillion’s secret identity. He apologized and admitted his mistake and while we may not be friends anymore, I think I can forgive him eventually,” Marinette answered. 

“Why did he tell you to take the high road?” Damian asked. 

“Because he didn’t want Lila to get akumatized. It was the reason why Alix, Max, Kim, and he didn’t reveal that Lila was lying to everyone at once but instead told them one by one. After it got clear that Chrysalide wouldn’t target Lila or anyone in the class, Adrien suggested telling everyone at once. It worked and now they all know that she’s lying. Alya hates herself because she abandoned me and didn’t fact-check. She used to always tell me that it was the most important thing for a reporter to do,” Marinette said. 

“And what was Chrysalide’s reason for wanting the Miraculous?” Damian asked. 

“He wanted to fix a mistake he had made,” Marinette replied. 

“Father thinks that Adrien is Chrysalide,” Damian said. 

“While I would love to tell you that you’re being unreasonable, it does make sense. Especially, with the things you just asked me. Chrysalide attacked yesterday which means that he won’t attack today. Ladybug could probably use a little help tonight. What do you think about helping her out like you did a month ago?” Marinette asked. 

“While the takedown of a villain and taking GL’s locked Miraculous are different things, I would gladly help. I already told my father that I wouldn’t patrol tonight,” Damian said. 

“It’s settled then. She’ll pick you up at 10 pm. He should be asleep then,” Marinette responded. 

Just like Marinette said, Ladybug picked Damian up at 10 pm their time. She then gave him the bee Miraculous just like she had done a little more than a month ago. Afterward, she opened a portal to Paris, the Agreste mansion to be specific. 

Robin quickly froze Adrien in place. Marinette then took the ring off of his finger to see if it was the Black Cat Miraculous. It was. Shortly afterward, she found the butterfly Miraculous in his drawer. Not the best place to hide it. She left a note for Adrien, telling him that while his reasons may have been noble, his actions weren’t and that Ladybug had taken the Miraculi to keep them safe. 

She told him to try to fix his mistakes without the power of the rabbit Miraculous. Timelines were a dangerous thing that she never tried nor wanted to understand. She would not reveal his identity as she felt as if she was partially at fault for what had happened. Robin told her that she wasn’t and that Marinette wasn’t at fault either. Adrien’s decisions had been his and they were no one else's fault. 

Ladybug informed her other heroes that Chrysalide had been dealt with and that she wanted to meet up with them as soon as possible. They probably already knew that she wanted to take the Miraculi from them now that they didn’t have any use for them anymore. What they didn’t know was that she would not inform them of Chrysalide’s identity. It wasn’t because she didn’t trust them but because they had just started to trust Adrien again. And maybe it was selfish to keep such information from them but she couldn’t help but sympathize with Adrien. He hadn’t known of the consequences of his actions, after all.  

Only when she got home, Ladybug realized how happy she was. She hadn’t felt this free since she had received the Ladybug Miraculous at the age of thirteen. And while she still had responsibilities as the guardian of the Miraculous, she felt as if a huge weight had been lifted off of her. She didn’t have to be a hero anymore. She didn’t have to drop everything she was doing to save a city she didn’t even live in. She didn’t have to dream of death anymore. She wouldn’t lie and say that she didn’t have nightmares of the things that she had seen as Ladybug but those nightmares were way better than the ones she had had to balance the cure. 

She had told Damian to keep the fox Miraculous as Marinette didn’t have a use for it anymore and Damian was a good wielder. He cared for the kwami and worried about their health. He didn’t use them as a tool but instead treated them like a companion. He was also a good fit for the fox. She hadn’t been lying when she had compared him to Loki. He was suitable for both the fox and the black cat Miraculous. 

Damian had tried to decline at first but ultimately accepted. He had bonded with Trixx over the time they had spent together and the kwami had gotten rather attached to him as well. Ultimately, he accepted the offer with a smile on his face.

Chapter Text

Sooner than Marinette knew it, it was her birthday. It was June and the summer break would start in a few weeks. It wouldn’t make sense to fly to Paris over the weekend because she would spend her entire summer break there anyway. Instead, she would probably spend her birthday which fell on a Sunday this year with Damian and Tim. 

Tim, unsurprisingly, had agreed to celebrate with her as soon as she asked him. He had told her that Damian would agree as well. But he had suggested that she should spend time with each of them individually. Marinette had planned to do so anyway so she, of course, agreed. While Tim and Damian got along fairly well nowadays, they were still brothers and preferred to spend some time without the other being around. 

Tim and Marinette met in the coffee shop they usually met at. “Hello and happy birthday. You’re seventeen years old now, aren’t you? How are you?” he greeted her. 

“Hello to you too. Thanks, and you would be right. I’m good. My parents called earlier to congratulate me. They were sad that I couldn’t be with them but they are looking forward to seeing me during the summer break,” Marinette replied. Her mother had never been big on celebrating every birthday when she was younger, instead focusing on special birthdays. Her father, on the other hand, had always celebrated every birthday with his family and so had Marinette. That didn’t mean that she didn’t celebrate some birthdays more than others. 

“That’s nice. My parents were never really there. Not for my birthday nor anything else really. Bruce on the other hand is very insistent on celebrating birthdays. It’s nice, I guess,” Tim said. 

“It’s nice of him, I think. Also, thanks to your father Paris is finally free. Thank him for me, will you?” Marinette replied. 

“I guess it is. And I’m glad that he could help you. I’m sorry that I couldn’t help you myself,” Tim said. 

“It’s fine. You couldn’t have, even if you tried. I was so close to the situation and didn’t notice myself. I mean the reason why he took the broach was that he regretted not standing up for me,” Marinette responded. 

“So it was one of your classmates?” Tim asked. 

“Yep. Adrien Agreste. His father was Papillion. Ladybug decided not to tell everyone his identity because he wasn’t aware of the consequences. Well, there aren’t really any besides one. And he asked Ladybug if there were any before he stole the brooch and she told him there weren’t,” Marinette said. 

“I understand why she would do that. It probably wasn’t easy for him either. Going from fighting your father to being just like him simply because you wanted to fix your mistakes. That doesn’t excuse his decisions though. And what do you mean about there aren’t really any consequences?” Tim asked. 

“Well, the cure makes everyone forget everything that happened. The civilians anyway. But there needs to be balance. So Ladybug relives every death and injury in her dreams. She also has all the scars and whatnot that the civilians would usually have,” Marinette explained

“Except it isn’t Ladybug who relives everything, is it?” Tim asked. 

“I’m not sure what you mean,” Marinette replied. 

“There’s no need to hide it. Damian told us. Well, we forced him to. He also told us that you knew. So you probably know what Conner and Jon saw and why they would ask about your well-being,” Tim said. 

“I knew that he wouldn’t hide it from you forever. How much did he tell you though?” Marinette asked. 

“Only about your connection with her, the cure, and that you knew about us,” Tim responded. 

“But you know more, don’t you?” Marinette asked. 

“Yeah. It’s not his fault though. He tried to hide it but the moment he told me about your connection with her I figured a few things out,” Tim said. Marinette looked at him expectantly, waiting for him to tell her what he had figured out. Tim sighed. “I know that he helped Ladybug steal Green Lantern’s ring. Or he at least knew. I also know that he has a Miraculous on his own,” he added. 

“How did you figure it out?” Marinette asked. 

“I saw him get hit by someone during combat once. His suit flashed and for a moment it looked entirely different. That happened a few times more. I then tried to watch him during patrol but the cameras that would usually pick him up wouldn’t anymore. He also got more silent if that’s even possible for him. And shortly before Green Lantern reported his ring as missing, Damian muted his comm and deactivated his GPS. He was also a little too relaxed about the ring going missing and looked conflicted whenever Bruce mentioned it,” Tim explained. 

“You’re very observant,” Marinette pointed out. 

“Of course. Otherwise, B wouldn’t have taken me in,” Tim said. 

“Ah right. I think Damian told me about it once. You basically blackmailed him into it, didn’t you?” Marinette asked. 

“Yup. But now let’s talk about something else. It’s your special day after all,” Tim replied. 

They continued to chat until it was time for Tim to go. He tried to pay but Marinette insisted that she would. It was her birthday so she would pay. Apparently, people in the US didn’t pay the bill on their birthday. Good thing she wasn’t US American. 

“How did it go with Drake?” Damian asked. 

“It went well. He knows a lot more than I knew. He knows about the necklace and your involvement with the ring,” Marinette informed. 

“That makes sense. He is very observant, after all,” Damian said. 

“I guess he is. Also, Alya is finally free from Lila’s spell. I will probably see her during the summer break. She apologized, everyone did. No one remembers why exactly they believed her, it’s almost as if they really were under a spell,” Marinette joked. Damian’s expression suddenly changed to a thoughtful one. “Is something wrong?” Marinette asked as Damian continued to stare into the air next to her head. 

“Yeah. I merely thought of something. I’m probably just trying to see something that isn’t there. Don’t worry about it,” Damian said. 

“Fine. If you find out that you were right, after all, please tell me. It’s better to make a mistake than to oversee something. Just like Ladybug and Chat Noir should have investigated more back when they suspected Gabriel Agreste back when they first suspected him,” Marinette responded. 

“Of course. I will just do a little more research before telling you about my thesis,” Damian replied. 

“Okay. I’ll look forward to it,” Marinette said. 

Chapter Text

Marinette was picnicking with her old classmates when she received a text from Damian. She immediately opened the text, smiling when he asked how the picnic was. “Is that your boyfriend?” Alya asked. 

Marinette blushed, “What? Me? Boyfriend? No. I-, he’s, I mean, he’s just a friend, really,” Marinette stammered. 

“But you like him, don’t you?” her friend asked. 

“What? No, I-, he, we’re friends, Alya. Just because I’m friends with a guy doesn’t mean I like him,” Marinette replied. 

She blushed at the thought of Damian and her being together. She had never thought of him that way. Why should she? He used to hate her and she just wanted to be his friend. And sure, he changed a lot after his conversation with Ladybug and she was forgiving him already. But she didn’t like him like that, right? 

She was friends with a lot of guys. Kim, Max, and Tim, to name a few. But somehow their friendship felt different from what she had with Damian. Maybe because she could tell him everything. Well, almost everything. She had never told him about Ladybug. She couldn’t back when Chrysalide was still a threat. But now that she didn’t have to worry about that anymore, there was no reason as to why she shouldn’t tell him. 

She had started to trust him again. She trusted him a lot. Enough to let him keep a Miraculous. She knew that it was in good hands with him. But it had been in good hands with the other holders as well. So why did she let him keep the Miraculous? She wouldn’t have done that for just anybody. 

“Whatever you say. I’m glad that you found a friend there. I know that Gotham is a horrible city and normally I would make a PowerPoint presentation as to why you should immediately move away but I can see that you’re happy there and that's all that counts,” Alya said. 

“Thanks, Alya. I know that the whole Lila situation kind of ruined our friendship. But I would like to try again. Because you were my best friend and I still care about you,” Marinette responded. 

“I know that I messed up and I can’t tell you how sorry I am for that. I was a horrible friend. But I would love to start over, too,” Alya replied. 

“Of course. I missed you,” Marinette said. 

“Me too, Marinette, me too,” Alya agreed. 

A few days later, Marinette saw Lila on her way through the park. She tried to ignore her but Lila had already spotted her. “You ruined everything. Everyone believed me. Everyone loved me. But then you came and turned everyone against me. You took everything from me, everything. You are a horrible person, I hope you know that. You ruined my life and made me miserable. Everything is your fault. 

“And your friends don’t care about you. They pretend to do so now that they know that you were right to keep face. But if they really cared about you, they wouldn't have believed me in the first place. You don’t have real friends. Everyone around you just pretends to care about you. But they are lying. They only spend time with you for their own benefit. You are worth nothing,” Lila said, playing with her girdle. Marinette’s first thought was if the girdle was new. She couldn’t remember seeing it on the other girl, ever. But when she thought about it hard enough, she remembered that Lila had been wearing it ever since they met. It had been a constant just like Tikki’s earrings had been for her. Even in her akumatized form she had been wearing it, Marinette suddenly realized. 

But the more Lila talked about how horrible Marinette was, the more she believed her and forgot about the girdle. Lila was right, once after all, Marinette was a horrible person. She should have taken the high road just like Adrien had once advised her to. She shouldn’t have moved or at least, she should have told Alix, Max, and Kim that they should ignore Lila’s lies. Adrien would have never become Chrysalide if she had. It was all her fault. 

Marinette was so caught up in her thoughts, that she didn’t notice Lila leaving. She stood there for many more minutes before another text message from Damian pulled her out of her thoughts. ‘Why are you my friend?’ she typed, ignoring whatever Damian had said. 

He didn’t reply for a while and Marinette grew increasingly worried. She was about to put her phone away when she heard another buzz. ‘Because you are an incredible person. Everyone who gives you a chance knows that. I didn’t before. But after I did, I realized just how amazing you are. Whoever told you that you weren’t was lying’ 

‘Do you really think that?’ she texted back. ‘And it was just Lila again. I usually don’t let her words get to me but today it was just different and I couldn't help but believe her’ Marinette added. 

‘She was lying. Not that that is something new for her. You are an amazing person. Just ask everyone but Lila and they will agree’ After a while of Damian typing and deleting his message over and over again, he added, ‘Did you notice anything about her?’ 

‘What do you mean?’ Marinette asked. 

‘Forget it, I’m just jumping to conclusions again’ Damian replied. 

‘Now that you mention it. There was something off about her. She was wearing a girdle. I’ve never seen her wear a girdle before. But now that I think about it, she has always been wearing it. It didn’t even change when she got akumatized’ Marinette wrote. She hesitated before sending the message. 

‘Did you know that I didn’t realize that you were wearing jewelry whenever you got back from the bathroom when we were writing an exam? Not until Ladybug told me about the Miraculi that is’ Damian responded. 

‘What are you implying?’ Marinette asked. 

‘How much do you know about Apate?’ was Damian’s response. 

‘She was the goddess of deceit and her father was Erebus. I don’t really like mythology as much as you do' Marinette replied. 

‘Apate once gave the goddess Hera a magical girdle that she used to trick the human woman Zeus was cheating on her with to convince Zeus to reveal his true form to her, killing Semele’ Damian explained. 

‘And what has that to do with Lila?’ Marinette asked. 

‘I suspect that Lila’s girdle is a magic artifact with similar power. Maybe it’s a locked Miraculous as well’ Damian suggested. ‘I’m not saying that it has to be. But it would explain a lot of things. There is nothing wrong with testing a theory. We can give it back to her after we checked’ Damian quickly added. 

‘Fine. I’ll do it. But you have to help me. I’ll ask Ladybug to borrow me the mouse and horse Miraculous and then I’ll pick you up later today if that’s okay with you’ Marinette suggested. 'I can't believe that I'm turning into a thief as well' she added. 

‘That sounds good. But out of curiosity why isn’t Ladybug doing this with me?’ Damian asked. 

‘Because the black cat Miraculous is no longer active. Balance must be held. Furthermore, I would rather do this myself. It’s a personal matter’ Marinette responded. 

‘That sounds like a good idea. I will see you tonight at 8 pm my time if that’s okay with you’ Damian wrote. 

‘Of course. Until tonight’ Marinette responded. 

Damian had informed Tim that he wouldn’t patrol that night. He trusted him to inform Bruce. Tim had agreed, hinting that he knew that Damian was again helping out with Miraculous business. Not that Tim knew much about the magic jewelry. Maybe he knew more. Damian recalled Marinette telling him that the Miraculous magic didn’t fully work on him due to the magic coffee she always gave him. 

“I have the bee as well. We’ll just take the girdle and check if it’s a Miraculous or a different magic artifact. If it isn’t, we’ll give it back,” Multimouse said. 

“Of course,” Robin agreed. Multimouse then opened a portal to a Parisian apartment. Robin froze Lila so she wouldn’t wake up while they were still in her room. In the meantime, Multimouse found the girdle. She waved with the girdle to call Robin’s attention. They then exited the building on the same way they entered, this time arriving in what Robin suspected to be Marinette’s bedroom. 

They both transformed back and Marinette inspected the girdle. She then grabbed a book from her suitcase. She said a few words in a language Damian didn’t know. Suddenly, a bulb of light shot out of the girdle, a kwami, Damian realized. 

“I’m Trill, the kwami of the blackbird Miraculous. Who are you?” the kwami introduced themselves. 

“I’m Marinette. And that’s Damian. I’m sorry that you were locked in there for so long. Being locked in a Miraculous isn’t nice. I’ll take care of you until you’re better, okay?” Marinette responded. 

“Okay,” the kwami agreed. 

“What concept do you represent?” Damian asked. 

“I’m the kwami of Influence,” Trill answered. 

“I guess that makes sense. I can introduce you to a few other kwamis later if you want to. What’s your favorite food?” Marinette asked. 

“I would like that. Thank you. Also, I like blackberries,” Trill said. 

“I will get you a few as soon as possible. 

“Thank you for taking care of me even after everything I did,” Trill replied. 

“It wasn’t you who took away my friends. It was Lila. She misused your powers. It wasn’t your fault. You are the victim, not the perpetrator,” Marinette reassured the tiny bird-like creature. 

“Okay. Thank you,” Trill said. Marinette chuckled and then sneaked down the stairs. Damian followed her. He was about to speak up and tell her that she shouldn’t go out when it was dark outside when he realized that this was Paris and not Gotham and that she could take care of herself much better now that she was training with him. Worst case, he was there as well. 

After they had bought the blackberries for Trill, Marinette giving a few of them to the concept of Influence, they snuck back into her room. Her parents surprisingly didn’t wake up. Damian knew that his father definitely would have woken up. Along with every other person that was currently sleeping in the mansion. 

“Thank you for today. I wouldn’t have even noticed without you. You saved Trill and all future potential victims of Lila’s lies. Thank you,” Marinette said. 

“Of course,” Damian responded. Then Marinette opened a portal with the horse Miraculous and brought him back to his room. Damian fell asleep with a smile on his face that night. Marinette really wasn't as bad as he had thought. 

Chapter Text

Damian woke up to a ping of his phone. ‘Patrol on your own tonight’, Marinette’s text message said. The only time when Marinette spoke to him about patrol was when it had something to do with Ladybug. It wasn’t as if she wasn’t interested in his life but she would usually wait for Damian to bring the topic up then. That meant that Ladybug needed him for something. He had become one of her temporary heroes of sorts. An ally maybe? 

And he still hadn’t told his father. Not that he would. It was his business and his business only. And Marinette’s, sort of. ‘Of course. Will I see you?’ he replied. 

Marinette immediately read the message but didn’t respond for a few minutes. ‘No. Not tonight’ she texted after almost three minutes had passed. 

It was night and Robin was patrolling alone like Marinette had asked him to. He was hyper-aware of everything that happened. He didn’t know if it had been Marinette’s mysterious message or something else but the night felt off. As if something bad was about to happen. 

Suddenly Ladybug appeared next to him. Robin didn’t even want to know how she had found him, he simply muted his comm. “What do you need me for?” he asked. 

“Straight to the point, I see,” Ladybug replied. "But first I need to know something. Do you trust me?" she asked. 

"Do I trust you with my life? Do I trust you with the safety of Gotham? Do I trust you with my secrets? You need to clarify," Robin pointed out. 

"Do you trust me to make the best decision for the Miraculous and the balance of the world?" Ladybug asked. 

"I do," Robin confirmed. 

“Okay, there is something off about Gotham’s balance as you probably know. Well, the reason for it is here in Gotham today. And I need you to help me get rid of it,” she grimaced at her choice of words. 

“And how exactly do you want me to help get rid of it?” Robin asked. 

“You would have to wear a different Miraculous. I’m here with my team today, well most of them anyway. One of them being the Fox holder. And she is essential for the plan. But we also need a black cat holder. Not only for the balance but also for something else. So you’d wear the black cat Miraculous if that is okay with you,” Ladybug explained. 

“I can’t help but notice that you didn’t answer my question,” Robin pointed out. Ladybug flinched ever so slightly. 

“Right. So you can totally say no. Someone else will just have to take the cat. But I’d really hope it would be you,” Ladybug responded, still not telling Robin what he wanted to know. He glared at her. “Fine. I’ll tell you. As I said, you can say no if you don’t want to. But you have to understand that this is really important. It’s the only way to balance Gotham. As long as this one problem doesn’t get fixed, it will just be thrown out of balance again. And the problem has been here for a long time. For a very very very long time. And it can only be destroyed with the power of the black cat Miraculous hence why I asked you,” Ladybug added hastily. 

“And what is the problem?” Robin asked. 

“Doctor Gotham,” Ladybug responded. 

“Isn’t that a person?” Robin asked. 

“Yes, I mean no? He is. He should have died a long time ago. And if nobody stops him, he will be here forever,” Ladybug said. 

“So you want me to kill him?” Robin asked. 

“Well if you say it like that,” Ladybug started but Robin cut her off. 

“I’m not going to kill someone. Those days are behind me. Or have you forgotten about Batman’s no killing rule?” Robin asked. 

“Of course not. But this is different. Doctor Gotham can’t change. And with him still alive, Gotham won’t either. Everything that is wrong with Gotham is because of him. Well, not everything but most of it. Nothing would be this bad without him,” Ladybug responded. 

“Even if. I can’t. I’m sorry,” Robin said. 

“But you have broken Batman’s rules before,” Ladybug protested. 

“There is a difference between withholding information and killing somebody,” Robin countered. He then swung off into the night. Ladybug should have known that he wouldn’t do something like that. He had talked with Marinette about how hard adapting to his life in Gotham had been. She should have known better. 

He didn’t get far when Ladybug cut him off again. She was really fast with her yo-yo. “What do you want?” he asked. 

She pointed to his neck, “I still need that. Even if you won’t help us” 

“You’re still going to do this even after I declined?” Robin asked. 

“Of course. Do you know how long it took to lure him here?” Ladybug responded. 

“You lured him here? Why?” Robin asked. 

“Because as long as he is alive, Gotham will stay the hell hole it is,” Ladybug explained. 

“And how’d you lock him out?” Robin replied. 

“The pastries. They balanced Gotham enough for him to notice the difference. He is here tonight to find out what is balancing Gotham,” Ladybug explained. 

“You always have ulterior motives, don’t you?” Robin asked. 

“What do you mean?” Ladybug responded. 

“The Miraculous, the pastries. I wouldn't be surprised if my friendship with Marinette had a purpose as well,” Robin explained. 

“I gave you the Miraculous because Marinette cares about you and wants you to be safe. Because she sees you as a friend even after everything you have done. And she gave out the pastries to balance Gotham to help the people. But that can and will not happen without us killing Doctor Gotham first,” Ladybug said. 

“Fine,” Robin replied.

“What?” Ladybug asked. 

“I’ll help you. What’s the plan?” he responded. 

After introducing him to her team, Ladybug informed everyone about the plan. It depended on their ability to cooperate. If only one of them messed up, everything would be over. But that’s why Viperion was there today. Once he had activated his second chance, they had a time limit of fifteen minutes. Robin wasn’t used to fighting on a time limit. He was even more shocked when Ladybug informed him that Viperion’s time limit used to be only five minutes. 

The first part of the plan consisted of Ladybug luring Doctor Gotham out. Her natural creation was exactly what he was looking for. And she did. “What do you want in my city?” Doctor Gotham asked, suddenly appearing in front of her. That was when the real plan began. 

First, Ryuko distracted him. “Ryuko, wind,” Viperion said through their magical comms. So Ryuko called out her wind dragon. 

“What is this?” Doctor Gotham asked. Suddenly, there were a bunch of Ladybugs and even more Ryukos all around them. 

“You think I don’t know how to tell apart an illusion from reality? You are just a bunch of silly kids. You will never defeat me,” Doctor Gotham said. A banana suddenly hit him in the face. “Is this all you have? A simple banana could never defeat me,” Doctor Gotham bragged. But when he went for his counterattack, he failed. 

“What is th-,” he started when he suddenly felt a sting on the back of his neck. Pegasus had opened a portal right behind him, allowing Honeybee to freeze him in place. 

It was Robin’s turn now. If someone had told him five years ago that he would go back to killing people, he would have laughed at their face. He would never disobey his father, he would have told them. Not even in the form of teenage rebellion. Now seven years after he had started to live with his father and he would kill again. Batman would be disappointed. 

Robin watched Doctor Gotham dissolve into dust, leaving behind nothing but a few pieces of jewelry and other magic artifacts. Then Ladybug collected the magic artifacts, before throwing the Lucky Charm she had created seconds earlier in the air, repairing all the damage. 

Doctor Gotham, came back to life as well. Carapace finally activated his power, locking the warlock in the shellter. Ladybug had warned them that this would happen. But thus far, Viperion hadn’t said anything more than a side comment or two which meant that everything was going according to plan. 

He was still too weak and dizzy from when he had been cataclysmed that Doctor Gotham couldn't escape. The shellter was just a precaution. Suddenly, Doctor Gotham started to age to everyone but Ladybug's surprise. Soon, there was only dust left of him. This time without the cataclysm. “I told you that he was way too old to be alive right now,” Ladybug joked. 

“I guess you did,” Robin replied. She and her team were gone before he could say anything else. Only when they were gone did Robin notice that he still had the black cat Miraculous with him. 

Chapter Text

“There was yet another siting of them yesterday. They will probably be out today as well,” Batman said. 

“Do we know anything about them besides that they are stopping crime and that they wear a red suit?” Red Robin asked. 

“No. But we were able to confirm that they were spotted for the first time on the third of May and then again on June 16th and August 18th before they became a regular on the 27th of August,” Oracle informed the vigilantes. 

“That doesn’t really help us all too much. Inform us should you find out anything new,” Batman said. 

“Of course,” Oracle agreed. 

“It’s you, isn’t it?” Damian asked. 

“We didn’t see each other for six weeks and this is the first thing you say to me?” Marinette replied. 

“I apologize. I am happy to see you in person again. Now, could you please answer my question?” Damian said. 

“Can we talk about this later?” Marinette asked. 

“No, I think we should discuss this now,” Damian replied. 

“Please?” Marinette asked. 

“Fine,” Damian agreed. 

After that Marinette started to avoid Damian. If it weren’t for their shared classes, Damian wouldn’t have even known that she was in school that day. During lunchtime, he finally managed to get ahold of her. “You promised me that we would talk about this,” he reminded her. 

“Fine. But let’s talk somewhere else,” Marinette responded. 

“It’s you,” Damian repeated his previous statement. 

“I am who, Damian?” Marinette asked. 

“You know who I am talking about. You are her ,” Damian said. 

“There is more than one woman in the world,” Marinette replied. 

“You are Ladybug,” Damian settled on. 

“I am,” Marinette confirmed. 

“All this about your connection with her was made up,” Damian concluded. Marinette nods. “You lied to me,” another nod. “Why?” Damian asked. 

“Because I didn’t trust you back then. Because it was my secret to share. Because I was scared of someone knowing because ever since I was twelve I was told that I could never reveal my secret identity. Because with an active villain in my city nobody could know my identity. Because I didn’t want to lose my memories in case I was betrayed. Because I didn’t want to risk trusting someone again. Because I was scared,” Marinette explained. 

“You could have told me. I wouldn’t have told anybody. I went against father’s number one rule for you. Not telling him your secret identity is nothing to that,” Damian argued. 

“I know. But I needed to know if I could trust you first. I needed to know whether you would put the Miraculi over everything else, including your father. And you did,” Marinette replied. 

“So I was right,” Damian said. 

“What?” Marinette asked confused 

“I was right when I said that you always have ulterior motives,” Damian explained. 

“I guess I did have them that one time. But I would have still asked you even if I already knew that I could trust you. And I didn’t befriend you because I knew about your nighttime activities,” Marinette argued. 

“That’s good to know. I still think you should have told me but I know why you didn’t and I probably would have done the same thing if I were you,” Damian said. 

“I still don’t think that this is a good idea. What are you even doing here of all places?” Robin asked. 

“I’m here because my other half is here,” Ladybug explained. “Besides, you should be thankful. I’m fixing your city with my presence while balancing the two of us,” she added. 

“You could have chosen someone else,” Robin protested. 

“You were the best match. Besides, I trust you,” Ladybug said. 

“Fine. But you are not my responsibility. Because I do not want to have to deal with an angry Batman. I can accept your presence because I know that you aren’t causing any harm but I will not go against Batman’s order again,” Robin agreed. 

“I don’t expect you to. But I still need to know whether you would do the same thing again with what you know now,” Ladybug said. 

“I would. And I would do it again for a different reason. Not that extreme but I would help you out again. With different missions like the ones before the last one,” Robin responded. 

“I’m grateful for that. I know that it was hard for you. But I’m glad that we finally got the chance to talk about it. I know that we avoided this in our conversation earlier,” Ladybug replied. 

“It wasn’t the right environment,” Robin argued. 

“I guess you’re right. I’m still sorry for making you choose,” Ladybug said. 

“Thank you,” Robin responded. 

“We saw you interacting with the new vigilante earlier,” Tim pointed out when they all were back in the Batcave. 

“I did,” Damian agreed. 

“Who are they and what do they want?” Tim asked. 

“Ladybug, the heroine of Paris. She is here to fix the balance,” Damian replied. It was best to keep some things a secret. 

“I didn’t know that there were heroes in Paris,” Bruce said. 

“You weren’t meant to,” Damian responded. 

“Why not?” Bruce asked. 

“Because you would have tried to help, making their job harder,” Tim explained. 

“You knew too?” Bruce asked. 

“Marinette told me. She is from Paris,” Tim said. 

“What happened in Paris that other parties trying to help would be counterproductive?” Bruce asked. 

“There was an emotional terrorist. Any negative emotion would transform you into one of his minions. The problem has been resolved on June 16th,” Damian replied. 

“Wasn’t that when I solved your riddle you couldn’t tell me about?” Bruce asked. 

“Yes. Marinette used to be a temporary heroine of Paris. She was able to inform Ladybug of your findings. The magic involved would have made it impossible for you to figure out the secret identity of the villain once you knew about their presence in the city,” Damian explained. 

“You will have to tell me more about the entire situation and the heroine later," Bruce said. He then added, "I’m glad that I was able to help. Your idea with the riddle was quite clever" 

“That’s Marinette for you. She is one of the most clever people I know,” Damian responded. 

Chapter Text

“You called her by her first name,” Tim told Damian. 

“What?” Damian asked. 

“Yesterday. You called Marinette by her first name,” Tim elaborated. 

“I guess I did. What does it matter to you?” Damian responded. 

“It doesn’t. Not really. It’s just you usually don’t call people by their first names. It took a long time for you to start calling John by his first name on a regular basis and you only use our first names when you’re trying to make a point,” Tim said. 

“But that’s not what you wanted to talk about,” Damian replied. 

“It’s not,” Tim admitted. 

“What did you want to talk about then?” Damian asked. 

“Marinette’s Ladybug,” Tim stated. 

“I thought we already discussed how Marinette used to be the one-time heroine Multimouse,” Damian evaded. 

“She was. That doesn’t change the fact that I know that she is Ladybug. And you are her black cat, her balance, her other half,” Tim said. 

“So what if I am?” Damian asked. 

“The black cat vigilante was involved in the disappearance of Doctor Gotham,” Tim stated. 

“I’m not sure what you’re implying,” Damian evaded. 

“I’m not implying anything. I know for a fact that you broke B’s number one rule for her. Sure, you didn’t actually kill the guy but you were willing to,” Tim said. 

“And why do you care?” Damian asked. 

“Because before you met her you would have never done something like that. You care about her, a lot. I would even say that you like her,” Tim replied. 

“I do not have any romantic feelings for Marinette,” Damian protested. 

“I never said that you did. But the fact that your mind immediately jumped to that is something I would, if I were you, consider thinking about,” Tim said. 

Damian scowled. “I will. Thank you, Timothy,” he responded nonetheless. 

“Do you think he is right?” Damian asked Plagg. 

“Your brother? I don’t know, kid. But you really do seem to like Pigtails if you went against your morals for her. I know that I would do anything for my Camembert. Speaking about Camembert, do you have any on you? I’m terribly hungry,” Plagg replied. 

“I’m not a kid. I’m seventeen years old if you must know. And you’re right, I did go against my morals for her. I wouldn’t have done that for just anybody. But I don’t know if I like Marinette like Drake is implying I do. Marinette’s just a friend, I think,” Damian said. Plagg started to laugh. “What?” Damian asked. 

“Nothing. My last holder just said the same thing. About Pigtails, too. Not only did she turn out to be the girl that he was in love with, Ladybug. But he also developed a crush on her civilian self,” Plagg explained. 

“How do I even know if I like her romantically?” Damian asked. 

“I don’t know, kid. Just google it. I suppose you don’t want to ask your brother for help,” Plagg responded. 

“I guess you’re right. Thank you for the advice,” Damian replied. 

“Any time, kid, any time,” Plagg said. 

“You’ve been avoiding me,” Marinette pointed out. 

“I do not know what you’re talking about,” Damian said. 

“You have been avoiding me ever since this morning,” Marinette elaborated. “I just want to know why. Is it because of yesterday? Did your father confront you? Was it something I said? Please just tell me” 

“It was nothing that you said or did. Father did not ask any questions. Drake, however, found out about your identity and my involvement on August 18th. He will not inform father about it,” Damian responded. 

“Then why have you been avoiding me?” Marinette asked. 

“That does not concern you. Just know that it was not, under any circumstances your fault,” Damian stated. 

“It does concern me, though. You are my friend, Damian. One of the best I have. I don’t want to lose that,” Marinette replied. 

“I do not want to lose our friendship either. But I am afraid that exactly that will happen if I do not avoid you until I have dealt with my problem,” Damian said. 

“Fine, keep your secrets. But if our friendship really means that much to you, then maybe you should stop avoiding me and actually talk to me,” Marinette responded. 

Later that evening, there was a knock on Damian’s door. “What do you want?” Damian asked, expecting his older brother to be the one standing in front of his room. 

“I wanted to apologize for running off earlier,” Marinette responded, catching Damian slightly off guard. “And I wanted to talk with you,” she added after a moment. 

“Come in,” Damian responded, opening the door. 

“Thank you. Also, sorry for coming over without giving you a heads-up first. But I needed to see you, I needed to tell you in person,” Marinette said. 

“What did you need to talk about that you couldn’t wait until tomorrow? I’m assuming Drake let you in,” Damian replied. 

“I teleported here, actually. But I did talk to Tim earlier. He told me why you might be avoiding me,” Marinette responded. 

“What did he tell you?” Damian asked. 

“Is it true?” Marinette replied. 

“If you tell me what he told you, maybe I can confirm or deny,” Damian said. 

“Tim told me that the reason why you’ve been avoiding me is, he said that, I, sorry,” Marinette stumbled over her words. “Tim said that you liked me, romantically,” Marinette finally said. 

“He was right,” Damian confirmed. 

“I know that he was probably just making things- wait, really? You like me? Romantically?” Marinette asked. 

“I do. Drake talked to me about it this morning, actually and made me realize a few things,” Damian confirmed. 

“Wow, that’s, I, I do not know how to respond,” Marinette replied. She was about to continue when Damian interrupted her. 

“I am aware that you do not have romantic feelings for me. But I would appreciate it if you did not end our friendship because of it,” Damian said. 

“But I do have romantic feelings for you,” Marinette protested. 

“You are only saying that to make me feel better,” Damian argued. 

“I’m not. I really like you, romantically. Tim knows. That’s why he told me that you might like me too. I had to know whether he was right,” Marinette said. 

“Why?” Damian asked. 

“Because you’re an amazing person, Damian. You are kind, you are smart, and you are talented. There are so many beautiful things about you,” Marinette responded. 

“I was awful to you,” Damian protested. 

“The empathize lays on was. You aren’t awful to me anymore. You are more than kind. Besides, I’ve already forgiven you,” Marinette said. 

“You shouldn’t have. What I have done is unforgivable,” Damian argued. 

“It’s not. What you did was awful but you realized that and changed. Not to mention that you were influenced by magic,” Marinette replied. 

“People will talk,” Damian said. 

“They already do,” Marinette responded. 

“They will talk even more now,” Damian argued. 

“I know and I’m fine with that,” Marinette said. 

“Are you really? Do you really know how awful those people can be? Especially, if it has something to do with one of the Waynes?” Damian asked. 

“I’m friends with Tim. I have heard my fair share of awful things,” Marinette replied. 

“This will be different. People at our school already talk. Especially, after how close we have gotten over the past year. Confirming that we are in a romantic relationship will only confirm their absurd theories, at least for them,” Damian argued. 

“I don’t care about what those people think,” Marinette said. 

“I thought they were your friends. You brought all of them something for their birthday,” Damian pointed out. 

“I did that because I wanted to be nice and didn’t want them to start picking on me on the first day. I know what kind of school Gotham Academy is. And it worked. I do not care what they think about our relationship,” Marinette insisted. 

“People will think that you’re after me for my money,” Damian replied. 

“They already think that,” Marinette said. 

“What are you talking about?” Damian asked. 

“Don’t worry about it. I just heard a few students say that I seduced you and that’s why you’ve gone from hating me to being my friend in less than a week. Nothing that I’m not already used to,” Marinette dismissed. 

“Did you do something against it?” Damian said. 

“It’s not like I could have done something. The school would have dismissed it as me being overdramatic and if I had confronted them, one of them would have simply started to cry and everyone would have comforted her. I would have been seen as the perpetrator instead of the victim. Lila didn’t succeed just because she bused Trill’s power,” Marinette argued. 

“I hate that you’re right,” Damian responded. 

“Me too, Loki, me too,” Marinette said. 

“You are never going to stop calling me that, are you, Sigyn?” Damian replied. 

“Of course not. I take your change of nickname as a sign that you want to go on a date with me,” Marinette said. “You know, if someone had told me one year ago that I would end up dating the only person at Gotham Academy that did not like me, I would have laughed at their face,” Marinette said. 

“We aren’t dating yet,” Damian pointed out. “But I know what you’re talking about. I did not expect this either. But one year is a lot of time for a lot of things to happen. And a lot of things did happen,” he added. 

“I guess you’re right. Damian Wayne, would you like to go on a date with me?” Marinette asked. 

“I would love to,” Damian agreed.