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Most people, under the age of 40, tend to not particularly enjoy galas. Filled with elbow rubbing, ass kissing and brown nosing, the Wayne's were no strangers to this unfortunately. On this particular occasion however Tim was actually looking forward to this one. Mostly because he could share in his suffering.
He had recently made a new friend, an absolutely adorable coffee fairy by the name of Marinette. Originally from Paris she was in Gotham to study business while simultaneously launching her clothing brand. The two shared an over reliance on caffeine to fuel their burning of the candle at both ends.
Marinette was hesitant at first to accept his offer to attend, nervous to be surrounded by so many big names and bigger wallets. In the end what convinced her was not Tim but actually her best friends. Turns out Tim wasn't the only one pressuring the designer to get out there more, a pair of blonds had been on her case for quite some time to attend. If not to get her name out there then simply to serve as distraction from the absolute boredom that came with a fancy gala.
“Tim! Ugh finally I've been looking for you since I got here.” Marinette called out.
Turning to meet her, he was ill prepared to be met with a pair of bombshell chaperones.
“Mari! I was looking for you.” Giving her a quick hug before taking in her outfit. Red with black embroidery accentuating her chest, hip hugging, backless and the slit up to her thigh let little to the imagination while still being appropriate for the event “You look absolutely incredible by the way”
“Oh please, it's not that amazing.” she said, waving him off.
Flipping her hair in response to her friend “Really Dupain-Cheng? You look fabulous, take the compliment. Aren't you here in part to make waves?”
“Chloe's right princess, you are incredible. You are easily the best dressed person here.” The short haired model agreed.
With a nervous fiddle of her hands before standing up straight “Thanks guys I appreciate it. Tim, these are my best friends Chloe Bourgeois and Adrien Agreste.
Tim’s eyes sprang open quickly bouncing between the two as they greeted him “Oh wow. When Mari said her friends were going to be here I wasn't expecting a pair of literal supermodels. It's nice to meet you both.”
“Pleasure. Dupain-Cheng could have mentioned her new coffee buddy was a Wayne, but honestly her inability to see wealth and fame is practically a superpower at this point.”
“It really is nice to meet you. Funny enough both Chloe and I have been dancing on the edge of your social circle for a while. It's nice to finally meet you.”
“Oh? How so?” Tim tried to keep his tone level to not betray his caution. The Wayne name commands authority, wealth, power. It would not be the first time someone tried using a person with whom he was close to try and get at him and his family. He refused to let that happen to Marinette, she was too nice to be used.
“You know Connor Kent? I'm actually dating his brother Jon.”
A portion of the tension that took residence in his shoulders relieved. Jon Kent is many things of which an excellent judge of character was one. His features relaxed and a mischievous smirk crossed his lips “Oh so you are the cute blond he was talking about. The last time I was over to see Connor Jon literally could not stop talking about you.”
Adrien’s cheeks flushed as he reached up to rub the back of his neck. “Yup that's me.”
Deciding to spare her friend further embarrassment Chloe chimed in. “And my better half is currently in a glare off with your younger brother Damian.” she said using her champagne flute to gesture across the hall to a small crowd gathering.
Tracing her direction he spies Damian in an intense staring match with a shorter Asian woman in an off white floor length dress embroidered with pink flowers. The intense dichotomy of her effeminate gown and glare that could cut iron was stark to say the least.
“Is that Tsurugi? Baby bird has been talking endlessly about his frustration with her being a better fencer than him. Every step he took, she bested, she's been driving him absolutely mad. You two are together?” By this point all the tension had left him. These people had no need to get close to him with any plot or intent, they simply never had the chance to meet despite their social proximity.
A mix of pride and affection graced Chloe’s features “Mmmhm. Together for the last 3 years. Mari set us up actually.”
“Oh please you two would have ended up together regardless. Besides I whhhoyshitwhoisthat.” Marinette’s entire mental train irrevocably derailed as someone caught her eye behind him. Grabbing onto her Tim shaped life preserver like it was the only thing between her and oblivion. “Tim .I NEED you to tell me who that is. The really cute blond. The one in the purple dress. She's so pretty…” Her jaw slightly slacken and her pupils blown wide, lost in her own world centered entirely around this unknown beauty.
Turning the best he could with his newly smitten koala he stealthily scanned the crowd before landing on who he assumed was the target for Marinette's affections. Not that he needed a tremendous amount of confirmation, there were only so many hot blond girls in purple at the gala “Hm? Who? Oh Steph? That's my sister.”
His words instantly broke her from wherever her mind had wandered, honestly he didn’t want to know. He did however wish he knew his little coffee fairy was going to react so…violently “Why didn't you tell me you had a hot sister.” Each word punctuated with a thwap to the arm with her clutch, and they were not exactly light.
Rubbing the now sure to be bruzed area “Okay! Jeez, what do you have in there, rocks?! it's not exactly the kind of thing that comes up. Hello I'm Tim all my siblings are ridiculously hot.” Gesturing with his hands in mock jest.
“Oh that is a good description, she is ridiculously hot.” Adrien interjected from Marinette’s side. One arm folded across his chest to cradle his elbow, the other set to stroking his chin, looking as though he was ready to critique an art piece.
“Looks like Mari has found someone who fits her type again” Came Chloe, standing along the other side of Marinette smirking at Adrien as she mirrored his pose.
“Oh she’s done. There's no going back once someone checks all the boxes.” Adrien closing his eyes and shaking his head arms aloft with a shrug.
“What? No way. I don't have a type.” Marinette’s face contorted into a confused scrunch as she bounced between addressing the two.
“Yes you do.” Chloe smirked
“Rich,”
“Hot,”
“Fit,”
Serving the list back and forth between them the two brought their faces closer and closer invading her personal space, their shit eating grin growing more every word before finally,
“Blond.” Said in unison, faces only inches from her own.
Shoving the two apart from her only drew attention to how red her cheeks had become in their assessment. “OKAY, OKAY. What, am I on trial here? And you two are the ones to talk?”
“Oh without a doubt” Chloe says taking a step back, one hand on her chest the other cocked on her hip.
“Guilty as charged.” Adrien mirrored her movement, holding his hand raised as though making a pledge.
“Illegally sexy,”
“Dark hair,”
“Sweet as a pea,”
“Can”
“And will!”
“Break me.”
“We know what we're about.”
“Do you?”
Feeling like a called out tennis ball Marinette looks incredulously at her two best friends “Jeez do you two practice that routine?”
“Oh yes, we started a club. Marinette's hot blond exes, we meet every other Tuesday.” Adrien said absolutely beaming.
Chloe nodded along in agreement “We have t-shirts.”
Finally acknowledging his presence Adrien turned to Tim “Question. I can't tell from her dress but does your sister by any chance have abs?”
Honestly if you gave him a year to try and guess what that question was he literally never would have come up with that one. “Y-yea?”
“Fuck me.” Marinette looked once again at Steph across the hall bottom lip caught in her teeth.
“Oh you are screwed.” Whispered Chloe into her ear with absolutely no intention of secrecy.
Quicker than Tim ever thought possible Marinette closed the distance between them grabbing his hands and pleading “Please please PLEASE tell me she is single and gay.”
“Um, I think she is? She's dated girls before but she hasn't mentioned anyone recently.”
Breath in breath out, Marinette steeled herself. You are strong, you are hot, you got this. “Ok. I'm gonna go ask her to dance.”
Patting her on the back “You got this princess.”
“Don't fuck it up Dupain-Cheng.”
Marinette downed her glass of champagne and made her way over.
The trio watched as she made her way. A minute or two of talking and a glance in their direction with all three sporting big grins and multiple thumbs up they took to the dance floor.
After a moment of watching the two dance Tim finally voiced the question that begged asking “Sooo you two and Mari?
“It's a long,”
“long story.”
“Huh, cryptic.
Do you really have t-shirts?”
Several weeks later
Marinette groggily enters the Wayne family kitchen to see Tim at the island, coffee in hand working at his computer.
“Good morning sleepy head.” He looked her up and down in amusement as he handed her a cup of coffee, fairly confident those were the pajamas Steph went to bed in last night.
Yawning as she embraced the idea of being awake. “Mornin.”
“Things working well with Steph?” He said as he took a sip of coffee hiding a knowing smile behind the mug.
She stares off into the middle ground, as her eyes lose focus her smile grows and grows. “Yea she's really great. Like really really great.”
“Good you deserve to be happy, both of you do. I think you are good for each other.”
“Aw thanks Timbers.” Steph wrapped her arms around Marinette from the back as she kissed her cheek.
“And good morning to you too.” Marinette said with a small giggle. Gesturing over to the coffee pot “There's coffee.”
“Mmm coffee.” she releases her hold and makes her way over. Giving both Marinette and Tim an unobstructed view of her shirt.
A royal purple tee with white lettering across the back
Dupain-Cheng checklist:
✔Rich
✔Hot
✔Fit
✔Blond
“BHA HAHA” Tim spit out his coffee onto his computer needing to steady himself on the counter at risk of falling to the floor.
Marinette's face crimson with embarrassment “OH MY GOSH STEPH!, where do you get that!”
Turning to acknowledge her looking like the cat that ate the canary “Oh this? I got invited to an exclusive club not too long ago. We meet every other Tuesday.”
Looking so very done with her friends “I'm going to strangle them.”