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Marinette is a clumsy person.

She trips over her feet, she falls face first onto the ground, and she bumps into things way more often than she would like. Her clumsiness doesn't apply only to her actions. She also trips over her words, says things which are not situation-appropriate sometimes, and she says things without thinking first. 

Just like most of the things in her life, this one also happens in true Marinette fashion. 

“You called me your husband in front of your boss.” Dick finally says, after they’ve spent the last few minutes walking in silence which was a mix of comfortable and awkward.

“He respects married employees.”

It’s a flimsy excuse, both of them know that. But Marinette doesn’t really have another excuse, nor does she have a reason as to why she did that. 

“We’ve been divorced since February.” 

And isn’t that the kicker. 

She clears her throat when it sounds like Dick won't be accepting any of her lame excuses as to why she did that, she doesn’t even know why she did it, she spills out her thoughts. She spills every single thought that’s been piling up in the crevices of her  brain for the last few minutes because Dick is safe, Dick is her person but she doesn’t know how he’s taking this whole thing, so she says everything she wants except the thoughts that she really does want to spill out. That she really wants him to not think about it too deeply, that she wants to run away and bury herself into his hugs at the same time. She wants him to hold her like he used to.  Instead, she speaks about everything else and keeps those particular thoughts of her close to her, guarded away from being pried away. 

“It doesn’t matter, Dick, you don’t have to be so worried.” She forces herself to speak through the rapid block rising in her throat, “He’s my client for this project, so he’s really only my boss for the next two days. I probably won’t even see him again, so you don’t have to sound so opposed. It was just a slip of tongue. And even if we see him again, it’s not like he’ll remember your face.”

She hears a worn out sigh from Dick. 

“Marinette, that really, really was not what I was getting to.”

Oh. 

Oh.

He means that she really shouldn’t have called him her husband when he’s not sure about her just yet. 

She lets out a resigned breath, and tousles her hair in frustration. 

This was a mess.

Of course, what else did she expect? They’ve only been back together for a few weeks now, she really shouldn’t have expected anything else. She doesn’t know why she expected him to take it in stride, and just accept it. Real life isn’t like that, she knows that and yet it feels like all her hopes and dreams are slowly slipping out of her hands like grains of sands. 

She wants to catch all the sand that’s slipping away. 

Inside, she feels like she’s falling apart from that sentence alone. Even if everything happening right now was technically her fault. 

Outside, she grimly smiles before letting out a panicked rant that probably should contain a better apology. 

“Right. Right, yes. I know, shit. I’m so sorry, it just came out. I didn’t mean to say it out loud, but you were right there and I didn’t really think before talking. I’m sorry, you probably didn’t like that. Shit.”

“I didn’t say that,” Dick says and it’s uttered with such certainty that it makes her want to scream. 

Because. 

“What?” She says, voicing her thoughts out loud. 

It feels like every screech in her brain has quietened in satisfaction, and her heart seems to be simmering slowly with hope. And she doesn’t even know what that means for her yet. That one sentence makes her feel like soaring and falling at the same time. It feels like jumping from the tower like she used to, but it feels like she’s doing it without her suit. Without a safety net. It makes her feel unimaginably happy and yet it feels like her knees are scraped from a hard fall. For the first time, she doesn’t know what to do. Every bit of her paranoid and over prepared self seems to fall apart now because she doesn’t know how to feel about this. For how she regularly handles her problem with all the overcomplicated plans, she doesn’t seem to be able to come up with a single one. 

“That doesn’t matter right now,” 

She interrupts him before he gets any further, because why doesn’t it matter, “What do you mean it doesn’t matter right now? Dick, you just said—”

It feels like the rug is being pulled from beneath her feet before she can even gather her thoughts and she doesn’t know what to do because she doesn’t want to let go. She wants them to go back to normal, she wants it so badly that it’s starting to hurt. She wants—

“Marinette, that was my dad.”

“What?” Marinette asks, confused, her thoughts momentarily being thrown off track. 

Dick covers his face with his hands and rubs them over his face in an exhausted manner. 

“He’s my dad.” He says again, throwing out a hand gesturing vaguely that she can assume is referring to the man earlier, her boss. 

She blinks. 

“That’s your father? The one you called an asshole and an insensitive bitch?” Marinette questions, still reeling, “The one I’ve never met in the five years I was with you? That one?”

To be perfectly honest, she hasn't met most of his family, she had assumed they were on bad terms. She knows Dick still loves his father, but he doesn’t really see eye to eye with him. 

Dick groans, sliding down to crouch on the floor with his head still in his hands, “Last I checked, yes.”

Marinette doesn’t know if she wants to laugh or if she wants to cry at the absurdity, “Holy shit, that’s an even bigger catastrophe. How are you going to explain to your dad that you haven’t re-married your ex-wife?”

“He didn’t even know we were married.”

She gapes at him. 

“Even after we separated?” 

Dick nods. 

“Damn.”

“Why is Bruce looking at your marriage certificate?” 

Dick is slightly offended that that’s the first thing he hears when he picks up the phone,“Woah, what happened to “Hi Dick, how’s it going?” I thought you loved me.”

He hears a snort on the other end of the line. 

Well, he’s glad that at least one person finds the situation amusing. 

“I do love you,” Tim answers in a matter of fact tone, “but that still doesn’t warrant an excuse for whatever shit you pulled this time.”

He considers his options. 

Tim obviously knows, and if he doesn’t, he wouldn’t have a problem finding it out. Dick is about 70% sure the kid has hidden a few cameras in his apartment, and considering the incident happened at WE, that would be easier to find out. 

He needs a listening ear either way. 

Dick sighs. 

“He accidentally found out I was married,” He confesses softly. Feeling like there’s rocks in his throat he asks, “Did he find the divorce certificate?”

He still doesn’t know how he feels about Bruce finding out. 

There’s a pause. 

“I don’t think so, he was out of it,” Tim says and somehow it feels like he’s being comforted by him, “But I suppose finding out your eldest child got married without telling you is quite shocking so it will do that to you. He’s been lugging around and bumping into things constantly. And he keeps coming back to look at the certificate. Can you imagine what would happen if he also found out about the divorce?”

Dick chortles out a laugh against his will, “Please don’t joke about that.”

“How did that even happen anyway?” Tim asks after a moment of quietness. 

He can hear rustling of paper from Tim’s end, so he assumes his brother is working. 

“Marinette’s new client is Bruce, and I was picking her up from a meeting. She told him I was her husband, and she didn’t know he was my father,” He summarises to Tim. 

The actual conversation felt like a whirlwind in comparison. 

“Oh shit,”  Tim chokes, “I thought you accidentally slipped up, but he actually met her?”

Dick sighs in response, and Tim takes it as a sign to continue. 

“It was bad enough that she’s never met Bruce, but I now find out she doesn’t even know about him? I told you we should have shown her a few photos of the family.”

“Give me a break. I wasn’t on good terms with Bruce back then.”

It sounds like an excuse even to his own ears. 

“I still can’t believe that you managed to hide an entire part of your life from him.”

Dick laughs, what else could he say in response to that?

“Tim,” He says after a few minutes of light conversation, “You cannot let him find out about the divorce.”

Tim is quiet. 

There’s a frustrated sigh on his end. 

“You got it. But Marinette and you owe me one.”

“Thank you.”

“You should talk to him.”

The call disconnects before Dick can even formulate a response to that comment. 

Marinette sighs miserably into the phone as soon as the call connects. 

“What’s wrong?” She smiles slightly when she hears Adrien fret. 

She remembers crying to Adrien about her failed marriage. About how she had finally asked Dick for a divorce after a year of them not seeing each other. She remembers being curled up in his bed every time she remembered the hollow agreement she had gotten.

“Nothing,” She says before she amends, “I called Dick my husband in front of his dad.”

She can hear the confusion coloring his tone when he asks, “I thought you’ve never met his dad?”

She remembers pieces of her chipping away with every absence. She remembers growing tired of hoping that he’d put her first. She knew that he was also falling apart, his family was falling apart, and she had desperately wondered if she was his family too. She wondered if he would come back to her.

“That’s the thing,” she confirms, “I didn’t know that was his dad. Turns out he never told his dad that he was married.”

“What?” He questions, “Not even after you divorced?”

“No,” Marinette says, “Not even after that.”

She loved him. She loved him so much. She loves him. She wants to continue loving him. 

“Are you okay?”

“Mhm,” she responds, “Just having an existential crisis because he said that he didn’t not like being called my husband. Well, it wasn’t exactly that, but yeah.”

“What?” Adrien gapes before rushing to ask, “Tell me everything from the start.”

Marinette complies. 

“Oh, Mari,” he says, “That sounds great, in a way. Why do you feel like you’re having a crisis?”

“Because,”  she trails off. 

Because she realized that she wants to be married to him again. She doesn’t want to waste time when life is so fickle, when anything can happen anytime. She doesn’t want to waste whatever life she has left. Because she loves him and she doesn’t ever want to lose him again. She wants to hold him close and never let go. Because back then, when they started drifting apart, it felt like a part of her had withered away. She never wants to experience that type of hollowness again. She had lost him, and then she had lost herself trying to fix the mess at the temple that it was never the right time for her to fix her marriage no matter how badly she had wanted to. She was afraid that things would go back to how they were eventually. She doesn’t want that, she thinks that she’d rather die trying than to not have anything with him at all. Because losing him felt like a hole being torn into her soul. 

“Have you talked to him about it yet?” Adrien asks when he figures that she won’t answer. 

“No.” 

“Talk to him,” he says,  “Marinette, I know you. You will ultimately do what is best for everyone.”

“But this time, I think you should choose what’s best for you.” 

She lets his words wash over her. 

“Richard,” Damian says in the lieu of a greeting, “Fix whatever’s wrong with father. He has been moping for the past week. Timothy has informed me it is your fault.”

Dick sighs as he lets Damian in, “Of course he did.”

“He’s obviously right,” Damian tuts, “Father’s been sullen ever since he came back from a meeting and the only words I have been able to make out are ‘Dick doesn’t love me,’ So it’s your fault. I cannot handle another night of his weirdness.”

Dick snorts as he sees Damian make a face. 

“Sit,” He says instead of entertaining Damian, “I’ll bring you some hot chocolate.”

He smiles when he sees the kid perk up, honestly, he never imagined Damian of all people was capable of being bribed by sweets. Well, he supposes, Marinette’s sweets would make anyone agree to anything. Marinette had just put out hot chocolate for him, and it seemed like Damian had impeccable timing. Dick brings over the hot chocolate to him, and bundles him up in a blanket that he’s particularly fond of. 

It only takes Damian two more minutes after Dick had sat down beside him to break the silence. 

“How long have you been married?”

There it is. 

Dick regards the question carefully. He didn’t really want anyone else to know about his (technically) failed marriage. Despite the question being uttered in nonchalance, Dick can see a little bit of hurt pooling in Damian’s eyes at not being privy to the information. Damian keeps his face guarded with no expression, but Dick knows him well enough to understand the nuances. 

He sighs, “Tim told you that?”

Damian’s eyes shift over to him before going back to look at the movie playing, “Yes.”

It’s Damian who speaks again after a minute of silence. 

“Who’s your spouse?”

He sees no point in hiding it, so he says, “Marinette.”

If Damian is shocked he doesn’t show it, “A fine choice. She’s clearly too good for you.”

Damian tries to pass it off as a joke, but Dick can see it coming from a place of genuine hurt. Damian is mad at him for not telling, he’s hurt by Dick’s actions. He knows that Damian didn’t mean it like that but it still hurts to hear something like that. That he wasn’t good enough to make her stay. That he was the reason why she— 

Damian’s voice interrupts his spiral of thoughts,  “Why didn’t you tell father about her?”

“I didn’t tell Bruce about her because we weren’t speaking back then. The only times I went to the manor was to check on Tim. Most of the time, it was Tim who came here and not the other way around,” Dick answers. He knows that’s neither a proper answer nor a proper excuse. 

The sentence held some bit of truth. 

He really wasn’t talking to Bruce back then, it was a little after Jason’s… death and he was always arguing with Bruce back then. But, he thinks Bruce would have dropped everything the minute Dick told him he was getting married. Dick likes to think that Bruce would have cared, even then. He probably did, but Dick never gave him the chance. 

Damian is quiet for a moment. 

“What about…” Me? Why didn’t you tell me? 

He trails off, and Dick knows. His brother feels hurt and he doesn’t like it, but he doesn’t know how to fix it because he was the one that caused it in the first place. 

Damian shakes his head, “Nevermind that, what about now? Why don’t you just bring her home and get this over with?”

 “It’s not—” possible. It’s complicated. She doesn’t like me anymore. It’s not the same, she—  “Damian, we’re not married anymore.” He chokes out. 

“Oh.”

“I didn’t keep this from you intentionally. We weren’t close when we met, then Bruce disappeared and I was a mess. We were already separated then.” He explains softly, “I was so bad to her, Damian, I stayed in Gotham for weeks without telling her. Tim wasn’t there to knock some sense into me, I hurt everyone around me. She was so confused, Damian. She kept asking about Tim, she kept taking care of me after I came home hurt, and she kept forgiving me for walking out on her several times. I couldn’t—” do that to her anymore so we both just walked away. 

He cuts himself off and lets out a breath, “By the time I had come to my senses and worked out a system for us, she had left.” 

“She came back?” Damian questions, his voice quieting. 

“She—” Dick swallows, “Yeah, she came back.”

Because that was simpler than saying that she never left, I drove her away. I don’t know why she’s back. I don’t know if she’s completely back, we haven’t talked properly yet. What if she leaves again?

“Good.”

Good. Yeah. 

Casually, Damian says, “You should just get married again, so you don’t have to explain the divorce.”

Dick’s head snaps towards Damian, “What?”

Because what? Where did the idea even come from? His head spins just thinking about it. 

“You’re dating again aren’t you?” Damian rolls his eyes at the questioning look from him, “Timothy.”

“Of course,” Dick mutters, “He really should start minding his own business.”

Damian eyes him with thinly veiled disdain, “You don’t mean that,” he tuts, “You like his stalker-ish tendencies.”

“We can’t get married Damian,” He says instead of dignifying Damian’s statement with a confirmation. He just rolls his eyes in response to the pointed look he receives in return because, well, it’s true. He’s really fond of that little stalker. 

“Why not?”

Dick sighs, “We’ve only been dating again for a few weeks.”

“So?”

“So?” He scrunches his nose, “It’s too soon, Damian! We just moved past our grievances and worked out our issues. We can’t do that this soon into it. I don’t even know if it’s going to work out!”

But he does hope, wish, and pray with all of his heart that it works out. 

He doesn’t know if he can handle losing her again. 

“You started dating her again thinking it was going to fall apart again?” 

“No,” He answers instantly, “No. I— Damian. We’re going to work it out this time.” He says with certainty. 

Damian questions again, “Then why can’t you get married?”

“It’s too soon!” He bursts out. 

“Says who?” Damian asks again. Dick knows that Damian is trying to make a point by the look in his eyes, but he cannot figure out what Damian wants to say to him. He’s currently overwhelmed with all the thoughts that have been stagnant in his brain for far too long and are being stirred up by Damian. 

“Says—” He breaks, “I don’t know. I don’t—” He breaks down. 

“Richard,” Damian starts, “I’m not the right person for this.” He says when Dick lets out a pathetic sniffle. 

After a moment of quietness he hears Damian greet, “Timothy.” 

He meets Damian’s eyes in confusion. 

“Wassup? I thought you were at Dick’s?” Filters out Tim’s voice on Damian’s phone. 

“I am. Tell this buffoon he’s being unreasonable.”

Tim clicks his tongue before agreeing, “Sure. Dick, You’re an idiot.”

He whines, “Damian.” 

God, he should have known that these two would be like this the minute they got along. He never should have locked them in the house to make them get along, which they ended up getting out of by destroying all of Dick’s defence systems and replacing them with new booby traps. 

He made a mistake. 

Damian starts explaining the conversation that took place and Tim hums along quietly and answers at the right parts. 

Then, “Damian’s right, you know.” 

Tim silences Dick’s efforts to refute the statement, “He has a point. You’re clearly just as in love with her you were years ago. Don’t even try to argue with me about this, I literally found out you guys were dating again the very next day it happened. It was like your soul had been returned to you.”

Dick hears him sigh. 

“Dick, I was so confused when I came back from Europe. It was like life itself was dulled out of you,” Tim says softly, “I know I was mad at you back then, but it made me so happy when you slowly started smiling like you used to again. That was when Marinette had come back. And when the spark in your eyes had returned, I knew both of you had started dating again.”

Dick lets the implications of the words sink in. It’s not like Tim is wrong. 

“You’re happier with her,” Tim says after a moment. 

“It’s true,” Damian agrees, “I knew you were happy for some reason, but I couldn’t pinpoint what it was.”

Oh. 

Even Damian?

“So what are you so afraid of?” Tim asks gently, like he’s afraid of breaking Dick. 

Well, he is too, in a way. But not from his brothers’ prying. 

What if it’s not the right answer? What if she wants to see if we can be together again? What if she just came back to him for familiarity? He never quite stopped loving her. He doesn’t know if he wants to curl up in a ball and cry or scream at everyone. What would he do if she decides to leave? There are so many things he’s afraid of. There’s so many things he wants to clarify, wants to ask about. 

“What if she leaves again?” He says instead of the mini rant in his head. 

“Dick,” Tim whispers, “Dick, that wasn’t your fault.”

He asks helplessly, “Wasn’t it?”

“You both did what you could. You both tried so hard, but Dick you had so much on your shoulders back then. You both had different responsibilities to take care of. Do I think you should have been more honest with each other and that the divorce was a stupid option? Yes. But I also know both of you tried your best to hold it together till it literally fell apart,” Tim answers resolutely, “Dick, you’ve both moved past it now. You know what went wrong and now, you’re fixing it. You know how to fix things, how to heal yourself.”

“For the record, I don’t think she minds being married to you,” Tim says after thinking for a while. 

“Oh,” he says. 

Because oh, that was true. It was Marinette who had called him her husband. It was her who had worried that he wouldn’t like being called her husband. 

He would give so many things to be called her husband again. From her own lips. 

He wanted to marry her again, he realised with a start. 

“I think I need a few hours,” he says. 

“I don’t think I ever told you why I ended up staying in Gotham back then,” Dick says out loud a few nights later, when they’re both in bed but neither of them asleep. 

“You don’t—” have to, she wants to say.

Dick cuts her off before she can get any further with that, “I should. I want to. Bruce died, or at least, we thought he had died. It was a whole,” he waves his hands around as she turns to face him, “thing. It was a mess. I was a mess. I hadn’t talked to him in so long that I didn’t know what to do after he was gone.”

He continues, “I didn’t know where to put my pent up frustration for him, I didn’t know what to do with the panic. I didn’t know what to do with all the love I couldn’t give him. It felt like I was losing my parents again, and it scared me. I think grief consumed me.”

Marinette caresses his hair softly as he continues speaking, “I hurt a lot of people.”

“I know,” she says, “I was scared when you started coming home with really bad injuries. I was scared when you stopped coming back. I was so lost Dick,” she says helplessly, “It felt like my people were being torn away from me, when Tim and you disappeared.”

“I’m sorry,” he says. 

He’s quiet for a moment before he starts to talk about anything and everything. He tells her about his family, he tells her all about his night job and he spills every bit of secret he’s ever kept from her. In return, she tells him that she had wanted to stay but she couldn’t. She tells him about her time in Paris, she tells him about the temple. She tells him about her friends. They’ve already talked about this the night they got back together. But she thinks that both of them know that this conversation was in an entirely different aspect. 

“What were you thinking about when you called me your husband?” Dick finally asks when the silence stretches. Both of them were sitting up now, facing each other. 

“That you were mine,” Marinette confesses. 

“I liked that,” Dick confesses in return, “I think I would like to be married to you again.”

Marinette can feel the love radiating from him.

“Isn’t it too soon?”

Dick carefully asks in return, “Is it too soon for you?”

Marinette considers that for a moment. 

She thinks about the lost time, she thinks about their relationship, and she thinks about him. 

“No,” she says with finality.

She doesn’t think it’s too soon.

“Okay,” Dick softly replies. 

I love you, she thinks. 

“Did any of you know that Dick was married?” Bruce asks when most of them are at the manor for breakfast one particular day.

Ah. There it is. 

Tim was wondering when Bruce would bring it up. 

Seems like he had finally worked through the devastation of finding out his oldest child was married. Huh, what do you know?

He meets Damian’s eyes across the table. 

“Yep.” “Mhm.”

Come the twin responses, just as Jason shouts out, “What?”

Bruce’s eyes snap towards them, “You both knew?”

“You didn’t?” Tim drawls. 

He can see Damian scowl in confusion, but he doesn’t interrupt Tim’s little play. Hm, good. Dick still hadn’t come to terms with everything, and the last Tim knew, he still didn’t know how to tell Bruce about the entire ordeal. So, no one said he couldn’t have fun while protecting his brother’s secrets. So he was going to have his fun after dealing with the entire mess for years.  

“Dick is married?” Jason asks. 

Tim rolls his eyes, “Yes. Keep up.”

“Marinette is wonderful,” Damian says, “I went shopping with her yesterday.”

Inside, he thinks that truly, none of his other siblings would go along with whatever Tim tries to pull. Well, maybe Cass would. But nobody else. He should get Damian a gift. Some paints would be good. 

Outside though, he maintains the perfect picture of innocence and pulls out his best whine, “What? I thought fabric shopping was our thing.”

He hears someone say, “What? Since when do Damian and Tim go fabric shopping together? I didn’t even know Tim had any sense of fashion,” which, rude. There’s a reason why Marinette picks him to go with her. 

Damian rolls his eyes, “We went shopping for paints, sketchbooks, and groceries. She hasn’t gone fabric shopping yet. She's an excellent conversationalist.” He says the last part facing Bruce. Then, he turns back to Tim, “Timothy, she asked me to tell you to come by soon. She misses you.”

He hears Jason shout, “What is happening?” 

Tim smiles into his cup. 

The next morning, when Dick wakes up, he feels content. 

Like waking up from a pleasant dream. Except now, that pleasant dream is his reality. 

He lets himself bask in the happiness bursting inside his chest for what feels like a few minutes, before getting out of the bed. 

When he goes outside, he spots Marinette cooking something as she hums, aroma filling the air. That sight alone is enough to make flowers bloom in his chest again, spreading into his body and infecting every thought and feeling he has. It’s an amazing experience. He feels happy, he feels like he’s whole again. He loves her.

“I love you,” Dick says. 

Marinette turns towards him, warmth and affection pooling in her eyes in a way that he thinks should send him staggering. 

“I love you,” She echoes with a smile. 

He loves her.

“What the fuck, Jay?! Let me go!” Tim shouts. 

He thrashes as he’s being dragged by Jason. He really doesn’t have time for whatever Jason wants right now. 

“Sit.”

Tim sits when he sees Damian also on the couch.

“He dragged you here too?” Tim asks Damian. 

Damian rolls his eyes in response, “Yes.”

“Dickface is married?”

Tim groans, “Didn’t we just go through this yesterday?”

“No, we did not,” Jason gestures to all of them together, “You did.” He points to the two of them. 

Tim gives Jason the nastiest glare he can muster, “What else do you want me to say? Marinette’s awesome.”

Why were they wasting time on this again?

Right. 

Because he had decided to have fun. 

Everything really comes back to bite him in the ass. 

“She is,” Damian agrees, “She’s a great artist, and she kicks ass.”

Jason makes a choked sound, “Who taught you that?”

“Timothy,” Damian jerks his thumb and Tim snickers.  “She bakes excellent cookies, she’s a renowned designer and she’s extremely kind.”

“How did you both know about it, and none of us had a single clue about it? Why have I not met this, Marinette yet.” Come the barrage of questions. 

Tim tuts in response, “Favorite sibling privileges.”

“What? That is bullshit.”  Jason shouts at the same time Damian vehemently denies Tim’s words, “No way.”

Tim sniffs, “I’m clearly Dick’s favorite sibling.”

“I’m offended.” “You’re pulling that out of your ass.”

“Why are you offended?” He asks Damian instead of answering. 

Jason says, “Listen, if it was the brat, I could understand. Dickface clearly plays favorites when it comes to the kid. But there is no way it’s you of all people.”

“That’s rude,” Tim answers, affronted, “And it doesn’t make sense if it was Damian.”

He says the sentence with a tone that he would only use for kids. 

“Why not?” Jason grits out. 

“Damian is clearly Dick’s kid, and I’m his favorite sibling. That’s why we’ve met her.” Tim says it like it’s obvious. 

Jason denies, “Stop spouting lies, there’s no way it’s you.”

Tim frowns at Jason and asks, “Oh yeah? When was the last time he latched himself on you and cuddled you for more than an hour? When was the last time he asked you to visit? I bet I have more texts from Dick in the past month than you have in the past year,” he wagers. 

When Jason fumes at his words, Tim realizes with glee that he is having way too much fun. 

“Does that mean you’re Marinette’s child? She’s just as insufferable as Richard is with me when it comes to you.” Damian asks with a frown. 

Tim would listen to Marinette before he would listen to Dick. 

Marinette was the one who had worked out a system for him. 

She was the one who he would seek out if he was sick, sad or went he wanted to be praised. 

He does that with Bruce too, and Bruce is his dad. Does that mean that he considered Marinette as a parental figure too?

Tim considers that for a moment before answering, “Oh yeah, totally. Dick was the first proper parental figure you had, and Marinette was mine. Dick doesn’t count as my parent because I had already claimed him as my sibling by the time I met her.”

“What the fuck.”

“Dick,” Jason greets as he enters the apartment. 

“Jason?”

“This is a nice apartment,” He mutters.

“What are you doing here?”

Ignoring Dick, he continues speaking, “I can see why you settled down here.”

“Is something wrong? Did something happen? Are you okay?”

Jason sighs as he interrupts Dick from spiralling into anxiety, “Do you want to watch a movie?”

“Like a movie night?” Dick blinks at him and quickly answers as Jason stares at him, unimpressed,“Yes, I mean, yes.”

They get through an hour of the movie in relative silence. Jason knows that he’s doing this because of the stupid argument he had with Tim earlier in the day, but some part of him also knows that he’s missed this. He’s missed hanging out with Dick, he’s missed joking around with Dick, and he’s missed the cuddles. He missed his older brother. 

Jason is content letting the silence soak him with its warmth until there’s a rattle from the window. 

“Hi Dick,” Fucking Tim says as he climbs into the apartment, “I needed something that I left behind last week.”

By the time Dick waves his hand in permission, he’s already in the apartment and depositing his cape on the floor. 

At least Jason was clean. 

Jason sniffs and smiles at the kid smugly when he spots them, although he would never admit that he was irked when all he got in response was a smile that could cut him. A self assured, happy smile. Tim walks around pocketing several things around the apartment.

 Jason watches him from the corner of his eye, as he snuggles closer to Dick, it’s not possessiveness, it’s not. 

Nothing really happens until the kid starts trying to reach a box that’s on top of the shelf. Then, when Tim loses his balance, Dick untangles himself from Jason and goes to stand by the kid’s side. Jason feels a bit miffed. 

“Careful,” He hears Dick say as he grabs the box from the top and hands it to Tim.

When Dick doesn’t return to his side immediately, and instead gives Tim a kiss on the top of his head, he blurts out,“Is he really your favorite sibling?”

He flushes rapidly, Jason cannot believe he said that out loud. 

Dick’s head snaps towards him and Jason feels even more embarrassed, “What?” Dick asks.

Tim rolls his eyes, and Jason can feel the smugness rolling off of him in waves, “Obviously.” 

“Why?”

Jason is not proud of how close that sounded to a whine.

“I want to be someone’s favorite,” Tim says in a matter of fact way, before Dick interrupts.

Dick coos, “Aw. You’re my favorite Timmy.”

Tim’s smile widens as he looks towards Jason from his hug. That Dick is giving him. 

Did Jason really not get a single hug even after he asked for movie night?

Tim giggles, “Thank you. I can’t be Bruce’s favorite because Jason and Cass are his favorites. Dick likes me the best, so I’m his favorite.”

Jason’s mind screeches in protest.

“What? I am not his favorite child,” He says, sitting up properly, “Hello? Did you miss the part where I was the black sheep of the family? Murderer, crime lord, and probably the one he has had the most trouble with?”

“No, no. He’s got a point. Jason, you are the black sheep,” Dick says, and Jason feels just a tiny bit hurt, “Just not in the way you think you are.”

“What?” He asks. 

Tim nods, “You’re totally Bruce’s favorite kid. Cass and you are his perfect little children.”

“Yeah,” Dick hums in agreement, “The rest of us were totally leash kids. I’m pretty sure Bruce was devastated when he realized that none of us were like you.”

“What?”

“I’m pretty sure we made him go gray early and he now dyes his hair.” Tim mutters. 

Jason is still reeling from the first statement when he asks, “What could you have possibly done that was worse than what I did?”

Dick gives him a tired look, and Jason doesn’t understand what is happening,“I am not having this conversation with you.”

Jason makes an aborted noise in protest, when Tim interrupts him. 

“Yeah, speak to Bruce if you want to,” Tim says, snuggling closer into Dick, “But I know for a fact everyone agrees with me when I say Cass and you are his favorite kids.”

The door opens and in a flash Tim unlatches himself from Dick and barrels into the person who enters as he shouts, “Marinette!”

Well, he’ll be damned. Tim really does look like her kid, and even feels like that too. 

The lady brightens immediately, and catches him without flinching, “Tim! I’m glad you came.” She says just as enthusiastically. 

Weirdly, Tim looks like a small bird flapping his wings in excitement when he talks to her, “Mhm! Damian told me you were expecting me soon so I dropped by.”

The lady would probably look tiny next to him. She has shiny black hair and her eyes seem to be pooling with so much kindness. 

Now that he isn’t attached to Tim, Dick returns to his side. Jason latches onto him immediately, in the same way that Tim had. He’s mildly grateful that Dick doesn’t ask any questions and just decides to comply with a laugh. 

“Did you have lunch?” She asks Tim. 

“I think so.”

“Sit, I’ll make you something. There’s also macaroons if you want some.” She says, as she gestures at the counter. 

“These are amazing,” Tim answers as he munches happily. 

Are they always like that? He tries to convey to Dick through his eyes. 

And it seems like Dick understands what he’s trying to ask because he gets this exasperatedly fond look on her face. Yes, I’m pretty sure they forget I exist when it comes to each other.

“Oh yeah, what happened to the things that disappeared from your apartment the other day?” He hears Marinette ask Tim in the background. 

“Fucking Bart,” Jason feels confused as to why she would know that name but he decides not to question it,  “He thought it would be funny if he took some of my casefiles. I’m so not sharing with him the next batch of cookies you give me.”

“Come on Timothy, don’t be like that,” She scolds before smiling in amusement, “But I suppose I can make him something different. What flavor is his least favorite?”

Jason chokes down his laughter at that. 

Marinette turns to him. 

“Jason,” She greets him sweetly and he flinches, “Come.” She beckons him over. 

Dick snorts before he lightly pushes Jason towards her. 

“Do you like lasagna?” Marinette asks him. 

“What?” Marinette’s eyes crinkle in amusement at his response, “I mean, yes. Yes I do.”

Tim snickers at him before smiling at him invitingly. 

“Sit” She says as she sets down a plate for him too. 

That’s when he decides he likes her. 

She’s going to be his favorite sister-in-law. 

“Hi,” Dick blankly greets when he finally shuffles into Bruce’s study after almost an hour of contemplation. “How have you been?”

“Good,” Bruce says and Dick grimaces. 

“Bruce,” he starts, “I didn’t hide my marriage from you.”

He doesn’t know what to say. He doesn’t know if he should start from when he met Marinette, or when it got serious. 

He wants to say so many things, and at the same time he doesn’t want to say anything at all. 

We weren’t really talking to each other when I started dating her. 

I think I loved her right from the start. 

I think I was afraid of letting her go. 

When she proposed, I wanted to run to you and cry because I was so happy.

I swear I wanted you there, but I didn’t know how to talk to you. I didn’t know how to tell you. Things were so bad between us. 

And then you died, and we separated. 

It was a whole mess, we got divorced too. I love her so much, Bruce. I wanted to tell someone when she came back. I wanted to tell someone, but she asked me for a divorce. I didn’t want to let her go, letting her go was the stupidest thing I did in my life. I didn’t mean to hide it from you. I wanted to tell you, but I didn’t see the point in it because we had already gotten divorced. 

I wanted to tell you as soon as I started dating her again. 

I wanted—

“Bruce,” he chokes out, tears gathering his eyes, “Bruce, I didn’t—- I didn’t—”

Bruce covers the distance between them in two long strides and takes Dick in his arms, and suddenly Dick feels like the eleven year old he was when Bruce found him. 

He feels safe. 

He feels loved. 

“Dad,” he says, finally letting his tears fall, “Dad, I—”

“Shh,” Bruce soothes as he rubs Dick’s back, “It’s okay. It’s okay chum, let it out.”

And that’s when Dick completely breaks. He lets himself crumble in his father’s arms as everything spills out at once. All the emotional turmoil finally spills out and Dick continues to ramble for what feels like hours. 

“I love you,” Bruce says once Dick is done explaining, and weirdly he feels like crying all over again, “I’m so proud of you.”

Dick continues sniffling in his arms for the next few minutes before Bruce breaks the silence. 

“I would love to have dinner with the two of you later this week,” He softly says. 

Bruce doesn’t ask. Bruce simply tells him, like it’s that simple. He’s hurt, sure, but he’s also willing to rebuild their relationship and make up for lost time. 

And Dick feels like he’s soaring again. 

Because it feels like Bruce understood Dick perfectly. 

Later when he goes back to his apartment in Bludhaven, he doesn’t feel like he’s running away from the manor anymore. 

No, to him, it felt like he came back from visiting home.

“I love you,” He says as he kisses Marinette softly, like he has all the time in the world. 

Marinette’s eyes crinkle in happiness and love like they always do before she responds, “I love you.”