Fallen Angel

Chapter 14- Siblings do for their Siblings

Mari pov-

A scream left my mouth as I fell out of my bed, waking up from my nightmare.

Everywhere I glanced in my room, all I saw was Tom trying to get me, and I was hyperventilating as I clumsily scrambled to my feet and bolted out of my room, not knowing where I was running, but knowing that I had to escape Tom at all costs.

I forced open a closed door that was in my way and rushed inside, slamming the door shut, locking it, and quickly moving to the bed that was in the room, where someone was jolting awake at the noise I made.

Duke blinked and studied me as he sat up in confusion. "Mari? What's wrong?" he asked, and I went over to him and hugged him tightly, burying my face in his shoulder. "N-nightm-m-mare," I said, and my older brother wrapped his arms around me. "T-Tom was af-after me, and he was trying to kill all of you because I left him when he said n-not to, and I kept running because I didn't- I don't wanna die, either," I explained as Duke laid us down against his headboard.

"M, listen to me, Kiddo. That bastard is DEAD, okay? He's never going to be able to hurt anyone ever again, because Roy killed him and saved you and Jason form him. You don't have to worry about him anymore, Lil Sis. I promise. And if he does somehow come back to life, then I'll kill him myself and make sure he doesn't come back. Okay? You're safe with us, Mars. No one is going to get you here. I promise." he soothed into my hair, and I nodded. "O-okay... Thank you, Big Bro. Um, can-can I stay here tonight? I don't wanna be by myself." I asked, and he nodded. "Of course. I'm not going to turn you away. Nightmares are the worst. Now shush and go back to sleep. M. We all know that you need it just as badly as Tim does." He said with amusement, and I huffed out a laugh before closing my eyes, feeling safe in my big brothers arms.

~                                               ~                                                    ~

A few days later, I was in my room planning my next concert, which I had scheduled for next week, and I was finalizing the last few details so that I could send it to Jagged Stone.

Mar'i's birthday was coming up in 6 days, and I was going to have the concert be her present from me. The plan was to have my brothers spend the day with her and distract her while I was out with my friends getting the concert ready, which would start after dinner and her present opening. I wouldn't be there for dinner or the presents, but that wouldn't matter for what I had planned. After dinner and presents, Jason was going to take Mar'i out for a ride on his motorcycle while the rest of the family arrived at the concert, claiming that he was going to stay home and babysit her while they were all away, and I was going to text him when the Wayne's arrived and were in their places for the concert. Once that was done, Jason would bring our niece to the concert, and at the half time part of the show, I would announce her to come up to the stage with me and my friends, and we would sing her favorite songs, and after that, I would also reveal myself to the world as Marinette Jakayla Todd-Wayne.

I was almost done when I heard a knock on my bedroom door. Looking up from my bed, which was covered in several stacks of different important papers, notebooks, and my phone and laptop, I saw Tim looking at me with a nervous expression. He was standing in my doorway, fidgeting a bit and clearly hesitating. I raised an eyebrow of confusion at him. "TJ? What's wrong?" I asked, and I swore his face turned a shade of white lighter than it already was as he glanced back in the hall, entered my room, and quickly but gently shut my door. 

My older brother went to go sit at my desk chair, grabbing my mixed up rubix cube and starting to solve it. "I need your help... and uh... from what I read online, I think people call it a blessing? I don't know. I guess, just, your permission and advice. I'm not going to Dick or Jason about this, because they wont get it, and I don't want to go to our other brothers and sisters about it because it'll be awkward and I'm not used to this kind of stuff, and I figured you would know what to do and I know you wont tell anyone about it, so I just need your help with this." He nervously rambled, solving the cube and mixing it again before trying to solve it again. 

I stared at him in confusion and understanding. "What do you need help with?" I asked, and Tim took a deep breath and looked me in the eye. "I... I think I- I... you know what? Fuck this. Marinette, I'm in love with your best friend. I, Timothy Jackson Drake-Wayne, am in love with Chloe Elizabeth Bourgeois, and I want to ask her to be my girlfriend." He forced out honestly, studying my face for any reaction. 

I blinked for a few minutes, then smiled at him. "Well, it's about damn time you 'fessed up about it. I was beginning to wonder when you were going to get your head out of the sand." I teased, and he gaped at me. "I- wha... YOU KNEW?! D-holy shit, did I- did I really make it THAT obvious? I- how long have you known? Wait, how did you find out? Do the others know?" he asked, and I giggled. "Tim, relax. I've known for a while that you were interested in Chloe. And yes, you did make it a little obvious. The way you look at her says it all, big bro. I may not know how to read body language as well as Cass, but I can tell when someone is in love with someone. Besides, I think you two would make a cute and killer couple, too. I'm not the only one that agrees. And, yes, our other brothers and sisters know, too. Literally everyone except Queen herself know, even Mini Me can tell you love her, Timmy." I calmly said, and his turned a deep shade of red, groaning in embarrassment as he dropped the solved rubix cube and put his head in his hands, which were propped on his knees by his elbows.

"Oh my Goddd... I can't hide ANYTHING from this damn family. How the fuck does Jason hide shit from us? I have to get him to teach me." he complained, and I laughed. "If it helps, I have a couple of things that even Jason doesn't know about me. I can teach you a few tips if you want. But, anyway, you said that you needed my help with something. What is it?" I asked curiously, and my brother smiled. "Well... I want to ask Bean to be my girlfriend, but I want it to be something special, romantic, but also fun and sweet. Something that she'll never forget for years to come, and something that will make her smile every time she thinks about it. I want it to be unique, something that no one has ever done before, but... I don't know what to do. Like, I don't know how to ask without giving my plan away and spoiling the entire thing, and I came to you because you know her better than anyone else, so I thought that you would be able to help me with it. Do you think you can, if you're not too busy with... hold on, what ARE you doing?" he asked, coming over to the bed. I sighed. "Concert planning and planning out my gift to Mar'i for her birthday next week. JayJay is already in on the plan, and I'm just editing and finalizing the last bit of details so that I can run it through Uncle Jagged." I said, knowing that he just changed the subject. 

I told him about the plan, and he agreed to help out with it by distracting the family when needed for that day and being the inner man for Jason so that he could bring Mar'i easily without getting caught. And, I had all the tickets for them on my knee. There was a total of 21 VIP tickets and 21 VIP backstage passes, and I was going to give them to Alfred, Dad, Mom (Selina) Dick, Jason, Babs, Stephanie, Duke, Cass, Tim, Damian, Mar'i, Jon, Connor, Clark, Lois, Wally, Roy, Auntie Ivy, Auntie Harley, and Uncle Riddler to come without any problems, and all I had to do was give them to said people, then put my pan into action.

So, I spent the rest of the day chilling in my room after the concert was planned out, had helped Tim plan out the date with Chloe and gave him my blessing to date her (of course giving him the scariest shovel talk he's ever seen or heard), and after that just spent time talking, laughing, gossiping about people and our siblings, and watched a few movies on my laptop for a few hours, eventually getting joined by Kitty Alfred, and we didn't leave my room until dinner time, just enjoying time hanging out as big brother and little sister.