The Bug, the Bird and the Bats ✔

Chapter Twenty-Five

Blankets and Nooses

Marinette's eyes would not stop glowing.

It didn't matter how much she talked about the problem- -and to Damian, she talked about it a lot though she has yet to sit everyone down and do an actual explanation. She knows she needs to, and she was ready to do so before, she just didn't want it to be like this- -or tries to let her energy out, or even beg Tikki to make it stop, it won't.

And it's not fair, because Adrien's eyes stop looking like he just took a swan dive into the abyss right when he woke up -it's been three days and Marinette's has only gotten brighter, if that was possible.

There were less than four weeks until her senior year starts, and Marinette Dupain-Cheng was not happy about it.

It was even less annoying to be stuck in this condition than it was thinking about having to spend another nine months in Gotham Academy when the rest of her life is blowing up.

Couldn't life just wait for her to catch her breath?

-

In front of Marinette Dupain-Cheng was the Wayne family, staring at her with watchful, observant eyes as they all wait rather patiently for her to get her shit together and finally tell them everything they deserve to know.

Bruce Wayne sits in the middle of the couch, his wife next to him. Dick was on the other side, sitting on the arm of the couch with Kor'i sitting on the seat, their daughter in her hands.

Tim was standing next to Jason beside the couch, the taller boy leaning against the wall.

Damian himself sits in one of the large chairs off to the side, Helena quietly babbling on his lap.

On the other two chairs there's Stephanie and Cassandra, Duke leaning on the back of her chair excitedly.

On Marinette's side, on the other couch, was simply Adrien Agreste sitting on the back and probably getting everyone's nerves up by putting the soles of his shoes on the cushions as he nervously picks at his fingers.

They all agreed not to talk over her, not to ask questions until she's done and the one thing that she didn't ask but is hopeful over is that they at least blink more when they watch her so she feels less like prey.

Damian, at the moment, is the only one doing as such -with him, she doesn't need to ask, much like she doesn't need to ask him when he needs to be ignored while being respected.

When she needs to listen to him talk while training, without lifting her eyes from her book once.

"Well, Pixie?" Jason says, arms mockingly crossing as his blue eyes stare her down. "We're waiting on you."

Oh god.

-

"When I was twelve, a man named Wang Fu approached me on the side of a busy street after pretending to fall down in the mists of traffic. Without knowing anything, I dropped my macarons in order to 'save' him, and apparently because of that he saw something in me."

Almost ruefully, Marinette smiles.

"He told me that I was destined to be a hero, to be Ladybug and save the world. I didn't believe him. It was too much for me, I tried to give my miraculous away to someone better, I didn't want that responsibility. It wasn't fair. I was twelve, and clumsy, and didn't understand much. I didn't want to do it -it never occurred to me that I didn't have a choice. Master Fu made sure of that."

She'll be the first to admit that self-sacrifice isn't innately her nature.

It plagues her mind, sometimes, how she didn't need to become this.