Third pov
There's days when Marinette feels like sinking to the bottom of everything might not be so bad.
Because she's tired and weary.
Because she can see just how deep the bone tired feeling sinks its claws in her every time she looks in the mirror.
It's no kid staring back.
No bright eyes or pigtails.
There's just hard, jaded eyes that always need to look beyond the words of others.
She feels thirty years older than she is and like the weight of the world is on her shoulders.
"Marinette?"
Tikki is half asleep when she enters the bathroom.
"Hi Tikki."
The tiny godess sat on her shoulder. "You should get some sleep."
The teen shook her head. "Too awake. I wanna go running."
"But you can't with the Batman out there. They'll find you." Tikki said.
Marinette shrugged. "I know." She grinned mischievously. "But for now I'm staying on the property so i don't think i need to worry."
Within ten minutes Marinette had exited the manor through her window and was wandering around outside. The ground is damp and she pulls the jacket harder around her.
And for some time she stayed out there.
Time skip
The next day Alfred drove them to school with the promise that Marinette could bring Chloe and Adrien to the manor afterwards.
The teens and kids that have lived in Gotham all their lives look at her with a respect she's never seen before.
She just smiles happily as they enter the school.
Apparently they have a pop quiz today.
**************************************************************
The quiz was more difficult than Damian had thought the teachers would make it.
But that might be because they've had enough of the french students disrupting their classes. There'd been a lot of it from what he'd heard.
The whole quiz had been on both things that they'd learned the last month and Gotham's history.
From what he could see Marinette had little problems, only getting caught on a few history questions.
The other ones though, they weren't having it easy.
When the last class for the day ended they looked dejected.
Damian didn't really care.
Marinette took his hand as she hurried over to Bourgeois and Agreste. "Hey guys, Alfred said you can come over to the manor."
"Cool. But, uh, how are we getting there?" Agreste asked.
"Alfred will pick us up. Come on." And with that Marinette was suddenly ten steps ahead of them.
Agreste kept walking beside Damian while Bourgeois caught up to Marinette. "How did it go on the pop quiz?"
Damien shrugged. "Went well. Though I can't say your other classmates had it easy."
The blond chuckled. "Let them squirm some. If they've acted anything like the ones in my group then they owe the teacher an apology anyways."
Agreste shakes his head. "Better that they get a reality check with competent teachers around."
"What is the situation at your school? Marinette doesn't want to talk about it."
Agreste has a bitter smile as he talks. "She doesn't like talking about it because there's nothing that can be done. If any of them get even a bit upset it can leave half of Paris in shambles."
A thought hits Damian and he wonders if/how Agreste will deflect. "Isn't it the heroes job to worry about that? Why do you care?"
There. Something darkens just a bit in the blonds eyes and he grabs Damian's arm.
He has to resist shaking it off.
"All of us. Every single one, has at least one akuma that still keeps us up at night." Agreste isn't breaking eye contact as he talks. No, instead he's barely blinking. "For Marinette it was Syren. Syren turned Paris into natural disaster.
For our friend Kagami at home, it's one that called himself Spartacus. He killed people in front of her while she was protecting her cousin.
For me it was Style Queen. Style Queen turned me into a statue. The feeling of still being alive but still not. Being able to feel but not move. That sticks. That is why we worry about it. That's why we care."
Damian has to give it to him.
Agreste is brave.
He nods. "I understand."
"What are you guys waiting for, Alfred's here!" Marinette shouted from the familiar car.
***********************************************************
Jason came home to find two additional teens in the kitchen.
All four munching Alfred's cookies, even lil'D.
" 'ello, kiddos, how's yer day been?" He snatches a cookie from the table and grabbs juice from the fridge.
"It's been good. We had a pop quiz in school and now we're discussing Gothams history." Nettie answers.
"Well, tiny, what'd ya got?" Jason notices that Dami has a bit of an uncomfortable edge.
Adrien answers. "Well, we came into the subject of Batman."
Jason raised an eyebrow. This should be good.
Marinette snickered as she took another cookie. "He obviously has high tech gadgets so he's gotta have money..."
"Which means the chance that he has a butler is high. But does he have a butler or a batler?"
The two broke out in laughter and Jason choked on his juice.
Okay, despite the uncomfortable fact that they're very close to the truth, that's hilarious.
"Hey, Jay. Wanna hear a joke? Adrien is the best at them." Marinette is still giggling.
Jason nods. "Sure."
The mentioned blond smirks. "Why did all the pictures come out dark from Batman's party? Because he forgot to invite the Flash."
Once again him and Marinette broke into fits of laughter.
Chloe is just smirking and even lil'D is cracking a grin.
Dick entered the kitchen. "What are you guys laughing about?"
"Batman jokes." Jason answers and they share a look.
***************************************************************
Dick looks at the teens at the table. "You like Batman?"
"Batman's cool, but have you seen Wonder Woman? She's awesome!" Adrien practically has stars in his eyes.
"I prefer Red Hood. He's cool." Chloe answers nonchalantly.
Jason hides a smile in his juice.
"I like Robin best." Marinette answers with a smile.
Dami tenses with obvious surprise.
Dick barely holds back his smirk and he knows Jason is too.
"But i would like to have a word with Batman about pants." Marinette's face soured a bit.
"Who wants to talk about pants?" Bruce asks as he enters the kitchen along with Alfred and Tim.
"I want to talk to Batman about the importance of kids wearing pants." Marinette says wryly as she gives Bruce a less than amused look.
Bruce himself is just looking confused. "What do you mean?"
"Apparently he didn't think the first two Robins needed pants. Like, the only thing they had was scaly panties. A perhaps acceptable piece of clothing while performing at a circus, not while fighting bad guys in the middle of the night."
Dick can feel a faint blush climb his neck. The circus comment can't have been serious, right?
"They must've been sick like every other night! At least the third one had pants, but the question is if he showed up wearing them or if Batman somehow realized pants are a thing."
Bruce is looking sheepish. Tim actively kept his coffee mug filled to avoid having to talk or risk laughing.
"And here i thought your problem would be with the colors." Chloe said casually.
Marinette threw her hands up dramatically. "They aren't the problem at all, but the guy has to have had someone telling him that the kids he's beating bad guys with should wear pants."
***********************************************
Damian his chuckling.
Dick is hiding a light blush as best as he can.
Jason is trying not to laugh.
Tim is half turnged away so they can't really see his expression.
Bruce has a sheepish grin.
Alfred is hard to read but Marinette is sure he's enjoying this.
Chloe and Adrien are scheming as they're listening to Marinette.
And Marinette is having way to much fun with this.
The trick is just to not let on that she knows.
"He's obviously rich, can't have been working entierly alone, and must've had someone saving his butt when he was just starting out." Marinette said.
And with that Bruce looked vaguely uncomfortable, Alfred had a sort of smug air around him and the boys were waving it off like a joke.
"Maybe his batler saved him. Or a lover." Adrien half joked.
Dick opened his mouth to talk when Chloe did instead.
"Ridiculous, utterly ridiculous."
The majority of the rooms occupants seemed to breathe a collective sigh of relief.
Until she opened her mouth again.
"It can't have been a lover. Do you think a rich man could get a lover to keep their mouths shut about being Batman? No, it's more likely a butler." Chloe concluded.
Adrien and Marinette nodded. "True."
Finally Alfred seemed to take pity on the young masters.
"Would you like to watch a movie? There is an extensive collection in the movie room." Alfred suggested.
Marinette smiled. "Sounds good. Come on."
She got up, took Damian's hand and led her friends to the movie room.
Leaving four very nervous men behind to breathe.
Okay i have made some research and will be using a lot of the suggestions in the comments.
I will also be using one suggestion about going to the Amusement Miles because i read up on it and only parts of it is open, the other parts never having been renovated.
Thank you guys so much for all the suggestions. Without them it would be a lot harder to write this.
Vote and comment, it keeps me motivated :)