After art they headed to lunch where Damian sat across from Jon. Marinette sat next to him but there were other students Jon was conversing with. Damian payed them no attention and pulled out two lunch bags.
"Pennyworth gave me these before we left. Do you want to eat here? Or somewhere else?" She shrugged.
"What if we ate here and went back up to the Greenhouse for the rest of the period?" he laughed which caught some stares of shock. A genuine laugh bubbled from his lips.
"I'm glad you like it Mari. That sounds great. Do you need anything else?" Marinette playfully rolled her eyes.
"I'm Fiiiiiiinneee. Does Jon know about the greenhouse?" she asked the last part a bit quieter. Damian nodded.
"I believe he does. And if he doesn't, he's even less intelligent than I thought." Jon whipped his head around.
"Hey! That's mean!" he pouted. Marinette giggled.
"Sorry Jon, he didn't mean it" Damian interjected.
"But I did. I don't want to lie to him." Marinette hit him on the shoulder. "Ok, ok. Will you stop hitting me?" he asked, irritated. Marinette crossed his arms and deadpanned. "....sorry Kent." Jon laughed loudly.
"Wow Mari, you really got him wrapped around your finger." Damian's face darkened.
"No she does not. Are you done eating yet?" he turned to her, she had only eaten half of her sandwich. She swallowed.
"I can just take it with us. You ok?"
"Fine." he growled, as he packed up his backpack. "Let's just go."
"Is he always like this?" she whispered to Jon.
"Yeah, this is actually him on a good day. I'm shocked he was in a good mood this morning." she laughed.
"Ok, thanks. See you later!" she waved as Damian dragged her away. She crossed her arms in protest. "I was being friendly!" she complained. Damian rolled his eyes.
"I don't normally eat in there anyways. It's too loud and the students act like idiots." Marinette placed a hand on his arm.
"Damian, that's called a childhood. But not being an idiot alone, doing it with friends. I can't say how many times I've done stupid things back in France that I considered fun."
"And here I thought you were normal." Damian stated. What he didn't expect, was Marinette to burst out laughing. Students gave her strange looks as they walked by. Damian glared at them which made them hustle by.
"Oh Cherie, I am far from normal." they started up the steps. "You wanna race?"
"No thanks, I'm good. I'm just going to take my time since we still have..." he looked at his watch, "About 45 minutes." She grabbed his arm.
"Come onnnnnn." she practically dragged him up the stairs. "Don't make me carry you." he laughed.
"I don't think that's possible." she looked at him.
"You weigh what? 120 pounds plus fifteen with muscle?" he gave her a strange look.
"Why the hell do you even know that?" she shrugged.
"I am a fashion designer. Sometimes I have to guess measurements." he froze.
"Wait. Do you think you, as a young fashion designer, that you have only been in the field for maybe a decade, can guess the height and weight of Gotham's vigilantes?" he fidgeted with his packpack strap, slightly nervous.
"Maybe, though the kevlar on the suit might make it a bit different, especially for weight. As well as all the gadgets and stuff. It might set me off about twenty pounds tops, but yeah I guess so, why?"
"Nothing." he quickly walked past her and pushed open the door. Two males waved to him.
"Hi Dami! Look I brought Tim with me." Damian glared at them.
"What are you doing here? It's school hours so I can't.." he looked over at Marinette who had a face of confusion. "Work." he finished, shooting an obvious glance to his brothers, hoping they get the message.
"The old man said it was a crack in the.... new case?" he asked, unsure of how to put the situation. "He excused you from school." Damian facepalmed.
"And why did he not just contact me through my phone?" Jason rolled his eyes.
"He did, but you obviously had it off due to school hours. Besides, it's more fun this way. Going back to one of the most time consuming places of boredom." Tim rolled his eyes.
"I still don't get why you hate this place so much." He muttered.
"Because one of the teachers completely- nevermind, the point is, let's go. Mari, you coming?" she nodded.
"Well there goes lunch." Damian mumbled, glaring at the floor. Jason laughed and pat him on the back. Marinette wimpered from earlier. "What the hell Todd?!?!" Damian yelled at Jason.
"What's wrong with Pixie Pop?" Damian rolled his eyes and grabbed her shoulders.
"You alright Malaki?" she nodded.
"Just give me a minute." they continued walking while Damian kept shooting glares at his brothers, which they were used to. Alfred was waiting by the car.
"Hello Master Damian, Miss Marinette. I take it you had a good day at school?" Marinette smiled and slid into the car. Damian gave the man a curt nod. Once Marinette got in the car, she began to draw flowers on her arm. Damian sighed and rolled down his sleeves, and that barely covered it. She covered her wrists to her elbows.
"So," Tim started to make conversation. "Do you like it here Mari?" she looked up and nodded, with a smile.
"Yeah, the kids here are actually nice! I haven't met a mean one yet. Everyone has been pretty nice."
That's because I steered you away from them. Damian thought.
"Well that's good. Do you think you would want to stay here?" Jason asked. Marinette nodded.
"Everything is not as bad as people make it out to be here, so yeah I think I'll stay." they pulled up to the manor. Marinette tilted her head. "Do you work from home?" she asked. Jason snorted and walked in the manor.
"You could say that." Damian stated. "I don't start the internship at WE yet, father wanted me to be 18 and be almost done with school and all that, but he has me doing an... online job for now. Drake can fill you in on all the details as you wish. He's the one that dragged me out of school." Damian grumbled and followed Jason. Tim just shrugged.
"Bruce wanted me to take a day off and 'rest' or whatever and he wanted us to spend time with Jason so be both went and here we are." he pushed open the door. "Also your parents wanted to talk to you."
"Hi Mari!" Sabine waved her over from the living room. The bluenette practically skipped to them and plopped onto the couch next to her adoptive mother and gave her a side hug. Damian nodded his head politely and sat in a couch across from the family. Tom held out a hand to Damian.
"Hello, you must be Damian. Marinette has told us so much about you!" Marinette's face went pink and she glared at Tom. Damian took the man's hand with a small smile.
"It's a pleasure sir. I've heard gret things about you and your lovely wife." Tim's jaw dropped. Who were they and what have they done to his younger brother? Damian shot a glare at his brother, who looked away.
"I'm glad. Tell me son, how much trouble has she gotten into?" Tom joked. Damian, who didn't know the difference between jokes and seriousness answered,
"More than enough." he saw Tom laugh and raised a brow at Marinette. The girl waved her arm in a circle, motioning for him to laugh. Damian laughed a very machanical and forced laugh. The room fell into silence. Marinette and Tim both facepalmed at Damian who was still awkwardly 'laughing'. Bruce stepped in the room with Alfred. The old butler leaned down to Damian's ear.
"Master Damian," he whispered, "You can stop 'laughing'. Master Bruce left the case file in the cave." The boy felt his face heat up and he pulled his hood up, trying to leave the room as quickly as possible. Marinette watched in curiosity, but remained in her seat. Bruce sat where Damian was sitting.
"Mr and Mrs Dupain Cheng, you can stay as long as you wish, but I was wondering how long you planned on being here and visiting the city?" he asked, folding his hands. Sabine laughed.
"Please sir, call us Tom and Sabine. I was wondering if we could stay for a few days? It's just been a while since we've seen our dear Mari and I would like to get to meet your family." Bruce smiled.
"Sounds excellent! I can have Alfred add two more seats at the table tonight! I can have all my children come over." Tom put an arm around his wife.
"Are you sure? I don't know how many kids you have, but we don't want to be a hindrance." Bruce laughed and waved a hand.
"Nonsense, I haven't seen some of them in a while. They will come, I promise you that." Sabine smiled.
"Thank you. So much for everything." Marinette felt a buzz in her pocket. She pulled out her phone and her eyes bugged out of her head. There was a picture on Twitter. Of both she and Damian at school. They were walking down the hallway, arm and arm and she was laughing. Damian had a small smile and a slight blush to his face. #Icepriceofgotham and #Sunshinegirlofgotham were trending. There were almost fifteen thousand likes. She also noticed a bunch of new people followed her. She turned to the adults, face pale.
"Excuse me, Bruce? Where's Damian?" He looked at her in concern.
"He's actually working on a company project for me at the moment. What do you need?" Marinette popped out of her seat.
"N-Nothing I-I umm gotta go. Please excuse me!" she ran upstairs into her room, leaving the adults in chuckles.
Bonus:
"DRAKE!" Damian roared. Tim ran into the cave.
"What's wrong Damian? I have a lot of things I have to take care of and- is that you and- I can't believe someone had the balls to- oh my god" he fell into a pile of laughter on the floor. Damian's face was beet red.
"Can you delete this? Or tell me who runs the account? It's a fanpage of mine."
"Nope, it will just look suspicious if I do."
"I swear to god I'm going to murder them."