#Jasonette July 2021

[the-alice-of-hearts]

Fic Stats Meme

Rules: Give us the links to your fic with the most hits, second most kudos, third most comments, fourth most bookmarks, fifth most words, and fic with the least words.

Thank you @ladytauria This was a lot of fun to look through and see my things like this!

I did by flat view so this is across all my works.

Most Hits: Protection Detail (14,093) This is a Maribat fic. I wrote it for Jasonette July in 2021. I adore this fic and reread it myself sometimes.

2nd Most Kudos: A date with a Coffee Goddess (843) another Maribat fic. This one is Timari, Fun facts! It took me so long to name this one when it came to that part.

3rd Most Comments: Being the Wayne Omega (85 comment threads) There's a JayTim piece! Fun facts about this series (because this is the sequel) I wrote the first one in this series in two weeks while I was sick at home with covid.

4th Most Bookmarks: Civilian? What civilian? (117 bookmarks total) Another maribat fic and also hey, what the hell do you mean 117 of you bookmarked this crack fic???

5th Most Words: Alice Writes Timari January 2022 (21,156 words) I have a lot of words lol. This one is kinda cheating because it's mostly unconnected one-shots, so the actual 5th one (imo) is: Pick It Up at 17,285 words. This is also my longest one shot lol.

Least Words: At a toal of 83 words we have Don't try to stop me a fie sentence fic from tumblr that I cross posted!

no pressure tag for @boldlyanxious and @drones-art

[mochegato]

Sit Back and Enjoy the Show

Red Hood sat on the roof, carefully moving his jokerized fries away from Robin.  Ninja skills, his ass.  Robin wasn’t as slick sneaking them as he thought he was.  Tonight had been the single most boring patrol night he had ever had, before or after death.  There wasn’t even any good melodramas going on in people’s windows, not that Robin would condone voyeurism, as he called it.  

He never thought he could long for patrolling with Red Robin, but here they were and at least Tim appreciated a good salty melodrama.  Hell, even when there were melodramas, they weren’t that interesting anymore.  The same Gotham stories repeated over and over in different shades of depressing. He was itching for something new. Something different than the tedious everyday rogues and pickpockets.

“Dammit!” Robin suddenly yelled, breaking the night’s dreary tranquility.  “Is Red Hood the only figure they have?”  He turned to glare at Red Hood.  He pointed the toy at Red Hood.  “Did you do something to the production facility?  Sabotage all the other figures?”

Red Hood laughed at him.  “Nope. They must just be in high demand. I’ll take it, if you don’t want it,” he shrugged and reached halfheartedly for the toy.

“No! Back off,” Robin growled, slapping his hands away.  “I have plans for this.”

“Awww, you going to play heroes with my action figure, Hell Spawn?” Red Hood grinned smugly.

“That will not hap…”  Robin’s sentence trailed off when a flash of light caught their attention to a giant portal that opened a few blocks down from them, bringing with it a child. Strike that.  A gigantic child.  

Red Hood blinked at the sight a few times.  Well, he had asked for different.  He tapped his com to turn it on.  “Uhhhh… Oracle?  We got a situation here.”

“What happened? Robin get another Red Hood figure?”

“That is not the issue at hand,” Robin hissed.

“You remember that old movie we watched whenever that bad movie night was, the 40 Foot Woman, or whatever?” Jason answered, his voice still hollow.

“Are you telling me you have a forty foot woman there?” Oracle deadpanned.

“No, we have her kid.  Ooh,” Jason winced in sympathy as the child sent a car flying through a building. “And he’s pissed.  I think we’re going to need backup.”

As if the universe was responding to his request, another bright light flashed indicating another portal opened up above them.  A figure in black jumped through, landing in a crouch on the building across the street.  Jason stared at the hero blankly for a few seconds.  “A sexy, badass backup,” he added, looking at the portal hopefully. After all, if the universe was handing out requests…

As if on cue, another figure swung through the portal.  She landed on the roof a few feet from them, eyes trained on the child.  Jason’s breath hitched at the sight of her.  The universe had certainly delivered.  Her suit was as tight as Nightwing’s, but a lot thinner fabric, and he could see her muscles rippling under it as she moved.  Her brilliant, blue eyes were set with a resolute glint. He would pay good money to let her cast them on him while showing him just how powerful her muscles were.

She startled at the sound and jumped into a defensive position.  She examined them for a few seconds, but her attention was drawn back to the giant child almost immediately when he threw another car into the harbor.  She started swinging her weapon that looked like a yoyo, but Jason was pretty sure couldn’t have been.  “Sorry, boys,” she said in French.  “This one’s mine.  You can just sit back and enjoy the show today.”  She winked at them and swung off with a determined set to her lips.

She swung toward the giant child who seemed to sense her approach.  He turned to face her with a frown.  “You’re going to tell me I can’t go too,” he yelled at her in French.  He swatted at a police officer that had started shooting at him.  The police officer flew through the air and crashed onto the roof of a car.  More officers appeared and started shooting as well, but were quickly stopped when a light flashed and a portal opened up under them.

“August! You cannot just teleport people!” she chastised loudly.  “They can get hurt.”

“I am not August, Ladybug.  I am Gigantitan,” he bellowed in response.

“Okay, you’ve seen the sights now, August.  Don’t you want to go home and tell Mommy about it now?” the black clad hero attempted.

“No.  I haven’t seen anything yet.  I want to see new animals.  I want to see new toy stores.  I want to see new superheroes.”  He shook his Wonder Woman action figure at them to demonstrate other heroes before knocking it into a building.

“Well, that’s just hurtful,” the black hero pouted.  “What?  We not impressive enough for you anymore, August?”

While he was talking the red hero, Ladybug the giant child had called her, snuck around to his blind side.  She had just jumped toward him when a police siren sounded, attracting the giant’s attention to exactly where she was.  He batted her away with a defensive flick of his wrist and shoved the figurine into his inner jacket pocket.  She flew through the air, her trajectory taking her toward the local heroes.  Red Hood jumped up to catch her, but was just a beat too slow.  She instead flew into the wall behind them, leaving a deep dent in the bricks.

Ladybug fell to the ground with a thud and a groan.  Red Hood jogged over to her to help her up.  “You still sure you got this on your own?” Damian asked condescendingly, in perfect French.  “Maybe it’s time to let someone with more experience handle this.”

Ladybug accepted Red Hood’s hand and stood up with a snort.  “You think you have more experience than me with gigantic children? Really?  Don’t worry, Little Guy, it’s all part of the show.”  She gave him a confident smirk before looking back toward the giant with a calculating gaze.  After a few seconds she nodded as if deciding on something.  “And for my next trick, Lucky Charm,” she called out, throwing her yoyo up into the air.

Red Hood looked back and forth between her and Robin when a pink light flashed momentarily before a batburger happy meal box dropped in her hands, trying to figure out what the actual fuck just happened.  Robin’s box didn’t appear in her hands, it was still next to him.  This was a duplicate of it.  What the hell was that supposed to do?  As if reading his mind, she grumbled, “What am I supposed to do with this?”  

She scanned the area, eyes darting from thing to thing as if searching for something. Her eyes settled on the figurine in Robin’s hand and her entire posture changed.  Her eyes lit up and darted around faster.  She looked at his guns for a few seconds until she nodded.  

“I need a bullet.” She turned to Red Hood with a resolute look.

“Okay…” He eyed her suspiciously, but dropped one in her waiting hand.  “Won’t do you much good without a gun.”

She grinned cheekily up at him.  “Oh, I’m pretty creative.  I’ll figure it out.”  She started running toward the edge of the building and grabbed Robin’s Red Hood toy. “Mind if I borrow this?” she asked without breaking her stride or waiting for an answer.  Her yoyo was flung and she had jumped off the roof before Robin even processed the question.

“Yes,” he yelled after her.

“I’ll bring it back, I promise,” she called back.

She landed a few buildings over just in her partner’s line of vision, but hidden from the giant child and started pulling the toy apart.  Damian growled as he watched her.  Red Hood would have thought her partner missed her except within a few seconds he disappeared from sight until he reappeared next to her, leaning close to discuss something.  He looked up periodically to view something she indicated as she talked.  After a few seconds, they nodded to each other and split up, the black one jumped away from the giant while Ladybug jumped in front of him to draw his attention.  

“Hey, Gigantitan!  Didn’t you want to come see some new toys and new superheroes?  Look what I have.”  She waved the action figure for him to see.  “Do you want to play with this…” she looked at the action figure more closely, “um… red Destro?”

Jason let out an offended scoff at the description, but Damian laughed at him. He quieted quickly and watched Ladybug and the giant quietly before leaning slightly toward Jason.  “What is a Destro?”

Jason let out an exasperated sigh and dropped his head.  “I don’t know whether to blame your upbringing or age, but either way we’re going to have a G.I. Joe marathon tomorrow.”  Robin nodded curtly and returned his focus to the fight.

Ladybug threw the action figure at the giant.  He reached out to grab the figure, extending his arms up and exposing Wonder Woman’s Invisible Jet toy tucked in his waistband.  She wrapped the rubber band from the toy around her thumb and finger and positioned the bullet.  She pulled back as far as she could without breaking the rubber band and let go.  The bullet hit the jet, cracking the cockpit.

The Gotham heroes watched in a confused stupor as a blue feather floated out.  “Time to de-evilize” Ladybug called out as she twirled her yoyo around and sent it out to capture the feather.  After just a second she opened up her yoyo again and a white feather fluttered away.  “Bye bye little feather,” she said lightly with a little wave.  

The giant screeched at the action, his face contorted in anger and he swiped at Ladybug. She made a semblance of an attempt to escape, but was easily captured in his huge hand.  Jason jumped up, ready to intercede, but stopped when Ladybug started talking to the child.  “I bet Wonder Woman couldn’t have done that!”  

The giant growled at her.  “Wonder Woman is amazing!  She could have done that and faster!”

Ladybug pouted and crossed her arms.  “As if! Let’s see this amazing hero that could have done so much better than me!”

The giant pulled his Wonder Woman figurine out of his jacket’s inner pocket to show her. “Wonder Woman is super strong and super smart and she has super speed and she could probably stand up against Superman...”

Ladybug scoffed lightly.  “She’d kick his ass,” she muttered so he couldn’t hear her.

Suddenly they heard someone call out “Cataclysm” and the black hero jumped at the giant touching the Wonder Woman figurine Gigantitan was holding out.  Red Hood and Robin watched in confused awe as a purple and black butterfly fluttered out of the toy’s ashes.

Red Hood gaped as Gigantitan was consumed in a cocoon of black bubbles.  When the bubbles dispersed, it left behind a young child and Ladybug, still in the same spot she had been when the giant was holding her. The two started falling immediately, but Ladybug made no move to catch the child.  Instead, she twirled her yoyo around again and whipped it out to capture the butterfly as she called out “Time to de-evilize.”

“Oh shit!” Red Hood exclaimed loudly.  He and Robin quickly moved to catch the child before he hit the ground, pulling his helmet on and his grappling hook out as he moved, but the Selina knockoff had already jumped back to catch the falling child.  He and Ladybug landed gracefully next to each other at the same time. Ladybug opened her yoyo and watched with a small smile as a white butterfly fluttered out.  “Bye bye little butterfly,” she and the child chorused at the same time.

Ladybug giggled and mussed up the child’s hair.  “Hey August.  Feeling better now?” Chat asked with a smile.

“Yeah, sorry Ladybug.  Sorry Chat Noir.”  He looked down and curled in on himself as he said it.

Ladybug quickly grabbed him from Chat to snuggle him.  “It’s not your fault.  Don’t worry about it.  Hey, Chaton, can you get me the happy meal box that’s not a happy meal box from the roof of that building?” she asked gently, still rubbing August’s back.

“Will do,” Chat nodded before jumping to look for the box.

August suddenly perked up in her arms.  “Look! It’s Red Destro!” he exclaimed excitedly pointing at Red Hood.

Robin snickered at him and Red Hood just let out a resigned sigh.  “Red Hood actually and this is Robin.”

“Are you superheroes?”  His eyes were bright and excited.

Red Hood gave him a kind smile that he realized the kid couldn’t see through his helmet so he nodded instead.  “Yeah. We work with Batman.”  He leaned in closer to him and lowered his voice as if sharing a secret.  “But we’re a lot cooler.”

Robin scoffed at him, but Ladybug giggled, so he considered it a win.

“What did you do to that child?” Robin demanded.  He gripped his katana tighter visibly so they would see the implicit threat.

“We rescued him,” the black cat one, Chat Noir if the child’s earlier comment could be believed, answered with a roll of his eyes as he landed next to Ladybug with the lucky charm in hand.

“From…” Robin prodded.

“From Paris’ villain,” Ladybug answered as she made funny faces at August.

“Paris doesn’t have a villain,” Red Hood answered cautiously.

Ladybug and Chat looked at each other and suddenly burst out laughing.  “Yeah sure,” Ladybug scoffed.  “And this is all just some fantasy.  Click your heels together a few times and all the damage will repair itself.”

Chat looked Ladybug up and down and smirked at her, before switching to English.   “No, that can’t be it.  You're fully clothed and I'm pretty sure that one,” he pointed toward Red Hood, “wouldn’t have that in his fantasy.”

Red Hood spluttered and sent Chat a harsh glare that was completely ineffective under his helmet.  Ladybug let out a squeak and buried her face behind August.  “Chat! There are children present!”

Chat looked back and forth between August and Robin and nodded to Robin.  “Oh, right.  Valid.  Sorry, Little Dude.  Wasn't wrong though,” he shrugged unaffected.

Robin bristled at the comment.  “I think she meant the infant.”

“The infant can’t speak English.  I think she meant you, little man,” Chat laughed.

Robin growled and pulled his katana out, almost completely unsheathing it before Red Hood stopped his hand.  “You still have not explained what happened to the child and what all that was with the feather and the butterfly and how he turned from a giant into a child.”

“Do you know Wonder Woman?” August interrupted the conversation.  He was almost bouncing in Ladybug’s arms at the thought.

“I do,” Red Hood confirmed.  “I might even be able to arrange a meeting.  If Ladybug would be okay with that,” he teased and oh, he really wished he wasn’t wearing his helmet right now so she could see his expressions, but he wouldn’t take it off in front of the kid.

“Are you kidding me?  I would love it.  I dressed up as her for a costume party last month,” she gushed.

“Really authentic looking costume,” Chat nodded along with her.  “Like Wonder Woman but hotter.”

“Chat…” she whined.  He shrugged but kept his eyes on Red Hood giving him a mischievous grin.

Jason choked on air.  “Do you… have pictures of that?  Or, you know what, maybe we can visit and I can see it in person.”

Ladybug squeaked while Chat laughed.  She took a deep breath to collect herself.  When she turned back to him, she had a falsely confident smirk.  “It was as my civilian self and I can’t even think of revealing my identity until Hawkmoth is caught so… guess you’ll just have to use your imagination.”

“Both,” Jason gasped out, breathing suddenly difficult for him.  “Both is good.”

“And what do I get out of this deal?”  She gave him a flirty smile.

Red Hood smirked at her and taking a step closer, only later realizing she couldn’t see the smirk.  “Don’t like what you see, Pixie Pop?”

She looked him up and down.  “Hard to tell.  The jacket and helmet cover a lot.”

“I’m more than willing to take them off for you, and anything else you want.”

“Who is Hawkmoth?” Damian demanded in an attempt to bring them back to the topic at hand and stop whatever the hell this was going on between Red Hood and Ladybug.

“He’s our villain.  He uses magic to detect when someone is having a strong negative emotion then turns them into different creations with different powers, such as a gigantic child,” Ladybug explained.  She looked over to Jason.  “We’ve been fighting him for about four years now. Can’t really move on until we take him down.”

“We’ll take care of him by the end of the month,” Jason promised breathlessly.

Ladybug laughed.  “If you can identify him by the end of the month, I’d be impressed.”

“I want to go home,” August interrupted.

Ladybug hugged him closer and cooed at him.  “That’s a good idea.  I bet your Mommy is worried about you.”  She turned to the two Gotham heroes.  “It was nice to meet you both.”  She took the box from Chat with a conspiratorial smile to August who giggled in response.  “And for my final trick…”  She threw the box up into the air and called out, “Miraculous Ladybug!”

Red Hood and Robin watched in awe as a rush of light that looked like red and pink ladybugs swirled around the area.  Buildings were repaired, cars returned to their proper positions, police officers returned to the street, the action figure Ladybug had borrowed returned to its previous condition and dropped along with the bullet on the ground in front of them, and the child what appeared out of nowhere in their city disappeared.

The only new things that remained were Ladybug and Chat.  They look at each other confused and looked around to confirm that the miraculous ladybug power had in fact worked and looked back to each other again.  “We're still here,” Chat observed a little too casually to be authentic.

“We are,” Ladybug observed just as casually.  “Huh.”  

“Any ideas, m’lady?”

She looked down at the action figure and bullet on the ground with a frown.  She reached down to pick them up absently and handed them back to the two Gotham heroes, still lost in thought.  “Thanks,” she said lightly.

“No problem. But why didn’t you just shoot the thing?” Red Hood asked.

Ladybug gave him a horrified look.  “I’m not going to risk shooting at a child.”

“He wasn’t exactly a child at the time,” Red Hood objected.

“You think this is a hint from Tikki?” Chat broke up the look between Ladybug and Red Hood. “Time to bring in backup?”

She shook her head and looked over at him.  She stared at him hard for a few seconds before groaning.  “I’m going to kill Tikki.”  She opened her yo-yo and typed on the screen before putting it up to her ear like a phone.  “Hey Rena, I need you to get the horse for us and make sure August is back with his mother, please?”  She paused to listen.  “That, it's a good question.  You shouldn’t need it to find us, just tell him to open a portal to us when we’re ready, but it would be good to know.”  She looked over to Red Hood.  “Excuse me M. Destro.  Where are we?”

Red Hood took his helmet off to glare at her, but realized with the domino mask, he still couldn’t get the point across.  “Gotham,” he replied grumpily.

She smiled brilliantly at him.  “Thank you.” She focused back on the phone conversation.  “Gotham,” she repeated.  Her head suddenly popped up to give him a questioning look.  “Gotham?  Really? I guess that makes sense.  You mentioned Batman.”

“Hey,” Chat perked up.  “We're in Gotham and I haven't been shot yet! Sweet.”

“Hey!” Red Hood and Robin both yelled at the same time.

“You literally just chastised her for not shooting a toddler.  Your objection is overruled,” Chat answered waving his hand at him dismissively.

“He wasn’t exactly a child at the time,” Red Hood groused.

Ladybug held her hand over the yoyo’s microphone.  “Yes he was. Still a child, just didn’t look like one.”  She uncovered the microphone and continued to talk. “Yes, let me know when you’re ready. We should be done here in a few minutes.”

“We would like to get more information on the situation,” Robin interrupted.  “Our questions will likely take more than a few minutes.”

Ladybug raised an eyebrow at him, but it was Chat that responded with a curt tone to match Robin’s.  “We appreciate that.  And apparently, the powers that be think we should speak with you as well, but we have civilian lives that have been interrupted already due to this and we need to get back before someone notices our disappearance.”

“What does that mean, ‘the powers that be’,” Jason asked.

Ladybug sighed. “It means the cosmic force that gives me my power has apparently decided we should talk to you.  Otherwise, we would have been sent home along with August. She seems to think there’s something here that I need.”

“Are you admitting that you need me?” Jason grinned mischievously.

Ladybug pursed her lips to prevent them from quirking up in a smile.  “To help,” Ladybug stressed.  “Yes.”

Red Hood moved closer to her.  “I can be very helpful.  I can offer all kinds of help.”

Robin scoffed. “Tt.  I’ve yet to see any evidence of that claim.”  He turned to Chat, in the hope that he would at least be interested in planning their next meeting.  “When would you be available to meet?”

“We can portal somewhere to meet you in 14 hours,” Chat answered.

Red Hood nodded in response but gave Ladybug a devilish smile, “And what would it take to have you show up in that Wonder Woman costume?”

A portal opened up next to Ladybug, effectively distracting everyone’s attention from her dark pink cheeks.  Chat chuckled at Red Hood and gave him and Robin a two finger salute before stepping through it.  She looked at Red Hood with a sultry smile.  “You help us identify Hawkmoth, I’ll not only wear it, I’ll even create a costume for me based on your suit.”  She winked at him and stepped through the portal with a little wave.

Red Hood stared at the spot where the portal had closed for a few minutes until Robin punched him on the shoulder.  He shook his head and a goofy smile spread across his face.  “Oh, we’re going to id that bastard this week.”

Continued in The Show Must Go On

Tags:

@jasonette-july-event @maribatserver

[boldlyanxious]

Hot and Bothered

Jasonette July SC 3: roommates

All Jasonette July

My masterlist

Marinette had just moved in with her roommate Tim a couple weeks ago. They didn’t know each other very well but he heard she needed a place to live and offered his place. His former roommate had moved out a couple months before. It was an awkward couple of weeks with coming and going at different times and never knowing when they could see each other. So when they both arrived home and neither had anything they would need to wake up early for they decided to hang out and get to know each other a little better.

The best way to do this was obviously while drinking to take the edge off a bit and relax them. It had worked wonderfully. They were both happy and giggling and had learned a lot about each other. But now they were hungry and discovering that they both had been forbidden from touching the stove while drinking. They ate cheese sticks and the rest of a bag of doritos but they were out of easy options that didn’t require cooking.

“Do you think we should risk it,” Marinette asked.

“I don’t know. My brother would kill me. We should call him and convince him to bring us Bat burger.”

“Oh yes! That sounds great. Do you think he would do that for you?”

“Probably not. Here you call him. He likes pretty girls. I bet you could convince him.”

Marinette hesitated but Tim pushed his phone over to her unlocked and another shot when she didn’t immediately move to take the phone. She took a breath before downing the shot and picking up the phone. She nearly dropped it but instead fell back onto the couch and the phone landed on her. The contact wasn’t on the screen anymore so she selected the phone app to find him by his name.

“Who’s your brother?” she scrolled down. “Oh here it is.”

She laughed a little when she saw Bother listed instead of Brother. She supposed that was part of having siblings. Tim looked up at her voice but she seemed to have answered her own question. She smiled at the phone. He was used to people smiling at pictures of Dick so he watched her put the phone to her ear.

“Hey, you’re Tim’s brother.”

“Who is this and why are you calling me from Tim’s number.”

“I’m hungry. Tim said you would bring us Bat burger even though he has you in his phone as bother instead of brother.”

“He said I would do it just out of the goodness of my heart?”

“Oh. No. Hold on. He said you would think I was pretty and do it just to see me. I’m not sure that actually works. Oh. Here is the camera.”

Marinette held the phone out so her face showed on the screen. She smiled big.

“You didn’t push the button so I can’t see you. Do you know how? I guess it doesn’t matter if I can see you. Pretty sure I’m not exactly the kind of girl guys go out of their way to buy things for. But we were hungry and Tim said it would work.”

“Is Tim there?”

“He laid down on the couch because everything was spinning. I’m not sure if he is awake.”

“I think you are exactly the kind of girl guys should buy things for. Try to drink some water.”

The phone went dead in her hand so she set it down on top of Tim where he was laying. His hand automatically went to the phone to keep it from sliding off him. Marinette went to the kitchen to get a couple glasses of water and brought one to Tim.

“He said to drink water. I don’t think he is bringing us food.”

“That sounds like Dick.”

“Definitely a dick move.”

Marinette started a movie and then realized she wasn’t drinking anymore so she went to make another hurricane. She was headed back to the living room when there was a knock on the door. She rushed to open it and saw a tall dark haired man in the doorway with a bat burger bag.

“Oh, food. Tim, I take back everything I said about your brother being a dick.”

“No, his name is--Jason?”

Marinette grabbed Jason’s arm and yanked him into the apartment pushing him down to a chair. He let her move him but she was expecting more resistance or was just more unsteady on her feet than she realized because she landed right on top of him and dumped her drink on his shirt.

“Tim, save the food!”

Marinette handed the bag off to Tim. Then, she pulled Jason to follow her to the bathroom and pushed him to sit on the closed toilet lid. She tugged at his shirt until he moved to allow her to pull it off him. She rinsed the shirt as best she could in the tub and then hung it over the rack. When she turned back to Jason she suddenly realized that she had left him there with his chest bare.

“Oh!” she said. She reached out her hand to touch him before realizing and pulling back. “I don’t think Tim’s shirts would even fit you.”

“Probably not,” he said.

“I think I would be okay if you stayed just like that until your shirt dried.”

“Would you?”

“Would I what?”

He laughed at her assuming she hadn’t even realized she had said anything.

“I might have something that will work. It won’t look as good as all that.”

She motioned in front of him while she was talking. She hadn’t looked back up to see the grin on his face.

“Your boyfriend’s.”

“I don’t have a boyfriend. But I could make you a shirt and it could be my boyfriend’s.”

“Well, I’m not sure you should be making clothes if you weren’t even allowed to use the stove. But I could stay just like this for a bit if you liked.”

Marinette nodded her head slowly.

“Sewing isn’t allowed either. You’re right. Too many finger injuries and the one shoulder injury.”

“How did you hurt your shoulder sewing?”

“Can I touch your shoulder?”

He nodded and Marinette reached out and brushed her fingertips along his shoulder. When they reached his neck she trailed them down his chest. She couldn’t stop there so she slid both palms up his chest to his shoulders, stepping closer to him so she could run her fingertips down his biceps. He stood up in front of her and her eyes were level with his chest just below his throat. She swallowed hard as he reached over her. He opened the door and guided her ahead of him back to the living room. Tim had put out all the food while they were in there. He gave them a funny look, but said nothing.

“Yay, food,” Marinette said. “You are such a life saver.”

She enthusiastically started eating a burger, not noticing the tension between the brothers. They all ate quietly for a few minutes. When Marinette finished eating she laid back on Jason. Tim looked a little like he wanted to say something but Marinette didn’t notice.

“I bet you don’t get muscles like this eating bat burger all the time. You must have a killer workout routine.”

“It is pretty killer.” Tim said.

“It used to be a lot more intense. But it's definitely not as rough as it used to be. I wouldn’t call it a killer.”

“That hasn’t gone unnoticed,” Tim said.

There was a moment of silence while the brothers watched each other. Marinette missed the seriousness of the moment.

“Well, I think it is great either way. No need to push yourself. You will make an excellent boyfriend either way.”

She turned slightly, still laying on Jason, and fell asleep.

It was hours later before she woke. She moved slightly, trying to untangle her legs in the blanket and then looked up to see a man with a very nice looking, bare chest looking down at her. She looked around to see that she was in her apartment on the couch and still wearing what she wore yesterday.

“So um, do you want coffee?” she asked.

Taglist

@jasonette-july-event | @theymakeupfairies | @emjrabbitwolf | @vixen-uchiha | @trythisagainlove | @trippingovermyfeet | @tbehartoo | @adrestar | @zynna

[lazy-alex]

PROMPT- "bee" | Day 13 | can be ROMANTIC

Jasonette july 2021

Today was supposed to be a normal day for Jason. A peaceful and relaxing day alone on his apartment. Just one day to chill and not do anything. Even his 'night job' wouldn't stop him.

But no, the goddam universe hates him.

He was just switching trough TV channels when his door opened suddenly. He expected it to be his older brother Dick, since he's been doing unexpected visits lately. He didn't want his overly-enthusiastic brother ruin his day. Dammit, he forgot to lock his door. Jason dropped the remote and groaned.

"How many fucking times have I told you to stop coming here-" Jason blinked at the person at the door. That person- or girl is definitely not his brother.

She has dark blue hair, pale skin, and bluebell eyes. She's also short, he estimated the same hight of his shoulders. She's wearing a red sweater and jeans. There's also a tiny pink purse that she carried. She looks like she isn't even aware on what she's doing.

The girl stared at him for a second, just staring at him blankly. Then she blinked and her whole face became red. "Oops, wrong door," her eyes went to the TV and she pointed at it. "So, uh... Ya like jazz?" she fell down into the floor, snoring.

"What the fuck?" Jason is so confused. The universe had just to ruin his break.

Jason noticed the large eyebags on her face. She probably haven't went to sleep for a few days to make it that deep. Maybe she's sleep deprived. Jason sighed. Oh gods, not another Tim.

She must be his new neighbor that arrived a few weeks ago. Marinette? He never got to see her it was since he's rarely at his apartment. She seems to also never leave her apartment according to the owner. The owner is also the reason he knew of her existence.

Jason carried her to her apartment- witch he can say is pretty good, except with all the scattered on the floor and a table. There are plenty of unfinished clothes on mannequins. Even if its unfinished, he can tell that they're good. A designer then.

When he stepped in, Jason crinkled his nose from the harsh smell of coffee all-over the place. Dammn, she is another Tim.

Jason set her quietly on the couch near the door so she can sleep peacefully. Jason found a pen and a paper on a nearby table and wrote her a not. He placed it on her hand for her to see when she wakes up.

When Jason returned to his apartment, last question got him thinking him. Who's Jazz?

Jason's question was answered when he turned to the TV. The random channel his remote landed on is playing "Bee Movie".

Huh.

-

I know, it's short, but better than no post at all. Also, am I supposed to tag - @moonlitceleste ? Since I used her idea as an inspiration? Sorry, I'm kinda new to this.

@jasonette-july-event

[miracle-sham]

Jasonette July 2021 Masterlist.

———

| {Jasonette July 2021, Saturday Challenge 1: Hurt No Comfort} |

| Yet So Poison Entwined We Fracture (YSPEWF) |

| [Tumblr Link] | | [Ao3 Link] |

—

| {Jasonette July 2021, Week 1, Day 2: Protection} |

| Amidst the Howls of Death Your Divinity Gives Me Breath (AtHoDYDGMB) |

| [Tumblr Link] | | [Ao3 Link] |

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| {Jasonette July 2021, Week 1, Day 3: Grave} |

| Memento Mori Cries Our Shattered Souls (MMCOSS) |

| [Tumblr Link] | | [Ao3 Link] |

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| {Jasonette July 2021, Week 1, Day 5: Fairytale} |

| Stitch Your Ragged Wings and Hope to Soar (SYRWaHtS) |

| [Tumblr Link] | | [Ao3 Link] |

—

| {Jasonette July 2021, Week 2, Day 7: Guns} | (Chapter 1)

| Die Like the Butterfly Shoot With Their Guns (DLtBSWTG) |

| [Tumblr Link] | | [Ao3 Link] |

| {Jasonette July 2021, Week 2, Day 10: Light} | (Chapter 2)

| In the Atelier's Glow the Pupa Phoebus will Eclose (ItAGtPPwE) |

| [Tumblr Link] | | [Ao3 Link] |

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| {Jasonette July 2021, Saturday Challenge 3: And They Were Roommates} |

| Crack Your Bones and Say Those Lies (CYBaSTL) |

| [Tumblr Link] | | [Ao3 Link] |

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| {Jasonette July 2021, Week 4, Day 19: Mistakes} |

| Long for Who You Could Have Been (LfWYCHB) |

| [Tumblr Link] | | [Ao3 Link] |

———

| [Masterlist Link] |

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[me1ancho1y-b1iss]

A little snippet of something i’ve been working on, I originally had it posted on ao3 but I deleted it. I’ll post it again when I complete more of the story and revise the plotline. Tell me what you think. Does this count as jasonette july?? the whole fic is already pretty angsty but should i make it fluffy?? i dont what to do...

It had now been over 6 months since Marinette and Jason have started living on the streets full time. Marinette was now five years old and was still learning how to count and read. She can now recognize small words and is able to count till 20. 

The Todd siblings were once again walking down a dark street a little before dusk hoping to find a safe spot for the night. 

“Jay-Jay?” Marinette suddenly asked. 

“Yeah, Nettie?” Jason responded. 

“I want food.” she said. 

Jason sighed. She was too young to understand the complexity of the situation as well as how Gotham worked. While she was a smart kid, tough too, she also rarely left the house while their mother was still around, it was always Jason who went out and worked out how the streets of Gotham City worked. 

“We’ll get some food later. Okay, Nettie” Jason promised 

Marinette nodded. “Okay, only if you eat this time too.” 

“I do eat pixie. I eat just enough.” Jason commented back. ‘Fuck, he thought, sure I don’t eat too often, but pixie’s too damn small, she could probably pass as two years old, three if she’s lucky. I-’

“Nuh-uh,” Marinette broke through his thoughts. “Every time I eat or try to share my food you never take it or don’t eat at all. You always say you’re going to protect me but, but how can you protect me if you don’t eat enough to get strong?” 

‘Damn I can't refute her logic. I always tell her that eating will make her grow big and strong, but now she’s using my own goddamn reasoning against me.’ Jason thought again 

So Jason only merely bent down, picked her and placed her on his left hip. They started walking again when Jason started to poke and tickle Marinette’s sides. When she started squealing and giggling, begging him for him to stop, it brought a smile to his face. ‘Hopefully she’ll forget about me not eating enough.’

[jasonette-july-event]

Jasonette July is finally back!

Rules! (Guidelines?) 

-Platonic and romantic relationships will be accepted 

-Starts July 5th (or 3rd) and ends July 31st 

-Tag @jasonette-july-event in works so that we can find and reblog them 

-No ship bashing, racism, sexism, queerphobia, or fatphobia/fatshaming allowed and any works containing those will not be reblogged 

-All types of works welcome! Including; fics, art, incorrect quotes, moodboards, playlists, or designs 

-Official tag is #jasonettejuly2021 but we will also be browsing #jasonette july 2021

-Have fun! And please take care of yourself! 

Prompt calendar and instructions/explanations will be posted this morning at 06:00 EST

(2021 event is hosted by @mochegato and @strawberry-lemonade )

[bunathebunny]

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Miraculous Ladybug, Batman - All Media Types, Maribat - Fandom Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Relationships: Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug & Jason Todd Characters: Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Jason Todd Additional Tags: Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Underage Prostitution, Accidental Baby Acquisition, more like accidental sibling acquisition actually, MariBat Series: Part 67 of 2021, Part 89 of maribat Summary:

The little flash of red at the corner of her eyes draws Marinette's attention.

For Jasonette July 2021 Day 5 - Fairytales

@jasonette-july-event

[the-alice-of-hearts]

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Maribat - Fandom, Miraculous Ladybug, Batman - All Media Types Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug/Jason Todd Characters: Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir, Jason Todd Additional Tags: Jasonette July 2021, Identity Reveal, no beta we die like jason Series: Part 2 of Jasonette July 2021, Part 20 of Alice writes Maribat Summary:

The rules of the game were simple. Someone would yell ‘Suit up!’ and everyone had to either get dressed or transform. You couldn’t ask if it was a get dressed or a get transformed moment, and whoever was last to be dressed appropriately lost, if you chose wrong you also lost. A simple game really, and Adrien had it out for Marinette. She had never lost a round and he had the worst luck and lost almost every time. So he had a plan! Marinette had just gotten into town late last night. She had flown in from Gotham so she would have jet lag, and they had to be at the city meeting early in the morning as heroes, but she had a meeting right before that with Coccinelle Fashions so he had the best chance possible to surprise her. 

---

@jasonette-july-event

[mochegato]

The Night of the Consequences

Continuation of Well, Well, Well, If It Isn’t the Consequences of My Actions

“Ladybug!”

Ladybug’s eyes widened, recognizing the voice booming through the Watchtower halls without even having to turn around.  She eyed Chloe nervously.  Why did these things keep happening around the nosy blondes in her life?  She turned around with an overly wide smile.  “Oh… hi… um… M.… Wing,” she stuttered out.  

Son of a bitch!  She really should have prepared for this.  She knew it was coming.  Granted, she didn’t know it was coming today, but it had to be coming soon, they couldn’t afford to let just anyone go around knowing their identities.  If the family was really worried, they couldn’t afford to wait to talk to her about… well… her.  

Bee side eyed her with an incredulous stare.  “What the actual fu…” she started quietly.

“Is there something we can help you with?” Ladybug asked loudly, cutting off whatever rant Chloe was going to go on.

“Um well, first off,” he gave her an overly wide, supposedly charming grin, “you can call me Nightwing.  M. Wing is my… father.”  He cringed as he the last word came out.

Bee raised an eyebrow.  “I thought your father was M. Bat.”

Nightwing puckered his lips.  “Yeah… that’s… true.”  He shuffled awkwardly.

“If you’re going to use that line, you’re supposed to say we can call you Night, which I’m not going to do, by the way,” Bee said flippantly and starting to study where her nails would be if she didn’t have gloves on.  “Otherwise it really doesn’t work.”

“Bee!” Ladybug lightly chastised.  She turned to Night… Wing… Nightwing!  She wasn’t calling him Night either.  “Sorry about her.  I’d say she’s just tired, but that would be a lie.”  She ignored Bee’s scoff and continued.  “You said ‘first’, so I assume there’s a second?” she prompted.

“Right, right,” he nodded, finally seeming to settle a bit, his face becoming a bit more determined and the ‘charming’ smile returning.  “I wanted to ask you about someone.  She gave your name as a reference and I just wanted to see if it was someone we could trust.”

Bee leaned over to Ladybug’s ear.  “Why does he keep smiling like that?” she asked in a normal volume.  She shivered dramatically.  “Creepy.”

Ladybug pursed her lips to stop the noise that wanted to escape, some kind of a combination of frustrated whimper and raucous laugh.  “Okay,” Ladybug smiled tightly, focusing entirely on Nightwing. “Who was it?”

“Yeah, a name would be useful here, Smile Boy” Bee added in.  “Or we could just give our opinion on everyone we know, along with a fashion critique.  We can start with your costume history.”

“Bee, didn’t you have something else to do?  Right now?” Ladybug’s voice was sharper than an obsidian edge.  This was her boyfriend’s… future boyfriend’s?... love interest’s?  Yes, love interest’s brother.  She did not need to piss him off while he was asking her as a ‘reliable source’ about her.

“Nope,” Bee smirked back.

Ladybug groaned and turned to Nightwing.  She nodded off to the side.  “Should we…”

Nightwing nodded and followed her over.  “Ugh, whatever.  I didn’t want to hear anyway,” Bee grumbled and walked to get coffee.

“So, the woman I’m asking about is Marinette Dupain-Cheng.  You may have come across her in Paris?” Nightwing prompted.

Ladybug nodded.  “I have yeah. She’s actually…”  She bit her lip.  She really should have planned this better.  How much should she tell him?  Clearly she wasn’t going to say it was her, but maybe she could say she was a part time hero?  Or maybe she could just say they trusted her.  The point was whether she could be trusted with their identities so maybe exposing her identity, one of them anyway, wasn’t the best idea.  Maybe just that she knew their identities and had never told anyone?  That should work, right?  She just had to…

“It’s just,” Nightwing spoke up misinterpreting her silence, “my brother has kind of fallen for her.”  He watched her face carefully when he said it to see if there was any indication of what she thought of the idea.

Ladybug’s eyes bugged out.  That was not the approach she had been expecting.  She thought he’d focus more on the identity aspect more than the personal aspect.  Not to mention ‘fallen’?  That was… they’d only just met.  She knew he liked her but fallen was pretty strong.  Did Jason really feel that way toward her or was Dick… Nightwing just exaggerating?  And she didn’t even think Jason had told him they were seeing each other, let alone how he felt about her!  She looked up and met his expectant eyes.  Oh right, he was waiting on her to respond.  But how did she respond to that?  “Oh?”  Very eloquent.  Her eloquence was clearly not improving around the bats.

His face scrunched as he studied her reaction.  It was definitely odd.  “Yeah. It’s kind of bizarre really.  Not to say anything bad about Marinette,” he rushed to assure her.  “I don’t know her well enough to judge her, obviously.  That’s why I’m here asking you about her.  But he’s really taken with her really quickly.  I’ve never seen him like this.”  He suddenly stopped and his eyes blew wide.  “Oh God!  Don’t tell her that.  Jason’ll kill me if he finds out.”

“Oh… um…” she looked away suddenly trying to hide her sudden blush and searched for a way to answer.

“Oh my god, y… Dupain-Cheng bagged another hero?” Bee exclaimed slapping Ladybug on the shoulder with her elbow and handing her one of the cups in her hands.

“Bee!” Ladybug exclaimed.  “I thought you didn’t care!  What are you doing here?”

“This is the thanks I get after bringing you tea?” she scoffed in pretend offence.

Ladybug rolled her eyes and let out a long suffering sigh.  “This is just water.”  She brought the cup to her lips.  “Not even hot water!  You brought me a cup of tepid water.”

“Oh my God, can’t you just be grateful I thought about bringing you tea?” Bee exclaimed, exasperation clear in her tone.

Ladybug gave her a deadpan expression.  “Did you though?”

“No, not really,” she shrugged.  “Let’s get back to Dupain-Cheng somehow managing to entice yet another hero though,” she continued, malicious glee sparkling in her eyes.

Ladybug’s mouth dropped in offense.  “She does not date a lot of heroes,” she rushed to assure Nightwing. “Only the one, really…”  She paused and looked at who she was talking to and her eyes widened in realization.  “… not that there’s anything wrong with dating a lot of superheroes… if that’s… um… what you want to do,” she finished weakly.

Bee snickered at the flustered cover-up.  “Yeah, she’s not like some heroes that date everyone they shake hands with.”

Nightwing gave an offended scoff.  “I have not dated that many people… or heroes.”

Bee scoffed.  “Maybe not that are officially sanctioned by the JL.”

“We didn’t say that you did,” Ladybug promised, “did we Bee?” she hissed at Bee through gritted teeth.  “And even if you had, there’s nothing wrong with that.  Right, Bee?  Because there’s nothing wrong with dating around.  Is there?”

“No,” Bee groused.  She crossed her arms over her chest and pouted for a moment before the pout became a vicious grin.  “Yeah, sure, we can stop talking about his dating history.  So, anyway, back to Dupain-Cheng…”

“Oh fu… I can’t believe I walked right into that,” Ladybug grumbled into her hands.

“It may be just the one she actually dated.  The rest just have wet dreams about her.”  She smirked at her.

“Bee!” Ladybug exclaimed her cheeks rapidly turning a dark scarlet.

“Relax, I know you and Dupain-Cheng have a… unique relationship, but that doesn’t change facts.  And pretending like she isn’t getting lusty looks from other people doesn’t change it either.”  Bee rolled her eyes and took a sip of her coffee.  The cup wasn’t nearly big enough to hide her widening smirk.  “You’re just going to have to suck it up.”

Nightwing perked up at that comment.  Well, that was an interesting tidbit.  “So you must know Marinette very well considering you know her dating history so well.”

Ladybug nodded while still glaring at Bee.  “Yes.  You could say that.  We know each other rather well.”

“Extremely well,” Bee agreed, her grin getting even sharper.  “I’ve known her since we were children but Ladybug still knows her much more intimately than I do.  Why don’t you tell him about her?”

“And I would trust her,” Ladybug continued over Bee.  “I have trusted her with a lot, both in and out of the suit.”

Bee cackled at the answer “Yeah LB do tell.  Go on about her amazing attributes.  Tell us all about her.”

“Bee,” Ladybug whined, her cheeks heating up.  Nightwing observed the interaction with a raised eyebrow.

“Come on, he’s going to think you don’t like Dupain-Cheng,” Bee teased.

“What! No!”  Ladybug straightened quickly, her eyes going wide.  “I do!  I like Dup… Marinette,” she glared quickly at Bee before she whipped back to face Nightwing with wide eyes.  “She’s great! She’s ama… She’s…” she faltered.  This was so awkward.  If she and Jason ended up getting serious, Nightwing was eventually going to know who she was and remember what she said here and if she overplayed it, he’d think she was pompous and hate her.  Then his whole family would hate her and Jason would break up with her because his family would convince him she was a terrible influence.

But! But if she wasn’t complimentary enough he’d think she didn’t like… herself and that she wasn’t trustworthy. Then he would convince Jason that it was a mistake to be with her and he’d break up with her because he’d trust his family’s word over hers and think she wasn’t a good person and deserved to be miserable.  She looked back up at Nightwing with a sigh.  “She’s a good person.  She deserves to be happy.”

Nightwing stared into her eyes for a few moments as if trying to read a part of her soul.  Finally, his eyes softened to a more sympathetic glint.  “I was worried about her knowing our identities but I’m mostly worried about him.  He’s been through a lot and he can be pretty hot and cold because of it and I just…”

Ladybug’s eyes softened too.  She looked down for a moment trying to figure out how to word her response.  “She’s… Marinette’s pretty understanding.  She’s had to deal with that before and it didn’t work then but… I don’t think that was on her…”  She pursed her lips and looked down while the memories washed over her. When she looked back up there was a bittersweet look in her eyes.  “She fights for the people she loves.  She puts effort in.  If you’re asking if I would trust her with an identity, I have before and she’s never let me down.  If you’re asking me if I would trust her with your brother’s heart, I would.  Whether it works out with him or not, she’ll still be there for him.  She’ll do everything in her power to protect it.  If you trust me, you can trust her.”

Nightwing reached out and squeezed her shoulder.  “Thank you.  This has been very helpful.  I’m sorry if I brought up any bad memories.”

Ladybug shook her head.  “No, it’s fine.  I hope I made you feel less worried about her.”

Nightwing nodded.  “You did. Thanks again.”

“You’re welcome,” Bee interjected loudly.  “Even though you didn’t ask me my opinion.”

“Sorry.  I hadn’t been given your name as a reference,” Nightwing said with only the tiniest touch of condescension.  

“I grew up with her,” Bee scoffed.  “And even though you didn’t ask, I’ll tell you my opinion anyway.”

“Bee…” Ladybug started, but her voice was tired.

“I don’t know who your brother is, but whoever he is…”  Ladybug sighed deeply and dropped her head.  “…he isn’t good enough for her.”  Ladybug’s head snapped up and her jaw dropped.

“Are you… are you admitting you like m… Marinette?”  Ladybug gaped.

“Relax, I’m not like hitting on her or anything.  I’m just...  Shut up.” She crossed her arms over her chest and looked away with a pout.  After a few seconds she looked back at Ladybug from the corner of her eye and rolled her eyes.  “Close your mouth, LB.  There probably aren’t flies here to fly in, but Beast Boy could always be transformed as a fly for whatever ridiculous reason and if you swallow him we can’t go on our date.”  

“You’re dating Beast Boy?  When did that happen?” Ladybug exclaimed.

Bee grabbed Ladybug’s arm and tugged her back in the direction they had been heading originally.  “I was trying to tell you before we were so rudely interrupted.”

Nightwing watched them walk away with a smile and a small wave.  That was a lot to take in, but at least now he knew she was trustworthy.

<><><><><> 

Marinette had just gotten home and immediately collapsed into her bed after an extremely long and wearing day when he heard an incessant pounding at the door that wouldn't stop.  “What the hell,” she groaned.  She pushed herself off the bed with a great deal of effort and shuffled to the front door. “Somebody better be about to die,” she grumbled to herself, “or someone’s going to be.”  She looked through the peep hole to see a frantic looking Jason. 

She whipped open the door for him.  “Jason! Are you okay?”  She reached to check him over to assure herself he was okay.

Jason stared at her for just a second.  “Dick just… He said… You slept with Ladybug!  She’s the one you dated?” he yelled.

Marinette blinked at him a few times trying to take in what he just said.  “What!?”

Continued in Truth so Cold

Tags:

@jasonette-july-event @maribatserver @ashbrea381writings

[boldlyanxious]

Boop

Jasonette July prompt 12: dare

My masterlist

Jasonette July

Marinette, Jon and Damian were happy to be together again even though they had only been apart a couple weeks. Marinette flew back in from France arriving after Jon had stopped back by from Metropolis. She knew they had been together a couple times since she had been home but it still felt great to have them all back together again. It was so weird not seeing them every day. They finally gave up their wonderful New York apartment since they were all graduated from university and getting jobs soon.

It was really weird at first to live with two guys she barely knew but they ended up getting along great and she had been desperate for a place to live when her place flooded. The landlord had offered her another apartment at the same price but it was really gross and too far away. The flooded apartment, she was told would take too long to repair so they could get rid of the lease. She passed it 6 months later and people were living there and it had a fitness center, coffee shop, and a water garden. She looked online and the rent was 3 times what she had been paying. She was pretty angry, but she ended up with 2 besties from the situation that she probably wouldn’t have gotten to know very well otherwise.

Tonight they were celebrating being back together again. Marinette barely had time to look around Damian’s house because he and Jon were rushing her. She was shoved into a room and Damian gave her a dress that his (sorta) sister helped him pick out and they had food ready for them to eat before they rushed out the door. The plan of the evening was to celebrate job offers and all of them being together again. Marinette wasn’t even given a chance to rest so she was reeling a little from the flight still. But she wasn’t going to pass this up. Jon was always willing to go out and have fun, but Damian feeling in a partying mood was rather rare so they were going to enjoy it.

It was loud in the place even though it was not a large New York club. Marinette had loved going to those so much it had probably eaten into her budget far too much. It was always better going with the guys because they wouldn’t let her pay. They knew she had a much tighter budget. Actually it was mostly Damian paying the covers and the tab without ever saying anything. She was pretty sure that he paid more rent than her too but he just told her that there was already an extra room and she more than made up for it with her constant cooking and she did more of the shared chores.

She knew his family had money, but she had a feeling she had no idea how much money until she saw the house. It was massive and the grounds went further than she could see. She never really talked about it because he didn’t. It was so much different from the people she knew growing up. Chloe who talked about the money all the time or Adrien and Kagami who didn’t talk about it but they were kept separate from others by their parents. She had never even met Damian’s family and they didn’t live that far away. She knew they talked but they didn't tell him how to live all the time.

They got drinks as soon as they were in the door and they did not go slow. Marinette was making up for all her time being considered a minor while living in New York when she left France right as she reached the drinking age there. She could finally drink in public here and they kept feeding her fun fruity drinks and laughing at her stumbling on her heels while still loopy from her flight. She didn’t care though. It was pretty standard for them to all pick on each other a bit it was all in good fun.

She pushed Jon towards a girl who had been watching them. He looked terrified and he tried to fight against her pushing him. He managed it but then she stumbled. She knocked into Damian who kept her on her feet but her arms still swung around wildly. Then she knocked over a drink. She looked back at them sheepishly but they were already looking at her grinning. They would not let her out of a dare even after having just gotten off a plane from Paris. They had been doing dares for knocked over drinks for a couple years but she had gotten a lot more of them that they had. She was significantly better about being more careful now, but It only took one little stumble to ruin her good streak.

---

Jason sat in the corner of his favorite bar looking sullenly around at the noisy crowd around him. He saw Damian across the room and wondered if his presence was responsible for some of the overly excited younger crowd. He may not care about his presence in the media, but they certainly cared about him. He was rich and single and a new college graduate, so he must be looking to mingle. Of course the Demon Spawn wasn’t interested in the crowd around him. He was perfectly happy with Jon nearby. Jason didn’t think he would ever want or need any other friends but as he glanced back he notice a girl with them.

Initially he thought that maybe she was trying to get close to one of the boys but not only did neither seem very interested in the beautiful girl but she seemed to be hanging around with them and bantering. He looked back up and saw her trying to encourage Jon to approach a girl at another table who had been looking their way. Jason nearly lost his foul mood when he saw her stumble and flail around being propped up by Damian. He could see their maniachal looks from across the bar and thought she was begging. But she soon squared her shoulders and took Damian’s fresh drink and drank it until it was only ice left.

She looked around and he looked back down at his drink so he wouldn’t be caught watching her. He finished his drink and signaled the bartender to make him another. He didn’t realize she had moved from beside his brother and friend until he glanced that way and saw her walking right his way. She seemed to be focused on a spot behind him as she walked. He looked back away again as he received his drink. When the waitress stepped away the girl was right behind her and looking right at him.

---

Jon and Damian laughed as they watched Marinette walk across the bar to complete her dare. She looked back at them several times hoping they would change their minds but they were more interested in laughing at her than anything else. She didn’t know anything about the angry looking man sitting alone at the end of the bar, but Jon and Damian knew that at least her fears about him lashing out at her were false. She had never met Damian’s brother so it was a bit fun for them to find a way to play a joke on both of them at once.

Marinette froze as she made eye contact with the man in front of her. He would have been very nice looking if her were smiling but he looked like he had had a very long day and just wanted to be left alone. But Marinette didn’t want to face the consequences for not doing the dare. Damian and Jon would never let her live it down. The man watched her standing there but he didn’t say anything and neither did Marinette. That was part of the challenge. She wasn’t allowed to say what was happening. She reached over to him and tapped his nose with her finger.

“Boop,” she said, as she touched his nose.

She almost expected him to yell or be angry. But she figured she could get away from that. But he just let it happen; he had no interest in causing a scene. As if he knew exactly what she would do he reached out and grabbed her arm before she could retract it. The way he held on caused her to lean heavily on the bar next to him. His face didn’t look angry, she almost thought he had a hint of a smirk. He loosened his hold but didn’t release her arm completely.

“Where did Damian and Jon find such a lovely friend to send to poke the bear?”

“Wha--do you know them?” she asked.

“I do. Do you feel like getting them back for tormenting you?”

He let his fingers slide off her arm but he leaned close to her. She leaned in close to him too.

“What did you have in mind?”

---

Jon and Damian watched, laughing as Marinette approached Jason. They expected to have an epic reaction from both of them to leave them with a story to tell in the future. But when Marinette reached out for Jason and didn’t pull away they didn’t know what to think. The two leaned close and seemed to be talking. They couldn’t see Marinette’s face, but Jason looked pretty serious. They hadn’t expected him to be very angry but maybe he was telling her off. Maybe they should have made it a comment to him rather than actually touching him even if it was a rather innocuous action.

They quickly decided he wasn’t angry and was possibly hitting on their friend when he reached over and pulled her close to him. Marinette went willingly and rested her weight against his thigh while he put his arm around her and the other he motioned for a waitress so they could order drinks. Marinette didn’t look back to see them at all. She continued talking close to Jason, and he was just as engaged with what Marinette was saying. They waited around trying to decide whether to go pull her away to hang out with them again but she didn’t use the signal that she wanted a rescue so they didn’t think she would be grateful for the interference.

---

“Are they still watching?” Marinette asked.

“Yeah. But they are trying to not be obvious about it.” He leaned down close to whisper in her ear. “Do you want to give up or do you want to up the ante?”

“I’m having too much fun to give up now.”

“Glad you think I’m such a good time.”

“Very funny. They always get me with dares. Its about time I got them back for it.”

“Well, I’m all for it. Did you want to leave with me?”

“I think you may have the wrong impression about what is going to happen here.”

Marinette pushed back from him slightly.

“I don’t have the impression that anything is happening after. But I would help you give them the impression. I am the delinquent brother after all.”

“So we would just walk out the door together as a joke.”

“Its all up to you. We could give them a show and stumble out together or just exit together and call them to meet you out there.”

Marinette considered carefully for a bit. She still thought it was unfair of them to enforce the challenge when she was fresh off a plane. Both of them had had a relaxing day before going out where as Marinette was still on Paris time and off a 9 hour flight. She made her decision and then moved in on Jason before she could back out. If he was shocked he didn’t show it. She held onto his collar while his hand slid to the back of her head. She was almost sorry that their kiss was far more chaste than it appeared to those around them. It was also far too brief. Jason just waited until her friends watched in shock before they separated and he took her by the hand and they left the bar.

The car he had called was already waiting so they were in it and off before they could be followed out. The other 2 would have to call a car still before following after them. Marinette laughed in the back of the cab and Jason grinned back at her. She recognised Damian’s house when they got there. It made sense that he would know that was where she was staying.

It was barely five minutes after Marinette and Jason arrived before Jon and Damian burst into the room they were in. Marinette had set the scene when she heard them rushing their way so her hair was partially pulled down and she had her legs resting over Jason’s. His arm was around her on the back of the couch and they had a movie started.

“Hey, did you guys want to watch a movie with us?”

They tried to act put out by the turn of events but after a moment they laughed at the turn of events. They joined the other two on the couch, but from that moment on they never made Marinette do another dare.

Taglist

@jasonette-july-event | @theymakeupfairies | @emjrabbitwolf | @vixen-uchiha | @trythisagainlove | @trippingovermyfeet | @tbehartoo | @adrestar | @zynna

[miracle-sham]

Crack Your Bones and Say Those Lies.

| {Jasonette July 2021, Saturday Challenge 3: And They Were Roommates} |

| [Ao3 Link] | | [Masterlist Link] | | [Spotify Playlist Link] |

———

| After getting roped into the Vigilante life by Chat Noir, her friend and partner in crime, Maladroit tries her best to help fight crime to make the city a better place, if only Red Hood and his gang would stop causing problems. |

| Or alternatively, Marinette and Jason are roommates with secrets. Both have huge crushes on each other but more importantly, both are trying to juggle moonlighting as their secret identities. However, when watching the nightly news together, everything changes. |

| Word Count: 5,014. |

| Warnings/Tags: No Miraculous/Different Powers Au, Roommates, minor gang mentions/Red Hood is a gang lord, gun violence, Vigilantism, Identity Shenanigans/Mistakes, Miscommunication, some emotional hurt, Fluff and Hurt/Comfort, and Domestic fluff. Also Oblivious, Protective, & Mutually Pining Marinette and Jason. |

———

| A/N: Hey! Sorry this is nearly a week late but where I live got hit with a nasty heatwave and I was barely able to write from sheer exhaustion from the heat. But on a happier note, I'm so glad I've finally been able to write and post a proper Vigilantes au (as in like Spidey style vigilantism with homemade gear and all!) Because that kinda Vigilante au especially combined with roommates is my favourite trope ever! Well maybe joint with Dragonrider AUs, but still! I've had multiple Vigilante Aus sitting in my notes and drafts so it's brilliant to finally release one into the wild! Anyway, I hope you enjoy reading this! |

| Also side note, Don’t Like? Don’t Read. Also also, please do not criticise any of my writing. This was written for fun and receiving criticism, even in a compliment/criticism sandwich, is the exact opposite of fun. |

———

It's Friday night, and Maladroit and Chat Noir are midway through their usual patrol of their slice of territory in the city.

“Race you to the billboard!” Chat Noir calls out, snickering in an almost cat-like-chitter as he launches himself forwards. Swinging over Maladroit's head with his grapple, he lands on the next roof ahead, in a perfect three-point landing.

Maladroit giggles, “Oh, you're so on!” She grabs her grapple and shoots. Swinging after him and onto the same roof. She instead, dive forward rolls for her landing and uses the momentum to propel her into a run.

Losing his lead due to the momentum loss of the three-point landing, Chat Noir vaults over a roof vent.

Forced to swerve to the side, Maladroit barely dodges a massive puddle of rainwater on her side of the roof.

Neck and Neck, the two raced across the rooftop. Closer and closer to the billboard they raced.

Nearly there! She thinks, c'mon! Reaching an arm out to slap the billboard—

Bzzt!

“Eep!” She yelps, startled by the buzzing crackle of her earring-comms. Unintentionally, she accidentally veers to the side and crashes straight into Chat Noir's side.

They collide with a loud thud, and two of them crumple into a pile.

“Graceful as ever, Mal.” A voice teases over her earring-comms. “Joking aside, didn't mean to spook you, sorry!”

Maladroit groans, “thanks,” and gingerly extracts herself from the vigilante limb pile.

“Gamer!” Chat Noir cheers, having heard him through his own disguised comms. “Got any crimes for us to fight tonight?”

There's a chuckle over the line, “Lucky you should ask, Chat, I do happen to have found some villainous plans for you to thwart.”

Chat Noir cracks his knuckles and stretches. “Oh? What are they?”

“Two which are time-sensitive.” Gamer adds.

Maladroit stifles a squawk, “Two! That are time-sensitive?” Her voice goes up a pitch on the last word, making it sound like a question.

“Uh-huh.” He confirms. “Chat Noir, there's a break-in at a jewellery store two blocks over from you. I'm sending you the directions now to your phone.”

Chat Noir does a two-fingered salute to the nearest security camera. “Got it, G! Detective Noir is on the case!”

“And Maladroit, we've got reports of sightings of Red Hood outside his usual area. By the Warehouses on fourth. There are no security cams around there so I've got nothing but rumours to go on. See if you can check it out and find out what he's up to.” Gamer informs her, sounding slightly irritated at the fact he's got little information to give her.

Maladroit nods, grumbling slightly. “When isn't he up to something.”

Slinging an arm around her shoulder, Chat Noir grins like the Cheshire Cat. “C'mon, Mal! It'll be a quick sweep and nothing will turn up like the last twenty times we've gotten this kinda tip-off!”

“You owe me ice cream from André's when we're in civvies tomorrow!” She huffs. “I made us macarons last time!”

“I haven't forgotten!” Chat Noir protests. “Anyway, see you tomorrow if we don't catch each other for the end of the patrol?”

Maladroit nods. “Yep! See ya later Minou!”

The two split. Chat Noir dashing after the directions, and Maladroit swinging towards the warehouses on fourth.

———

Breathe, Maladroit—reminds herself, perched on the rafters in one of the warehouses on fourth. Staring at the blood-red glowing mask of the red hooded villain, who happens to be oh so creatively named the 'Red Hood', leaning on the balcony railing on the opposite side of the warehouse to her rafter, and presumably glaring up at her.

“It's you again, Maladroit.” He growls, distorted by whatever voice modifier he's got wired into his mask.

She can't help but wince at the reminder of the word she had accidentally said the first time she had ever helped Chat Noir fight crime. Which irritatingly enough, stuck as her vigilante name. Especially since her second attempt at a name, Ladybug, didn't stick. She frowns beneath the black and red spotted bandana covering her mouth, and tightly grips her bladed yo-yo—with piano wire instead of string—of the same colour scheme.

“What are you planning, Red Hood?” She spits out, voice also modified by her bandana, a tad too grumpy and bitterly for the awkward-but-smiley "persona" she's supposed to act like (although it's not so much of a persona when that's just how she is almost all the time). But in her defence, she's had a rough day at uni, things have been awkward at home because of her crush on her roomie lately, and more importantly, Red Hood's lackeys have been a pain in the neck for the past week, so her reaction is more than warranted.

He has the audacity to laugh. “What makes you think I'm going to tell you, Pipsqueak?”

“Well,” Maladroit huffs, “I was hoping you were feeling considerate.”

Red Hood shifts his shoulders. “Aww, sorry Pipsqueak. I'm not feeling particularly considerate today.” In a split second, he slips both guns from his holsters, spins them, and shoots.

Maladroit squeaks, instinctively tugging on her power, and dives off the rafter to dodge the shot. “Rude!”

She's just able to shoot her grapple off and swing up to another metal beam.

“How the fuck do you keep dodging my shots?” He snarls, gesturing at her with his guns in short angry-looking motions.

In response, she throws her yo-yo at him, tugging on her power again. The yo-yo spins through the air, slashing through the Red Hood's jacket sleeve and slicing a deep groove into the gun, then rewinds on the wire back to her. “What makes you think I'm going to tell you, Bullet Boy!” She parrots back, cheekily.

“Hey!” Red Hood snaps, aiming another shot at her.

Tugging on her powers once more, Maladroit yelps as she swings to yet another metal rafter beam in order to avoid the shot. “Your aim sucks!”

“Fuck you!” He retorts, firing off four more shots aimed at her head.

There's a horrifying moment as she barely manages to tug on her powers in time. The bullets barely skimming past her hood, one even tearing the fabric slightly.

“Mal!” Comes Gamer's terrified voice over her earring-comms, “I need you to pull back immediately! Red Hood and his gang have been spotted nearby and Chat can't get to you in time to back you up if you do get into a fight!”

She raises a hand to her earrings and quietly laughs hysterically. “Little too late for that, G! I'm uh currently staring… face to gun to him”

“Oh, fuck!” Gamer responds, voice going up a pitch. “I'm contacting Chat now. Try and get out if you can but prioritise not getting yourself killed, please!”

Red Hood fires his guns again. “Eyes and ears on me, Pipsqueak.”

Squeaking yet again, Maladroit desperately tugs on her power once more and swings to another rafter. Her heart thunders in her chest as loudly as his gunfire. She spits out a frantic, “no promises!” to both of them.

“I've informed him, your backup is on the way.” Gamer tells her.

The main warehouse doors clatter open with a resounding slam! Followed by the stomping of multiple pairs of boots storming inside.

Maladroit waves at Red Hood, the quiet terrified hysterical laughter practically bubbling out of her mouth. “Haha, well I'm afraid that's my cue to Bug Out!”

“Oh, I don't think so, Pipsqueak.” Red Hood taunts, shooting six bullets at her, rapid-fire. “I ain't finished with our convo yet.”

Squeaking for the umpteenth time, and really just giving him even more reason to keep giving her that stupid pipsqueak nickname, she riskily shoots her grapple, aiming and swinging towards the warehouse's large balcony windows.

“Get the fuck back here!” He snarls, voice deepening with fury. Pausing to reload before firing off more shots at her with abandon.

Maladroit wriggles midair, tugging on her powers to try and dodge the shots. She curls into a dive forward roll as the grapple forces her to land onto the balcony. The same one that Red Hood has been stood on this entire time. Oh, help me! She thinks, eyes widening behind her makeshift red with black tinted lenses, goggles-slash-domino mask.

He aims his gun at her once more. “Move and you fucking die, pipsqueak.”

Putting her hands in the air, she swallows a gulp of air. Her body armour is padded beneath her red, and black spotted, hoodie but it isn't bulletproof. And she can feel the straining exhaustion of overusing her powers clawing at her.

They're at a standoff. Still as statues, the both of them. It's almost poetic how they parallel each other. He's got his gun aimed at her, whilst she's desperately clutching at her grappling hook gun in one of her raised hands. Both donned in red. Both committing crimes in the eyes of the law. Two sides of the same coin, one and the same.

Maladroit feels sick to her stomach, staring down the barrels of his guns. Ever so slowly, she tugs on her powers. The window a little bit behind her creaks quietly enough that Red Hood doesn't seem to notice beneath the clamour of his gang doing whatever it is they're doing below.

She counts her breath and tugs on her power. A minute passes with no movement, no words, nothing happening on the balcony. Out of the corner of her eye, she can just see that it's now open enough that she should be able to make it out unscathed. Or at least mostly unscathed.

Closing her eyes, not that he can see, her power snaps. Instinctively she doubles over and slaps a hand over her mouth. Barely in time as a stifled scream is yanked from her throat, leaving her panting for breath. Her knees crash onto the balcony flooring. A bullet whizzes past her neck.

“Shit. What the fuck was that?” Red Hood grumbles, sounding genuinely concerned. He storms across the balcony towards her.

Maladroit can't help but flinch, bodily throwing herself back as far away from him as she can. Mind racing in panic.

He stows one gun back into a holster then reaches a hand towards her. “Hey, hey, hey. Calm down.”

“Gotta go! Bug-bye!” She squeaks out, wrenching on her power with all her remaining strength, and bolting for the window.

“I think the fuck not! Fucking pretending to be hurt.” Red Hood barks, ripping the gun back out of its holster.

Narrowly dodging the spray of bullets shot at her, Maladroit dives through the window and fires off her grapple. Safely swinging far away from the warehouse.

———

Carefully Maladroit drops with the ease of far too many nights of practise, onto the fire escape outside her bedroom window. She crouches and lets the shadows of the night hide her form. Creeping closer, she checks the windowsill for any marks or signs of tampering but it all comes away untouched. Content with her quick security check, she fumbles for the disguised piece of string wedging the window ajar in a way that's barely visible unless you know where to look for it. Got it! She thinks to herself, grabbing ahold of it and prying it, and the window above it, up and open.

Slipping through the open window, she sits on the sill to rip her thankfully not-too-dirty studded steel-toed boots off. Picking them up in one hand, she wiggles the rest of the way into her room and immediately resets the security measures, yanking the curtain down for privacy.

Maladroit then shuffles over to her bed. Tikki—her gorgeous fluffy red and dark brown miniature dachshund—blinks sleepily up at her, from the dog bed next to it. The puppy yaps in greeting before snuffling and curling back up to sleep.

She coos at the cuteness before continuing on. With the other hand not carrying the boots, she pries the blanket covered duffel bag out from underneath. Wrestling to unzip it in one janky and awkward motion, grunting slightly at the exertion. The metal of the zip digs in but the discomfort is mostly mitigated by the padded gloves and wrist guards she's wearing. The easy to clean plastic bag designated for temporary storing of her boots is dragged out of the bag and said boots are tossed in without a second glance.

Huffing, she starts to take the rest of her cross between mostly homemade and refashioned sports kit vigilante gear off. First, tugging down the hood of her hoodie and unclipping the black scrum cap hidden under it. It's dumped unceremoniously into a secondary plastic bag in the open duffel bag. After that, Maladroit removes the black neck guard and pulls her makeshift goggles-slash-domino mask over her head. Those too, are dumped into the other plastic bag. Then she unties the bandana with the nose guard underneath, from around her mouth and nose. Unsurprisingly, they're also dumped in the bag.

Next, she undoes the velcros on her red and black padded gloves, black wrist guards, as well as black elbow, knee, and shin pads. Also dumped into the other bag. With the outer protective wear removed, Maladroit pulls her hoodie over her head. Continuing on, she peels the padded rugby body armour and shorts off, and then the thermal under-armour. All dumped into the third and final plastic bag. “I swear,” Maladroit mumbles to herself, “getting changed out my gear never gets easier. And to think back when I had my last P.E. lesson at school, I thought I'd never have to touch this kinda kit ever again. Rip me.”

Lastly, Marinette—no longer Maladroit seeing as she is no longer in her vigilante gear—throws on her running-to-the-bathroom spare bathrobe to cover herself. She hastily shoves the three plastic bags into the duffel bag and kicks it under her bed. Purposefully leaving it unzipped but quickly fixing the blanket covering the bag, so that she can more easily grab her kit to clean everything later, whilst keeping it sufficiently hidden.

With that mostly taken care of, she nabs the mouthguard case, some clean pyjamas, and dashes out of her room—clinging awkwardly to the bathrobe. She hops in the apartment's shared bathroom, the rest of the place is silent, meaning her roomie, Jason, must have gone out. Still, Marinette locks the door regardless. If there's one thing she's learnt in her foray into the nightly masked vigilantism, is that one can never be too careful.

“Shit! Nearly forgot to take this out.” She grumbles to herself, just as she was stepping into the shower. Prying the mouthguard out of her mouth as she shuffles over to the sink, she gives it a quick rinse under the tap. Followed by a thorough scrubbing with her toothbrush and glob of toothpaste. She pops it into the mouthguard case and leaves it on the side of the sink for now.

Breathing a sigh of relief, Marinette finally allows herself to indulge in a good half an hour-long hot shower to get the grime from a night of crime-fighting off of herself.

She's only just drying off her hair, having already changed into her pyjamas, when the blare of the TV echoes through the apartment. Tensing up, her anxiety runs wild. It's what they get for living in the cheaper but slightly dodgy apartments where the walls are thin and the doors are thinner. Grabbing the mouthguard case, she wraps it up in the bathrobe and peeks out the bathroom door and looks down the hall into the open plan kitchen lounge. Jason's back, he's sitting on the sofa watching the TV.

Shoulders untensing, she finished drying her hair and heads out into the hallway. In place of a greeting, she exclaims, “oh! Jason, you're back!”

Jason flinches slightly and looks over his shoulder back at her. “Yeah, a friend had an emergency so, y'know.”

Immediately, concern wrenches at Marinette's heart, “oh no, I'm sorry. Are they… okay?”

He waves a hand in a so-so gesture and clears his throat awkwardly. “Uh, yeah. They're fine now.”

“That's good!” She says, nodding, as she makes her way fully into the lounge and the TV catches her attention. “Oh is it nearly the eleven o'clock news already? I need to watch this! Alya texted me earlier saying I have to, and she sounded really excited!” Glancing down at the bundle in her arms and flushes red. “Actually, I'll be back in a second!”

“I'll yell as soon as it actually starts.” Jason offers, smiling warmly at her.

Marinette just misses the smile, rushing back to her room, and throwing a quick, “thanks,” over her shoulder back at him.

Also missing his smile turn fond and the good-natured roll of his eyes at her antics.

Barely half a minute passes before she's bounding back into the lounge, with a sleepy Tikki at her heels. She plops herself down on the sofa next to him and hopes the blush on her face could simply be mistaken for the flush of running about like a mad thing instead. Tikki whines until Marionette picks her up and lets her on the sofa with them, padding over to the furthest corner to curl up in.

Jason points to the pink floral steaming mug on the coffee table, right next to his Pride Prejudice and Zombies themed mug. “Whilst you were in the shower, I made us both hot chocolates with marshmallows, my granddad Alfie's recipe.”

“Oh!” Marinette responds in pleasant surprise. She turns to him and positively beams, eyes shining with happiness. “Thank you so much, Jason! You're always so thoughtful!”

He blushes and rubs the back of his neck bashfully. “Yeah, well, I thought it's only fair since you normally make 'em. And I visited Alfie recently, and I promised to get you his recipe to try, so I thought it'd be a nice surprise for once!” He pauses and points at the big bowl also on the coffee table, “also I cooked us some popcorn.”

“Aw! Thank you again! I really appreciate this!” She scoops up the hot chocolate with slight reverence and takes a sip. Immediately her face lights up even more in joy. “Oh, this is delicious!”

Jason chuckles, “isn't it the best! I'll pass that onto Alfie though, he'll be glad to know you like it so much. Speaking of which, he's gonna give making them a try next time I'm up since I wasn't there long enough this time. Would you fancy coming with me to see him, then?”

Her eyes widen and her heart stutters in her chest, feeling close to bursting from happiness. “I'd love to! Do you have a date when you're thinking of going up?”

He nods. “Yeah, maybe around—”

But he's interrupted by the starting audio of the eleven o'clock news.

They both immediately shut up and watch the screen intently as the news anchors appear on the show. The starting discussion is somewhat boring, talking about the local billionaire Wayne-or-something business and a related upcoming charity event of some sort.

Marinette doesn't pay attention to it, but she does catch Jason wrinkling his nose and scowling at the conversation.

Luckily, the topic shifts quickly enough. “And now, over to our newest reporter, Alya. We hear there's been some rumblings regarding the conflict between local vigilante Chat Noir, his sidekick Maladroit, and the gang controlled by the infamous Red Hood himself.”

“That's stupid,” Jason grumbles, “Maladroit is a fully-fledged vigilante in her own right and not just the catboy's sidekick. That's like saying Nightwing is Batman's sidekick!”

Marinette frowns, very touched by his words and trying her damnedest to appear nonchalant. “I don't know… from all the-uh news clips, Maladroit seems like Chat Noir's sidekick to me. She's always hovering nervously near him like a strong wind would spook her.”

“C'mon! She's been reported to have held her own against Red Hood on multiple occasions, alone!” He argues, sounding rather offended on her alter egos behalf.

Scoffing, she shakes her head. “Clearly that's because he's going easy on her! He's never directly shot her, according to the reports clearly, he's soft on her!” The lies taste bitter on her tongue.

Jason splutters and flushes bright red, turning away from her slightly. “W-well that's obviously a testament to her skill and not Red Hood's mercy! He's always reported as being a merciless killer, why'd he be soft on her!”

“I don't know!” She makes a dying-choking noise as she flushes even more red than earlier. Shoving a handful of popcorn into her mouth to avoid having to respond any further.

Luckily, the news shows pans over to Alya standing in front of a screen showing a recorded feed of a warehouse. Not just any warehouse, but specifically the one on fourth that Maladroit had faced Red Hood in less than an hour ago.

Marinette feels her pulse quicken at the reminder of the close shave she'd had.

“Hey wait a second, those warehouses don't have security cameras at all? How'd they get this footage?” Jason complains, eyes narrowed at the TV.

It feels as though ice has been poured down her spine at his words. She freezes, body stiffening in shock. He's right… G said there's none because that's why he asked me to check things out. The only people who'd know this are Chat, Gamer, myself, and Red Hood and his gang. She swallows thickly and tries to subtly side-eye Jason. Oh no. I've been crushing on my roommate who works for Red Hood's gang? Oh god! The friend with the emergency was referring to Red Hood calling him into work!

She can't help but inhale a shallow panicked breath. He could've been one of the lackeys shooting at me and Chat this past week. Or, or I could've hurt him with my yo-yo. Or—

Jason turns to fully face, clearly registering the blatant panic on her face. “Hey, hey, hey, Marinette, you're okay, you're safe. What's wrong?”

“Are you working for Red Hood?” Marinette blurts out, accidentally, the words pouring out in an unintentional panicked rush. “Are you in his gang?”

He jerks back, fear, confusion, and hurt crosses his face. “Wh-what? What makes you think that?”

“His gang was just in that warehouse, and you were out on an emergency for a "friend". And how would you have known unless you were there tonight and working for his gang?” She chews her lip forcefully and winces as the taste of iron floods her mouth.

He reaches towards her, eyes widening concern.

She flinches back, suddenly reminded of how similar this is to that moment with Red Hood on the warehouse balcony.

Jason jerks back as if her flinching burnt him. Raising his hands, he leans away from her to give her some semblance of space. “Fuck. Look, I'm not going to hurt you! Have I ever hurt you whilst we've been roomies?”

Nervously, she shakes her head.

“I really care about you, Marinette. Hell, we've lived together for nearly a year now. I would never hurt you, okay! I promise.” Tears prick in his eyes, and he grimaces slightly, lowering his hands to rest on his lap. “Yeah, I uh, I'm working for him. But I do everything I can to keep work from following me home. I didn't tell you because I never wanted to scare you.”

Guilt gnaws at her. “I'm sorry! I shouldn't have judged. I—” She takes a shaky breath, “I really really care about you too. I'm just worried, what if Red Hood, or even Maladroit, or any of the other vigilantes hurt you? What if you get hurt in one of those gang wars?” Her words aren't lies but they're not the full truth either.

He sighs, “I can't promise I won't ever get hurt on the job. Maladroit and the other vigilantes do a lot of good but Maladroit especially is far too nice to hurt any of us. I've uh, seen her fight some of the others gang members, and been fought by her too. And out of everyone against the gang, she's the one who leaves us with barely more than a scratch at worst.” He rubs the back of his neck. “Most in the gang really respect her for that, y'know.”

Marinette's brain feels like the windows shutting down sound. “Oh. Oh.”

Sheepishly, he smiles half-heartedly at her. “Yeah.”

“So, is that why you were so adamant she's a fully-fledged vigilante in her right?” She asks, feeling bashful yet honoured whilst completely surprised.

Jason clears his throat and glances away. “Uh-huh.”

“Oh.” Her brain rewinds a moment. She splutters for a second, desperation racing through her. “Wait, she's fought you!?”

Full-on grimacing, he nervously laughs. “Left but a scratch!”

“Are you misquoting Monty Python right now? Oh good gods, that's the knight who says that after getting his limbs chopped off!” Marinette exclaims, looking every bit as horrified as her tone of voice conveys.

“Seriously, I've never gotten worse than a couple of minor cuts and bruises, I'm fine!” Jason reiterates.

She frowns and gingerly shuffles across the sofa closer to him. He keeps leaning back away, so she physically throws herself at him, pulling him into a tight hug. Incidentally burying her face in his shirt. “Okay, okay. Just, please let me know next time you get hurt. I've a friend who lived in a bad situation before, so I know how to help patch up minor injuries. Promise?”

Jason stiffens at the hug and slowly moves one hand to cup the back of her head whilst wrapping the other around her back. He shuts his eyes, cocking his head back and sighs. “Alright. I promise I'll tell you. And I'm sorry for keeping something this big from you. As I said, I was worried you'd be scared of me or that you'd get dragged into gang-related shit because of it.”

“You don't need to apologise.” Marinette mumbles in response, “I get it. I really do understand.” She bites at her sore bleeding lips again in guilt, her secret identity left unspoken on her tongue.

He shrugs, “so uh. I'm guessing you're still happy to stay roomies then, right?”

“Of course!” She responds without missing a beat hugging him even tighter.

Eventually, they release each other from the embrace to finish their now lukewarm hot chocolates and popcorn. The news continues playing, no longer forgotten in the background as the two try to act as if nothing has changed.

———

Jason collapses onto his bed with a heavy sigh. He pulls out his phone and rings a number on autopilot.

The dial tone plays as the line connects. “Hey, whaddup Jay?”

“Holy fucking shit balls, man.” Jason groans. “I fucked up.”

Roy hums, “like need help burying a body fucked up or what?”

Jason groans even louder, smushing his face into his bed covers. “My roomie is smart, right. I accidentally let a tiny detail slip when we were chatting whilst watching the eleven o'clock news as usual. And she now thinks that I'm in Red Hood's gang.”

There's a long pause, before Roy bursts into raucous laughter. “Holy shit, I'm dying! She's not wrong!”

“Yeah. I know. She ain't right either though.” He grumbles in response. “She was absolutely terrified when she realised. Nearly had a full-on panic attack and everything.”

“Oh fuck.” Roy helpfully says.

Jason grunts in agreement. “She was also real concerned that Red Hood or the vigilantes have hurt me.”

“Well, that's better?” Roy offers, sounding rather unsure of his own words.

“Yeah but she's taken thinking I'm some low-level member of my gang this badly, how the fuck d'ya think she's gonna take finding out I'm the big bad Red Hood himself?” Jason sighs. “I don't want to ask her out without her knowing this, 'cause it could endanger her.”

Roy hums again, “well, you've been roommates this long already and she's been completely safe from the Vigilante-Gang life so far.”

There's a gentle thump as Jason lifts his head and throws it into the sheets again out of sheer frustration. He relents, reluctantly. “That's true…”

“See. And since it sounds like she's not planning on moving out, clearly she doesn't mind living with you. Just ask her out to dinner already.” Roy adds, cheerfully.

Huffing, he rolls over on the bed. “I'm starting to feel like those weird girl slumber party ads with the creepy phone-a-boy games.”

Roy wheezes, followed by a thudding noise and the distant sound of his cackling.

“Wow. And to think I called you for help. I'm offended.” Jason goads with no bite, waiting a few seconds to hear Roy's response but it's just more laughter.

He rolls his eyes and ends the call, not like Roy will mind. Throwing an arm over his face, Jason barely refrains from grabbing his pillow to scream into. He doesn't, obviously. Because the walls are thin enough that Marinette might hear him and he's worried her enough this night as is.

Sighing like a lovesick protagonist in a period romance novel, Jason moves his arm to run his fingers through his own hair. A date. Just gotta ask her at some point, to dinner at a fancy-ish restaurant. It'll be fine, what's the worst that can happen?

Her terrified reaction on the sofa flashes through his mind, followed by the reminder of how small and scared Maladroit had seemed when she had fallen to her knees on the warehouse balcony. There was no way that she was faking the pain, like he'd initially thought. She had practically staggered in her mad dash to escape. And there's no way for me to find out whether she got to somewhere safe afterwards. God, she could be lying dead in some dank alleyway for all I know right now. Fuck, I hope she's okay...

He groans in distress and shifts in place. Already feeling like he really won't be getting any sleep at all tonight at this rate, thanks to his concern for those two.

———

| Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed this little fic! Comments, Likes, and Reblogs are much appreciated! |

| I decided to go close to canon for names this time, hence why Chat Noir remains unchanged but Max is Gamer (because A. that was his Akuma name, and B. he's like Player from Carmen Sandiego in this, couldn't help myself), and Marinette is Maladroit (from the first thing she calls herself in Origins). |

| Oh, also whilst it's not explicitly stated in the text; Marinette/Maladroit's has the power of luck/being lucky, Chat Noir has the power of being unlucky, and Red Hood has "Perfect Aim" aka he's a hitscan. Which is why Maladroit is able to dodge his bullets by making herself "lucky enough" to dodge in time. |

| Also feel free to send me any comments with any questions you have regarding this fic, I'll be more than happy to answer! |

| @jasonette-july-event |

[jasonette-july-event]

Thank you to everyone who participated in Jasonette July this year!!  We had so many amazing works and I’m already going through withdrawal.  

We had 138 works added to the Jasonette July 2021 collection in AO3!!  Make sure to check it out when you get the chance.

[bunathebunny]

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Miraculous Ladybug, Batman - All Media Types, Maribat - Fandom Rating: Not Rated Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Relationships: Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug & Jason Todd Characters: Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Jason Todd Additional Tags: Accidental Baby Acquisition, but the baby here isn't an infant, Alternate Universe, Urban Fantasy, Werewolves Series: Part 75 of 2021, Part 96 of maribat Summary:

Marinette notices a lonely child

For Jasonette July 2021 Day 5 - Fairytales

@jasonette-july-event

[the-alice-of-hearts]

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Maribat - Fandom, Miraculous Ladybug, Batman - All Media Types Rating: General Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug/Jason Todd Characters: Jason Todd, Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug Additional Tags: Tooth-Rotting Fluff, Jasonette July (DCU & Miraculous Ladybug), Jasonette July 2021, Tanabata, no beta we die like jason Series: Part 23 of Alice writes Maribat, Part 5 of Jasonette July 2021 Summary:

Bruce wants the family to celebrate Tanabata, Jason is okay with that. He could use a little magic to make his wish come true.

---

@jasonette-july-event

[mochegato]

Heroic Deeds

Thanks to @boldlyanxious and @ive-fallen-down-the-rabbithole for the idea

 Marinette was going to kill her roommate.  Because that’s why she was in this situation in the first place, her roommate was too busy to pick up his own damn paperwork.  And she was just too “nice” to say no.  And puppy dog eyes should be illegal.  In fact, that was the next house rule.  No puppy dog eyes.  She has never in her life been able to say no to puppy dog eyes and mean it.  Manon, Etta, Ella, Adrien… no more!  Hence forth they were banned.  It was already a rule with the kwami.  It would just have to be instituted as a rule with humans as well.

But until then, she had to deal with this ridiculousness.  This thief that sounded like he was bored out of his mind, like she was inconveniencing him by being held hostage.  Is it too much to ask for him to be more invested in this than she is?  I mean, she may be the one with the gun pointed at her, but he’s the one that’s pointing it and he’s the one that broke into the office to steal whatever documents he was halfheartedly looking for during the day instead of at night when NOBODY WOULD BE THERE.  

But noooo, this jackass had to do it during the day and at the exact moment when she would be there. Really, what was her luck?  Was this punishment for not wearing Tikki constantly anymore?  She was only supposed to be in this office for a total of a whole ninety seconds. Walk in, grab the documents that were supposed to be ready and waiting for her, and walk out.  But instead she was stuck here critiquing this idiot’s ransacking skills, because that ninety seconds is exactly when this blasé thief decided to strike.  

At least Kate was safe, she huffed to herself.  Kate had been lucky enough to have gone to the backroom for the documents just a few seconds before Idiot Man came in.  Hopefully, she had escaped through the backdoor and had contacted the police already.  Because apparently Kate hadn’t pissed off the kwami of luck like Marinette somehow had.  She and Tikki were going to have a very long, very hissy discussion when she got back home.

And this guy wasn’t. Even.  Paying.  Attention. To.  Her.  The gun was pointed in her general direction, but it was like she was the furthest thing from his mind, like she held the same threat level as a kitten.  But that was his mistake, underestimating her, because this kitten had claws.  God, she’s been hanging out with Adrien too much.  She’s beginning to think like him.  She let out a breath and banged her head against the back of the chair she was sitting in out of frustration and disappointment in herself.

It wouldn’t be so bad if he was ignoring her to focus on his search, but he wasn’t really paying attention to that either.  She would think he was high on something if there were any other signs of it.  No, this just was just bored, like he was wasting time, waiting for the police to show up.  Maybe it’s the ski mask he was wearing that was annoying him.  Who wears a ski mask in the summer?  And… did he just check his phone!  Oh, Hell no!  That was the final straw.

She moved before she could overthink it, sliding over the desk she had moved behind when he came in. She plowed into his chest with both feet, catching him completely off guard and knocking him back into the filing cabinet.  

“Hey, get off me!” he yelled, sounding more affronted than worried.  

She twisted around and kicked the gun out of his hand with one leg, following it up with a punch that would have broken his nose if he hadn’t blocked it with his forearm, redirecting her hit.  She stopped her momentum before breaking her hand on the filing cabinet.  She pulled her arm back instead striking her elbow directly into his cheek.

“What the fuck!” he yelled, holding his cheek and looking up at her like she was crazy.

He reached for his gun, but she kicked his arm and raced for it herself, kicking it under a nearby cabinet. “That was my gun!” he gritted out, rounding on her.  At least he finally looked invested in this.

“I noticed,” she smirked at him, delivering a roundhouse kick to the face.  He dodged at the last second and shoved her leg, changing her momentum and sending her flying toward the edge of the table.  She squeezed her eyes shut as she braced herself for the impact. If she timed this right, she could use the table as a springboard to go back at him.  The table was solidly built from thick, heavy wood and metal.  It had to weigh several hundred pounds.  It would be able to take her weight without moving even a centimeter.  She took a breath to prepare, but the impact was significantly softer than she had anticipated and didn’t give her the bounce back she expected, causing her to end up sprawled on the floor instead of springing back at the thief.  

Before she had even registered what happened, she heard a grunt in front of her and the sound of the table scraping against the floor as it moved.  She looked up to a red helmet looking back at her.  Her eyes flicked down quickly to his chest as if she needed the confirmation the bright red bat there gave her.  He stood up quickly, rubbing his shoulder as he approached her. He knelt down in front of her. “You okay?”  His voice was considerably softer than she would have anticipated from the vigilante considered to be the most dangerous of the bats.

She stared at him for a few seconds, shocked by the tone and to see him there in the first place.  She had been expecting the police not a bat. It was daytime, everyone knew they didn’t come out during the day.  The bat signal didn’t work during the day.  “Miss,” he tried again, his voice taking on a concerned edge.

“Oh!  Yes.  Yeah. I’m fine.”  She nodded rapidly and reached down to rub her leg where the thief had pushed her, more to relieve anxiety than because it actually hurt.  

“You’re hurt.”  It was a comment, not a question.

“It’s okay, really,” she tried to assure him, but he was already up and stalking toward the thief who had started edging toward the door.  Marinette mentally scoffed at his stupidity.  She understood underestimating her, she was an unknown and looked tiny.  But Red Hood was a known entity.  His threat level was well established.  Why on Earth wouldn’t the thief have run as soon as he appeared?

“Hood…” he started nervously, holding up his hands as though trying to placate him.

Whatever other argument he was going to try to make died on his lips as Hood picked him up and threw him through the large, plate glass, front window.  He stood at the window for a few seconds, watching the thief run away. Satisfied with what he saw, he turned back to her.  “How badly are you hurt?”  He approached her slowly.  He rolled his shoulder a few times, almost imperceptibly.  If she hadn’t been familiar with trying to hide an injury, she might have missed it.

Marinette smiled at him.  “I’m not. Are you?  Did I hurt your shoulder when I slammed into you?”

“Are you sure?”  He stopped a respectable distance from her.  He seemed to eye her leg suspiciously, but backed off questioning it. “I mean emotionally too.  An incident like that can be stressful for some people.”

Marinette rolled her eyes.  “Please, that wasn’t stressful.  That was annoying.  And you didn’t answer my question.  How is your shoulder?”

Red Hood paused for a few seconds watching her.  “It’s fine.  You weren’t afraid?”

Marinette scoffed.  “No. The most stressful part of this is I’m supposed to be picking up some important documents for my roommate and I don’t know if I’m going to be able to get them now.”

“If you didn’t feel afraid of what he would do, why did you attack him?  You could have provoked him into doing something he wasn’t going to do before,” he gently chided her.

Marinette let out an annoyed sigh.  “You sound like my roommate.”

“Sounds like a wise man. Why didn't you listen?” He cocked his head to the side.

She mumbled something into her feet, not making eye contact with him.

He arched his head closer to her.  “What was that?”  She mumbled something again, slightly louder this time, but still not loud enough for him to understand what she said.  “What?”

“Because he pissed me off.  Okay?” she finally yelled in exasperation.

“What did he do to piss you off?” he asked carefully, because if the guy did anything to hurt her, he was going to hunt the asshole down and kill him.

“He was bored,” she growled.  “He was holding me at gunpoint and acting like I was the one that forced him into the situation and it pissed me off, okay.  I mean the audacity!” Red Hood fought laughing at the adorable scrunched up face she made as she talked.  She waved her arms around agitatedly as she spoke.  “You don't want to be here?  Newsflash, asshole!  Neither do I! I mean, if you’re going to threaten me, put some effort into it, you know?  Am I not worth the effort?”

“You are.” Red Hood answered instantly.  “I mean, you seem like you are… from what I can tell.”

“It’s just disrespectful,” she groused, crossing her arms over her chest and pouting as she leaned against the table.

“Extremely,” he agreed absently, staring at her pouting lips.  “Lucky for you though.  Seems like he underestimated you.  I don’t even think you needed this knight in shining leather to rescue you.”

She huffed out a laugh.  “I already have a knight in shining leather.  Two, actually, if you count my roommate, which I do.  I don’t really need another.”

He motioned like he wanted to take his helmet off but stopped himself.  He positioned his arm on the table she was leaning on, supporting his weight as he leaned closer to her.  “But are they heroes?”  

“Yes,” she answered without hesitation.  “I mean… to me,” she added quickly.  She didn’t need anyone making any kind of a connection between her and Chat.

He seemed to contemplate her for a moment before responding.  “You must be quite something to have so many knights willing to fight for you.  But, maybe you can use another, after all they’re not here right now and I am.  I can be your knight in shining Kevlar instead.”

She chuckled, looking down shyly.  When she looked back up, it was through her eyelashes.  “Yes, you are here and during the day too,” she smirked at him.  “I didn’t think you guys could come out during the day.  I thought sun repelled you.”

“You’re thinking of vampires.”

She pretended to study him carefully.  “So you’re stating for the official record that you are not, in fact, vampires then?  Just regular bats.  Interesting.” She looked away nodding as if in thought.  “I’ll have to let my friend know you’re refuting that theory.  She runs a superhero blog.  The vampire Bats theory is one of the more popular posts.”

He chuckled and she could hear the smile through his words. “We aren’t.  Well, I’m not.  Can’t vouch for Robin though.  He’s definitely some kind of cryptid.”

Her face was starting to hurt from trying to contain her smile. She pursed her lips and narrowed her eyes at him.  “Although… you could be lying.  After all, you are entirely covered right now… in the middle of the day… in the summer. That’s a lot of leather for a hot day. It kind of looks like you’re hiding from the sun.”  She shrugged her shoulders innocently.

Red Hood stared at her a few more seconds and she was cursing the helmet for an entirely different reason than she usually did.  Right now she was dying to know what kind of face he was making.  Was he smirking?  Was he frowning?  Was he blushing?  Did she make Red Hood blush!  Was he enjoying the interaction or was she annoying him?  He moved over to the window he had thrown the thief through earlier and stopped a few feet from it.  He pulled up his sleeve to reveal his forearm and exposed it to the sun.  “Happy?”

Marinette looked at his forearm for a few seconds, struck by the muscles that were so defined even in his forearms.  The things that man could probably do with his hands… She walked closer and started to reach out to touch his forearm only to snap her hand back at the last second.  Her cheeks blazed brightly.  She cleared her throat lightly.  “For now,” she nodded as casually as she could manage, looking everywhere but his eyes.

“Don’t feel shy, P… rincess,” he smirked at her. “Feel free to feel freely.”

She rolled her eyes and crossed her arms over her chest, as much to stop herself from reaching out to touch him as embarrassment. “Probably not a good idea to go around groping people you don’t know so….”

“So,” he started quietly, moving closer to her, “you’re saying you want to get to know me better and then you’ll grope me.” He quirked his head to the side as he took another step closer.  “How well do we have to know each other for that?  ‘Cuz, I’d let you do it now, so it’s all up to you.”

Marinette’s cheeks blazed a deep red.  She looked away to collect herself.  While this was fun and Red Hood’s body should be as illegal as his actions, she wasn’t looking to be another notch for him and considering the speed he was moving with someone he just met a few seconds ago, that’s all she would be.  She took a breath and looked back up at him.  “I’m saying… I should find the papers I was sent here for and get them back to my roommate.”

“Let me walk you home.  Make sure the guy doesn’t come back.  I can check the security of your place too to make sure you’re safe,” he offered in a tone that sounded sincere.

“Okay,” she nodded.

“Okay?”  He sounded surprised at her answer.  Most women must not say yes to him, which frankly she had a really hard time believing.

“To the walk, not the apartment check,” she corrected him firmly.  “My apartment is safe.”

“Are you sure?  I can…”

“My roommate made sure it’s safe and I trust my roommate more than I trust you,” she cut him off.  “No offense.”

Red Hood was silent for a few seconds before nodding.  “Okay.”

<><><><><> 

Marinette laid down on the couch for a while after getting home replaying the events in her head. No matter how many times she ran through them, they still didn’t make any sense.  The thief didn’t make sense.  Red Hood being there during the day didn’t make sense.  And Red Hood hitting on her… didn’t not make sense, but it definitely dampened the crush she had on him.  

After a little while, her stomach reminded her she had planned to pick up something to eat after picking up the paperwork, which means she hadn’t eaten since the croissant she had at breakfast and it was now dinnertime.  She let out a groan and forced herself up off the couch.  Maybe chopping some vegetables would make her feel better anyway.

She had already started sautéing the onions when the puppy dog eyed man himself finally made it home.  “That smells great, Mari.  Were you able to get the paperwork?”

Marinette blinked at him a few times before narrowing her eyes and pointing the knife she was holding at him.  “You’re not allowed to do puppy dog eyes anymore!”

“What?  Why?  I mean… I don’t… do that,” he trailed off quietly at the glare she was sending him.

“Yes, you do,” she glowered and went back to cutting vegetables for dinner a little more forcefully than she had originally.

“So what happened that was so bad?” he asked carefully.  He moved to sit on the counter, but made sure to keep a fair distance between him and Marinette, or more specifically, her knife.

“The office got robbed!” she exclaimed loudly, waving the knife wildly.  “While I was in it!”

He jumped down off the counter and ran to her.  He grabbed her shoulders and looked her over carefully for any signs of injury.  “Mari!  Are you okay? Did you get hurt?”

Marinette scoffed.  “No.  I just started trying to take him down when Red Hood interrupted.”

“Red Hood, huh?”  He waggled his eyebrows at her.

“Yes, Red Hood,” she rolled her eyes.  “Shut up.”

He opened his mouth to say something, but shut it quickly and took the knife from her hand first.  Once he was fairly safe from getting stabbed, accidentally or on purpose, he continued.  “Did you flirt with him?”

“What?” Her cheeks flared brightly.  What the hell!  Why was he asking her that?  That was not a conversation she wanted to have.  It was hard enough to have normal conversations with him and his tight shirts and charming smile and piercing eyes, but him encouraging her to flirt with other people was really not a conversation she wanted to have.

“Well you… you like him, right?  You said he was your favorite and he was a dilf, even though I’m pretty sure he doesn’t have any kids,” he said nonchalantly as he swirled the onions in the pan.

“Yeah, because he could be my daddy,” Marinette muttered to herself, but apparently not as quietly as she thought she did, judging by the choking sounds next to her.

“What!”

“What?”  The smug smirk making its way across his face told her that her denial didn’t come across as innocently as she had hoped.  “Shut up, Jason.”

“So he made a good impression then?” He asked somewhat awkwardly, which was bizarre for him. “You might even want to see him again?”

She smacked him in the shoulder pausing when he flinched heavily.  She stared at him, studying him closely.  That was where Red Hood had been nursing earlier.  Red Hood, who has the same dimensions as Jason.  Red Hood, who had a still healing cut on his forearm in the exact same spot as the one Jason mysteriously showed up with a few days ago.  Red Hood, who knew her roommate was a he.  Red Hood, who reminded her so much of Jason, which is why she liked him so much in the first place.  Red Hood, who was definitely flirting with her as he rescued her while she was the only one… in Jason’s aunt’s office… after saving her from someone who, thinking back, had the same dimensions and eye color as Roy…

“Oh he made an impression,” she said absentmindedly, still staring at his shoulder.

“A… um, a good one?  He did save you, right?  Heroic deeds and all?  Women love a hero,” Jason added casually.

Marinette stared at him for a few seconds, letting the pieces settle into place.  Finally, her eyes widened in realization.  “You set it up…”

Jason’s face went blank. “I… What?”

“You set it up,” Marinette repeated with more confidence.  “You… Why?”

“What are you talking about?” Jason tried desperately.

She punched him hard in the shoulder.  “Jesus! Fuck, Pixie.  That hurt.” Jason cried out as he rubbed his aching shoulder.

“Good!  What the fuck?  Why would you do that?  Were you trying to scare me?”

“No!  I was… Because… because you liked Red Hood.  I wanted you to meet him,” he said defensively.  He looked away and took a breath.  When he looked back, his voice was quieter, shakier. “You wanted Red Hood and… and I wanted you so…”

“You know, you could have just, I don’t know, popped up on the roof when I was there or showed up when I was walking home.  You didn’t have to stage a robbery!  Think about all that damage Kate has to deal with now!”

“She was remodeling anyway. She needed to demo the entire office so… two birds, you know?”  He shrugged a little too casually to be casual and flipped the onions again.

“And one bat.” He rolled his eyes at her.  “Or you could have just… said something”

“You weren’t interested in me.  You were interested in Red Hood.”

Marinette let out a long sigh.  “I was interested in Red Hood because he reminded me of you.”

His eyes widened in realization.  “Oh.”

“Yeah, ‘oh’.  And liking him seemed less emotionally damaging than destroying my relationship with you by flirting.”

“You thought I wasn’t interested?”  He looked at her incredulously.  She looked down at her feet, shuffling them awkwardly, refusing to make eye contact, almost like she was afraid of what he was going to say.  He couldn’t allow that to continue.  He turned off the stove and walked up to her slowly, careful not to scare her, just like Red Hood had earlier that day.  He gently cupped her face, softly enough that she could pull away if she wanted to.  He stroked her cheeks tenderly.  

When he finally spoke up again, his voice was loving and reverent.  “Pix, I’m head over heels.  I don’t think you even… no, I know you don’t know how much or you wouldn’t question why I tried talking to you as Red Hood instead.  I love you, Pix.  I love your heart and your humor and your sass and your passion… and your face.  I love that too.  

“And God, your smiles. I love your smile when you’re happy, which is different than your smile when you beat me at UMS, which is different than your smile when you see a little kitten, which is different than your smile when you’re thinking about home, which is different than your smile after you’ve completed a commission, which is different than your smile when I make an amazing joke that you hate.  I love them all and I just want to see any of them, all of them, every day.”

He didn’t realize how close he had gotten to Marinette’s face until he realized the gasp she let out sounded like it was right next to him.  She laid her hands over his wrists.  “Jason…”

“And I really hope I didn’t…”

“Jason!” she interrupted. He looked at her wide eyed.  She smiled reassuringly at him.  “Can I kiss you?”

“Oh God, Pixie, you can’t imagine how happy that would make me,” he smiled down at her, lowering himself so his lips were close enough for her to reach.

She grinned back up at him as she pushed herself up, her lips a few millimeters from his.  “Oh, I think I have an idea,” she whispered before closing the distance.

@jasonette-july-event @maribatserver