p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Marinette hissed as she angrily pulled her arm out of Jason's grasp, "Don't touch me!"/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"He reached out to grab her again but stopped himself, "Wait! Marinette, please. I'm sorry. Just let me explain-"/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""No! I don't want to hear it!" She forced herself to keep the tears from falling down her face. She'd already embarrassed herself enough. She never should have trusted them! /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""We never - span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"I/span never meant to hurt you-"/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Well, you did, Jason." She angrily wiped at a tear that had started to fall./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Marinette..." he trailed off at a loss for words. He knew that she didn't want to listen to anything he or his family had to say. Not at the moment. /p
hr style="margin: 0.875em auto 1.2525em; border-style: solid; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; width: 359.234px; color: #2a2a2a; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15.12px; background-color: #ffffff;" /
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"They had screwed up. Big time. The Wayne's friendship with Marinette had begun as a mission. The Justice League had started investigating her not long after Hawkmoth's defeat due to her dealings with the Miraculous. They were aware that she had once worn the Mouse Miraculous to become Multimouse and was close to Adrien Agreste - the son of Hawkmoth and the previous Black Cat Miraculous holder. The identity of the Guardian and Ladybug remained unknown to the Justice League, however, and they were certain that Marinette held the answers. /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Once they learned that she was moving to Gotham, Batman and his team were quickly put on the case. Befriending her wasn't difficult. Marinette loved meeting new people and it never took long for her to form meaningful connections with those around her. The Wayne's were no exception. /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Bruce had come up to her during one of his annual galas - one that she had been invited to (of her own merit) after being heavily featured in Gotham's local fashion show. At some point during the night she had met Jason (at the time unaware of his relation to Bruce) and they were quick to get along. Of course, if Marinette had known that Jason had only approached her in order to fulfill a mission, her opinion of him would have been much different. /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"After they parted ways at the gala, Marinette never expected to see the handsome young man that she had been so enraptured with ever again. She may be lucky but surely she wasn't span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"that/span lucky. However, she was unaware that Jason and the rest of the Wayne's were determined to become a part of her life. While she had made a good first impression on the family, they didn't quite trust her yet. Damian was quite insistent that there was a strong possibility that she had worked with Hawkmoth (close to his son, history with the miraculous, somehow revealed herself the span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"first/span time she was Multimouse (despite how she was obviously brilliant. Her quick thinking to retrieve the Kwami's in Kwami Buster made that obvious), interacted with Gabriel Agreste regularly (she was his intern for a time as well as his son's best friend), etc.). She was hiding span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"something/span. And the family would never fully trust her until they discovered what her secret was. /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Marinette was surprised when she ran (quite literally) into Jason at the grocery store late one evening. She felt like Prince Charming when he was finally able to track down Cinderella. A few days after that she ran into him while walking home alone. Another night she found him sitting at a counter at one of her favorite coffee shops. And then it was a pub. A bookstore. The library. It was like he was everywhere. Not that she was complaining, of course. She enjoyed his company./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Eventually, he asked her on a date. She was reintroduced to the Waynes and, for once in her life, Marinette felt content. She had defeated the villain, moved away from her old toxic home life, and had finally met someone who loved her for who she was (could she use the 'L' word yet? Loved? Because she did love him. It was probably too soon and too fast, but she felt connected to him in ways she had never felt connected to anyone else before). Marinette and Adrien's infatuation with each other in their younger years were misguided - time and experience taught them that. While they did love each other it was not romantically. They were soulmates of a special kind - best friends. /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Marinette got on great with Jason's family (bar Damian. But he would come around eventually. Marinette had that effect on people. She had broken down Kagami's walls - Damian was nothing she couldn't handle). After almost a year of dating, Marinette met Batman and his crew for the first time. She had gotten caught up in a Rogue attack and had quickly moved to help take them down before help even had the chance to arrive. The vigilantes had questions and eventually, one thing led to another and suddenly they knew about Marinette's secret identity both as Ladybug and the Guardian. Of course, the whole process took a few months but Marinette never learned about Jason's secrets during that time, which made it especially heartbreaking when she figured out his secret identity (along with the rest of his family's) on her own. Somehow she had stumbled into the Batcave (her notorious luck at work, no doubt) and it wasn't difficult for her to connect the dots. The vigilantes faced quite the reckoning when they returned later that night. /p
hr style="margin: 0.875em auto 1.2525em; border-style: solid; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; width: 359.234px; color: #2a2a2a; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15.12px; background-color: #ffffff;" /
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Jason didn't attempt to touch her again but it was clear he wanted to physically comfort her, "Please, love, let us explain." The expression on his face nearly broke her heart but she didn't let it affect her - he had broken her heart first. /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"She looked up at him, tears streaking down her face and when she spoke her voice was barely above a whisper, "Was it all a lie?" her voice broke, "Did you actually love me, or were you just pretending?"/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Jason let out a strangled noise in the back of his throat and practically lept towards Marinette, encasing her in a hug that she didn't return, "Oh, no. Marinette, no," his voice broke and he reached up to hold her face in his hands, running his thumbs along her cheeks to wipe away the stray tears, "Don't ever think that I don't love you. Because I do. More than anything in the world, Mari," there was a loving intensity to his words - one Marinette knew meant he was speaking the truth, "The first time I spoke to you was out of obligation - for the stupid mission the Justice League gave us. But you caught my attention in ways no one else had. Every time after that, that was all me. I wanted to see you. I wanted to get to span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style: oblique; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"know/span you. And I fell for you. I fell fast and I fell hard. I didn't lie about that. I would never lie about loving you, Mar."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Marinette let out a sob she didn't know she was holding and collapsed into his arms, Jason holding her tight as her body shook, she seemed even tinier when compared to his towering frame. He slowly stroked her hair and buried his face in her shoulder, inhaling her scent. He could hear the rest of his family awkwardly shuffling out of the room (taking Tikki with them) leaving him to handle his girlfriend and fully explain the situation on his own. This moment felt too intimate for them to intrude on. Jason wasn't worried though. He knew that she was upset and would continue to be upset. But she knew that he loved her and he knew that she loved him. It would work out in the end. For now, he would continue to hold her in his arms and make sure she understood just how deeply his love for her ran. She would be okay./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"They would be okay. /p