Dick was more annoyed with his father than he had been in a while. Bruce had called earlier asking if he could hop the next flight over to Paris. He needed help tracking down Ladybug, apparently the situation was worse than they'd thought. Tim had heard that apparently Ladybug was on her own, no back up, and they hardly found anything in the two weeks they had already been in Paris. Bruce was meant to be headed back in Gotham in less than two days. His cover of meetings to begin to establish a new branch was coming to an end, Bruce was forced to hand the investigation over to his sons.
Dick was glad to help but being pulled away from his own family and responsibilities was frustrating none the less. When his plane touched down in Paris, he patiently waited to disembark with the other first-class passengers. He hailed a taxi and directed them to Le Grand Paris where his brothers and father had been staying the last two weeks. Jason was napping on the couch, he'd been hard at work tracking down Ladybug, but she was harder to catch than most people. She had an advantage of knowing Paris better than any of them. Anytime she noticed any of the batfam following her she quickly disappeared, none of them had even managed to get close to her, and that was saying something. Bruce was hoping with Dick's acrobatic training he might be able to catch up to her.
He disappeared into one of the bedrooms and curled up to sleep, it was already 3am in Paris and the fastest way to get past the jet lag was to get on the same schedule as everyone else. He quickly changed and forced himself into bed.
He felt like he had barely slept before Alfred was knocking at the door offering breakfast. Dick blearily made his way out to the dining room, seeing Bruce, Tim and Jason already awake and eating. Damian had been left back in Gotham much to his displeasure, but they didn't have a feasible excuse to get the younger man out of school for such a long period. They could only use the excuse for a family emergency so many times.
"Dick, thank you for coming on such short notice." Bruce gave him a grateful nod.
"Of course," Dick may not have loved leaving his wife, but he was glad to once again be with his family. "What should we be focused on first?"
Tim chugged an entire cup of coffee quietly thanking Alfred for the refill before speaking, "Tonight you and Jason are gonna see if your able to catch up with Ladybug, in the meantime your free to do whatever you'd like. We're hoping to finally establish contact with her, but so far, we haven't had any luck. You've already been briefed with all the intel we have."
Jason gave an eye roll. Dick knew he wasn't sold on the idea of helping Ladybug. He'd tried to talk them out of it several times. Jason was convinced she was hiding something since she kept running from them.
Dick wasn't so convinced, if she'd never worked with anyone outside of a few partners, who were now retired, she may not realize she can trust other people. Hopefully, Dick would finally be able to reach her. Tim and Bruce left first, they headed to the final few meetings that they would attend this week before Bruce returned to Gotham. Tim would stay behind as Co-CEO he would oversee the plans on moving forward with a new branch for Wayne Enterprises. Jason disappeared shortly after the others without so much as a word.
Dick left the hotel as well, he figured wandering around was better than just sitting in the room all day. Maybe at some point he'd take a nap and get rid of the last traces of his jet lag. He was aimlessly walking hoping to find something to pique his interest. Paris, like Gotham, was a busy city as he got swept up in the tide of people making their ways, he ended up bumping into a young woman.
"Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to bump into you." He quickly reached out and steadied the younger woman. He watched as she beamed and opened her mouth to retort, her reply quickly cut off by someone speaking loudly from nearby.
"Oh, look Marinette's throwing herself at an older man! I can't believe she's still trying to make Adrien jealous." Dick whipped around to see a group of several teens huddled around a girl wearing possibly too much orange as they all rolled their eyes and whispered rude things among themselves.
The small woman ripped her arm away as if she'd been burned, before quickly turning and walking away faster than Dick had expected.
He used his height too his advantage and quickly caught up with her smaller steps, "Excuse me miss, I'm sorry if I put you in an unpleasant position."
She stopped and gave a heavy sigh causing him to stumble under his own momentum, "It's alright, she's pretty horrid all the time unfortunately."
"Then I'm even more sorry, if you like I can go back and defend your honor!" Dick gave an exaggerated bow and smiled at her.
"And what makes you think I need defending?" She came him a bright smile, delivering her words with a playful sass.
"Well you are pretty short," He reached his hand up to her height then moving it up to his own and gave a shrug. "I don't think you'd even be able to reach the top shelf much less fight someone."
She scoffed, "Well as true as that may be, you don't need to reach the top shelf to fight someone. Never underestimate someone smaller than you."
Dick grinned, "Oh don't I know it, my younger brother was deadly even before his growth spurt. Now he's just as deadly but with a longer reach."
She stuck her hand out for him to shake, "I'm Marinette, pleasure to meet you."
"Richard, but you can call me Dick." He reached out and shook her hand, "Again sorry for bumping into you earlier. I got lost in my thoughts and haven't shaken off all the jetlag yet."
"Well then I'm sorry you had to encounter Lila so early in you journey here." She gave an eyeroll and gestured back in the direction of the group from earlier.
"Was she the one making such rude comments?"
Marinette frowned, "She usually just makes insinuations rather than saying things out right, but it certainly doesn't stop her from always trying to get in a jab at me."
"Well I suppose you'll just have to make it up to me, care to show me around a bit? I mean if you have the time."
"Well since it would be a shame to leave you all alone after such a horrid interaction, I'll just have to clear a little of my schedule to entertain you." The playful sass was back and so was the smile. Dick preferred her having a smile, a frown didn't suit her.
They spent the next few hours walking around Paris, she acted as a personal tour guide, and showed Dick as many unknown areas as possible. They bantered back and forth; her wit was as sharp as any of his brothers. Hopefully, Bruce never met her, or he would be tempted to adopt her on the spot.
"By chance you aren't an orphan, are you?"
She raised an eyebrow at the odd question, "No, as independent as I am, I do have parents. Should I be worried about being kidnapped?"
With a smile Dick responded, "No I just needed to make sure, My father is know for being a serial adopter, and if he ever meets you I don't doubt he'd be tempted to adopt you on the spot. I can't say I'd mind you'd make an awesome little sister!"
"Well I can't be adopted but you can claim me as an honorary sister. I'm an only child, so it would be fun to have a sibling or two."
"Then at some point I'll introduce you to them, I'm sure they'd appreciate having someone new around. We tend to try and kill each other if were left together for too long."
Marinette reached into her bag and pulled out a phone, "Here then you can put your number in and let me know if they'd ever want to meet me."
Dick quickly input his own number saving his contact name as 'The Favorite Brother', she gave a giggle at the contact name and shot off a quick text to his number. "There now you have my number as well. It was fun taking you on a tour of Paris, let me know if you need a local for anything. I'll catch you later!"
The sun was starting to get low in the sky making it a good time to head back to the hotel, he hadn't even noticed it getting so late into the evening. Pulling his phone out he saved the unknown number into his contacts as 'short stack'. Tucking the device back into his pocket he quickly strode towards the hotel. He needed a nap before trying to catch Ladybug later tonight.
That night Dick found himself jumping across rooftops hoping to see a glimpse of red running across the skyline. He was almost ready to circle back towards the hotel and meet up with Red Hood when he spotted her jumping across from one building to the next. Picking up his pace he made more daring leaps across the gaps, he was determined to catch up to her.
"Hey wait! Excuse me!" So maybe it wasn't the most tactful, but he did get her to stop for a moment before she was bounding across buildings faster than before. At one point she completely disappeared when Dick got close to her until her looked down to see a small alcove Marinette had pointed out earlier. He dropped down into it to find her catching her breath, no doubt waiting for him to run past before she doubled back.
"Hey that tour came in handy earlier!" Dick cheerily stated making her jump. She turned to keep running but he reached out and grabbed her arm keeping her from leaving. "Hey, I just want to talk, no one is here to hurt you." He let go of her wrist as soon as he finished speaking and took a step back hands up in a soothing gesture. It wouldn't do him any good to force her to stay but he was hoping she'd be willing to talk.
"You shouldn't be here! If Hawkmoth finds out you are here then he will try to find a way to make you emotions run wild, I cannot fight another hero."
"I mean technically were vigilantes," he quickly kept talking as she sent him a glare, "but I get your point. Look we're just trying to help. We heard Paris had a villain and since we couldn't find anything we came to investigate. We didn't know you were on your own."
"I'm not on my own, I have Chat Noir, he's my partner."
Dick gave her a skeptic look, "No offense kid but none of us have seen anyone but you patrol, and we've been trying to catch up with you for almost two weeks. Either Chat Noir is really slacking or you're on your own."
"I'm not a kid, I'm already 17, and I'll turn 18 soon enough! I don't need to justify where Chat is to you. You have no jurisdiction here, and I'm politely asking you to leave." She crossed her arms over her chest and huffed.
"Yeah alright fair enough. I'm sorry for calling you a kid and insulting your partner. I know you've been handling this on your own for a while. Look we can help even if we're not in the city. We just want to offer what help we can." Dick frowned Ladybug reminded him too much of Damian when he had first come to live with Bruce, he'd insist that he could handle everything on his own and struggled asking for help.
Ladybug's face softened and for a moment she hesitated, "Maybe some help would be appreciated, but I'd need to speak with my partner first. I won't do anything he's uncomfortable with. Give me a few days to speak with him. We can meet back here in 3 days. Until then lay low and don't bring attention to yourselves. I don't want to have to fight any of your team."
"Thank you. Then I'll leave you to your patrol." Dick backed away and bounded off before speaking, "Red Robin, did you catch all of that?"
It was a moment before Tim's voice was heard through the crackle of the comms, "Loud and clear Nightwing. Hurry back, Red hood is already here, I'll catch everyone else up to speed. You did great."
Dick beamed, maybe he'd be able to get back to Gotham sooner than he thought. He turned around and watched the small red dot that was Ladybug disappear in the opposite direction. Maybe it was better for him to be here though. She was only 17, not even an adult, yet here she was fighting in a four-year long war with no end in sight. He sighed and turned making his way back towards the hotel. At least they'd been able to offer some help. It was a start but he knew this was only the beginning.