It'd been a few weeks since Mari had let Damian hang out at her apartment now. He'd been over almost every day since, sometimes saying his siblings were being annoying, sometimes stating he wanted to see the kittens, and sometimes he just had a bag of take out in his hands and no excuses.
Mari didn't mind though - in fact she was beginning to thrive in his presence. Even on the days where they talked about things that bothered her - like her parents dying from an akuma - she was alright. And she found that with each discussion on the matter she was getting better slowly.
She was at the grocery store by herself at the moment, gathering the ingredients to bake some bread. She had the craving for challah bread and knew that if she got the ingredients tonight she could start it tomorrow. It was only just after work ended and Damian usually didn't show up for another hour anyways. He always went home to change first.
A few times his brothers had joined him, never all at the same time but they had come over. Dick was interesting; he always had a lot of energy and he had an absolute blast when she'd asked him to help her decorate some cookies. Jason usually just turned the TV on and forced her to watch something with him. Tim almost always made a pot of coffee before he did anything else - usually work related.
But she had barely been by herself since coming to Gotham; it had felt nice. She was still wary of the Wayne family sometimes and could tell they had their secrets as well, but she was willing to live in ignorance for the moment. They weren't villains clearly, and she was okay with overlooking whatever it was they were hiding for the moment.
She'd just put some eggs into her cart when she'd heard it - gunshots. And then scarecrows men - obvious to spot with their masks - were forcing everyone in the store into the center of the room with guns held to their heads.
One of the henchmen had faltered upon seeing her and she wondered briefly on that before falling into a sense of calm. She'd been in front of worse than some guns and goons before she hit the age of sixteen - none of this scared her.
"Hello, hello, hello," Scarecrow said, appearing out of the crowd of goons. "Lucky for you shoppers, I have a new strain of funny juice to test and where better to have a sampling than the supermarket?"
Marinette rolled her eyes, not even bothering to pretend to be afraid of the man in front of her. Everyone knew that Batman would be here soon to send him back to Arkham where he would inevitably break out again in a couple weeks. That didn't seem to stop the people around her from being terrified though.
Scarecrow caught that, unfortunately for her. "Not afraid, little lady?" he asked, moving to stand in front of her. He towered over her short frame, looking down at her through the mask with what she deemed to be manic eyes.
"Non," Mari answered, laying her accent on thick. "I do not care for your party drugs. There are more interesting things in the world to be afraid of." She didn't know and didn't care about whether he spoke French. He wasn't worth the mental process of translation.
She heard Tikki patting her side through her purse and knew the tiny god was trying to get her to pretend to be afraid. Mari couldn't seem to find it in her though - she knew what the outcome of this was. She and everyone here would be dosed with fear toxin and then Batman and his bird bitches would show up to fight the goons and give out the antidote. No one around her carried an actual gun. She'd already counted 22 henchmen around her, none of them appearing too physically fit so they weren't trained too well and none of them carried themselves like they knew how to fight that well either.
Scarecrow wouldn't bring anyone important to a simple testing like this anyways. He had all his best men protecting his labs, his warehouses and his home wherever that was. Bringing lackeys that were low on the totem pole to this made sense because he knew what the outcome would be as well. Everyone that wore one of his masks would be arrested and he didn't care in the slightest. Because they had few talents they were indisposable.
Scarecrow glared at her before grabbing her arm, injecting her with a syringe from his hand. "You get to test the new strain, girlie. Everyone else will just get the usual shit," he said, smirking at her as it took effect.
What he didn't realize though was he was simply giving her an adrenaline boost. Marinette lived her every day to day terrified of the things around her, waiting for Adrien and his father to find her and steal the Miraculous from her. So when her heartbeat raised and the world around her shifted, showing her their faces she jumped into action.
She punched and kicked every akuma she saw until they were unconscious around her, leaping out of their arms when they grabbed for her and avoiding the civilians in the room that were clearly in the crossfire. She felt some blades slice her arms and sides but ignored them, knowing that the miraculous cure would fix that for her in a moment.
And when she got to him - to Gabriel fucking Agreste - she just started punching and kicking and punching, not stopping even when he was clearly down for the count. It only stopped when someone pulled her off of him, her snarling and thrashing in their arms for a few moments until they spoke in her ear.
"It's okay, Mari," he said, trying to calm her as his brother injected her with the antidote. All of the hostages had made it out when she started fighting, taking the chance for what it was. "He's down. You did it."
"Thank you, Damian," she muttered, going limp in his arms and relaxing for the first time that day. Something had told her she should stay in bed that morning and she wished she'd listened to it.
She didn't know how he got to her or what he was doing in the grocery store, but that was a problem for another day. She knew he was safe and as her body slumped in his arms she let her eyelids drop, knowing he'd keep her away from the akumas and Hawkmoth.
When Mari woke up she wasn't sure exactly where she was for a moment. Then she figured it must be a room in the Manor - it made the most sense considering the fact she'd heard Damian before being knocked out. And while she didn't enjoy being in the building she knew that it had the most security in Gotham - which really spoke to the prison breakouts.
Sitting up she took account of the way her body felt. She had bandages on random parts of her body, and felt a couple of stitches being pulled on her side when she shifted one way or the other. Her chest also felt incredibly heavy - broken ribs, maybe two on the left. She couldn't recall during the fight when that might've happened. She couldn't recall much of the fight in general actually.
She was cleaned up though, and wearing a pair of pajamas that she knew belonged to Cass - she'd made them. They were incredibly comfy and she was glad to know that personally now. She saw her purse sitting next to her against the pillow and picked it up, opening it to find Tikki.
She smiled at the clearly worried little god, picking her up. "I'm alright, Tikki," she whispered, knowing that the room was probably bugged. She would bet quite a bit that every room in this place was bugged. She signaled to Tikki that it wouldn't be safe to talk until they got home and then closed the purse back up with her in it, slinging the bag over her shoulder.
Moving to the edge of the bed, she took a chance by standing up and found that she only swayed a little - the remnants of her being unconscious but not anything to actually worry about. She also found she had some other stitches running up the side of her left calf - maybe ten? She made her way out of the room and looked around to see no one. Taking a chance she went left, hoping that led her towards the main part of the house.
After a few minutes of walking, her legs were already getting tired. She didn't really enjoy the aftereffects of whatever it was Scarecrow had shoved into her veins, but it was inevitable from the moment he walked in the store. Even if she had started fighting before that, one of the goons would've most likely hit her with one of their darts and incapacitated her mid-fight with someone. It was better that she was hit first and then started fighting, in her opinion. Tikki clearly didn't agree.
Coming up to a landing, she saw that she'd made it to the main foyer of the house somehow. The house seemed silent thus far - she hadn't heard anything from anyone in the entire building or seen a trace of them. They must be here though, she doubted they would leave her alone after what just happened.
Or would they? Her inner thoughts asked. I mean, do they actually care if you wake up all alone in this big house? With no one to help?
Mari shook her head. If anything, Damien wouldn't leave her here. She knew that much. He'd seen her on some of her worst days mentally and hadn't left. And he didn't seem like the type to do anything he didn't want to.
She made her way down the stairs slowly, having to stop every few steps from the way her chest felt and the stitches on her legs stretched painfully. She didn't tear them though, she'd felt that enough times to know what the limits of them were.
"What're you doing?" Damian asked, having just walked out of the kitchen to find his crazy designer on the stairs, looking like she was going to fall over.
Mari let out a sigh of relief. She wouldn't have to walk all over the house to find someone. "Looking for someone in this giant maze you call a house," she grumbled, making her way down a couple more stairs as she spoke, gripping the railing next to her with both hands.
"You should be resting," he said, rolling his eyes and walking over to her. "Would it be alright if I carried you?"
Mari shrugged, letting him pick her up in his arms. Luckily he didn't head back towards the room she woke up in, instead heading for the family room. "I was resting. Now I'm awake," she answered, looking up at him. "How'd you get to me during the attack?"
"You told me you were going grocery shopping yesterday, and then I heard over the radio what was happening when I was on my way over. I simply ran in when I got there and found you, surrounded by over a dozen unconscious henchmen and Dr. Crane," he said, looking down at her with a raised eyebrow.
He left out the fact that he was dressed as Robin at that point. She hadn't seen him from any angle, and he didn't need to give her any reason to think otherwise. All she heard was his voice.
When she didn't say anything in response to his obvious questioning of how she managed to take out those people, he simply looked away before setting her on the couch. It was clear to both of them that they each had their own secrets. He was constantly leaving with no explanation, called away by his nighttime activities. She was constantly jumpy yet completely aware. And she had incredibly good reflexes , and always knew when he was trying to sneak up on her. Marinette Dupain-Cheng was still a mystery to him, despite knowing so much about her. He kind of hoped that she'd always be like this though.
"Where is everyone?" Marinette asked, looking around the room in case they were waiting to spook her. Damian seemed to have a knack for doing that, so she figured his siblings did too.
"Cassandra and Stephanie went to feed the kittens, Todd is off doing whatever it is he does during the day, Drake and Grayson have joined my father at the office for the day. Alfred is preparing something for you to eat," he answered, listing off the family one by one.
Mari nodded, relaxing slightly now that she knew where everyone was. This house had too many places for others to be. "Are you going to let me go to the kitchen on my own two feet or am I confined to the couch for the moment?"
"You should be resting," Damian pointed out, raising his eyebrow at her.
"I know my own limits," she pointed out.
He seemed to consider that for a moment before nodding, holding out his hand to help her from the couch. If there were stairs involved he may have questioned her further considering the state he just found her in, but it was a short walk to the kitchen from here. He stayed at her side the whole time though, just in case she needed to lean on him.
"Good afternoon, Miss Dupain-Cheng," Alfred called when they walked in, turning and smiling serenely at her. She could see the worry lines wrinkling his eyes though. " I hope you are feeling better."
"Bonjour, Monsieur Alfred," she responded, taking a seat at the bar counter. "I feel as well as can be expected."
He nodded and placed a bowl of boeuf bourguignon. "A taste of home for the young gardienne," he said, smiling at her.
Mari smiled in acceptance of his words, knowing now that he did still remember the Miraculous. He clearly was willing to not discuss it for the time being and she wouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth.
She took a bite of the stew and sighed. It tasted just like how her papa makes it. "Merci, Alfred. It does in fact taste just like home," she responded in French, her brain just a little too tired to bother with translations.
"This will be served for dinner as well in a few hours, if you're still up to sit at the table when everyone gets back," he told her, going back to his cooking.
Damian sat next to her, looking at the dish. "What will I be eating?"
"I have made a smaller batch of the same dish with tofu rather than beef," Alfred told him, not turning from the bread he was kneading.
Mari let her mind drift off while she ate, knowing that she would be fine for the moment. Damian was with her.