Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Attending the Wayne Gala is one of the most awful things Marinette has had to do, All of the awful, fake, stuffy people that reminded her of a few people from collége and lycée; however she has resolved to suck it up so that she could watch the Waynes and make sure that Alya wouldn’t be discovered getting the files they needed from the manor. Said files held information about the Miraculous and had been in possession of an organization that called themselves the League of Assassins after they had found the ruins of the Order of the Miraculous. When the Miraculous holders looked further into the League of Assassins and their files on the Miraculous they discovered that the heir (Damian (Al Ghul) Wayne) had been sent with the files when the child was sent to live with his father while the League was in a time of unrest. The only problem with that is it means the only way to get the files was to do so physically from the Wayne Manor’s computers. So here they were, Marinette playing scout while Alya sneaks in with Trixx.

While sneaking through the manor Alya found herself in THE BATCAVE! She allowed herself five seconds to geek out, resolved that she would deny how much she geeked out to anyone that dared to ask then texted Marinette. After composing herself she managed to get into The Batcomputer(!) and downloaded all of the files on the Miraculous she could find.

Marinette had been trying to go unnoticed (this was only surveillance after all), but she managed to catch the eye of none other than Jason Todd, who made his way over to her.

“Why so glum?” He says to her, not bothering with small talk.

“Pardon?” She responds, a french accent gracing her voice.

“You look sad, might I ask why?”

“Oh, I suppose it is just nice to be out of Paris.”

“Out of Paris? You don’t hear that often.”

“I enjoy seeing new places, it is not often I get the opportunity.”

As the current song ends and a new one starts Jason holds his hand out to her and asks if she would like to dance, Marinette agrees, taking his hand. While dancing they continue to talk. “You mentioned you like to travel, any other things you like?” He inquires

“I quite like designing fashion, I actually designed this dress.”

“And it’s as stunning as you are.” Marinette blushes at his compliment

“Thank you.” She smiles at him, and they continue dancing.

They continue dancing for a while before Jason says “You smell nice; like vanilla and flour, I’ve never smelled a perfume like that before.”

Marinette laughs an airy, bright, beautiful laugh before responding “It’s not a perfume, my family owns a bakery.”

When they separate for drinks Marinette checks her phone to see that she has a single text from Alya reading: «Stumbled on the fucking BATCAVE, now I know why the League felt okay sending the kid and some of their files here. Same plan as before, keep an eye on them.» Marinette slips the phone back into her clutch, looking up at the Waynes and then over to Jason, making the connections between their civilian identities and their vigilante identities.

“So, what are your plans for after the gala?” Jason asks, making small talk while they drink.

Marinette sighs and says “it’s back to Paris for me, back to the stress and the pressure of so many people depending on me.” She’s careful how much she mentions; especially now knowing he’s the Red Hood, but surprisingly finds him easy to talk to.

“How long is this anyhow?” She asks curiously

“Bruce always saves his speeches and announcements for the end of the gala, tonight’s is about a couple charities he and my brothers are involved in so they’ll all have to be here til the very end which is about another two and half hours.” Marinette notes this as she finishes her glass and is glad that they won’t be home early to discover Alya in the Batcave.

Jason notices her empty glass and offers to take it back to the bar with his own and while he’s distracted Marinette slips away, knowing there’s still a little bit left of the gala, but worried if she keeps talking with Jason she would accidentally say something she shouldn’t about Paris and their situation. She hopes that after a short break from her being at the gala he’ll get distracted and she can continue to keep an eye on the family.

Her plan falls apart when Jason catches up to her just outside the elevator down the hall. He reaches out for her shoulder, and Marinette, startled, flips him over her shoulder and pins his arm behind his back. It takes a moment for him to recover from the surprise of being flipped someone of her stature, but then his only response is “Please fuck me.” muttered under his breath. Marinette’s surprise morphs into a smirk, and as she steps past him, drops a rectangular piece of plastic in his lap and steps into the elevator. When she gets to her room, Tikki phases inside and pulls on the door handle for her so all she has to do is push the door open.

By the time Jason pulls himself off the floor and gets to her room, using the keycard she’d left him to get in, the shower is running, Marinette has removed her minimal makeup and is pulling the pins out of her hair. She walks out of the bathroom in a robe and tells Jason “You’ve arrived just in time, I was just planning to take a shower, you’re welcome to join if you like.” Jason’s eyes darken and he follows her into the bathroom, shucking off clothing as she lets her robe drop and slips out of her undergarments.

When they’re done in the shower, Marinette gently tells Jason to get back to the gala before his family goes searching for him. He doesn’t want to leave without her, but she promises to go back once she gets a little makeup on and throws her hair up. Jason kisses her neck one more time, but goes.

As she gets her makeup out, Marinette gets a text from Alya. «Sorry to crash your party, but I’m going to need a ride home in like two minutes.

–On my way» she texts back. She grabs her bag and the horse miraculous, using it to transform, then opening a portal to the Batcave using the photo Alya sent her; she is aware that she no doubt set off alarms, but it doesn’t matter.
Marinette greets Alya, who lets the illusion around her fall.
«It’ll be done in just a moment, Mare.
–Have you got everything? Marinette asks
–Yeah, there’s a lot of information here, though how useful it is we’ll have to figure out later. Hopefully, though, we can find something to bring down the bastard holding our city emotionally hostage. Alya responds
–Careful with how much you say, especially here.
–Right.» Alya pulls the device from the computer and stands from the chair she’s sitting in as Marinette opens the portal to Paris and they step through it together.

Chapter Text

The Wayne family are all alerted the moment Marinette steps into the batcave. They gather in a set aside safe room to watch the video and assess the threat. Jason immediately recognizes Marinette, but keeps his mouth shut in uncertainty. Bruce sighs and says “Tim and I’ll finish the gala, everyone else head back to investigate.”

Dick, Damian and Cass sit at the computer looking into the files they copied “This looks like the files I brought with me when I first arrived.” Damian notes aloud

“Like from the league?” Dick responds

“Where else would they have come from?” Damian retorts

“Right. But what would they want with information from the league? Especially information in an untranslatable language?” Dick wonders audibly

“It may have something to do with some order or another, I don’t have the specifics, that had powerful artifacts the league wanted. But it completely disappeared almost two hundred years ago. These files are scans of everything the league could find left in the ruins.” Damian answers.

They run the surveillance footage against all the databases they have to get an id on the girls, unsuccessfully.

Jason sits in his room to consider the information he has; the hot, badass chick he just hooked up with broke into the batcave and copied some files- Well, actually, she slept with him while her friend broke into the batcave and copied files none of them could understand.

The conversation they had in the cave, which they translated from French, had made some of the girl’s previous statements make more sense. She said it was nice to get out of Paris for a night. After the gala she had to go back to the stress and to the pressure of people depending on her. The two girls were in the batcave trying to get information to help them take down an apparent emotional terrorist. That would certainly cause some level of stress, and depending on what was happening in Paris, it wouldn’t be too much to say that those girls were heroes there. So he moved on to what he knew about the girl specifically. She lived in Paris, obviously. Her name was Marinette, she was into fashion design, and her family owned a bakery, which she helped out in enough to smell like flour and vanilla. It wasn’t a lot to go off of, but it was a start.

Chapter Text

When Marinette and Alya get back, she copies the files from the hard drive into a tablet for Marinette, putting the hard drive away for safekeeping. Marinette groans at the thought of having to translate all of the text, but she’s the only one who can do it. They sit down with Chloe, Nino and Adrien.

After a short debrief the boys head to bed

«Spill. Chloe says

–Girl, your hair is wet. Alya says when Marinette gives them a confused look.»

Marinette blushes hard, Chloe laughs, then Marinette stammers into an explanation, then tells them everything.

«All it took to turn him on was to throw him around. Chloe says, laughing

–I’m glad you had some fun though, god knows you deserve it with everything we deal with on the
daily. » They end their conversation there, heading to bed.

Three days later Marinette has a frustratingly little amount of the files translated, seeing as she’s only one person and there’s a lot to translate. Later in the day Marinette is working in the bakery store while her maman is on a delivery run and her papa is in the bakery kitchen. She’s fixing a display near the register when she hears the bell for the shop ring, looking up as she greets them she sees Jason.

She pauses, startled, but freezes when Jason speaks

“Hey, Mare.” She glances around quickly, making sure no one else is there, before demanding

“How did you find me and how did you recognize me?”

He tells her “It wasn’t that hard to recognize you. I mean I’d seen every part of you minutes before you showed up on the surveillance feed.”

She protests weakly “The glamour should have held” he gives her a smirk, adding

“There was a hickey sticking up from under your collar that I recognized.”

She mutters, “Of fucking course there was.
“So, did the big bat send you to make a stink over this?” she asks him pointedly

“They, uh, they actually don’t know I’m here right now. Or who you are. Or what’s happening in Paris, I don’t know what’s happening here either, but I found you with the details about you that you told me at the gala, and I know what you look like. What exactly is happening in Paris, though, and can I help?”

Marinette sighs. She calls out to her papa to tell him that she’s taking a break,

«Maman should be back from her delivery shortly and you’ll be okay at the counter?

–I’ll be fine. Her papa calls out from the kitchen»

She drags Jason upstairs quickly, past her father before he can see him.

She takes him up to her room, and she sits him down on her chaise lounge, before sitting down in her computer chair. She’s quiet for a long few moments, before she finally speaks.

“Your family can’t come to Paris. You’re putting everything at risk being here, yourself.” He gives her a confused look, opening his mouth to say something, but she continues, telling him briefly about Hawkmoth, the information block around Paris and why no one else knows about this, and tells him why they don’t want the justice league in Paris.

“What about the files you copied?” He asks

She shrugs, saying “We were hoping to find something in them that could help us defeat Hawkmoth.”

“What of the language? My brothers and I didn’t recognize it.”

She hesitates, but says “I’m the last existing Guardian of the order, and that this is their language. Someday I wish to begin rebuilding the order, but with Hawkmoth in the way, I can’t.”

Jason asks “Is there anything I can do to help?” He immediately trusts her and wants to do something.

Marinette smiles as she goes to sit beside him, but tells him “There’s nothing you can do right now. At least not until I talk to my team and they decide if it's okay for you to stay in Paris.”

“I can help you guys improve your fighting skills, if nothing else,”

“I’ll make sure to mention it.” she tells him.

Sitting there together and with that conversation kind of trailing off, Marinette leans up to kiss him. There’s a thump from above and then Chat Noir enters the room from the skylight, before dramatically shielding his eyes,
«Oh my poor, virgin eyes! He exclaims.

–Like you and Ryuuko haven’t done worse. Marinette says, shooting him a playful glare

–I don’t know what you’re talking about. He responds

–girl talk. She retorts»
He blushes briefly. And then Sabine sticks her head into the room from the trap door.

«Oh, hello Chat Noir and Marinette’s friend! Chat, you’re here for this week’s order? I can go
grab that for you if you like.

–Yep, thanks Mrs. Cheng!

–Do I have to ask you to call me Sabine every time one of you stops by? Sabine shook her head.
Marinette, sweetie, I just wanted to let you know I was back from the delivery and that I was
going to make soup for dinner later tonight.»

Chat waggles an eyebrow and asks “So, who’s your friend , Marinette?” Marinette groans and Jason lets out a chuckle. Marinette tosses a pillow at Chat, who expertly dodges it. When Sabine comes back up with the pastries, he takes them and heads out.

When Jason gets a call, he answers it, shifting Marinette to the side as she’s laying against him on the chaise.

“Yeah?”

“Where are you, Jason?” It’s Dick.

“Uh…” Jason responds, lamely

“You didn’t help with the investigation at all and then you just up and disappear! I get that you go off grid sometimes, but this is important! They broke into The Batcave!”

“To be fair,” Marinette interjects, “we didn’t know the batcave was there, we were just trying to break into Wayne Manor.”

There’s silence on the other end of the line. Then, “You found them already?”

“There’s a lot more going on here than we thought.” Jason tells his brother. “Just stay at home, I’m still piecing together some of the finer details, but they’re not a threat to us or anyone else, trust me.”

“They broke into The Batca- .” Dick’s voice is cut off as Jason ends the call, turning his phone off.

Marinette sighs and says “I better go talk to my team.” She sends Jason back to his room at the hotel and meets up with the others. They discuss a bit and are generally worried about having someone with his skill and training in the city, especially considering he’s the most violent of the bats.

«My instincts are telling me to trust him. Marinette vouches

–Is that the only thing telling you to trust him? Alya questions, commenting on her sexual relationship
with him, but Marinette shakes her head,

–Even at the gala when I first met him, my gut was telling me to trust him and I found myself coming
dangerously close to spilling everything about Paris.» The rest reluctantly abide, though trusting her instinct because it's never steered them wrong before.

Jason warned her he didn’t think his family would stay home even if he told them to, so When they headed out to the roofs that night, they were all patrolling to watch for the bats.

Viperion spots Batman, Robin, Red Robin and Jason on a rooftop, all of them suited up except Jason, his arms crossed as he refuses to tell them anything other than that they shouldn’t be here and they need to go home.

The team land on the wide roof with the bats, keeping their distance. Rena Rouge dodges a net, Ladybug does the same with a batarang and Chat Noir uses his staff to block a katana. The only ones who haven’t tried to attack are Red Robin, and obviously, Jason.

“Now that we have that out of the way,” Ladybug says, stepping forward warily. “I am Ladybug. This is my team; Chat Noir, Ryuuko, Viperion, Rena Rouge, Carapace, and Queen Bee.” She gestures to each team member as she introduces them.
“And you,” She gestures to the Bats. “need to leave.”

Nightwing protests, saying “Two of your team broke into our base, so we just need to make sure we’re covering all of our bases. Make sure you’re not a threat, y’know?”

Ladybug gives them a similar explanation as she did Jason. “We’re sorry we had to break into your home, but we need those files if we hope to defeat Hawkmoth. You cannot remain here, not only for your own safety and identities’ sake, but so that we do not have to fight you. Hawkmoth is a powerful foe, like us he wields a Miraculous, but instead of trying to help people he uses its power to possess victims into destroying Paris in hopes to gain the two most powerful Miraculous, which when combined can make a reality altering wish.”

“And how exactly do you plan to use the texts that can’t be translated by the numerous translation programs that’ve been working for several days, without any success?”

Ladybug smirks and says “Of course you haven't been able to get anything, it’s a magical language belonging to an ancient order of which I belong to.”

Jason startles at that, brow furrowed, and says “But the guardian is the only one left from the order?”

«Bug, you didn’t tell him? Chat Noir says

–You spend a passionate night with him, then he comes all the way to Paris, and you don’t even tell him? Rena Rouge quips»

Batman turns to Jason “You slept with her?”

“You have no legs to stand on here old man.” He shoots back, gesturing to Robin

Robin interrupts Batman's response to Jason, saying “He does have a point.”

Ladybug ignores Batman, Robin and Jason's comments, and rolls her eyes at her teammates, saying “I was holding off on that for now, but he might as well learn now.” Ladybug turns to the bats. “You need to leave Paris, however, my team and I have decided to accept Jason’s offer to help them train, but Red Hood cannot be seen in Paris, and as such, he will take up the mantle of the horse. It will keep his identity safe while he is in Paris, and the miraculous will help to shield him from akumatization.

Robin asks “why don’t you give us all Miraculous since you’re in such desperate need of help?” a sneering tone to his voice.

Ladybug turns to him, steel in her voice. “I am the Guardian, and it is my choice on when and who to bestow Miraculous to, and I. Do not. Trust. You.”

Batman asks, “You don’t trust the rest of them, but you trust Jason, of all people?” Jason makes an offended comment

“Ladybug’s instinct has never led us wrong.” Bee says

“Either you remove yourselves from Paris now, or I will.” Ladybug tells them

“What exactly do you mean by that?” Batman says in a harsh tone.

“I mean that if you do not leave I will kick your ass, then drag you out of Paris. I have told you to leave, and I have explained why you cannot stay, yet you still refuse to leave. I will give you one last chance to leave or I will remove you.”

“We do not wish for any hostility.” Batman says in an attempt to extend an olive branch.

“You should have thought of that before attacking our team.” Chat Noir says angrily

“Your presence is not wanted, nor is it needed. I have told you to leave twice now. Since you will not, I now have no choice but to remove you.” The Miraculous team move to circle around the bats as Ladybug speaks and puts on the horse Miraculous, transforming and opening a portal.

As soon as the portal opens the miraculous team slowly start closing in on the bats, forcing them closer to the portal. The Bats turn to fight.

“I wouldn’t do that.” Queen Bee says, taking a step closer

“Leave.” They all say the word at once, stepping closer at the same time, pushing the Bats closer to the portal, until they’re right against the portal with nowhere to go, and no choice but to step through the portal.