Chapter 26

Marinette's P.O.V:

"So, who's picking you up today?" Adrien asks me as our teacher leads us towards the exit.

"Damian is." I check my phone to see that he is already outside ready to pick me up.

"You should have heard the class yesterday when you drove off in that car." Kim started laughing.

"What did they say?" I ask.

"They were mainly mad that you seem to be getting special treatment." Max informed. "It's like they completely forgot about Lila saying that you are staying in a shack or something."

"I don't know what to say about them anymore." I shake my head at the thought.

My group of friends and I were the last ones out of the building and when I catch sight of Damian by his car, I see a very angry look on his face. As I move closer, I notice that Lila and Alya are talking to him and I move in to try to save him.

"Listen, Daniel. All we are trying to do is warn you about her. She has clearly seen that you have a nice car and we know that she's a total gold-digger." Lila tried to sound as innocent as possible. "We all think it's best if you stay away from her."

I begin to walk a little bit faster when I see the look on Damian's face.

"Listen here you self-centered wretch, I know exactly who Marinette is. Your fabrications about her show who you truly are and how much you truly envy to be like her. Your classes feeble-mindedness to follow in your footsteps is painfully depressing. It's a shame you have to drag them all down with you. I almost feel bad for their sheep-like nature." Damian says smug.

I finally step in between the two of them. "Come on." I look sadly at Damian. "We don't have to do this."

I can tell Damian sees the sadness in my eyes since he sighs before smiling down at me. "Okay, Angel." He looks back over at Lila with anger in his eyes. "And my name isn't 'Daniel'. Maybe if you got my name right you wouldn't look like such a moron."

Alya looks almost as mad as he does as she turns to look at me. "Marinette, your friend here is a real asshole. Why can't you ever make friends with actual decent people like Lila?"

"First of all, Alya, he isn't just my friend." I point my finger at her angrily. "He's my boyfriend. And second of all, every single one of my friends are wonderful people and can actually think for themselves, unlike you."

"I can think for myself just fine." Alya looks back over to Damian. "And why is he your boyfriend? Everyone knows you have a huge crush on Adrien. Are you trying to make him jealous?"

"Seriously Alya?" I cross my arms and look at her like she just said the dumbest thing I had ever heard. "When are you ever going to pull your head out of your own ass? I haven't liked Adrien in that way for over a year. Plus, I even set him up with Kagami. You still believe that ridiculous lie about me being jealous of Lila because of him?"

"Whatever." Alya grabs Lila's arm and storms off to catch up with the class on the bus.

I turn back around to see Damian smiling fondly at me. "What?" I ask.

"Nothing." He shakes his head and turns to go open the door for me. "I just find it amusing that when you hit her with a cold hard fact that her only come back is 'whatever'."

"Yeah." I slide myself in the car and Damian shuts the door for me then makes his way to the driver's side. "I think they are all way to invested in Lila's lies to ever hear reason again." I say sadly.

"Why would they be invested into her lies?" Damian questioned as he backed out.

"She has promised them a lot of things that will never happen." I sighed. "I feel bad that all of them are relying on her promises."

"They will have no one to blame but themselves when they realize what's happening." He reaches over to grab my hand. "Angel, you shouldn't burden yourself with this. You have already tried to show them the truth and they won't listen."

"You're right." I gently squeeze his hand. "It's just that I sometimes can't help but worry about them. They were all once my friends."

"I'm sorry, Angel." Damian thinks for a moment before changing the subject. "So, what do you want to do today?"

"Hm... I don't know. All I know is that Bruce is taking me out on my first patrol with you all tonight. Until then, I guess we can do anything." I say.

"Can we eat fancy cheese?" Plagg pokes his head out of my purse.

"No, Plagg." I sigh. "But you have free run of the manor. I'm sure you, Tikki and Kaalki can find something to do."

"Maybe you can bother my brothers as much as they bother us." Damian says sarcastically.

"Will they give me cheese?" Plagg asks hopefully.

"Dick might." I giggle. "Maybe you should try it when he gets home."

"Sounds like a plan. You in sugar cube?" Plagg dives back into my purse.

"Why is he always talking about cheese?" Damian looks over to me questionably.

"Your guess is as good as mine." I shrug.-------------

Damian's P.O.V:

I don't know how I got here but I was now somehow chasing Marinette around the manor who had ahold of my favorite mask. I was always used to being the swiftest but she was currently out distancing me and I loved and hated it all at the same time.

"Angel! I'm going to need that." I tried to catch her as she turned the corner.

"You can have it back if you can catch me." She runs backwards for a moment so she can show me her putting on the mask. "Come on, Robin! Catch up." She turns back around and runs into a full-on sprint.

I chase her from all the way in the Batcave to the kitchen where I find her on the other side of the island counter next to Alfred.

"Hello Miss Marinette, Master Damian." Alfred turns to Marinette. "Why do you have on Master Damian's mask?" He questions.

"I told him he can have it back if he can catch me." The two of us run back and forth around the counter to try and find an opening.

In my peripheral vision I can see Alfred watching us carefully as we run around the kitchen. This is one of the first times I have been completely playful and happy in Alfred's presence.

"What's going on in here?" Jason looks inside the kitchen to see Marinette and I running around.

"Apparently Miss Marinette took Master Damian's mask and he's trying to get it back." The butler smiles at the two of us.

Jason smirks at me. "Come on, demon spawn. You just going to let her get away with that?"

"You think you can do better?" I look at him.

"Nah." Jason crosses his arms. "I think I'll accept this L."

Marinette stopped dead in her tracks to turn to me. "Do you give up?" She ducked away when I tried to snatch the mask from her.

"Why would I give up?" I questioned her.

"For a consolation prize?" She beamed at me. "What's the consolation prize?" I raised an eyebrow at her.

"Do you want this back or not?" She takes the mask off her face.

"Yes." I sighed.

"So, do you give up?" She batted her eyelashes at me.

"Fine, Angel. I give up."

"Okay." She hands me my mask back.

"What's his consolation prize?" Jason asked curiously.

"Oh, right." Marinette turned to face me. "Do you want it now or later?"

"Now, I guess." I shrug.

"You sure?" She gives him a mischievous smile.

"Yeah." I looked at her a little confused.

"Okay. You asked for it." Marinette reached up on her tippy toes to grab both sides of my face and pressed her lips against mine.

I gently put my hands around her waist and kiss her back. Marinette pulled away first and I stumbled back a bit in shock after realizing what she just did. Both Alfred and Jason seemed to watch in shock at what she was doing. I can tell they were also surprised to see how I reincorporated.

"Angel." I whispered before smiling fondly down at her. "I think I should have asked for that later."

"Gross." Jason fake gagged. "I told you guys not to kiss in front of me."

"That's what you get for spying on us, Jay." She laughs at everyone's shocked face. "I knew I could catch Alfred off guard."

"Yes, well," Alfred brought back his neutral face. "I need to get back to cooking dinner. If you'll excuse me." He turned back to the stove to cook.