Chapter 60

Marinette's P.O.V:

"How is everyone fairing?" Alfred asked the group before we started, specifically looking at my busted lip.

"I might have a bruised rib but I'll be okay." Nightwing smiled at the butler. "I've had much worse."

"How about you, Miss Marinette?" Alfred looked at me with concern.

"I'm fine." I smiled widely at the butler but found that that wasn't the best idea. My lip began to bleed again and Damian's hold on my hand tightened just a bit more.

"And why didn't you use your miraculous cure on yourself?" Tim asked.

"Because that wasn't necessary. Even a small cure can turn a lot of heads and my classmates are still in the city. I don't want to use any of my special abilities so easily like that." I shrugged.

"Wait, you can heal yourself?" Jason asked.

"You didn't read the file I sent, did you?" Tim rolled his eyes.

"You have a file about me?" I asked.

"I have a file on everyone in this room and then some." Tim smirked.

"Marinette," Bruce interrupted. "I'm proud that you are being cautious of your abilities. Something Tim must have forgotten is that all the damage you caused would be reversed, including on the Joker. Her Lucky Charm and miraculous cure should only be used in case of emergencies."

"Damn, that right." Tim huffed. "Everything always has so be so complicated."

"Yeah." I agreed. "I'm just glad everyone made it out relatively okay. I still feel bad about those officers though."

"Today went rather well, all things considered. Gotham PD is strong and those men will be back to enforce the law in no time." Dick spoke cheerfully.

"Yeah, don't be so hard on yourself, Sunshine." Jason agreed. "Everything would have been a whole lot worse without you."

"Except for Ivy." Damian added.

"What do you mean?" Selina spoke up for the first time.

"She kinda figured me out." I gave everyone a sad smile. "I think it had something to do with her plants and how I affect them. But I don't think she knows about any of you and she promised to keep it a secret."

"Oh, Ivy knows a lot more than you think." Selina laughed. "But she is a trustworthy gal and she will only betray you if you betray her precious plants."

"Ivy shouldn't be a problem." Bruce agreed.

"But father..."

"No 'buts' Damian." Bruce cut him off. "And if it will make you feel any better, go ahead and ask her all the questions you have when you two meet up with her this weekend. Ivy and I have had a silent agreement for a very long time. Even before her and Harley became a couple."

"Why didn't you tell us this?" Jason asked.

"If you nitwits would have looked hard enough, you would have figured it out." Tim laughed. "After all, Selina and Bruce have been official for awhile and Ivy and Selina have been close friends for even longer. It wouldn't be too hard for her to piece it together. Hell, Harley probably even knows by now."

"Can we trust them?" Damian asked with harsh concern.

"Absolutely." Selina nodded. "My girls know what's at stake here. They may be free spirited and take what they want, but they understand the consequences of revealing such a large secret. No matter what they might say, they really do love this city too much to let it fall so easily. Plus, they are doing wonderful things for the homeless women and children of Gotham. They are doing really good now."

"And they are constantly being monitored." Bruce added to calm his more unruly son down.

"Fine." Damian huffed.

"With that out of the way, I want to talk about how we all did tonight." Barbara interrupted Damian's brooding. "Keeping in contact with Harley and Ivy proved to be a real game changer. Their small women's shelter seems to spread a lot of good information about the hard-hitting men in this city."

"I don't even know why that girl even cared about her sleaze ball of an ex anyways, but it sure was helpful." Jason shrugged.

"We should be grateful that Harley came to us with this information at all." Alfred intervened. "It shows real change in her character."

"So, you boys handled Penguin, Two Face and Scarecrow okay?" Bruce looked to his sons.

"Yeah." Jason scoffed. "I think Two Face and Scarecrow where still a bit shaken up about their beatdown with Sunshine here last time." He jerked his thumb over to me. "And Penguin isn't much to deal with when he doesn't have his men to back him up."

"Dealing with the dozens of escapees was more trouble than those guys." Tim agreed.

"Anyone have any important information to add while we are still here?" Barbara questioned.

It was quite for awhile before I decided to speak up. "Just that Joker said he actually liked me and it gave me the creeps." I joked.

"He said that?" Bruce looked very serious when he asked this.

"Y-yeah." I began to feel nervous at his seriousness. "He said something like 'I like you Ladybird. I don't think I will kill you today.' or something like that. He said I had a sense of humor."

"I wouldn't joke around with him, Pixie-pop. He might become infatuated with you." Jason lacked his usual carefree attitude.

"Sometimes my witty remarks just come out of me and I can't help it." I gave everyone a sad smile. "I'm sorry."

"It's okay, Angel. You shouldn't have to change yourself for that monster." Damian rubbed small circles with his thumb on the back of my hand. "Just be careful what you say around him."

"Demon spawn is right." Jason nodded. "We are all just puzzle pieces in his sick game and you might want to be careful not to become too interesting to him. Some of us had to find that out the hard way."

I remembered back to Damian's story about how Jason died and I immediately understood what he meant. The Joker must have found Jason to be very interesting when he was younger. I gave him a comforting smile before nodding. "You got it, Jay. We wouldn't want the 'Sunshine of Gotham' to get too close to the 'Clown Prince of Crime'. That would be a tragedy just waiting to happen."

"Yeah." Jason smiled. "And we have had enough tragedy in this family."---------I had just got out of the shower and was getting dressed when I wiped the steam off of the bathroom mirror to see my own refection. I frowned at the sight of my slightly swollen mouth and the small gash on the side of my bottom lip. Taring my gaze away from my own reflection, I finally dried my hair the best I could with my towel and got dressed to go to bed.

Exiting the bathroom, it was no surprise to me to see Damian already in bed with Titus sleeping soundly next to him on the floor. Wordlessly, I crawled into bed and snuggled next to my boyfriend.

"Marinette." He softly whispered to me.

I looked up at him before I answered. "Yes, Damian?"

He gently grabbed my chin to tilt my head towards the moonlight pouring through the window. "I should have been there to have your back. Maybe he wouldn't have ruined your perfect face."

I blushed at his words and buried my face into his chest. "Yeah and maybe then he would have ruined your perfect face." My words were barely understandable.

"What was that?" He smiled.

I sighed before looking back up at him again. "I know you heard me."

"I did. I just wanted to hear you say it again." A soft smile escaped his lips before he cupped my cheek in one of his hands and softly ran his thumb across my injured bottom lip. "What are we going to tell your friends at school tomorrow?"

"That I fell down the stairs and hit my face on the railing on the way down." I shrugged. "I've hurt my self worse on far less."

"Really?"

"Yeah. Sometimes I'm not the most graceful. Like when I'm nervous or anxious. I've gotten better at it all over the years though."

"So, your friends will buy that story?" He asked skeptically.

"Oh, yeah. Especially if I say I was distracted by something. Without a doubt, they will believe me."

"Distracted?" Damian raised an eyebrow at me. "And what would you possibly be distracted by?" He asked before inching his face very close to mine with a mischievous grin.

"Uh... you know." I gulped loudly as I looked into his eyes then briefly down at his lips before looking back up to his gaze. "Could be a number of things."

"Like what?" He leaned down to whisper into her ear. "I'm curious." Damian pulled back away to look at my expression.

"Like, uh..." I couldn't seem to look away from his teasing gaze. "Designing?"

"That's it?" He moved even a little bit closer to me.

"No." I faintly whispered as I watched his every move.

"Then what else?"

"Umm..." I seemed to get lost in his emerald green eyes.

"Umm?" He questioned my lack of answer. "Are you drawing a blank here?"

"Yeah." I answered breathlessly.

"Hmm... and why is that?" His lips barely touched mine before he backed up a few inches, my face following his for a few moments before I frowned at him.

"You're distracting me on purpose!" I whined.

"I'm just proving a point." He finally leaned in to give me a soft, lingering kiss before pulling away and giving me a playful wink. "You aren't the only one who can be a distraction, Angel."

"Oh, you don't want to play that game, Boy Wonder." I tapped him on the nose.

"I don't know." He grinned widely at me. "That might just be the one game I would want to play all the time."

I looked over at the alarm clock on the bedside table and frowned. "Well we should play that game later. We have to be up in a few hours. Goodnight, Damian." I gave him a quick peck on the lips before pulling my blankets up over my body. "I love you."

He sighed before smiling down at me. "And I love you, Marinette. Goodnight." Damian too, got comfortable in the bed before we both drifted off to sleep.