Of Glitter and Gold

Chapter 36

Marinette tries to stifle her laughter, biting her tongue until she can't hold it in anymore and lets her body shake in unrelenting fits of giggles. She knows Damian is rolling his eyes or scowling, or something of the sort but she couldn't care less. Step Brothers was a hilarious film, she insisted they watch something- noticing that neither had anything to do. Damian just finished his book and Marinette was still too tired to be productive and design.

The bluenette only stops because of the crick in her neck, she knows she slept in some odd way, Damian refuses to tell her- hiding his smile as he looks away every time. It must have been really bad, the bluenette blushes thinking about of stupid she must have looked.

Why does it matter? She reminds, Marinette doesn't care what he thinks.

The Parisian tugs at her neck, rolling it with a grimace before paying attention to the film again. The father makes some annoying joke that Marinette hardly registers, let alone understands. Of course, Damian huffs at the pathetic excuse for a joke.

"I don't get it." Marinette leans against the armrest and wall, facing the screen on the back of the headrest directly in front of her. She's slouching, her torso bent awkwardly in a curve as she looks to Damian for clarification. He looks to her, his headphones, connected to hers and the screen by a shared adapter, still in place.

"That's why your neck hurts." Marinette's brows, lips pursed in confusion. She looks at him, even more confused than before, what did her neck have to do with the joke?

She voices her confusion, "What?"

"You're slouching, sit properly." His tone is scolding, she obeys out of habit. Tikki and her mother always told her the same thing. She scoots up but there is no way Marinette is going to let Damian correct her like that without some kind of pushback.

"Don't be so annoying. We're in the middle of a six hour flight, and the seat is uncomfortable." It looks like he wasn't going to either, turning more to face a far smaller Marinette. Her arms cross, stubbornly slouching as he watches.

"Maybe if you listen to the movie you'll understand the jokes and forget about the chair."

"Maybe if you explained the joke we wouldn't be having this argument!" She snaps back, he just rolls his eyes- why does he look like that? He almost looks amused, like he's enjoying their argument.

Marinette isn't surprised, sure he used to look like he hated every interaction they had but now it's like he enjoys getting her riled up. She hadn't realized it before but she wasn't as annoyed with him as she probably would have been a few months ago.

If she was being honest, the bluenette could see herself becoming friends with Damian. And his family, for that matter. They were all very fun, and had lots of dirt on Damian.

They go back to watching the movie, she grimaces as one of them men are bullied by a bunch of middle schoolers, gagging with a laugh at what they do, unable to escape from the sound, her earbuds securely in place. She catches a glimpse of Damian's scrunched nose.

The look on his face was funny, making her laugh just a little bit louder. Her laughter slowly dies, reality sinking in.

What the hell was she doing? Watching a movie with Damian of all people? Had she really spent the night before flipping through his sketchbook? Just sitting in silence?

NO nononono. Alarm bells start going off in Marinette's head, of all people to let her guard down with.

A large part of Marinette wanted to cry for joy at the possibility, lonely and desperate for a friend. He knew, he knew about Rossi, about all of them and while he wasn't very obvious about it- he cares. He makes sure she's okay- even when they hate each other.