Fractured (ON HOLD)

Chapter 11 Dinner

Third pov

The family never really invited people for a few different reasons, a few of them being the following;

Bruce does not like metas in Gotham.

The majority of the people they know are metas.

They also have a tendency to scare of normal people.

Havin Marinette around proved to both interesting and entertaining.

The girl had an interesting sense of humor and a sharp tongue.

"How did you meet our little Dami here?" Jason ignored the scowl he received when he riffled Damian's hair.

"We met in the park. I'd just gotten Butch and figured he'd need some sunlight so I went to the dog park where I met Titus and Damian."

Damian listened with half an ear while discretely looking at the reactions of his family. Specifically Tim and Jason, if he wasn't careful those two would try to embarrass him as much as humanly possible.

"So, how is the designer job going for you Marinette?" Bruce asked.

Marinette smiled. "It's going good. I currently have a whole list of clients and I just opened my first store."

Something they all knew but figured they'd be better off not telling her. (See: Scaring people off.)

"How do you like Gotham?" Tim asked curiously. "I know we have good coffee, but the city itself is a little too much for most people."

She laughed. "Yeah, I've never seen so many coffee places in one city before. And I like the city just fine. Well, apart from the killer clowns." She took a sip of her water. "I gotta wonder how old Joker is though..."

"Oh shit, you've met him?" Jason winced. "He's not exactly a fun clown."

Tim finished off his coffee. "I've wondered the same thing actually, he's around 45 according to what GCPD has been able to gather."

Marinette chuckled. "Damn. Maybe I wasn't so far off calling him a Pennywise knockoff."

Damian patted Jason's back as he chocked on the piece of chicken he'd been about to swallow. Dick was in a similar spot at the other side of the table.

Once Jason could breathe again he asked. "You said that too him?"

"Yup."

That sent Dick down for the count and all they could hear was a wheezing noise.

Their visitor scratched the back of her head. "Is he okay?"

Damian shrugged. "He'll be fine."

Jason had gone from laughing so hard his stomach cramped to letting out the same wheezing sounds that his older brother was.

"They'll be fine."

Time skip

Once desert was eaten and everyone had different things to do (paperwork, phone calls, suspicious vigilante activity etc.) Damian showed Marinette around a smaller part of the house.

Starting off with the kitchen where Sparkles and Alfred the cat were sleeping, to the movie room with not only a lot of different games but also shelves upon shelves of movies, onwards to Damian's own room where they found Titus and Butch.

"I'm sorry if my family were a little... Much. We don't usually have guests over."

Marinette took a seat on the desk chair. "It's fine. And, really? Looking at the newspaper you'd think the Wayne family has guests over all the time."

"That is actually deliberately done. Father has always been seen as a "ladies man", something that means people usually don't look further than that and leaves him alone for the most part." Damian scratched Titus head while talking. "We've mostly left those rumors alone because it's, as I said, a good way to not have people poking into our lives more than necessary."

Marinette hummed. "That's pretty smart. Let people form an opinion that they don't feel a reason to look beyond."

It's something she did on a smaller scale in Paris. It was definitely a useful tactic.

"How is the store going?"

"It's going just fine. I have quite the list of customers, just got a new one recently. Really tall so it's going to be interesting when he comes in for the first fitting." She knew it would be a bit of a challenge.

Damian had settled with the dogs on the floor by now. "How tall do you think he is?"

"Definitely over six feet... 6'5 maybe? He had to duck a little to get through the door."

***********************************************************
Somewhere else

The footage was clear enough that seeing the Miraculous user wasn't diffcult. The boys eyes were glowing green after all.

The fist bump at the end of the fight was the last thing shown before the footage ended.

"Find more. I want everything there is on this."

A quick bow, and the servant leaves him to his thoughts.

The screen in front of him is turned off as he stands up, old, tired bones cracking.

"One last chance..."

So, here's a good place to take a break before we move onto the next part of the book and it starts to pick up speed.

Vote and comment, it keeps me motivated :)