Kintsugi

Chapter 2

The young children drew closer and closer with each passing day. They became each other's safe place. As they learned to fight together, they learned each other's strengths, their weaknesses. Their fighting styles began to adapt to each other.

As they practiced, they would fill in where the other lacked. Fighting seamlessly, taking down groups of people in record time. Thalia and Ras looked on with pride as their prodigy surpassed even the most skilled fighter in their ranks. Thalia herself took over their training.

As Marinette and Damien grew, they got to know each other. Within the safety of their room they were children - they laughed and smiled. They explored hobbies and talked of weird habits. But as soon as they left their door, she was his servant. Always a few steps behind him, head down, eyes on the floor. When she bowed before him, it took everything Damien had not to pick her up off of the floor.

They were equals. Why should she grovel at his feet?

They picked up in the most subtle of things about each other. Able to have lengthy conversations while looking to everyone else as if they were standing still. It was a wonderful skill to have in a league of assassins.

Marinette kept her Miraculi on her at all times, continuing her training that she had received with the Guardians. She continued creating, she found time to draw and paint. She had sketchbooks from her time with the Guardians, and she had kept those precious things for years. Filling page after page with anything she could. Damien, katanas, their room, the Lazarus Pit. She loved when she and Damien would sit in silence and sketch. It filled her with joy to be able to do something other than fight with her best friend.

As Damien grew, his mother stressed the importance of a stoic front. Punishing him for any display of emotion - a gross weakness. Until he learned to push down what he was feeling. Suppressing everything but his anger. So he developed an ever-present scowl as he walked the halls of what would one day be his. The only time the scowl would drop was when he was alone with his betrothed. He would talk, sometimes for hours, and she would listen as he unloaded everything he had suppressed that day. Sometimes she would even hold him as he cried about the horrors he had watched. The atrocities that had been committed in the name of his family.

The all powerful Al-Ghuls.

They came up with names for each other. He called her his Angel, she called him Dami. They kept these names secret, for if anyone were to find out they would lose each other for sure.

Somehow she held the key to his heart. He could be completely open and honest.

He allowed her to be herself, bubbly and kind.

In the confines of their room, he laughed. She sang. They would tell each other about the inner workings of their mind. Their struggles, and sorrows. When they had nightmares, the other was always there to soothe them - and remind them that they were ok.

They were each other's support, they were together against the world.

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September 4th, 2012 - League of Assassins

Marinette POV-

I walked into the throne room, 3 steps behind Damien. I knelt to the ground before Ras, tips of my katanas touching the floor. I didn't miss the way Damien's toe slightly curled. 

He hates it when I bow.

"Rise, child."

I rise and keep my eyes trained on the floor. I had trained to be able to fight without looking. I currently knew where everyone is the room was, and I payed attention to them. My job was to protect Damien, and I would do that.

"Damien, come." Thalia beckoned her child to come stand by her.

"What do you see, my child?" Damien took a second and surveyed the dozens of assassins training in the courtyard.

"I see devotion. No one is resting." He was right. Not one of the assassins let up even for a moment as they went through their motions. Thalia looked at him with pride. Ras spoke up.

"That is correct Damien. And this is your inheritance." Damien surveyed the scene with pride. The flutter of the muscle in his temple told me otherwise. He doesn't want the League. This was something we had talked about before. What we would've wanted to be if given the choice. He wanted to have an animal shelter. I wanted to be a fashion designer. We had stayed up late talking about wishes and would-have-beens...

A crash makes all four of us turn around. Men poured into the compound, taking out all who stood in their way. Thalia and Ra's drew their swords in sync, followed by me and Damien.

"Stay here children. Marinette, protect the heir." I nod as both of the adults run into the fray. For a split second I focus on the fact that Ras didn't even call Damien by his name.

Now is not the time.

I make eye contact with Damien as he nods and jumps into the crowd of traitors, followed closely by me.

I don't know how long we had been fighting when I hear a screech. I looked over to see Ras on the ground, daggers in his heart and stomach. Damien runs to his grandfather, dragging him towards the Pit. He is stopped by Thalia, Ras was too far gone and the Pit can't heal that type of damage. Damien drops his grandfather's arms. Pulling out his blade and running toward Deathstroke - the person who had been behind this attack. He was dead set on avenging his grandfather.

But he was too slow. Deathstroke taunted him from the helicopter as he hovered out of reach before flying away. Damien sat and stared until the 'copter was out of sight. He turned to me with a face of stone. His eyes were swirling with emotion. Sorrow, pain, guilt. He had an iron grip on the hilt of his swords.

"Damien, come!" Thalia barked from across the courtyard. Damien and I brusquely walked over to where she was standing.

"Not you Marinette. I have different plans for you." I stayed where I was standing as Damien walked towards his mother.

"Damien. It's time for you to meet your father." His fingers flinched.

"And you, Marinette, will be returning to the Guardians." My blood ran cold and my heart stopped.

We were being separated.

I fought to maintain control of my emotions and nodded, waiting for her to signal to the nearby assassins to escort me back to the Guardians. I know that I should've been excited to leave the labyrinth of nightmares, but I couldn't manage to get over the fact that my other half was leaving me. To go halfway across the world. 

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Word count: 1142

Edited 7/26/23