She's Sunshine, She's Grace, She'll Punch You in the Face

Chapter 13: Dinner and a Surprise

"Hey, Marinette. I'm Barbara." A beautiful red head in a wheel chair greets her. "So, you are the one that Jason calls his new little sister? You're absolutely adorable."

"Uh, thanks Barbara." She awkwardly shakes her hand.

"And I'm Selina." A woman with a short, black pixie cut spoke in a sultry voice. "Barbara is right. You are a cute little kitten." She shakes her hand.

"Thank you." Marinette blushes at the onslaught of complements.

"Why don't we go to the dining room?" Bruce speaks up. "Jason, Tim and Dick are all already there."
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Alfred brings out all kinds of dishes one by one and sets them in the center of the table. The boy's all playfully fight over the food the minute it's set down and Marinette can't help but to smile at how comfortable and normal this billion-dollar family is.

"They are always like this." Barbara leans over to whisper to her. "I hope you don't mind." Both girls laugh when a stray biscuit flies across the table and hits Tim square in the forehead. "I like to think of it as dinner and a show." She winks at the bluenette.

Marinette looks over to see Bruce smile fondly at his boys while shaking his head. "Your family is a lot of fun, Mr. Wayne."

"Please, I told you to call me Bruce." He looks at the girl. "Do you need me to reign them in so you can get some food?" He jerks is head at Jason and Tim who seem to be fighting over a bowl of peas.

Marinette smiles at them before shaking her head. "I got this."

The small girl stands up with her plate in hand and walks behind Jason to tap him on the shoulder. Jason immediately let's go of the peas, effectively spilling them all over Tim as he yanks them back. "What's up, Pixie-pop?" He asks.

"Nothing." She gives him a bright smile as she picks up Jason's full plate and replaces it with her empty one. "I was just getting some food." She winks at Bruce before skipping her way back to her own seat.

The whole table is quiet for a moment as Marinette starts to eat her food. "What?" She asks innocently.

"That was smooth." Dick grinned at the small girl before bursting into laughter.

Jason was still looking at the bluenette in shock. "Did you just..." He points to his empty plate and then back at her.

"Are you going to eat something, Jay?" Marinette smirks at him. "It's all really good and I know Alfred worked hard on it."

"Yeah, Jason." Tim laughed as he pulled some peas out of his hair. "I have some extra peas if you want." He holds his hand out.

"I'll get you back for that, Sunshine." He smiles at her as he piles food onto his new empty plate.

"I have no idea what you are talking about." She bats her eyelashes at him and turns to Damian. "Do you know what he's talking about?"

Damian tries to suppress his smile. "No, Angel. I do not."

"I like you, little kitten." Selina winks at the young girl. "You will fit right in around here." She purrs.

"I think so too." She smiles back.

After a few minutes of everyone eating, Bruce clears his throat to speak. "So, Marinette. I have a few questions for you."

"What is it, Bruce?" She says cheerfully.

"I wanted to know where you learned to fight. I have to say that you handled yourself very well with Scarecrow yesterday."

Marinette looked around at everyone nervously before shrugging. "There was this old man who used to teach me self-defense a few years ago. His name was Master Fu but really, I'm not that good. I think I'm just used to stressful situations."

"Why do you say that?" Barbara asks.

"Well Paris was constantly under attack up until a few months ago. The super villain really seemed to love targeting my school specifically." She poked her food around.

"Hawkmoth, right?" Barbara asked.

"Yes. How did you know?"

"My dad is the police commissioner. You gave him a statement yesterday, remember? He said you talked about it with Nightwing, Red Robin and Red Hood. I looked into it a bit and it all sounds really crazy."

"It was. I'm just glad it's all over. Now people can feel whatever they want without fear of being akumatized."

"I read the trial report on Gabriel Agreste. He just wanted a bunch of magic jewelry to make a wish to bring his wife back, right?"

"Yes." Marinette sighed. "But as noble as that sounds, every wish comes at a price. We can't have life without death. Who knows what would have happened if he succeeded?"

"I understand." Barbara smiled at Marinette. "I also looked up pictures of these heroes Paris had. They look like teenagers."

"They are." Marinette nodded. "That was Hawkmoth's main reason for targeting my school. I think he hoped one day he would get lucky and akumatize one of the heroes."

"You said he was looking for miraculous's right?" Alfred asked from across the table.

"Yeah. Why?" She questioned the butler.

"I was wondering if the heroes ever found Duusu."

Marinette's eyes go wide for a moment. "How do you know about him?" She stands up quickly, letting the chair fall behind her.

"Back in my time with the British army, a friend and I worked with him and Nooroo." Alfred looked as though he was thinking of a time long ago. "We were in a covert ops mission in Tibet when we lost them, unfortunately."

"You were his holder?" Marinette gripped the side of the table. "And you aren't deathly ill?"

"No, Miss Marinette. I am perfectly healthy. Why would I be ill?" He looked at her calmly.

Marinette started to pace. "Tikki, what do I do? This is big news, right?" She says in French.

Bruce and his family all look around at each other confused except for Alfred, who seemed oddly okay with the girls' sudden change of attitude.

"Maybe we can fill in the blanks that Duusu himself has seemed to of forgotten." Her pace begins to quicken. "Tikki, he's still sick. This might just fix him."

"Angel." Damian tries to get her attention. "Who are you talking to?"

"We could go get him right now, Tikki. Kaalki can take us there."

"Sunshine." Jason tries next.

"I'm sure we can trust them, Tikki. I know who they are."

"What?" Bruce speaks up, finally stopping Marinette's pacing. "What do you mean? And who's Tikki?"

"I'm Tikki." A small red flying pixie flew out of Marinette's bag.

Tim and Jason jumped a few feet away while the rest of the family stare in shock.

"I'm the kwami of creation" She says in a high-pitched voice, turning to Alfred. "and I think that we need your help."