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

Chapter 21: First Kiss

The two teens spent the first half of their date laughing at jokes and getting to know each other. They spoke about school and friends (or lack thereof in Damian case) and even a little bit about their hero work. Conversation seemed to flow so easily between the two.

"Wow." Marinette finishes off her plate. "Did Alfred make this?"

"He did." Damian smiles at the girl's elation.

"And it was still warm. How did this even get up here?"

"I have my ways." He crosses his arms on the table and leans closer to her.

"Oh, we are keeping that a mystery I see." She also leans closer to him from across the table. "I have my ways of getting information out of people."

"Do you?" He raises an eyebrow at her. "I'd like to see that."

"I'm sure you would, Boy Wonder." She reaches a finger out and boops him on the nose. "But we can't get everything we want."

"Says who?" He challenges her as he leans in a little closer.

"Says me." She winks at him as she abruptly stands up.

Damian frowns when she steps away from him but he follows her anyways. "Where are you going?"

"To sit at the edge of the roof. You joining me?" She sits down and lets her legs hang off the roof while Damian nods. He slowly makes his way there and sits down a few inches away from her. "Look at the sun setting." She sighs. "I wish I could sketch right now."

"Why can't you?"

"My sketchbook fell into a koi pond and is now ruined." She pulled it out of her bag to show him. "Plus, my pen sank to the bottom."

"I thought you were lucky." He looked sadly at the sketchbook.

"Not when people purposefully do mean things to me. Lila bumped into me and that's how I dropped it."

"She sounds like a jealous idiot."

"Yeah. Tell me about it." Marinette shakes her head. "God forbid I do anything I enjoy in front of her. It's like its in her blood to hate me."

Damian intertwines his fingers with hers to get her attention. "Let's not worry about her for now." He smiles down at her.

Looking up into his emerald green eyes, she can't help but to relax and smile back. "You're right. Enough about me and my problems. Tell me more about you."

"What do you want to know?"

"I don't know. Just anything. Like what's your favorite color? Mine's pink."

"For the longest time I thought it was black, but recently I just found out it was blue." He looks fondly at her.

"What made the change?" She asked earnestly.

"Your eyes." He whispers.

Marinette blushes and ducks her head down. "You're just saying that."

"No." Damian takes his free hand to gently lift her chin up so he can see her eyes again. "I don't just 'say things'. I will never just 'say things'." He shakes his head at her. "There is something about you that just encaptivates me. From the moment I saw you dancing, I just couldn't look away. If any other person had punched me on that rooftop, there would have been a serious fight. But you..." He cups her cheek and leans down closer to her. "you are the guardian angel that was sent down to save me."

Marinette gives him the most loving smile he had ever seen and she reaches up to run her fingers through his perfectly styled hair. "And what am I saving you from exactly?"

"Myself." He whispers roughly to her.

Something about the way he said that gave Marinette butterflies. Sighing deeply, she closes in on the last little bit of distance between them and closes her eyes for a kiss. When their lips met, the butterflies didn't seem to stop and something like a warm, yet soft electric current ran through her whole body. Marinette can't help but to think about how warm and soft his lips felt against her own. They stay like that for a long moment before they both break away to breathe.

Smiling at herself, she rests her head on his shoulder and looks out to the city. Paris has always been the city of love but tonight, Gotham really took that title. "I don't want this to end." She whispers to herself.

"Is this even real?" He whispers back as he rests his head on top of hers.

"I sure hope so." Marinette snuggles closer to Damian to keep warm from the cold night air. "I'd be really mad at myself if I was dreaming this."

"I'm still not convinced that I haven't somehow died and snuck my way into heaven."

The bluenette giggles at the idea. "No. I'm pretty sure this is real. I can see your brothers over there taking pictures of us."

"Of course, they are." He says annoyed before kissing the top of her head. "Should we get up to go yell at them?"

"Maybe." She looks over at them from where they are standing on a rooftop a few building over and gives them a big wave. Dick is the only one who waves back.

"You know, they probably sat around and watched our whole date." Damian gave them a mean look.

"I wouldn't doubt it." She stood up from her spot on the roof and Damian quickly follows suit.

"What are you doing?" He asked when she opened up her purse.

"We are gunna go yell at them." She smiles mischievously at him before saying "Tikki, Spots on!" and she is engulfed in a pink light. Now in her signature spotted Ladybug look, she unhooks her yoyo and wraps her free arm around Damian's waist. "Hang on." She winks.

"Wait, what?" He asks as she throws her yoyo around a nearby gargoyle and swings off the roof into the direction of Damian's brothers. Her agility and speed were so great that it only took her a few moments to land on the roof she was after. Letting go of Damian, she turns her attention to the three boys who look a little bit shocked to see her. "Angel, please give me some warning the next time you do something like that."

"Sorry." She smiles at him over her shoulder. Looking back at Nightwing, Red Hood and Red Robin, she says "What do you think you guys are doing?"

"Uhm..." Red Robin speaks first. "This was all Nighwing's idea." He pushes Dick towards her.

"Harsh, man." Nightwing looks at Red Robin. "I didn't see you stopping me. In fact, both of you wanted to tag along."

Ladybug crosses her arms and looks at the three.

"You look great, Pixie-pop." Red Hood tries to butter her up.

"It's Ladybug to you, Red Hood." She smirks at him.

"Have none of you ever heard of privacy?" Damian stares angrily at his brothers.

"Oh, come on, Damian." Nightwing pulls out his camera to show the two a picture of them kissing on the rooftop. "You are going to thank me one day for these."

"Dick!" Marinette goes red just looking at the pictures and she covers her face.

"That's Nightwing to you, Ladybug." He smiles at her embarrassment.

"Har har." Marinette sarcastically laughs as she drops her hands to her side. "No more spying on us."

"Deal." Nightwing smiles at her before turning his attention to Damian. "But seriously, little D. Way to go." He playfully smacks him on the back.

"Alright." Damian grabs Marinette's hand. "We are leaving."

"The same way we came or...?" She looks over at him.

"No." He leads her to the fire escape. "I don't want to do that again anytime soon."

Marinette laughs. "Okay. Tikki, Spots off." A pink light shines again as her transformation falls. "Are we heading back to your car?"

"Only of you want to, Angel." He smiles back at her as they make their way down the fire escape.

Reaching the bottom, Marinette nods. "Sure thing, Boy Wonder. Let's go home."