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

Chapter 61: A Friendly Challenge

Waking up in the morning was hard for Marinette. She had never felt so comfortable in all her life and laying in that king-sized bed with Damian was nothing short of an actual dream come true. Eventually though, Damian convinced her to drag herself out of bed after Alfred's consistent knocking at her door.

She lazily made her way through her room and decided to put on a simple pair of denim skinny jeans and a red turtle neck sweater she made last year. She pulled on her knee length black boots and quickly brushed her hair and teeth. Looking in the mirror, she saw that the swelling on her lip went down but a light purple bruise had formed overnight. She was thankful that the cut wasn't too deep and that it would be healed by the time the Gala came around. Sighing at her reflection, she put her hair up into a quick ponytail and grabbed her bag with her kwami's inside and made her way out the door.

As always, Damian was waiting for her right by her bedroom door with not a single hair out of place.

"Why do you always look so perfect in the mornings?" Marinette asked as she reached for his hand to walk down to breakfast.

"Shouldn't I be the one asking you that?" He smiled at down at her.

"No. I mean look at your hair and your uniform." She gestured at his whole body. "And you do it so fast. It's not fair."

"Well I have a reputation so upkeep." He joked. "Plus, I've dressed like this for school everyday and it becomes routine. I know you don't like the idea of a school uniform but it has its advantages."

"Okay, I get that... but your hair. It's so perfect I just want to mess it up." She giggled.

"You wouldn't dare." He challenged her.

"You want to bet?" She had a playful look in her eyes.

"You're on."

The second those words came out of his mouth, Marinette went into action. She reached up for his hair but he stepped out of the way and took off down the hall.

"Hey, come back!" She laughed and ran after him.

Marinette has always been quicker than him but the second she reached for him, he jumped out of the way and used the railing to the stairs to swiftly slide down. She followed suit and ran after him the moment her feet touched the ground again.

As they made their way down the hall, it was like a high intensity game off keep away with Damian's hair. Damian just managed to slip into the dining room to avoid Mari's reach and when he entered, the rest of the family looked at him with confusion. He didn't stop to look at their confusion for long because he could hear Marinette coming up quickly behind him.

Damian ran around to the other side of the table and watched as Marinette tried to asses which side he would try to come around at. He shifted from left to right and she followed suit in almost a mirror like fashion.

"Uh, what's going on?" Dick asked.

"Just a friendly little challenge we have going on." Marinette answered.

"Might I suggest you continue this later." Alfred smiled at Damian's gleeful look. "Breakfast is getting cold and you two must be leaving soon."

The teens stared at each other from across the table for a moment before Marinette gave Damian an innocent smile.

"Call it a truce until after breakfast?"

"Okay." Damian nodded finally relaxing. "And not while we are in the car either. There will be penalties if you break this truce. House rules."

"House rules?" She asked as she made her way to her seat to finally get some food.

"Yep." Jason intervened. "Alfred and Bruce came up with some rules to keep us all honest in this house. If we cheat, we pay the price."

"What is this price?" She raised an eyebrow at Jason.

"It depends." Tim spoke. "The house decides. We want to keep the punishment fair."

"Yeah." Dick smiled. "Sometimes its just dishes for a week and sometimes it's a full on 3v1. It's all situational."

Damian finally took his seat next to Marinette.

"Who was the last person to break this rule?"

"Me." Dick shrugged.

"Really?" Marinette asked with surprise. "What did you do?"

"Tim and I had a little challenge going on to see who could scare the other first." Dick explained. "We had to call a truce for a mission but I found the perfect opportunity and I couldn't pass it up. Cleaning the Batcave was totally worth it to see the look on Tim's face."

"You can't just pretend to fall off a 40-story building and not expect me to freak out." Tim rolled his eyes.

"That was kinda diabolical, Dick." Jason laughed.

"It's never boring around here, is it?" Marinette smiled.

"Not when my sons are involved, no." Bruce concurred.

"See? This is why I think growing up with siblings would have been fun."

"Well you are stuck with us now, Pixie-pop. Better late than never." Jason gave the bluenette a wide grin.

"I guess you're right." Marinette nodded.

The family ate and chatted comfortably for a while before everyone had to head off to work or school.

The teens made their way out of the Manors gates and saw that there was even less paparazzi than the day before.

"Today is the last day I will be at school with you. I'm going to miss this. I feel like my trip is moving by way too fast." She smiled over at her boyfriend.

"Yeah." Damian reached across the car to hold her hand. "I get that. After we deal with Ivy this weekend, we should have another date."

"That sounds perfect. You have any date ideas?"

"I'm sure I could come up with something." He laughed. "And this time we won't have any stalkers or interruptions on this date."

"That sounds like a challenge. We do have paparazzi after us."

"Damian and Marinette maybe, but we have some alter egos that know how to go unseen and find places that others can't." He winked.

"Well I can't wait." She said excitedly.