Finding Myself Again

Chapter 8: Approval of the Many

Woohoo another chapter ✧◝(⁰▿⁰)◜✧

How does Jason react to Mari's jacket? What's Sabine up to in Paris? Well, I guess you'll have to read to find out!

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Making breakfast with Alfred was actually kinda fun. Marinette’s first impression of the older man was that he’s very serious (which he is) and is not likely to go along with a joke and mess around. But he is.

Throughout the whole process, he tells stories about who did what in the kitchen and trolls the heck out of them. Apparently, Stephanie decided that she wanted to make wine because they ran out of her favorite kind at the store and threw a whole bag of grapes into a pot and tried to boil it. For twelve hours. Which caused her to be banned from both the stove and the microwave just in case she decided to do it the ‘faster’ way.

And apparently, right before Marinette came to the Manor, Jason microwaved an egg. Then he proceeded to move on with his day without cleaning up the massive mess he made.

And Tim… the only thing he’s allowed to touch that involves electricity is his coffee maker.

With these endless stories about the utter stupidity of the Wayne family, the time flies as well does the preparation for the meal. In no time, there’s pancakes, waffles, eggs, sausage, bacon and cereal set up in their appropriate places and the now awake residents (except for Tim. He’s still a walking zombie) crawl from their beds, attracted to the smell of food like moths to light.

But then Jason slams open the door. “Alfred! You will not believe what me and Replacement found last nig-” He freezes when he sees Marinette happily munching on food and talking to Barbara, but turns her attention to him when he made such a dramatic entrance.

What happened to the tense and PTSD ridden girl that ran into him not even six hours ago?

“What did you discover, Master Jason?” Alfred asks from his seat next to Bruce.

“I-” His mind races, trying to think of something else. Ah ha! “Little Pixie Stick here is now officially dubbed ‘Sunshine of Gotham’ on Twitter. Somebody saw you picking her up at the airport and posted about it and now everyone’s wondering if Bruce's adopting another kid.” Bruce makes a small sound of protest and Stephanie laughs.

“Everybody knows that’s true. You can tell she’s the literal embodiment of Sunshine by just looking at her! Mari- you're here for not even twenty-four hours and you’ve already made a name for yourself. I think you broke Dick’s record; it took the Gothamites three days to warm up to him.” Dick side eyes her as she leaves the room to get more waffles and grumbles into his bowl of cereal. The Sunshine of Gotham herself blushes from everyone’s stare until she remembers something.

“Oh! Jason, I made you a little something for helping me out last night. As a thank you.” She reaches besides her and holds out the jacket.

His eyes widen as he walks around the table to take the gift. He unfolds it and stares at it in silence. After a few moments he squeals and picks Marinette up into one of the biggest hugs that she’s ever been in (it can easily rival her father’s). And when Steph walks into the room and sees the hug, she promptly places her waffles on the table and throws herself at Jason and Mari.

“I have no idea why we’re hugging, but Imma just join in!” Jason rolls his eyes and finally lets go of Marinette and Stephanie pouts about how no one wants hugs in the morning which Damian quickly retorts with, “no, Brown, get it right. No one would want to be around you in the morning,” and she pouts even more. Marinette frowns.

“Damian! That wasn’t nice. How would you like to be put down for the way you are?” Damian opens his mouth but she cuts him off. “Like what in the world are you wearing?! That shade of yellow does not look good on you, it just makes you look sickly. And why are you so uptight and bitchy all the time? I’d rather be around Stephanie any time of the day than with you. No one likes a snob.” She suddenly stops ranting and turns to the woman she’s defending who’s staring at her with her mouth ajar. “I like your enthusiasm. It’s been a while since someone’s hugged me with that much excitement.” Stephanie snaps her jaw shut and lunges at Marinette to embrace her tightly.

Tim snorts. “Damn, she really put you in your place hella fast, Demon Spawn.” Marinette pulls out of Steph’s hug and winces sheepishly.

“Sorry about that. I just get a bit… defensive when someone puts down another for being the way they are. No one should go through that.”

“It’s fine.” Damian grimaces. “I guess I sorta deserved the lecture.” Jason interrupts the staring contest between the two teenagers.

“Now as much as it’s amusing to watch Demon get knocked down from his high horse, can we continue eating? I’m starving.”

Meanwhile in Paris…

Sabine Cheng plans.

Every hour of the day, even when she’s sleeping, she plots every aspect of the downfall of her daughter’s tormentors.

During the search for any sort of evidence in Marinette’s sparsely decorated room- oh how she missed her little Mari- she hits the jackpot. Hidden underneath some sewing supplies in one of her desk drawers is five and a half notebooks filled from cover to cover of lies and assaults, dating back from the past five years. When she has the time, the mother reads through what happened, completely baffled at the tales this… this psychopath made up and everyone actually believed her. But what seriously irks her is that not only did the school do absolutely nothing, they gave Marinette impossible responsibilities and expected her daughter to set a good example to her fellow students. The child was practically doing the teacher’s job for her!

She pushes the feeling down, not wanting to be akumatized from what is written in the books. God only knows how long that liar’s been working with Hawkmoth and Sabine doesn’t want to be part of their plan to retrieve Paris’s defenders Miraculous. That’s the last thing she needs at the moment.

Now, what did Marinette say Jaggad’s number was? Because he’s the first call on a list of many and he’s most likely able to help Sabine get in contact with every other celebrity that’s been lied about.