Of Glitter and Gold

Chapter 41

Marinette gets home a few hours before dinner, at around 6. She knocks all her homework off as she eats at her desk. Only then does she power up her computer.

'D-a-m-i-a-n- -W-a-y-n-e- -c-h-i-l-d-h-o-o-d'

The Parisian scrolls, skimming the titles of the articles as they load. All of them are either speculative about which famous model his mother could be, announcements of his existence, or about his attendance at Gotham Academy. There's nothing about where he used to live, who used to take care of him. Finding nothing even resembling the information she's looking for, Marinette resorts to the tabloids. Picture after picture of models and actresses known for their relationship with billionaire Bruce Wayne that Marinette could easily tell were bogus or exaggerated. The dude's way too in love with his wife for any of the stuff she's reading about.

So she has nothing.

Not once has he ever fled a room like that, and then after he actually offers to drive her home with Alfred he'd acted so weird. The entire drive was dead silent. Marinette got out the car with a quick goodbye before it became her turn to flee as she rushed into the bakery.

And now she has to go to patrol and act like her only friend-ish/ enemy type person didn't all but refer to himself as a stray dumped onto his fathers door doorstep after what sounded like a horrible childhood. What is she supposed to do in this type of situation?

Marinette unlocks her window, the cool condensation on the glass distracting her as she draws a smiley face with her finger.

"Alright, Tiki, spots on!"

"Spots off." Marinette lets herself fall onto her bed, beat. Batman decided to make her do more endurance training, and the worst part was that no one was there with her. She just ran laps and did drills for three hours while everyone else was on patrol. The girl doesn't even bother looking at her phone but hears someone plug it in.

Thank goodness tomorrow is Saturday.

Marinette sleeps in until noon, her mother shaking her as she rants about a bad sleep schedule.

"I'm up, I'm up."

"You're alarm has been going off for half an hour, Marinette!"

"Alarm?" That's when it clicks, is she supposed to work in the bakery this morning?

"Maman! I'm so sorry, I'll get ready and I can work now. You could have woken me up and-" Marinette doesn't bother finishing the sentence as she rushes into her bathroom to brush her hair and teeth.

"No, that new boy, Charlie started working on Saturdays now. Remember?" Sabine calls out, the alarm keeps ringing.

"WhaH?!" The alarm stops just as Marinette speaks, her mouth full of toothpaste.

"The Charlie boy is working the weekends now, remember?"

Marinette's phone starts ringing again.

"Maman? Could you turn the alarm off?"

"Marinette, someone's calling you."

"Oh." Marinette rinses her mouth as she rushes out of the bathroom. Why would someone be calling her? The bluenette smiles at her mother who looks both amused and annoyed. She looks at the contact, shit.

The Parisian swipes on the phone icon as she rushes towards her closet and grabs the first thing she sees. The call begins as she puts the device to her ear.

"If you think I'm going to-" The young heroine doesn't even think to hear out the rest of the boy's threat.

"I'm so sorry, I slept through all my alarms. I'm leaving my house as soon as possible!" Marinette throws her phone onto her bed as she shimmies out of her sweats and into jeans. She hears mumbling, had she not ended the call?