mind over mask

forty-four

Damian's POV

I stared down at my phone, somewhat surprised that Marinette had finally answered me back after about a month.

I felt foolish for obsessing over a text, after the month of texts and phone calls I sent her, but something was better than nothing.

Paris brought back life and color into my life.

In Gotham, everything was shades of black and white. But Marinette showed me that there was more to the world that what I had allowed myself to believe.

So returning back to Gotham City was an adjustment, as life there was bland, to say the least.

I had returned to Gotham Academy, leaving the school and city wondering where I had disappeared to. Soon, it would surface that I was in France, but I coveted the moments before it would be the top story of every media outlet.

I returned to my old, familiar ways, with a sneer permanently etched into my face. I had returned to the cold hearted, Ice Prince of Gotham.

But when girls throw themselves at you left and right, how everyone wants to be your friend for the sole purpose of your fortune, and the levels of incompetency I tolerate, you'd understand the why I act the way that I do.

But behind closed doors in my room, I could be myself.

I could talk to Marinette.

I tried to contact her, and I wondered if I eventually coaxed her to talk to me again, or if she had finally opened up on her own.

When she ignored me for weeks on ends, I was in the worst of moods. I was mad, but worse, I was reckless.

Todd was proud of my for being less uptight, and letting loose, but after sending multiple criminals to the emergency unit of the hospital, I was banned from patrol for a week.

It only made my attitude worse, and I think it suffices to say that both Todd and Drake have new wounds from being my dagger targets after saying something stupid.

I was so ashamed at times; love was a weapon. But I had never felt this away about a person before and so the only way I could protect it was to hide.

Grayson was lining after his alien princess, and he often recalled and poured over the butterflies he had when he first met her.

But to compare this to insects was nothing.

This was burning, this was a fire. 

A knock on the door to my room shocked me, and my phone slipped out of my hand. I caught it, but my thumb landed directly on the call button.

"Damian?" She breathed out.

I cursed when Pennyworth spoke through the door, "Master Damian? Are you alright in there?"

I put myself on mute for a moment, while I hissed back at him, "I'm fine, Pennyworth!"

I stared down at my phone, I couldn't hang up now.

"Dinner is served," he called out again.

"I'm not hungry. I'll come down later." I told him, and I didn't hear his footsteps walking away, but I knew that the butler had let.

I unmuted the phone, unsure of what to say, except one thing. I let out a sigh of relief. "Marinette."

After a beat of silence, she asked,"Damian?"

"You already said that." I pointed out to her, in French.

She thinks for a moment, before answering back in her native language, "I had to make sure that this was real."