Black Alley

Family Bonding

Marinette was nervous as she looked in the mirror. Her hair was in a half-up, half-down hairdo. Due to the weather becoming more frigid, she chose a long-sleeved dress. The was mainly black, but the dress's padding was red, black, and white. The underskirt was the same pattern and color as the padding on the bust.

She could see Adrien smiling at her from the mirror. "I can hear you overthinking from here," he joked. She rolled her eyes while she fixed her bra strap onto her shoulder.

Adrien got off of her chaise and went over to her. He wrapped his arms around her waist and laid his chin on her head. "You look radiant," Adrien said, kissing the top of her head, careful with her hair.

"Would you say I look carefree? Dreamy, perhaps," she grinned. "I hate you," he said, turning her around.

"No, you don't. You love me," Marinette smiled, kissing Adrien.

"Right as always, Bug," he smiled.

A knock at the trap door interrupted them. Sabine popped into the room, staring at her daughter and Adrien. "Are you almost ready, Marinette?" Sabine asked.

"Yes, just need my necklace, and I will be downstairs," she replied.

Sabine smiled before going back down the hatch. "Are you sure you can't come?" Marinette whined. "I'm sorry, Bug, I have an early photoshoot tomorrow," he said.

"Of course. You need your beauty sleep," Marinette teased.

"Excuse me, all of this," he gestured to his face, "is natural. No beauty sleep is needed to have this."

"Such a drama queen," she said. "Okay, we should get out of here before you guys are late for dinner," he said, leading her to the hatch.

____________________

Marinette thought the dinner was going well. Well, as well as it could be. Scrap that. This dinner could be going so much better, Marinette thought. Everyone was silent as they were eating dinner in the empty restaurant.

You know what? Marinette thought I was going to say some-

"I'm sorry, but can someone please start a conversation? We are going nowhere sitting here in silence," Sabine said. Bruce smiled into his napkin. That was the Sabine he knew all those years ago. Not at all shy to speak her mind.

"Okay, let's get down to why we're all here. I want Marinette to live with me," Bruce said. All of the Dupain-Chengs dropped their silverware.

"What?" Marinette and Tom said.

"Excuse me?" Sabine exclaimed.

"Please, let me rephrase that. I want Marinette to visit me for a week, or more if she wants, during the summer. Of course, she can come more if she wants, but I do want time for my family and me to bond with her," Bruce exclaimed.

Both Sabine and Tom looked at Marinette for her opinion. "I have to look at my schedule and see what weeks are available, but I wouldn't mind," Marinette said.

"Dick, we haven't seen each other in a while. How has life been treating you?" Sabine asked, cutting into her steak.

"As well as life can treat me, Sabine. I finally got to be a detective," Dick said. "Congratulations, I'm glad you were able to achieve your dream," Sabine clapped, "I always knew you could."

"Jason, right?" Tom asked, looking at his daughter. Both Jason and Marinette nodded. "You played well yesterday? Do you play a lot of video games?" Tom asked.

"Now and then. I'm mostly busy at work," Jason explained. "What do you do?" Tom asked.

Both Marinette and Jason lightly choked on their food. "I'm... an advisor in a company," Jason exclaimed.