Of Glitter and Gold

Chapter 35

Damian's eyes snap open, glaring at the sun. It was far too early.

Despite every muscle in Damian's body begging to return to the comfort of his bed, he ignores it, starting his usual workout. He modifies what he has to, like he did throughout the trip to suit the hotel room and his lack of equipment.

He just finished his workout and jumped into the shower when he remembered the night before. Marinette. They stayed like that for so long, in silence...

It was nice.

He shrugs it off, it had been late, he just came back from a tough fight, he was simply too tired to observe her faults or glares.

Getting ready, Damian makes sure he's done everything he needs to in the bathroom before packing his toiletries.

Preparing for their flight was simple enough, he packed his dirty clothes in the plastic bag he had. The little spare clean clothes he had left went into the suitcase directly, his shoes in their pocket on the closing flap.

He was fully packed by the time everyone was waking up, realizing he had some time before breakfast. Damian sits at the room's desk and opens his sketchbook. Flipping to a new page, he stops on the drawing of the airport.

He looks at it a moment before moving on to a fresh page. Thinking back, wondering what he should draw, Damian decided to do his room.

He started with picking a place to draw from, for point of view before sketching out all the most basic shapes. Finishing with the basic outline, he starts adding more detail.

At eight thirty on the dot, Damian opens his door and walks out severely pissed off. He was too tired for this bull shit. People quickly noticed his 'fuck off' attitude and kept their distance. People filtered into the hallway, almost everyone was in there with the exception of Marinette and her roommates. All of a sudden everyone could hear Marinette yell.

"It's NINE!" Some chuckled, looking at their friends. Damian just rolls his eyes, her silly insistence to stay up was biting both of them in the ass now. He should have sent her to bed when she first offered to help.

It only took around ten minutes for Marinette and the Valin girls to appear, the bluenette rubbing her eyes tiredly as she dragged herself out of the room. The sense of urgency he heard in her exclamation was gone.

The Valin girls giggled slightly as Marinette leaned on the wall with her head back before giggling slightly. "Sorry about the shoe."

"The one that hit my head or her arm?" Alex asks, Marinette laughs with the two girls. Someone calls the elevators and everyone makes their way to the lobby. For the last day, they decided to go out for breakfast.

It was like the day before never happened, despite how tired Marinette looked she kept talking and laughing and joking like she was perfectly fine. Maybe she was, Damian didn't know for sure.

The café they went to was big enough to put them all at one table, though they take up the length of the dining room. Sitting in the middle of all the action, Damian hears Marinette do what she does best- ignore everything that's bothering her and let everyone think she's okay.

That was his new theory.

So focused on making sure everyone was having a good time, Marinette pretends like she's perfectly fine.

Or, perhaps, that's her distracting herself. Damian shrugs it off, it isn't his place to care.

The little Jon in the back of his head told him that it could be. That caring for her would be within his realm of responsibility if he were her- He shuts the thought down quickly, he doesn't like her.