Chapter 22

Marinette's P.O.V:

"Welcome home Master Damian, Miss Marinette." Alfred opens the front door for us. "Master Bruce is in the living room. He would like to speak to you both."

"Thank you, Alfred." I smiled at the butler while my kwami's zoomed out of my purse and down the hall. "We'll go talk to him."

The two of us made our way to the living room to meet up with Bruce. "Father." Damian greeted. "You wanted to speak with us?"

"Yes." Bruce looks over at us from the chair he was sitting on and notices Damian's hair. His sons usually well-groomed hair was slightly disheveled. "How was your date?"

"It was great, Bruce. Thanks for letting us use your roof." I give him a bright smile.

"No problem, Marinette. I'm happy you two enjoyed yourselves."

"But maybe next time" Damian gives his father an annoyed look. "you can convince those nosy heathens to give us even a tiny bit of privacy."

Bruce pinches the bridge of his nose. "What did they do this time?"

"They took pictures of us while we were on our date." I decide to speak up. "But we yelled at them and they promised they wouldn't do it again."

"You trust them too easily, Angel." Damian shakes his head.

"He's right. I'll keep an eye on them next time." Bruce looks over at me. "I apologize about my other sons."

"It's okay. I know they didn't mean any harm by it." I wave my hand in dismissal. "Was there something else you wanted to ask us?"

"Yes." Bruce stands up and walks closer to us. "Well really it's something I wanted to ask you specifically, Marinette."

"What is it?" I ask.

"I was wondering if you wanted to join my family and I on nightly patrols and training. Alfred, Selina, Barbara and I talked about it with your kwami's and we all agreed that this could help you with your guardian duties." He watched as my face went from serious and nodded along to what he was saying. "I'm only giving you this opportunity as a means to help you and to train you to become the best guardian you can be. Seeing as you accepted to go to Gotham University after the summer, you will be here for 4 years anyways. You don't have to answer me right away and I won't be disappointed if you turn this down. This is 100% your choice."

Damian gave his father a surprised look before settling with a smile and turning to face me for my answer. I smiled back at the two of them before answering. "I don't know what to say besides thank you."

"Is that a yes?" Damian asked excitedly.

"I guess it is." I dragged Damian over to the couch to sit while Bruce followed. "The main reason I decided to go to school abroad is because I wanted the miraculous out of Paris. People know they were in the city. Taking them here and also strengthening myself is something I know Master Fu would have wanted for me." I look fondly up at Bruce. "I think he would have liked you and I know he would have encouraged me to help this city."

"I'm glad you understand, Marinette." Bruce held out his hand for me to shake. "Welcome to the team."

Shaking his hand, I say "Thank you, Bruce."--------------After a quick call to my parents and a change of clothes, I meet up with the bat team in the training room. Looking around I see a large mat in the center of the room and something that looks like a trapeze setup on the farthest wall. All kinds of practice weapons line the left most wall and the regular gym equipment was on the right. "Are you sure you want to do this, Angel?" Damian gives me a concerned look. "We can do something else tonight. You don't have to just hop right into this."

"Don't think I can handle the heat, Boy Wonder?" I raise an eyebrow at him.

"No, that's not what I'm saying." He shakes his head. "I know you can handle yourself. We all saw that video with you and Scarecrow, so there is no need to prove yourself."

"I'm not here to prove myself, Damian. I'm here to blow off some steam and to see what you're made of." I boop his nose.

"Did Sunshine come to play?" Jason walks into the room and looks at the two of us. "You think you can hang with the big guns?" He challenges me.

"The big guns?" I look around the room. "I don't see Batman here yet."

"That's because he's going to observe you today." Tim walks in with Dick. "Those mirrors are one way." He points to the mirrors lining the wall where all the gym equipment is.

"Oh?" I walk over to the trapeze ropes. "Is today evaluation day?" I climb up to grab the trapeze.

"I guess you could say that." Dick follows me. "You like my trapeze setup, do you?"

"Yours?" I jump off the platform and swing freely to grab the other trapeze that hangs in the middle. "So, the circus story is true?" I gain some momentum so I could do a graceful backflip and land on the opposite platform. Turning around, I grin at my accomplishment.

Jason claps while Dick responds to my question. "Sure is. I can teach you some tricks on that if you want."

"Sounds like fun." I grab the trapeze when it swings back my way and throw my legs over the bar to hang upside down. "Swinging around freely was kind of a thing I did a lot of in Paris."

"Great." Tim sighs. "Now there's going to be two of them."

"You're just jealous that you aren't that good on the trapeze." Dick jokes. "And you are just jealous that I'm better than you at everything else." Tim says.

"Sure, Timmy. You keep telling yourself that."

Damian ignores his brothers who just keep arguing with each other to go stand underneath me and watch me swing. "Are you just going to hang there all day?" He asks amused.

"Why?" I smile down at him. "Do you want me to come down there to stop the arguing or do you want to meet me up here?"

"If you could stop the arguing I would be thoroughly impressed. They never shut up."

"Okay." I unhook my legs at the same time I reach the other trapeze and swing myself to the platform to climb down. Walking to the center of the mat, I clear my throat. "Who wants to be first?"

The arguing immediately stops as everyone looks at me. "A sparing match?" Dick asks.

"Yep." I square my shoulders and bring my feet apart to be in a fighting stance. "Don't leave me hanging."

"Oh, you're on Sunshine." Jason goes to stand about 5 feet away from me and gets into his own stance. "I'll go easy on you."

I let out a loud laugh before instantly breaking into a very serious face. "Well I won't."