#dcxml

She also had extremely well taken videos of hero fights she collected and online interviews with small-time heroes.

The two become friends pretty quickly through their mutual love of blogging about heroes but often bump heads on who their favorite heroes are, how Tim keeps meeting all these heroes before she could even interview them and any theories they have.

With Tim trying his best to steer her away from being right and Alya being headstrong on her ideas and how they couldn't be anything but true.

(For Tim, his favorite hero is Nightwing, but for Alya, it's definitely Black Canary)

Anyways, after blogging together for a while and being annoying with each other, Alya eventually admits to her friend that she and her family are moving to France and she wouldn't be able to contact him for a bit due to the move.

Tim of course is understanding and wishes her well and the time passes as it usually does. He isn't really worried at first about his best friend, too used to her shenanigans as it is but the more time that seems to pass without any word from her, the more concerned he gets.

At some point, after a long case, Tim decides to check in on her and make sure everything is alright. And that's when he sees that suddenly, her account is just gone.

Tim panics.

Not only would Alya have never deleted her blog, but there would have been some traces of it at least somewhere despite it being deleted just from how much people interacted with her account.

But Tim just finds nothing.

Nada. Zip.

He's quick to go searching into Paris as a whole in search of her and runs into an even bigger problem. Paris as a whole city is completely ripped off the map as if it never existed at all.

And there seemed to be no way to get in touch with anyone there at all.

Tim has never been more distressed in his life and he practically pulls his hair out at not knowing anything about where his best friend is beyond the city.

Meanwhile, Alya is having the time of her life!

She's got new friends, a boyfriend, and she now lives in a city with a real life superhero duo and villian!

Yes, it sucked that the villain was an emotional terrorist and Paris is basically under military level lock down until the situation could be taken care of, but now she finally had something to hold over Tim's head.

Interviews and pictures with brand new heroes that Tim had never met!

She had never felt more excited in her life as she posted updates each time on Paris hero situation to her blog.

Alya has absolutely no clue the panic she just put Tim Drake through when he finally manages to bypass through Paris servers on the batcomputer to see a live feed video of her running towards a dangerous monster destroying the Eiffle tower on her blog.

_________________________________________

Or basically

Alya Cesaire and Tim Drake are online besties and (slightly) rival hero bloggers for like over 4 years, and when Paris goes on lockdown due to an emotional terrorist Alya lowkey forgets to tell him she's alive and that there's a reason why she has been basically blipped out of existence entirely

They looked at each other vibrant blue eyes meeting piercing green. The entire class which minutes before were laughing and jeering had quieted to little more than a faint buzz. The two hadn’t said anything after they introduced themselves, both too startled to say anything else. They were left there in peace until a brunette slid between the two blocking Marinette's view of Damian.

“You must be the exchange student, I’m Lila. Don’t worry, I'll introduce you to the rest of the class and give you the tour later.” The liar herself took Damian by the elbow and dragged him off before he could say anything, still caught off guard by Marinette’s blue eyes.

There goes my chance at a friend. Marinette thought to herself fully knowing how much Lila could worm her way into anyones head. The bluenette with the sketchbook in hand went back up to her desk. She sank into her chair glad to be ignored by her former friends. Looking down she saw that most of the pages were pretty ripped up but still salvageable and right on top was the picture she had begun drawing of Damian’s eye. Grabbing her pen she started drawing the second one resolving to make it a matching pair. She was beginning to shade the second eye when a small tap on her shoulder made her jump three feet out of her chair.

“Is there someone sitting next to you?” The familiarly cold voice said.

“What? Right! No one is sitting next to me, except if you want to then I guess there is someone sitting next to me and…” Marinette tapered off as she saw Lila glaring at her. Even though she was Ladybug Marinette still wanted to avoid Lila’s ire, it was a pain to deal with at school.

Damian let out a quiet chuckle, “I guess there’s gonna be someone sitting next to you then.” He quietly sat himself down in the chair next to Marinette and started getting his books out. “Nice drawing by the way.” Marinette blushed slightly.

“Ok class time to start.” Madame Bustier said walking into the room, the conversation ceased from there, yet both parties knew they had just found a new ally.

-------------------

“What’s up Buginette.” Chat Noir said hopping down next to Ladybug. His bell made a soft little chime.

“Ya know, just the fifth night up in a row, I have three sewing projects to do.” She paused a beat, “Hey do you know anything about that new kid in class?” It had been a few weeks after Marinette gained guardianship when they decided to reveal their identities. With Adrien dating Kagami and Marinette thoroughly over her crush they both laughed at the situation and came out as good friends, and even though Damian had been in class for a week she still knew barely anything about him.

“Same as you, exchange student from Gotham. Cold, calm, and about to murder Lila.” Chat replied. He must’ve seen Damian’s face when Lila claimed she knew the Waynes. “Why? Do you like him?” Ladybug looked over to see Chat Noir’s face was filled with mocking innocence. Ladybug blushed under her mask.

“I will push you off the Eiffel Tower, or worse yet, sick Auroroe on your and Kagami’s relationship. I can see the headline now ‘Superhero Chat Noir dating girlfriend of Adrien Agreste! What will the model do when he finds out?’” Chat gave her a half-hearted punch in the arm for that, and they both had a laugh.

A few minutes later Ladybug noticed a quick blur ducking between alleyways. She gave Chat a nudge, “Did you see that?”

“See what?” He responded groggily.

“I thought I saw something ducking between the allies. It’s nothing”

“Ladybug, I know you, if you thought you saw something you saw something. I’d say go check it out. If it’s nothing, no big deal.”

“Alright, I’ll be back so don’t do anything stupid while I’m gone.” she smirked back at him, without looking she threw her yoyo in the direction of the blur and swung herself out.

“That happened one time!” He yelled after her.

Ladybug swung through the alleys looking for the blur when she spotted a small light out of the corner of her eye. There it is. She stopped her approach when she heard a low voice murmur

“Yes Kent I will get you those pastries you can pick them up tomorrow?” It was Damian, Ladybug would have known the voice anywhere. She opened up her yoyo to call Chat “Hey meet me at the eiffel tower in five minutes.” Now all she had to figure out how she would get Damian up to the tower.

It didn’t take the superheroine to think up an idea. Sorry. She thought to herself before throwing her yoyo his way.

-----------------------

Damian had just disconnected the call when he felt a cool wire wrap around his body. I do not need this right now he thought to himself as he was whipped up from the ground and into the arms of a familiar red and black clad superheroine.

“Ya know you could have just asked.” He said annoyed.

“But where’s the fun in that, and anyway I’ve got some questions for you.” her voice was lighter than it had been the other day, probably because there was no villain to fight.

She carried him up to a part of the Eiffel tower not easily seen by the public, where she proceeded to tie him dangling upside down by her yoyo.

“Whyyy.” he grumbled to himself, if he wanted this kind of treatment he would have stayed in Gotham with Todd.

“Ok first question, big one here. Do you know who I am?” She said sitting down.

“I don’t know your hero name, although I think your partner said Ladybug the other day, right after his terrible pun.”

“Rude.” A black clad boy said coming out of the shadows. A tail swished behind him.

“Well it’s true, you’re almost as bad as Grayson.” Damian was getting tired of this, he tried to feel into his pockets for his knife, before remembering he had left it back at his apartment.

“Everyone knows I’m Ladybug, I’m asking if you know who I am outside of the mask.” Damian turned towards the girl when she spoke.

“Well yeah. It’s rather hard to hide the blue hair.” And I’d never forget those blue eyes. The thought surprised even him.

She said something under her breath before looking at him, “This could be an issue, but if you already know then I guess there’s no use in trying to tell you off. I’m surprised, but I guess despite your looks you’re actually rather smart.”

The boy next to her let out a small laugh. “Are you going to introduce us Buginette, or am I going to have to guess.”

“Chat Noir, meet Damian. Damian meet Chat Noir.”

“So you’re the new exchange student. Ya know, put you in a fancy suit and add a little more scowl I’d think you were the Damian Wayne.” This warranted a rare laugh from Damian who after a few moments said,

“Because I am.” Chat Noir and Ladybug went pale. Damian took advantage of them being dumbstruck to feel into his pocket, There it is! He felt his phone, with a few taps he was able to hopefully get Jon’s contact up after all it was the last one he texted. He typed:

Eiffel Tower. Get here now.

“Oh. Shit.” the soft expletive dragged him from the texting. Marinette. No Ladybug in this costume, looked at him. “Lila’s new lie. Oh, my Kwamii. She’s gonna get it.”

“What’s the lie?” Chat Noir and Damian said at the same time.

“She said she’s dating, well, you.” She looked at Damian, after a beat the costume clad heroes burst into laughing, Damian looked horrified. He knew about her lying about knowing his family but this was new.

The giggling of the two heroes was interrupted when a blue blur came out of nowhere a few minutes later, and a moment after that the blur solidified into the form of a boy who had a too familiar blue suit. Damian who had just been swinging upside down was now being carried bridal style by the boy.

“We never speak of this to anyone.” He said in a low voice to Jon. “If my brothers find out I will personally end you.”

“Yeah, yeah. You say that every time I have to come save you.” The boys southern twang was more prominent than usual, probably because Damian had been spending so much time around the French. A soft “Ahem” broke the two out of their talking..

“Hello, who are you, what are you doing here…”

“And would you mind putting down the angry child.” Chat interrupted Ladybug.

“I am your age cat boy.” Damian responded, his voice may have been cool but there was a slight blush to his cheeks.

“Oh yeah. Sorry, I just got a text from Damian here saying ‘Rival them get here now.’ I had to ask Con to help, but we figured Damian meant the Eiffel Tower.” Jon put Damian down and handed the yoyo back to Ladybug. “Anyway I figured if Damian was asking for help then he actually needed it. Also my names J-”

“Superboy.” Damian interrupted before Jon could give away his secret identity. Again. Ladybug was looking at Damian, probably wondering why he had Superboys phone number, she’d hopefully come to the same conclusion everyone else did. That the youngest Wayne got into enough trouble he needed a fast way to contact the supers.

“Good to meet you superboy, I’m Ladybug and this is Chat Noir.” She took her gaze off Damian to focus it on Superboy. “Will you be in Paris long?”

“I’ll probably stay the night, make sure no one else tries to hurt Damian. Plus there's a bakery I really want to go to when it opens, the Dupain-Cheng Bakery. I’m sure you’ve heard of it.” Ladybug paled a little bit and looked at Damian.

“He doesn’t know, he’s just focused on his stomach.” Ladybug breathed a sigh of relief.

“Hey that's rude.” Jon said to Damian.

“It’s me, you expect anything different.”

“Ladybug gave a snort, “Well as funny as this is I need to talk to Damian alone, Chat can you handle patrol for a little bit? Maybe take Superboy show him around Paris for a bit.”

“Yeah I’ve got it.” with a mock bow he motioned for Superboy to follow him. Jon recognizing a fellow weeb on sight asked him about anime, and the two went off singing some theme song from their favorite anime.

“I’m suddenly very glad I’m not on patrol.” Ladybug said quietly to Damian.

“Agreed.”

------------------------------

It had been a long night for Marinette, first finding out Damian was a Wayne then meeting Superboy, she had to get him alone before she exploded.

“So what did you want to talk about?” Damian turned his green eyes towards her.

“I have several questions, but is there somewhere more private we could talk?” The Paris night grew colder as the stood still.

“Yeah, we can talk at my place.”  Which is how Marinette Dupain-Cheng wound up drinking hot coco sitting on the couch at Damian Wayne's apartment.

“I can’t believe that your father lets you stay in the apartment on your own.”

“Well I’m seventeen, he knows I can take care of myself. Plus he either has one of my brothers videochat me, or pop in for a ‘quick visit’ which is their version of making sure I haven’t done some irreparable damage to anything.” He said, pouring himself a cup of tea.

“Fair enough, now do you want to tell me why you were slinking in the alleys?” She said.

“Well I needed some air. And I was maybe… looking for you.” He begrudgingly said the last part.

Marinette blushed a little bit, “And why were you looking for me?”

“Well learning that Paris has heroes, plus getting saved by one makes me a little curious. Plus after class the other day I wanted to talk.” He took a sip of his tea.

“Alright. Also  since you apparently know superboy,” Marinette was still surprised about that fact, “there’s something I wanted to ask you about.”

“Ok, shoot.”

“I noticed that ever since you came here a week ago Robin, usually right next to Batman, hasn’t been seen. Red Robin has been popping up, but no Robin. You wouldn’t happen to know anything about that would you?” Although she tried to make her voice as non confrontational as possible, she still saw Damian pale. He tried to mask it by drinking his tea but Marinette still saw how he hesitated before he said,

“I don’t know Robin, I know Superboy because he is freakishly friendly and helps out around Gotham a lot.” Marinette noticed how he stared at his drink the entire time he was explaining it to her. She was debating about pushing the point further before he interrupted saying, “It wouldn’t matter if I knew him or not, the Bats all keep their identities close to their chests. No one knows who any of them are.” When he was done he looked up at Marinette, she noticed how his eyes were pleading with her to just go with it, so she did.

“Ok, so what did you want to talk about regarding Paris’ heroes.” He looked relieved, finally able to change the topic.

“Well, how did you get your powers? How long have you been active? Who are you facing? And why haven’t you called the Justice League for help?” He fired off the questions, not giving her a chance to respond.

“One at a time,” she laughed, “We get our powers from our kwamis, little gods who reside in the miraculous jewel, my kwami is named Tikki.” At mention of her name the Kwami came out and gave a little hello. “We’ve been active for about 3 years, we’re facing a villain named Hawkmoth who can use people's emotions and turn them into villains. And we did call the Justice League for help when we first started.. Green Lantern told us not to prank call him again.”  When Marinette finished Damian looked angry. Mainly at the Green Lantern bit she mentioned.

“I’ll have to talk to Superboy about it.” His voice which had been warming up suddenly felt icy.

“Speaking of which I should get back to Chat, before he and superboy decide to test their powers on each other.” Setting her cup down on the coffee table she stood up. “Thanks for the hot chocolate, and the conversation Damian, I’ll make sure to send Superboy your way. See you in class.” She said her transformation words followed by a quick “bug-out” before leaping through the window.

---------------------------

Damian sat in the suddenly empty room which smelled like freshly baked bread. Marinette was true to her promise and a few minutes later Supreboy came crashing through the window. After he changed he spent the next ten minutes telling Damian about how he and Chat went around the city just talking about anime, and the differences between English and French dubs. Both eventually agreeing subbed was the best. Damian wasn’t listening instead thinking about Marinette. Smarter than she seems he thought to himself, afterall she came very close to figuring out who he was. He made a mental note to his father that they need a Robin appearance soon.

“Damian. Damian! Are you even listening to me?” Jon’s voice cut through his thoughts.

“Sorry Kent I was thinking about someone else.” Jon looked at Damian incredulously.

“I might need to get my ears cleaned. Did you just say you were thinking about someone else?! Was it that superhero Ladybug? Do you like her?” Damian’s fury was undercut by the blush that appeared on his face.

“I don’t like anyone Kent you know that, and anyway she’s a hero with a mask. I can’t like anyone who is still wearing a mask around me.” Damian set his cup down a little harder than he needed to.

“I’m sure the great detective can figure out who's behind that mask pretty easily.”

“Keep it up Kent and I’ll be sending you back to Metropolis tonight. The hard way.”

Jon held his hands up in defeat. “Fine. Fine, but you and I are going to that bakery tomorrow.”

Damian looked at Jon, “The Dupain-Cheng Bakery?” A plan was forming in his head.

“That’s the one.”

John only turned his attention towards the familiar Concept and huffed out a reply in between smokes.

"Plagg if you're going to be an arse about owing favors at least give me the pleasure of not acting so formally." 

The shadow being looked down at the man in silence, making the entire room of magic users tense further. John could even feel  Zatannas eyes on his back, probing him on what the hell he was thinking challenging a being, obviously of the Gods, disrespectfully. 

Silence lingered for a moment longer before the being finally allowed his green eyes to be visible within the inky black darkness of his form, eyeing John with dancing mirth and humor.

"I request sanctuary." Plagg spoke up, his eyes returning to look over John and the group critically again. 

The only difference now being the voice going from looming God to the squeaky annoyance John was used to. 

"Sanctuary?" Diana spoke up from behind him, curiosity escaping in her voice. 

Plaggs new form nodded towards her, eyeing her just as curiously before returning to face John. 

"For my kit. He is unsafe in the bounds he was born into, and... I refuse to allow him to remain there." 

John hesitated as he looked up at his old friend, concerned for the soft tone he was displaying while mentioning this 'kit'. 

It raised so many alarm bells in his head that he almost thought, just for a moment, that Plagg might actually be bringing him a kitten of some sort.

"Your heir?" Zatanna whispered out, taking a step forward out of concern. It brought John out of his thoughts and back to the present, facing Destruction itself.

Plagg simply turned over to face her now, eyes sparking.  

"My charge," He corrected gently. 

"He is the wielder and holder of my magic. The magic that surrounds him in his original home is attempting to chase after mine, wanting to grant a wish" 

Plaggs voice grew dimmer as he spoke of the wish, fading into something akin to hurt and grief. Something not usually found within the pure concept of destruction.

It made John feel confused. What the hell had this charge been through to cause this kind of reaction?

"Hes lost much and that is why I am entrusting you, John Constantine. And by extension, your team and those you trust, with his safety." 

He had never heard Plagg so serious over anything, especially considering he never did take things seriously usually.

This was the same ancient that had destroyed the dinosaurs for the fun of it. 

"We accept," Diana spoke with pride again, and everyone else was quick to agree in succession. John could feel eyes on his backside as the only one not to immediately agree to the task, which just makes him sigh exasperatedly. 

"Fine." He sighed out, running his fingers through his hair roughly. What a crummy way to start the weekend.

"So it shall be done." 

Plagg in his shadow form, grinned down at him impishly, showing off all his canines. It made the hairs on his arms stand up underneath his trench coat. 

"So mote it be." Destruction parroted back, fufilling the boons promise. 

The shadowy form began to whisp into nothingness, fading itself out of the JL office room as if it were simply dust and air flowing around the room.

"Take care of my charge, John. Til we meet again." 

And with that, the shadow was gone, leaving only a tiny teenage figure behind in its wake.  The teen seemed to shrink once he noticed he was being stared at, as if not really expecting people on the other side of Plaggs form.

He stared at the group with wide eyes for a moment, twisting the ring of destruction on his finger nervously and quickly reaching down to grab something on the floor beside him.

"Um hi?" 

The teen stumbled a bit as he finally stepped out from where the darkness had once stood, looking slightly ashamed for some reason. 

He reached out with a small and hesitant wave with his free hand, the other clutching a Ladybug themed backpack like it was his only lifeline left in the world. There was a smile stapled onto his face as he looked over the area, obviously unsettled by it. 

"I'm Adrien" 

John only sighed and pinched his nose, trying not to fall into distress in front of what was very obviously a child. One who looked ready to bolt at the slightest sign of movement from anyone in the same room. 

Of course, he would somehow end up playing babysitter for the concept of destructions ward.  

---------------------------------------------------

Or Basically

JL Dark had to take care of an on the run Adrien Agreste because Papillion started to specifically steal destruction magic itself from his kid, and it was hurting Adrien somehow.

Being this way has honestly led to some interesting on the fly hangouts for the entire Miracle Court. Overall her need to have friends around constantly led to one of the funniest events that she would ever host, Miraculous Game Night.

It started originally as a pretty standard night of just hanging out and playing games. Friendship and team building pushed together into one!

Theoretically, it should have worked out.

Obviously, it didn’t end up doing that. 

From board games to video games, it was a genuine mess. Everyone in the Court was just too competitive to play any of the games properly, which led to stakes being upped and bets being placed pretty frequently. 

All of those bets and stakes snowballed from there into a bigger mess. The team itself were all too close to each other to NOT know any tells the other may have. 

Trauma bonding tended to have that effect on people.

Somehow, even with all of that to face, a normal person who never met them would probably think, 'It couldn't possibly be any worse than that, right?'

But Mari knows better.

She also knows she'd laugh at that person before shoving them out the door, laughter trailing behind them like she was a crazy maniac. 

Imagine a group of rich kids betting against each other while also being trauma-bonded, unable to lie to each other since they can read your every move and add in tiny concepts of ancient god-like beings attached to each of those rich kid players.

The problems just spiraled worse.

From a snowball to a snow avalanche. 

It ALSO didn't help that these gods helped their charges to cheat each round if they felt like it. And that there was nothing anyone could do to stop them from doing just that if the Kwamis felt like it.

To combat this, Marinette had come up with a small form of punishment she liked to call the "Off Brand Geoguesser" round.

If a player in between rounds was caught cheating in any way, they were subjected to sit down in front of her computer with Google Maps opened up to a random location of their kwamis choice. The offender would have to then (in under 5 minutes) figure out where they were on Google Maps with only 3 movements in either direction.

The only one to know the true location, beyond the kwami, was the Guardian aka Marinette Dupain-Cheng. She would only reveal the answer if the cheater lost or if they somehow managed to guess right.

On top of that, their miraculi were confiscated temporarily to prevent further cheating.

If the player didn't get the answer in time then they lost whatever game they had originally been playing automatically. Even if they originally had been winning the entire game.

It added better stakes, strangely enough, and the team always needed to play the round at least once or twice on a single game night day.

The night they found out Batman's identity wasn't actually any different.

Luka had been subjected to the Timeout chair after it was discovered he had been using second chance to cheat in their game of uno. With Sass having chosen the location, Luka had maybe 3 more minutes to spare.

Marinette had honestly never seen him guessing faster.

She held his miraculi in her hand loosely, watching over the group as she lazily leaned against her ladder. Mari loved when they all got together for these nights.

It was something small to look forward to in the middle of a literal emotional war with a magic terrorist. As depressing as that thought was to think about.

Luka used his last click and his laugh brought her back into the moment as it echoed in the room. He had most likely noticed something that would help him narrow down the location even further. 

Mari looked around his tall frame to see the Wayne Manor entrance, something she only even knew from research for their grade wide field trip next week, and can’t help but shake her head.

Of course he would somehow get lucky playing the punishment game.

She just watches as Alya immediately starts to argue with Luka, screeching about how unfair this was that he got a location so easy and that he had to have cheated a second time somehow. Adrien rolled his eyes beside her before taking a moment to smack her side with a pillow in an effort to protect Luka silently.

All that does is make the room explode into different sets of people fighting. Chloe and Nino jumped on top of Adrien to smother him with their own pillows from home from behind right after Alya was attacked.

Sabrina looked determined to fight with Chloe to defend Adrien, grinning as she continuously smacked the trio with her pillow. Luka was laughing so hard at the fighting that Mari watched as he had to catch himself from falling off her roller chair and breaking it.

His laughter earned him a pillow to the face.

Kagami and Felix were the only ones not involved in the slightest, taking their standing right next to Marinette the second it had even started.

“How long do you think they'll take this time? 5 minutes? 10?” 

Kagami snorted at Marinette's question, arms folded across her chest as she watched over their group of squabbling friends.

“I'd say 20.” Felix replied dryly for the both of them, eyes sparkling with amusement despite frowning at the group below them.  

It all goes wrong before Marinette can even open her mouth to reply to both of them. 

"Is that fuckin Bruce Wayne?" Escapes from someone's mouth in the room, effectively cutting off any fighting from continuing and making everyone look over to the computer to see. 

There, in all his rich kid glory, was Bruce Wayne. He was covered in all sorts of bruises, or at least seem to be since it was still pixelated, as he stood in front of Wayne Manor. He stood there, shining on screen in the most accurate looking Batman costume she had ever really seen.

Too accurate to be even considered a fake costume at all.

Marinette couldn't really look away from the screen at that revelation, feeling all of her life flashing before her eyes as her mind ruins through a million world ending scenarios at once.

The room stayed silent for a long while as Marinette started to mentally plan how to deal with this information before Chloe broke all her worries with a half caring shrug.

“Yeah this makes sense."

Alya jumped up shortly after to rebuttal that comment with a large "WHAT!?" and Adrien just nodded beside her in agreement, as if he had known it all along. The action just made Nino react and Alya looked burned thoroughly by his betrayal.

Bruce Wayne being Batman was very weird, but if Chloe wasn't too worried over it then Marinette wouldn't be either.

Having planning for if Batman came to deal with them over this wouldn't hurt though...

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Or basically,

The Miraculous team have off brand Geoguesser nights sometimes using google maps. It very obviously doesn't go well when Batman shows up.

With no mask. And also in front of Wayne Manor.