When a liar gets you left behind

Chapter Forty-Three: Planning and Akumas

Marinette slumped into her bed in Gotham as she watched the last sliver of the portal close and dissipate into thin air, sighing as her body finally felt some sort of relief.

Another Akuma had occurred, and unfortunate as that was for her, almost all of her time before school started was up, forcing her to get ready with the stray five minutes of time she had left—and even that time seemed to dwindle as slowly got out of her bed.

The Akuma alone was not a significant problem, it was not one to be considered high on the scale, the main problem was that the way to beat it was time-consuming.

To say the least, school was the last thing on her mind.

Tikki, who was probably even more tired then she was, took to lying in her school bag, the secret pocket Marinette had made for her holding enough space for her and a tiny pillow and blanket.

Marinette, despite feeling slightly pooped, smiled at Tikki's antics. She bet it felt wonderful to sleep in a bag.

She quickly closed the top of her bag and put it over her head, letting it rest on the right side of her waist. Then, as quick as she could, ran to get into her ride to school.

The calming effect that school gave her was different to a relaxing calm that she could get from other things. The calm feeling it gave her was more from finishing all of her work for the day and being able to leave, a sense of completion, she supposed.

As unusual as her morning was, she still was in a good mood. Tikki, who was now slowly coming more and more conscious, seemed less peppy than usual, probably because of exhaustion and annoyance.

When she finally arrived to her classroom after searching through the labyrinth of hallways, she found the classroom completely empty besides Damian, who sat in the far right corner of the classroom.

In Marinette's mind, she had done a horrible wrong to Damian, and in order to make up for that, it seemed she needed to make Damian happy. She needed to make him forgive her.

As she looked over, she noticed that everyone seemed to purposely gravitate themselves away away from Damian, as all the seats close to him were empty.

Before she could bother to change her mind, or let herself wonder if he wanted to be left alone, she walked towards the desk next to him and sat down.

He turned his head towards her almost instantly, his green-eyes automatically glaring at her darkly.

"Yes?" he asked her sharply, his gaze unwelcoming and cool.

"Nothing, but if it's okay, I thought I'd sit with you," Marinette explained to him, her voice patient and genuine, "but if you'd rather be alone, I'll move back to my usual space."

In reply to this, Marinette received a scoff, the noise ringing off as a sound of thick disgust.

"I also thought it might help for our project. If we finish early, we might have a few minutes to work on it as well," Marinette added in a more serious tone, her thoughts focusing on the project that they had near to finish.

Finally, Damian looked back at her, his intense and angry gaze meeting her eyes for a moment before he finally replied to her. "That is a rational thought."

Marinette offered him a small smile and settled into her desk, finally taking out her books and things for the class, knowing that the person beside her had at least given her some sort of permission to sit there.

Then, they sat in silence, neither of the two bothering to off up some sort of conversation, both of them deciding to settle into the calm quiet that had mosied its way between the two.