She's Sunshine, She's Grace, She'll Punch You in the Face

Chapter 40: Apologies

The bell had just rang that signaled for lunch time in Gotham Academy. Marinette gathered up her things and followed Damian to the cafeteria. After they both got in line and got their food, they went to go sit down at a table in the back of the lunch room.

"You mind if we sit with you?" Alix asked and sat down with the rest of Marinette's friends before anyone could answer.

"If I said 'no' would you even listen to me?" The bluenette joked.

"Absolutely not." Chloe laughed. "We have way too much to talk about."

"Yeah." Adrien agreed. "Did you know all of that was going to happen today?"

"I did." Marinette smiled shyly. "Tim came up with the idea to set a trap for her and she just walked right into it. I even told them that if at any point Lila tried to genuinely apologize to me that I would call the whole thing off, but she didn't. She only felt bad for herself."

"I wouldn't have given her that opportunity." Kim said. "She got what was coming to her."

"That's what I keep telling her." Damian agreed.

"Excuse me." Rose spoke up from the other side of the table with Juleka standing next to her. They both had very grim looks about them. "Can we talk to you, Marinette?"

"Sure." Marinette gave them a bright smile. "Have a seat."

Damian gave them both dirty looks as they sat down at their table.

Rose stared at Marinette for a moment before she spoke up. "We are so sorry, Marinette. You told us so many times and we never listened to you."

"Yeah." Juleka spoke quietly. "We were real jerks and I'm sorry. Luka even tried to tell me but I ignored him too."

"Will you ever forgive us?" Rose asked.

"Thank you for apologizing." The bluenette looked at them for a moment. "But it will take me awhile to 100% forgive you. I don't hate any of you and I will still be your friend but it will take me a really long time to ever trust you again. You all hurt me."

"We know." Juleka looked over at a table across from them and saw Alya and Nino arguing with each other.

The others followed her line of sight to see the same thing.

"I heard what she said to you." Adrien jerked his head in the direction of Alya. "She wasn't exactly quiet about it."

"She's more mad at me then she is at Lila." Marinette shook her head. "I think that she doesn't want to blame herself for this so she pushed it off onto the closest person to her, which was me."

"I think she will come around." Rose said hopefully. "She has to."

Marinette was about to reply when she heard yelling from the table in question.

"No, Alya!" Nino was furious. "We're done! It's over! I can't just sit here and listen to your bullshit excuses anymore! Grow up!" He grabbed his things and looked around the room for a moment before locking eyes with Marinette. He walked over to the group and sat down in the last remaining chair at their table.

"Hey bro." Adrien looked over to his old friend. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine." He clearly was still angry. "I'm sorry, Mari." Nino looked over at her. "Lila ruined my friendship with most of you and I knew something wasn't adding up with Lila but I stuck around because of Alya. I made a huge mistake."

"It's okay, Nino. I'm sorry things had to end this way. I know how much you love Alya." Marinette tried to comfort him.

"I don't think I love her anymore." Nino sighed before looking over at Adrien. "I'm sorry that they tore apart one of the best friendships I ever had. I hope you can forgive me."

"You will always be one of my best buds, Nino." Adrien grinned at him. "I'm glad you came around. I've missed you."

"So," Rose looked over at Marinette's boyfriend. "You were the real Damian Wayne the whole time. Sorry we all had to meet you this way."

"I don't think I would have met Angel here if it wasn't for the liar and the mess she made." Damian grabbed her hand under the table.

"Aww! You guys are soooo cute." Rose gushed.

The teens spend the rest of the lunch chatting and catching up on all the things they have missed over the years.
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"Welcome back to class everyone." The teachers greeted them. "Please take your seats. We will start your presentations on your seat partners very soon. When we call your names, we want you to come up to the front of the class and tell everyone about what you learned about your seat partner."

Students started to go up one by one as they are called to the front of the class. Most of what everyone said about their partner was along the lines of what their favorite color was and what they did on their free time. Marinette and Damian were one of the last groups to be called up.

"Okay, which one of you would like to go first and tell everyone about your seat partner?" Mrs. Dubois asked. She seemed to be very interested in the pair.

"I'll go first." Marinette volunteered.

"Okay." Madame Mendeleiev nodded. "Go ahead and speak in any language you feel comfortable with."

"My seat partner is Damian Wayne." She says in English as she gestures her boyfriend. "I know for a fact that everyone in this room has heard of him before but I would like to think that I know him pretty well. For the longest time he would have said that his favorite color was black but he just recently told me that he changed it to blue. Damian may tell you that he is annoyed by his family but deep down he knows that he loves them and he would be lost without them."

Damian looks at her a little bit surprised and shakes his head almost in a panic but he still seems to keep his cool.

Giggling, she continues. "Damian also has a bit of a sweet spot for animals. Big ones, small ones, any kind. It doesn't matter. He's got quite a few animals at home. Another thing that he might not tell people is that he is very artistic. He loves to paint what he sees and even though he might not say so himself, he is very good at it, trust me." She smiles fondly at him. "He's also very smart and he prides himself on that. I always thought that I spoke English very well but he seems to teach me new words every day. I am very happy that I got to see the real Damian when I know most of the time, he never shows his true self to others." Marinette giggles again. "Now don't get me wrong, Damian is still very much the 'Ice Prince of Gotham'. I don't think he will ever be the kind of person to just make friends with anybody that walks by him on the street and I don't want him to be that kind of person. Damian is just fine the way he is." She looks around at the class and they all seem to have different variations of shocked faces. "I could probably go on and on about Dami but I think I should stop there." She glances over at Damian who seems to be trying his hardest to school his features.

"Wow." Mrs. Dubois shakes her head to clear her thoughts. "Thank you, Marinette. Very well done." She turns her attention to Damian. "It's your turn."

"Yes." Damian nods before looking over to his girlfriend who was smiling brightly at him. "It's my turn now." He gives her a mischievous smile.