Chapter Text
It was just another city and another routine. Dick was at the top of the trapeze, watching his parents gracefully swing across the tent. His mother released from her bar, reaching towards his father. He smiled at the crowd’s reaction – right on time, they all gasped.
He took that as his cue to start chalking up and doing a last check on his own equipment, giving the bar a tug and tightening his wrist guards one more time.
His mom swung back again, his father releasing her to flip back to her own bar, as always. It was textbook perfect.
He took a step towards the end of the platform, preparing to launch himself into the ring to join them.
A bolt of pain shot through his temple and he shut his eyes.
~~~~
When he opened them, he was standing in a room and a box was in his hand instead of the bar.
“What on earth is going on?”
He looked around, the pink walls surrounding him were unfamiliar. The box was still in his hand, so he opened it. A flash of light burst from it and a red… thing… was came floating out in front of him.
“Marinette! I’m Tikki, the kwami of creation.”
“Tikki? Who’s Marinette?” he asked, confused. “You have me confused for someone else, little bug.”
“… Are you not Marinette?”
“Do I look like a girl to you?”
“…Yes?”
At that, Dick started panicking. “What do you mean?!” his voice squeaked. A very girlish squeak.
No. No. No. No. No.
He ran to the mirror he had spotted earlier. In front of him was an (admittedly cute) girl, with blue eyes and dark hair.
The reflection was definitely not his own.
“What happened to me?!”
“Oh! You must be Marinette’s soulmate!” Tikki exclaimed.
“Her… soulmate?” He had thought those were just myths.
“Yes. Sometimes our holders have especially strong connections with us, and they become soulmates. You must be Plagg’s perfect match.” She frowned. “You don’t live near here, do you?”
“Here?” Dick was panicking, but the focus on whatever the bug was saying was a decent enough distraction. He needed to get home to his own body (What??) and the bug seemed to be the only one knowing what was going on.
“If Plagg couldn’t get to you, he would have chosen a substitute. But we don’t have time for this now. There is a monster terrorizing Paris. We need Ladybug – Marinette… you – to collect the akuma.”
Nothing Tikki made sense. He wasn’t sure what a Plagg was. He didn’t know why they needed a bug. But he did register that he was supposed to go to Paris.
“How am I supposed to get to Paris?”
Tikki giggled and pointed at the window.
The Notre Dame was visible from where he stood.
Tikki began a quick explanation of Ladybug’s powers, how to use them, and what he needed to do. He wasn’t sure if he could be a hero, but he didn’t seem to have much of a choice. He would stand in for his soulmate, and help as best he could.
He used his training to run across the rooftops and swing across the gaps as if it were second nature to him. He saw a boy in a cat suit – Tikki had mentioned that this would be his partner, Plagg’s current holder of what was rightfully his power – and moved to meet up with him. He was walking across the gap in the rooftops on his weapon – a giant pole at the moment, but normally an extendable bo staff.
He landed beside the catboy on the staff.
“You must be my partner!” he greeted him in French. “My kwami told me about you!”
Dick forced a smile. He had no clue what the kid had just said. At least Tikki had spoken English for him.
“I’m… Chat Noir. Yeah. Chat Noir.”
Dick figured he was saying his hero name.
“I’m Di- Ma- D-…..” He was confused. “Ma….d…ly clumsy.” He forced himself to take them both down in a way that looked like an accident, tangling them both up in the wire of his yoyo weapon at the last second and dangling them from the staff. “Madly clumsy.”
“No sweat, clumsy girl,” Chat responded in English. “Could you get us down?”
Dick released the wire, thankful the kid spoke fluent English.
There was a crash down the street, and the two hurried off, Chat explaining his powers along the way.
Stoneheart was massive. He had seen some villains on his travels, but nothing as large as this. Every hit seemed to make it grow.
The stadium Stoneheart was in was mostly empty. A few stragglers had stuck around. Dick hoped they wouldn’t get in the way. He yelled for Chat Noir to use his powers on the ground, creating a giant crater which Stoneheart fell into. He used his yoyo to wrap up the arms as the monster tried to climb it’s way out.
Now pinned in place, Chat was able to take his staff and pry open the clenched fist of the rock giant to release the paper inside. He released the akuma and Dick cleansed the area, returning the boy and the stadium back to normal with his spell, “Miraculous Ladybug.” The spectator who hadn’t run away, a girl in glasses around their age, ran forward and started to, what Dick could only assume was fangirl. While everyone around him chatted in French, he caught the akuma and cleansed it.
“She asked your name,” Chat Noir prompted him.
“Uhm.” He looked down at his yoyo and the jumpsuit his soulmate’s body had been shoved into magically. “Ladybug.”
He sent a salute, much like the heroes in the cartoons he had seen, and took that as a chance to escape.
He made it back to Marinette’s room just as his earrings beeped a fifth time and his supersuit melted away. He flopped down on her bed, exhausted.
He did not envy his soulmate for having to deal with this. Maybe he could let Chat Noir keep the miraculous. It wasn’t like he could up and leave his family to run off to Paris.
Wait.
His family.
If he was in Marinette’s body… was Marinette in his?
He had been in the middle of a performance when they had switched places. The show had probably been ruined. What had they been doing all this time? He had been gone for hours!
He just started questioning if he could use Marinette’s phone to call them when a wave of pain shot through his temples again and he shut his eyes.
~~~~
When he opened them again, he was in an empty room with nothing but a gray table and chairs.
It was only a moment before the door opposite him opened and two men walked in. He had never seen either before in his life. One was clearly a police officer based on the badge. The other wore a nondescript suit.
“Richard, you will be going home with Mr. Wayne.”
“What? No way. I’m not going home with a stranger,” he immediately spat back. “Where are my parents? I want to see my parents.”
The men looked sadly at each other.
“Richard, you can’t go with them…” the officer replied with pain in his voice.
The suit man spoke, “We have a place for you at the manor that Alfred is setting up as we speak. You can bring all your belongings.”
“We can send them down when we are done,” the officer agreed.
“Why can’t I see my parents?” Dick demanded. “Where are you taking me?”
The officer leaned over to the other, “It must be the shock,” he whispered loudly.
Dick didn’t understand. Had his soulmate done something wrong? Had Marinette gotten them in trouble?
“Look, I’m not in trouble or anything, am I?” he asked when the two shot him looks of concern.
“No, no, son, nothing like that,” suit man placated him. “We are just going to give you a place to rest your head for a bit and we can go see your parents another day.”
Dick demanded, “No. I want to see them now.” Another shared look. Dick hated it. “Why won’t you let me see them?”
“I’ll book an appointment with the psychologist on staff,” the officer stated sadly, pulling out his phone and typing up a message. “In the mean time, Richard-“
“I go by Dick,” he finally corrected them.
“Dick. Sorry. You will be staying with Mr. Wayne here as his ward while we settle things with your parents. It’s what’s best for now.”
He waved another officer into the room. He and Mr. Wayne were escorted out of the station to a sleek black car.
Oh, he was that Mr. Wayne. Bruce Wayne, billionaire, philanthropist, playboy.
When the officer had ensured he was buckled into the car and they started driving away, he asked Mr. Wayne, “I don’t understand. Are my parents in trouble? Why can’t I see them?”
“You don’t remember?” he asked, his voice a bit gruff.
Clearly something had happened with them while Marinette was in his body.
He shook his head. Bruce must have seen in the rear view mirror, because he let out a deep sigh.
“They’re gone.”
“Gone where?”
“Just… gone.”
“I don’t understand…”
“I didn’t either when I lost my parents. One moment they were there, the next…” Bruce stopped before the emotions overtook him. “It took a long time. I’ll be there, and so will Alfred. He raised me after it happened.”
True to his word, the butler, Alfred, had set up a room for him in Wayne Manor. He had trouble sleeping in the gigantic bed at first, but eventually he had one of his most comfortable sleeps of his life.
He woke the next morning with hope that he could see his parents today.
After an amazing breakfast served by Alfred, he sat down across from Bruce at the table.
“Can I go home today?”
“Sorry, pal. This is your home for the forseeable future.”
“I don’t get it. Where are my parents? Why won’t you let me see them? Are they hurt? What’s going on?”
Alfred came up and pat him on the shoulder consolingly.
“The police will let us know when you can go see them.”
“Are they in jail?” He couldn’t imagine anything his parents could have done to warrant that.
“No, Dick. It just isn’t time to see them yet.”
Frustrated, Dick got up from the table and stomped his way to his room. He locked himself in it for the rest of the day. They weren’t telling him something, and he was tired of everyone lying to him.
~~~~
The next day, hunger won out, and he appeared again for breakfast.
Again, his pleas to see his parents were denied.
This time, he stomped his way up to his room, only to turn around and tiptoe his way back to the door to the dining room.
“Sir, are you sure we shouldn’t just be more blunt? I don’t recall you ever having such a response.”
“The psychologist said that it would be best not to challenge the delusions right now, until they have had a chance to see him and work with him. He needs to have some coping skills in place, otherwise he may lash out or do something rash.”
“Like seeking vengeance, sir?” Alfred chided him, though Dick didn’t understand what he meant about vengeance.
Dick stole some food from the kitchen on the way back to his room. His things were delivered later that day, and he allowed Alfred to bring them in.
Along with his things was a plate of snacks.
Dick tried again the next day.
“I want to see my parents.”
“Alright. I will arrange it.”
“Yes!” Dick happily ate his food at this.
He didn’t notice both men give him sad looks.
The next day, Dick practically skipped to the car as Bruce took him to see his mom and dad.
When they arrived at the hospital, however, Dick began to get worried. Were his parents injured? What had happened?
Bruce led him through the maze of the hospital until they were outside of a nondescript pair of doors.
He paused, giving Dick a grave look.
“Listen, pal, I know that you’ve been avoiding it. I know you don’t want to remember, but when we go in there-“
The pain shot through his head again.
~~~~
A blink later, he was standing out in a cobblestone square, yoyo in hand. Before he could get his bearings, he was hit by something and went down, hard.
A moment later, Chat Noir was hovering over him, a hand held out. He said something that Dick did not understand, and after a moment where confusion must have shown on Marinette’s face, switched back to English. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah. Just a bit surprised.”
“So much that you forgot how to speak French?” he laughed.
“…Something like that.”
Chat gave him a searching look. “Akuma is Mr. Pigeon, a man who is obsessed with birds. You said earlier that the akuma was likely in his whistle.”
“Right. Of course I did. Let’s go.”
It wasn’t hard for the two of them to stop the pigeon man and return the scene back to normal.
“Hey, Ladybug, are you okay?” Chat Noir asked as they rushed away from the scene. “You seem different from the start of the fight.”
He was probing him. How much did the cat actually know?
“What has Plagg told you?”
“Well either you’re the real Ladybug, or you’re her other half. Given you only speak English though, and we live in France, I’m going to bet soulmate.” Chat was teasing him.
“Yeah. Have you actually met her? My soulmate?”
“LB is brilliant. If I didn’t already know that she had some other half out there, this Chat would shoot his shot.”
Dick smiled.
“I guess you’ll be needing this though,” he said as he pointed to his ring.
“I can’t. I’m on the other side of the world. I’m just going to have to leave it in your hands for now. Seems you make a fine cat.”
“I’ll guard her with my life… and, well, you too, I guess.” He let out an awkward laugh and scratched the back of his neck.
Dick held out his hand for a fist bump.
“Bien joie!” Chat cheered.
“What?”
“Good game, man.”
“Bien joie, Chat Noir.”
A flash of pain.
This time, he knew what to expect.
~~~~
Dick was back in the car, driving up to the looming Wayne estate.
No. Had he missed seeing his parents?!
“We need to go back! I need to see my parents!”
“Dick…”
“No! I didn’t get to see them! You don’t understand! Go back! GO BACK!!” He hit the back seat in rage as Bruce continued up the drive.
“There’s nothing to see, Dick. They’re gone.”
“No way! My parents wouldn’t leave me behind! They wouldn’t go to a new city without me!”
“Dick, take a deep breath.”
Dick glared at Bruce instead.
He parked the car and turned around. “What do you remember, lad?”
He remembered fighting monsters. “Nothing.”
“We went to see your parents. In the morgue. They’re gone, Dick. They aren’t coming back. They haven’t left you behind. They fell during your last performance. Do you not remember that either?”
“You’re LYING!!!”
“Dick-“
“MY PARENTS AREN’T DEAD!”
He bolted out of the car and went straight to his bedroom, slamming the door.
It wasn’t possible. He would have known. It had been a week. There’s no possible way his parents had been dead for a week without him knowing.
He pulled his hair in frustration, screaming.
Words came back to him. Gone. He couldn’t see them. They had gone to the hospital. The gray doors. Gone. Gone. There was no way his parents would have left him alone with strangers. Not for this long. Gone.
His parents were gone.
They had died while he had been fighting monsters in Paris.
He hadn’t even had a chance to say goodbye.
He didn’t even know what happened to them.
Dick emerged from his room several hours later, eyes red rimmed and puffy.
“What happened to them?” Dick demanded of Bruce.
Bruce told the tale of their last moments. Flying until they were falling. It had been moments after he had swapped places. Chaos afterwards. Bruce had found him and consoled him, but he had been disoriented, speaking in choppy English that Bruce attributed to shock and trauma. How he had just gone along with the officers and Bruce, agreeing to cooperate and go into temporary custody.
He wondered how much Marinette had even understood of those conversations, surrounded by strangers, she had likely just agreed to whatever the officers had told her, the only trustworthy adults she could identify.
How they had gone to the morgue, and just as soon as Bruce told him that his parent’s bodies were in the bags, and had been about to have their bodies revealed, he had run out of the room, demanding to leave. Ranting that he was alone and needed to call family. But Dick had no other family.
Had Marinette been demanding to call her own family back in Paris?
Oh, Marinette. She had been through so much while stuck as himself.
He had been thinking the whole time that he had no other family… was Marinette his last remaining link?
“What would you like to do now?” Bruce asked. “A movie?”
“I want to go to Paris.”
There was nothing for him here now. But out there? Out there was a girl who needed him. Even if he couldn’t be her Chat Noir (because he didn’t really want to take it away from the guy. He was doing well), he could help somehow.
“…Paris.” Bruce looked surprised for once. “I suppose we could go on a vacation and get away for a bit.”
“No. I’m moving there.”
“But, chum, you don’t have any family there.”
“I don’t have family here either.”
“You can’t just move to another country. Immigration doesn’t work like that. You either need a job there or family.”
“Then get me adopted.”
Sure, he hadn’t met them yet, but surely Marinette and he could work something out with her parents.
“Why don’t we start with a vacation and see how it goes first,” Bruce compromised.
Dick gave in. There was so little in his power. At least he could get there. Maybe he could ditch Bruce somewhere in downtown Paris. He wouldn’t have his things, but maybe he could take just enough with him that it wouldn’t be suspicious.
So Dick decided to bide his time until Bruce could take him.
One day, he walked in on the man fiddling with a statue on his desk. A bookshelf moved to the side, revealing a fireman’s pole. Bruce slid down it. Dick hesitated a minute before sliding down it himself.
“No way,” he exclaimed when he came out in a giant cavern. In it, Bruce was halfway through changing into a black suit.
Batman.
“No way!” Dick repeated. “You’re Batman?!”
“Alfred, take care of Dick. I can’t wait.”
“Yes, sir.”
Alfred came over and put a hand on Dick’s shoulder, preventing him from tagging along in the Batmobile.
“I trust you will keep Master Bruce’s secret.” It was not a question.
“Sure. Sure.” His mind flashed to Paris. “If he trains me.”
Alfred grumbled, “Not another one,” but didn’t say no.
Dick took that as a win.
~~~~
Dick didn’t see Bruce until the next morning.
Alfred and Bruce must have talked before he saw them, because Bruce had brought Dick down into the cave and had begun his training, right then and there. Well, after a very long speech about the right use of power, not wanting to seek revenge, but rather to enact justice for those who could not fight for themselves.
He wasn’t entirely sure why he was getting the lecture, but it meant he got training, so he sat through it.
At least, he didn’t, until one morning, he saw the newspaper left out on the breakfast table.
It was open to an article about the accident at the circus which had killed his parents. He skimmed over it until it mentioned foul play… his parents had been murdered.
His blood boiled.
Bruce had clearly known, and not told him. Just like they had kept it from him for a week that his parents had died. (Okay, so there were a lot of signs, but he didn’t see them, and they pussy-footed around him so much that he couldn’t tell.)
He hit harder during their sparring lesson than ever before.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” he demanded as he sent a kick at Bruce’s head.
“Tell you what?” Bruce blocked it with ease.
“My parents were murdered!” An elbow aimed at his ribs.
Bruce deflected. “I don’t want you to end up like me. Seeking revenge will do nothing except cause more pain. It won’t resolve anything. Leave it to me and the police. We will get proper justice. I promise you.”
He continued to lecture Dick about his mistakes and how he didn’t want Dick following him down the same path. Dick tuned him out. He dodged Bruce’s punch but reeled back in pain anyways.
~~~~
Dick found himself lying on Marinette’s bed, stretched out and relaxed. He took a few minutes to just revel in the idea that Marinette wasn’t always stuck fighting. It was clearly late in Paris, as the lights that could be seen out the window were artificial.
He debated taking a nap when he heard a feminine voice calling Marinette’s name.
Tikki floated over to him as he got up.
“Tikki,” he whispered, “What do I do? I don’t know French!”
“Dick?”
He nodded.
“I’ll translate.”
Tikki flew into Marinette’s left pigtail and the two rushed downstairs, the little bug told him their names, and a few quick facts. They owned a bakery, Tom and Sabine boulangerie-patisserie. She and her father usually played video games before bed when they had time, and they were likely calling her down to do just that.
Marinette’s parents were loving. They played games together, just like Tikki warned they would. And while he struggled to understand them, and needed the bug in his ear to translate, the hugs her father gave him, and the gentle kindness of her mother, made him wish he had that again.
His heart ached for his parents.
What he wouldn’t do for one last hug from his dad or for his mom to call them their little Robin one more time.
Tears welled up in his eyes. He tried to blink them away. Only to find himself back in his own room, his arm in a sling and pain radiating from his shoulder.