Of Glitter and Gold

Chapter 34

Damian didn't answer, she just kept walking closer.

"Where does it hurt?" She almost puts a hand on his shoulder, to poke and prod the answer out of him but stops herself. The look of concern in her eyes, etched into her features as if it was natural as breathing made Damian feel tense.

"I'm fine, excuse me." Damian maneuvers his way around Marinette and gets some ice only to find Marinette at his door.

"-Are you sure?" Damian opens his door but turns to her at the question, her mouth pressed into a fine line, brows furrowed. It's well past two o'clock in the morning, her roommates probably fell asleep hours ago. It was a bad idea, they should both be in their rooms fast asleep. Inviting her into the room was a bad idea, under the premise of needing help or not.

Worst case scenario they get into an argument and get caught, slightly less but still world ending is that he has a conversation with her and sees that Jon is right. No good would come from this, only bad.

She could just not want to be alone, her roommates probably tiptoed around her all day. Leaving her to thoughts she'd rather not have, perhaps memories or a rambling internal monologue that focused on the worst.

"I couldn't ask you to stay up for me." He'd heard that on one of Stephanie's wretched television shows, it invited her in without the premise of needing to help. Idiot, he shouldn't be tempting fate like this- something bad was bound to happen.

"No, really, it's alright. I don't want to sleep right now." Damian opens the door, putting the ice bucket down on the desk.

"At least you know you'll have a pillow on the plane. Assuming we're stuck sitting next to each other again." She snorts following, the boy focuses on putting some of the ice into one of the extra disposable bags he found in the ice cooler.

Tying the thin plastic bag closed, Damian tries to put it in place without moving his shoulder too much but can't get it in the right spot.

"Here, let me help." Marinette grabs the ice pack from him and moves it around the area of his upper shoulder blade.

"Here?"

"Yes." Marinette holds the quickly melting ice in place as the two stand in awkward silence. What on earth was he supposed to do now? A conversation? Unlikely, she was to his back holding the ice in place, what else was there to do?

"Is that your sketchbook?" Marinette moves to open the book without waiting for an answer, her fingers grazing the cover ever so slightly before they flinch back.

"It is, you can look if you'd like." Marinette guiltily bites her lip before flipping the book open with her spare hand. The first drawing was one of Titus sitting at attention, then Pennyworth, Alfred the cat, some landscapes, other people, all scattered. Most were completed, he hated leaving something as a sketch, unfinished and unrefined.

Then she flips to the more recent drawings, the fountain they visited with shadows and highlights creating a bright drawing in a dark environment, he liked the way he did the water. It looked so natural, the reflections onto the polished marble was particularly difficult.

She tried to move to the next page but he stopped her.

"That one isn't done." The bluenette nods and goes backward, flipping to the drawing of the gold room, an intricate design that matched the room's theme bordering the page. It showed part of the ceiling's mural and a section of the walls.

She flipped again, to the gardens. Every detail he could remember was on those pages.

Again. A picture of the airport, the large domed ceilings and the hustle and bustle of people rushing through. He'd tried a new technique on that one, the people didn't have finite details, looking more like a snapshot of a time lapsed video. In the center was a lone suitcase, light pink with a black flower design on it.