He wasn't aiming for her: he was trying to bring down some of the mansion to trap his father (his father, what the fuck), he wasn't aiming for her, and the moth-fucking son of a bitch (he will apologize later to his grandmother's headstone) blocked his blow with her.
The last thing she must have seen is his eyes, and even as her flesh dissolved under his fingers and her heartbeat fell silent she was trying to tell him something: I love you or I'm sorry or I forgive you, none of which make any fucking sense but he knows how to read his partner and she has only ever lied to him in defense of the secrets they share (and it's hardly as though he has done differently to her) and he knows better than to think she'd want him lying to himself.
He snatches her earrings as they fall and he flees.
Marinette isn't home (which, fuck, he'd trust her with Ladybug's Miraculous before anyone but Ladybug herself) but her bedroom is as secure a fallback position as anywhere in the city. Marinette's diary lies open on her desk (and he's seen the people-eating box she keeps it in, okay, she must have left in one hell of a hurry if she didn't lock it back up first) and it's not that he tries to read it, it's not, it's actually entirely the opposite, but he is constitutionally incapable of seeing words and not reading them, and—
Okay, he needs a minute, he needs to sit down here and map out what now, maybe see if he can corral some backup so this doesn't end up a suicide run—and oh thank fuck she has written down Master Fu's address, she has put names to the unmasked faces of Rena Rouge and Carapace, and he's going to have to 'fess up and face the music stat because she's been rejecting him for him and he ignoring her in favor of her all along—but he's pretty sure it's going to involve Cataclysming the fuck out of his father and then stabbing his ears with hot needles so he can see how well he can dance Ladybug's part.
[Miraculous Ladybug] in the shadow of your heart (part one)
The last thing she must have seen is his eyes, and even as her flesh dissolved under his fingers and her heartbeat fell silent she was trying to tell him something: I love you or I'm sorry or I forgive you, none of which make any fucking sense but he knows how to read his partner and she has only ever lied to him in defense of the secrets they share (and it's hardly as though he has done differently to her) and he knows better than to think she'd want him lying to himself.
He snatches her earrings as they fall and he flees.
Marinette isn't home (which, fuck, he'd trust her with Ladybug's Miraculous before anyone but Ladybug herself) but her bedroom is as secure a fallback position as anywhere in the city. Marinette's diary lies open on her desk (and he's seen the people-eating box she keeps it in, okay, she must have left in one hell of a hurry if she didn't lock it back up first) and it's not that he tries to read it, it's not, it's actually entirely the opposite, but he is constitutionally incapable of seeing words and not reading them, and—
Okay, he needs a minute, he needs to sit down here and map out what now, maybe see if he can corral some backup so this doesn't end up a suicide run—and oh thank fuck she has written down Master Fu's address, she has put names to the unmasked faces of Rena Rouge and Carapace, and he's going to have to 'fess up and face the music stat because she's been rejecting him for him and he ignoring her in favor of her all along—but he's pretty sure it's going to involve Cataclysming the fuck out of his father and then stabbing his ears with hot needles so he can see how well he can dance Ladybug's part.
part two