Chapter Text
Mayura carried her partner/employer none too gently across the roofs. His moans made a counterpoint to her heavy breathing.
“’We should be ready to snag the Miraculous,’ he said,” she muttered under her breath. “’We will finally succeed,’ he said.”
“I’m not deaf,” wheezed her bundle of villain.
“I’m aware of that,” she replied tartly. “But you had to realize that following Ladybug and Chat Noir, no matter how tempting it looked, was a mistake.”
“He was incapacitated! He shouldn’t have been able to fight back!” A sudden bump in the roof almost made Mayura drop Hawkmoth, but she recovered too late to actually do it.
Would’ve served him right, she thought, then dismissed the notion as unworthy of her.
A sudden blur of red passed through her vision- was Ladybug near? It looked the wrong shade… Mayura slowed to a halt on the roof.
That turned out to be an error in judgment, as the second tomato hit her shoulder with a splat.
“You think we’re gonna let you wreck our city over and over?” came a shout from the next roof over. Turning, Mayura saw three teenagers in a rooftop garden; all three had their faces hidden by hoodies and sunglasses. One was pulling back on what looked like a slingshot while a second loaded it with another tomato.
“Hurry, Mayura. I must,” Hawkmoth gasped in pain. “I must- join Emilie. Bury us together…”
I do not get paid enough for this. Mayura broke into a leaping sprint, dodging more tomato missiles by zigzagging over the roofs. “Don’t be so melodramatic. Recall your akuma; Ladybug will cast her Cure to help Chat Noir, and you will be fine.”
“I can’t,” Hawkmoth choked out. “Can’t… concentrate-“
The peacock wielder huffed as she leaped in through the open round window of the mansion, subsequently dropping her burden unceremoniously on the floor. “Then you’d best hope she can defeat the akuma quickly.”
As she stalked to the elevator, detransforming on the way, she heard nothing but groans behind her.
Checking her tablet thirty minutes later, Nathalie blew out a sigh. Was it her, or was Ladybug taking her sweet time with this akuma?
Thinking about Gabriel, she shrugged. Maybe Ladybug was- and maybe that was a good thing.