He had been so angry.
Tom stood in the living room alone and never felt more disappointed in himself. To be akumatized over…
He stared blankly at the prize ribbon in his hand. Second place was no small thing. Marinette had done amazingly well. So why had he been so upset? Sure, first place had gone to someone with more connections than skill and who had belittled Marinette over the results, and—
Tom took a deep, slow breath to calm himself. He was not making the same mistake twice in one day. This wasn't the kind of father he wanted to be. To have said or done anything that made Marinette feel like she failed after all she'd accomplished was downright despicable of him.
He stood alone in his thoughts. Or, rather, he thought he was alone. Sabine had always moved quietly.
She came up behind him now and placed a gentle hand on his arm.
"I was furious, too."
That simple admission made him turn. His wife was standing by him, staring up at him with love and trust and respect as she always had.
"When Marinette lost to the Bourgeois girl, I was angry and sad, not because she didn't win, but because she didn't get what she worked so hard for. On its own, that was hard, because I love her, but when it was rubbed in her face like that…" Sabine sighed and looked away before giving his arm a little squeeze and continuing, "I was up there having a very choice conversation with mayor Bourgeois about the daughter he'd raised when the Akuma took you, I'm not sure if you saw that. You were never alone in how you were feeling."
He hadn't seen it. He'd been so caught up in his own thoughts and emotions that everything around him had dulled to background fuzz, all the more so once the Akuma had brought Hawkmoth's voice into his mind. To find out now that she'd felt the same… It helped.
He took another steadying breath to ground himself in this moment. There was no way to go back on what had been done, but he could do better now.
"Marinette will be home in an hour. We should text Alya and ask her to invite some friends over to celebrate Marinette's success."
"I think that's a wonderful idea." Sabine's smile was so warm it chased away what was left of his gloom. "Let's whip up a big meal for those growing teens. We can work on it together."