Sabine loved her daughter with all her heart.
Ever since she was a child, Sabine had dreamt of a picture-perfect family – and Tom and Marinette had given that to her. They may not have been the wealthiest family, but they turned a small profit in that bakery of theirs, and they always had more than enough food to put on the table.
And Marinette was absolutely everything she could have asked for in a daughter.
She was beautiful, respectful, and gracious. She was talented beyond belief – she had made more than a few dresses for Sabine – but never showed arrogance. She would take into consideration what her friends and family would say, and kept that information stored in her mind. Whenever someone felt insecure or uncomfortable, Marinette would go out of her way to comfort and encourage them.
And most importantly, their little family was close, or at least that's what Sabine thought.
She hates that she didn't realize it sooner.
The bags under her daughters' eyes, all the bruises that would peek out from under unusually long sleeves, her unexplainable disappearances, she even began to stop helping in the bakery after a while – unless specifically asked to do so by her parents.
"Don't worry, Mom. I was just up studying."
"You know me, I tripped on the steps on my way to school."
"I didn't want to risk going out where the akuma could see me."
And damn it all, Sabine had accepted it so easily. She knew Marinette, and it all just seemed so her.
She and Ladybug even looked the same, Tom had cracked many a joke about clumsy Marinette being crimefighting Ladybug in the night, but Sabine had just brushed it off, saying that the girl was just their personal lucky charm. If only they had realized the truth of their implications.
Even the parallels in their personality should've been some sort of sign. Marinette may not have been as outwardly courageous without the suit, but she was still Marinette, and Sabine should've known.
God, she felt so stupid.
She probably shouldn't have found out the way she did, but in a way Sabine's glad.
She only recently discovered that Marinette was sneaking out. She didn't really have a curfew – Sabine and Tom never felt that she really needed one, Marinette always made her whereabouts known, and they trusted her. But Sabine grew increasingly concerned when she began to swear she could hear steps on the roof, and low and behold, her daughter was nowhere to be found.
So, one night, when Sabine heard the footsteps once more and again found Marinette vacant from her room, she made herself comfortable and patiently waited for the girl to return. She had intricately crafted a speech in her time alone, ready to scold the teen and express her disappointment and some punishment that was yet to be determined.
But Sabine found she never got to deliver that lecture since she forgot it – rather she forgot how to speak in general, when she saw the Ladybug slide in through her daughter's window and detransform into Marinette herself.
That had been an eventful night. Marinette finally admitted her alter ego, and together, she, Tom, and Sabine (along with the strange, friendly kwami they came to know as Tikki) discussed the situation and what was to be done. There was a period where she and Tom had seriously considered forbidding Marinette from being Ladybug, and were surprised to have the girl speak against them for once.
"I need to be Ladybug. Master Fu chose me, Paris trusts me, and Chat needs me. Please, I can't let them – everyone down."
She had said more, but Sabine could only recall in vivid detail Marinette defending her position, and as much as her mother despised it, she had a point. She always did.
Eventually, Sabine and Tom came to the verdict that Marinette could be Ladybug for the time being, but should they deem that it was growing out of hand (who were they kidding, it was already out of hand - it was out of theirs) Marinette would have to step down.
The compromise worked, but Sabine felt sick from the pressure. For every akuma signal, she could only hear an ambulance siren, and she had burnt more than one batch of croissants when she ran out to see Ladybug – Marinette – after witnessing her getting hit in a fight. She spent so many nights, clutching Tom and asking him why it had to be their baby girl, and nothing seemed to be able to console her.
But things grew a little bit brighter when she met Chat. She figured her daughter revealed her persona to him, or maybe he already knew, but in any matter, one night the Dupain – Cheng residence found themselves feeding an ally cat clad in leather black.
Sabine had expected him to goof off, or take matters lightly like he seemed to do in all their battles, but he had been surprisingly mature. He vowed that while Marinette was capable of taking care of herself, he would do absolutely everything in his power to make sure she would never be unnecessarily placed in harm's way. And Sabine found that fact comforting. It didn't completely diminish her worry, but she trusted that the black cat would protect her daughter to the best of his abilities – and that was more than anything anyone else could do.
So, Sabine relented, but that was not the last of Chat Noir. She supposes it was only natural that he and her daughter would be close, but Sabine also noticed that pictures of a certain superhero began to replace the magazine cut outs of that young model, Adrien. The thought brought a smile to her face. She's aware that not every mother would be happy to know that her daughter was holed up in her room with some boy dressed in black leather, but Sabine trusted them, and she knew he would treat her daughter right.
(She's also spied on them multiple times only to find them shouting over video game sound effects, eating sweets and making dumb jokes Sabine doesn't quite get, or even drawing cat whiskers on themselves with permanent marker.)
Slowly, Sabine learned to distance herself from the stress of being a superheroine's mother, and that picture-perfect family life was granted back to her, but this time when she imagined them there was always a familiar feline lurking around the corner.
Those footsteps on the roof no longer brought her worry, but a sense of relief. They were the sounds to let her know that her daughter (and generally her friend) were home safe and sound. So every night after Marinette would kiss her parents goodnight, Sabine would wait for that comforting thumping sound and run to the balcony to hug her daughter.
She should've known something was wrong that night.
Marinette had run out, shouting that a new akuma was on the loose. Before Sabine had time to register, Marinette had transformed and was running to the roof, calling out a brief 'good night' over her shoulder as she disappeared.
She shouldn't have let her gone.
She should've been a better mother than that.
But she wasn't and she just retreated to her bedroom to read until Marinette returned.
But she didn't.
Sabine heard the tell-tale thumping, and had eagerly run out to the balcony to greet the girl. But it wasn't Marinette – at least not the one she knew. Cradled in Chat Noir's arms, still in her suit, was a ghastly white, bruise riddled, limp looking Ladybug. Sabine practically snatched her from the boy's arms and started shrieking her name, then Tom's, and then just wailing to no one in particular.
Marinette didn't deserve this.
Sabine didn't deserve this.
What could she have possibly done to deserve this?
Because here she is, her daughter's legacy reduced to words etched in stone, and nothing will ever be the same. Chat stops by often, but now his visits aren't full of spying through the door crack and obnoxious jokes. All those warm memories have dissipated, and instead they are replaced by anger, sadness, and wistful remising.
If only she figured out sooner, maybe she could have saved her.
People tell her that it's not her fault, and that it will grow easier with time. One day, she will wake up, and she'll see the light again.
But Sabine doesn't believe them, because now her lucky charm is gone and she doesn't think she'll ever recover.
XXX
Okay, so first thing's first, hi! Long time no see! This is my first piece that I have written for Miraculous Ladybug, and I'll be honest – I kind of really dislike it. But I haven't written something non-school related for such a long time, and I figured I just needed to write something. So badda-bing badda-boom here we are with my semi (sorry, spelling error. REALLY) trash writing. Also, full disclosure, I wrote this at 1 in the morning, so this is what my delusional brain is like.
Depressed and disorganized.
Anyway, my sincerest regrets for this not being amazing, but I think that it's okay. It's like the Wednesday of weekdays. Anyway, I should probably stop rambling now. Thanks so much for reading and have a wonderful day!
-AwkwardHumanBeanThing