This is just a short story i've been meaning to post. It's my first one on this site!

I hope you enjoy!

Sabine let out a breath as she sat across from her daughter, something weighing heavily on her mind.

She seemed to sort out her thoughts before she opened her mouth to speak, "I know that you won't speak to me after everything that's happened, and I'm trying to be ok with that," she clasped her hands in her lap, "But all I need right now is for you to listen."

She took a moment as the silence dragged on and gathered her courage.

"My mother wasn't a good mother." She chuckled a bit at her bluntness, having healed from the fact long ago, and carried on, "You know that- I've told you stories."

"She was too young when she had me- 17," the woman let out a sigh through her teeth. "She still had a lot of growing up to do and a baby- well, let's say a baby wasn't something she could afford to take care of, financially or emotionally, but she was a hard worker, and she found a way to support us all on her own. She worked in a cafè in the mornings and served drinks at a bar at night."

"While growing up, she worked me to the bone, making me help carry trays of bacon out to the tables as soon as I could walk and forcing me into a job as quickly as I was able to. All my checks went straight to a savings account that I couldn't access until I was 18. I was okay with that; of course, she would tell me that I'd be so rich I wouldn't have to work a day longer by the time I was that old. I liked to believe that," she paused and corrected herself, "Or I chose to believe it."

"Things went downhill from there. I started working harder when my mom lost her job at the bar, and we grew distant." Sabine wrung her hands together, feeling like she was reliving it all over again.

"I started to notice she would come back drunk in the middle of the night with random people that I would find rummaging through our fridge when I woke up the next morning." Sabine scoffed and moved her hands to adjust her skirt, "God I hated it."

She bit her lip and pulled herself together.

"She would disappear for days at a time and brush me off every time I confronted her. We yelled at each other a lot and even physically fought once."She paused, "She would always get mad at me like I was the one who wasn't pulling their weight. I would laugh, and scream at her, saying, 'You don't understand' and just go to my room and cry with fury.

"When I turned 18, I asked for my savings account so I could leave as soon as possible, and she just turned to me, with a cigarette in her mouth and a beer can in her hand and said 'What account'" Sabine couldn't even look up as she trembled, her fists clenching and unclenching.

"It turns out that my mother was using the money I was making on her shopping and alcohol." The older woman cleared her throat, "I was so angry in that moment that I didn't even move- I couldn't even move, and all I could think about was how she stole my childhood.

"She forced me into the world from her own mistakes, and she stole my childhood away from me." The grey eyed woman sunk as the weight on her shoulders grew, "She never took me to a park to play with kids when I was little; she didn't take me for ice cream if I did well in school, and she forced me into a job so early that I had no friends in high school because I was working too much to hang out with anybody.

"When I eventually left my mother, she pleaded with me to stay, asking if we could start over." A humorless laugh escaped her lips, "I thought, 'Start over?' what a selfish thing to say"

Sabine twiddled her thumb, almost thankful for the silence as she had no interruptions.

"I swore to myself that if I ever had a child, they would have the best childhood imaginable. So when I left her I worked, and I worked, and then I met your father, and we worked together, and we established ourselves enough to have you.

"And I say it like that because you were planned." she looked at her daughter, "You weren't an accident or a surprise; I planned to have you. And when you were born, all I could do was stare at you, with emotions so strong I hated my mother even more." As she fiddled with her fingers, her gaze landed on her wedding band, "How could she not have felt that? The need to protect, to care for, the- the pure love I felt in that moment."

A heavy smile graced her lips. "I was giving you the childhood I never had, and I loved it because we were living it together. So... I didnt know what to do when you started drifting away from me.

"I blamed myself at first, you know, the usual mother mindset, wondering what I did to push you away. Your father assured me it wasn't, and that you were just growing up and needing space to do it. So I let it happen." She picked at a piece of lint at her dress and flicked it off, watching it flutter down to the ground.

"Then you started to skip classes, and I got worried; we sat down and had talks, and you kept assuring me that you would do better, that it wouldn't happen again. I had no reason to worry, though, because you had perfect grades, and you were the teacher's favorite, and you were class president.

"As time went on, I started noticing things about you that I hadn't noticed before. You got super fit all of a sudden, which was strange because I could have sworn that you were smuggling way too many cookies to stay that in shape."

She chuckled a little before her smile fell, "Then I started to notice the other things as well. I realized that you would sneak out at night or even during the day too. I saw that you were getting injured far more frequently than before, which you claimed was just your usual clumsiness."

"Then I witnessed you have a nightmare one day." The woman brushed her bangs across her forehead, "You were asleep on the couch, and you suddenly screamed and shot up and shattered the lamp next to you. When I ran in, you looked at me and I could tell from your expression that you didn't even recognize me until a few moments later." Sabine tried to hold in her tears as she looked up to the very blue sky.

"You told me to get away from you, with so much fear in your eyes that my heart broke just by looking at you."

Her eyebrows furrowed as she tried to find the strength to continue, "I was so confused and scared, and I didn't know how to help you." She let out a frustrated noise, "You don't understand how scary that is, for a mother to know something is hurting her daughter and not knowing how to help," she shook her head.

"I offered to put you in counseling, but you shot the idea down quickly. You hated all of the ideas I came up with, and one day you snapped and told me I 'didn't understand'- that I 'could never understand.'"

Sabine let out a shaky breath as a tear finally escaped from her eye. "I cried that night when you went to sleep. Tom didn't know what was happening, and I kept telling him that I failed. That I- I failed as a mother because that was precisely what I said to mine, I told her that she 'could never understand' and here years later, you were saying it to me."

"We started getting into more fights after that, and I hated that I couldn't fix it." She took in a shuddering gulp of air as her tears flowed freely now.

"And then it came, the day that everything changed. Ladybug and Chat Noir lured out Hawkmoth and Mayura, and people immediately recognized it for what it was, the final battle."

Sabine looked at her daughter through tear-stained eyes, taking in the Marinette's bright blue eyes and hair the girl inherited from herself. Her head was turned to the side with an unpinnable expression crossing her features. Features Sabine should have recognized on someone else long ago.

"First Mayura went down, and then Chat Noir, and then Hawkmoth. And when it was over, Ladybug stood there, alone."

Sabine started to struggle to get the words out, "A-And then she t-turned to Chat Noir, walked to him a-and f-fell down right beside him, and when the d-dust cleared, i-it-" Sabine sobbed, "It was you."

"It was you. My beautiful, wonderful daughter. And at that moment, I understood." She didn't even bother wiping her eyes, as she put her hand to her heart, "I understand now, and I'm sorry. I should've known, and please- I need you to say something- b-because I don't know what I'll do if you don't."

Sabine grasped the picture frame resting against a stone that was too clean- too new. Her knees dug further into the ground as she bowed forward placing her head on the dirt.

"You're my daughter. I love you more than anything in this world, and you need to come back." Sabine clutched the frame of her daughter as she spoke the words her mother once said to her. "Let me start over."

She sobbed, "Let me be selfish and start over"

She was broken. A mother without a child. No sense of purpose or direction.

She wanted to erase time, to go back and hold her daughter one last time.

To apologize, too rectify, too amend.

But it was too late.

As Sabine hunched over, she didn't notice as a ladybug- of a rare white color- landed on the grave before her.

MARINETTE DUPAIN-CHENG

Hero

Daughter

Lover

"Even if it's the last thing I do."

2005-2021

Thank you so much for reading!

Sabine's story is based off of my Mother's life and I wanted to publish it and relate it to a show that my mother watched with me as a kid. I hope you enjoyed it.

With love and peaches,

peachmunchi