The Tube of Toothpaste
Written by: JuliaFC
Summary: When Sabine finds a crying Adrien sitting on a bench in Place des Vosges, her mother hen's instinct takes over, and the real-life advice she gives him (and, a little later, to Marinette herself) changes everything. An angsty/fluffy/romantic reveal with Strike Back spoilers, set a couple of days after the events of Strike Back.
Language Betas: Khanofallorcs, Agrestebug, Silver Wolf and LizzyBeth
Concept Betas: Etoile-Lead-Sama, Malauu_Ladynoir, Rosehealer02 and Genxha
Thank you to Aprilsonata for giving it a last read through before publication
Dedicated to my heart sister Etoile-Lead-Sama. You know why, hun. Chin up!
Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by (c) Thomas Astruc, TS1 Bouygues, Disney Channel, Zagtoon, Toei Animation. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.
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Part 1 - Consoling Adrien
"It's forty two euro fifty," said the lady at the check out, a cute brunette with her hair combed into a tight bun.
Sabine smiled and paid before making her way out of the little store with her bags. She shielded her eyes for a quick moment as she looked up. The warmth of the beaming sun didn't quite reach her, although the chill still lingering in the breeze didn't hold the typical sting of winter. This told her one thing—spring would soon be here.
She had walked the small alley that separated the grocery store from Place des Vosges and was making her way around the square to get back home, when her gaze crossed the form of a blond boy sitting on a bench, a little out of view. Sabine stopped in her tracks and looked at the boy with her eyes wide. She knew that boy; he was Adrien, Marinette's classmate and notorious crush. What was he doing, sitting on a bench nearly in front of the boulangerie? And…her heart skipped a beat when she realised the state the boy was in.
He was crying.
No mother with a minimum of self-respect would've gone by and left a child crying his eyes out in the middle of Place des Vosges. Definitely not Sabine, anyway. She scanned around and saw the sedan waiting in front of the entrance of the square, where the imposing figure of Adrien's bodyguard was keeping an eye on him. Her gaze narrowed and she started walking towards Adrien. Not even that big Gorilla would scare her away. Stepping closer, she put a hand on the crying boy's shoulder.
Adrien jumped out of his skin at the contact and lifted his head, and Sabine's heart skipped a beat at the sight. Adrien looked back at her and froze, his forearm reaching his face to cover his eyes, his frame still to try to hide the sobs and hiccups that had been shaking it just seconds earlier. Sabine was sure that the sight before her would haunt her for days to come.
Puffy, blood-shot eyes looked at her with the desperation of a kitten that can't find his mommy. Quivering lips, curved down in a pout and trembling. With dark marks under his eyes, the many streaks of tears wetting his cheeks, the shadow of snot coming out of his nose, the pink colour of his face and the dishevelled state of his usually perfectly styled hair…he looked so small, so broken, so vulnerable. But as soon as he saw her, his eyes widened in shock, as he realised who had reached out to him. He quickly tried to dry his eyes with his forearm, sniffling as he blinked the lingering tears from his eyes.
"Oh, Mme Cheng," he said in a very groggy voice.
Sabine smiled at the boy, but then felt the air next to her move. Turning her head, she looked at the Gorilla straight in the eye. "I'll give him back to you in a minute. Promise," she said calmly. The large man looked at her, his eyes narrowing, his brows furrowing, and yet, watching her with genuine curiosity. As if he was wishing that the small woman could perform a miracle and take his boy's pain away.
Then, his gaze moved to Adrien before going back to her. Sabine didn't feel intimidated at all. It was as if the man was unsure of what to do, but the depth of his care for the young boy before her was as clear as the sun beaming in the sky. Somehow, this soothed a little of Sabine's worry—someone did care about him at home. Thank God for that!
"It's okay, Gérard, she won't hurt me," Adrien reassured his bodyguard. The man nodded at his charge with a small grunt at Sabine before returning to his place, waiting for him in front of the sedan.
Sabine looked at Adrien warmly. "Do you mind if I sit down next to you?" she asked, her voice soft and soothing, her tone gentle like she would talk to a toddler who had just fallen in the park.
She saw Adrien shake his head, so she moved closer and sat next to him on the bench, her hand travelling from his shoulder to his back and starting to draw small circles on it. She saw Adrien's frame shake, and soon the boy was sobbing again, slowly doubling into himself trying to get smaller. He held his middle tightly for comfort, his hands tightened fists against his sides.
"Now, now…what's wrong dear? You don't have to talk to me if you don't want to, but if you need to, I'm a good listener."
Adrien sniffled, wiping the tears from his face despite new ones instantly taking their place. Soon, he stopped any pretence. "It's something silly, sorry to bother you with this, Mme Cheng. I-I'm feeling better now."
"Nonsense," whispered the kind-hearted woman. "If it were silly, my boy, you wouldn't be crying in the middle of Place des Vosges, where everyone can see you."
"I just…had to get out of the car and get a breath of fresh air. I'm okay," he tried to argue, but Sabine's knowing soft look made his lies die in his throat. He darted his gaze away, trying to avoid the eyes trained on him. His shoulders hunched, looking almost ashamed of having been caught in such a position of vulnerability. But Sabine knew what to look out for. She could see him biting his bottom lip nervously in an attempt to stop himself from sobbing, how strongly his fingers were digging into the skin of his forearm, so much so that the knuckles of his shaking hands were stark white.
She considered looking away for a moment to give him time to recover, but decided against it. Against his own conscious wish and desires, she could see that he was hesitating. Her mother hen instinct was telling her that he really needed to vent, and that he would never do it if he wasn't forced to.
"If you don't want to talk about it, as I said, I understand," she whispered, her smile never fading as she patted softly on his shoulder. "I'm not your mother, after all; I've met you just a couple of times. But my Marinette talks a lot about you. You're important to her, and as such, you're important to me." She saw how Adrien gasped, how his gaze darted to her face when she mentioned that he was important to Marinette.
Her smile renewed its warmth, her hand moving to his hair to run her fingers through it softly. She saw him leaning into her touch, as if touch-starved, and another piece of the puzzle fell into place in her head. This poor boy deserved so much more.
"I'm serious, Adrien. Marinette has always told me that you're a really good person and I hate the thought of a nice boy like you going through the amount of suffering I can see in your eyes. Do you want to come in and maybe talk to Marinette?"
Adrien's eyes widened and a light blush dusted his cheeks. "Uh, no, Mme Cheng, I would appreciate it if you didn't tell Marinette about this. I…" he said to himself, his hand reaching to rub the back of his neck as his gaze darted away, his voice lowering with every word. "...I would hate it if she saw me like this." He must have gulped hard, because Sabine distinctively heard a clicking sound coming from his throat.
Her smile never faltered "Then you should avoid sitting down right underneath her balcony, dear. Today she's busy with something, but most of the time she would no doubt already be here to inquire about what was wrong."
"Oh," said Adrien, gasping at the sudden realisation of where he was sitting. He looked in front of himself and finally noticed that the Tom and Sabine Pȃtisserie was right in front of his seat and Marinette could have seen him from her window at any time. He paled, trying even harder to wipe his eyes dry, with little success.
"Has my Marinette done something to upset you?" asked Sabine, and Adrien shot her an indignated glance.
"No!" he snapped, and Sabine breathed in relief.
"I'm glad," she admitted, placing a hand on her chest just above her heart.
"It's just…" he muttered. Sabine noticed his hesitation. She noticed the frown furrowing his brows, and realised that he was weighing his words to say something in a way that it wouldn't be too revealing. She waited patiently for him to find the right way to explain himself until he finally continued.
"This person that I know… We work as a team to achieve an important task and, well, we should be a duo, help each other and rely on each other, if you see what I mean."
Sabine nodded and again placed a hand on his shoulder, drawing soothing circles on the fabric of his white shirt with her thumb.
"A-and well," he said with a sigh, "they keep pushing me away. They keep calling on other people to help them, while leaving me out and making me feel useless and unwanted. They even admitted recently that they were doing it on purpose, that they have been lying to me and keeping me at a distance and refusing my help." He sniffled again, staring at the ground with a gaze that was far from the stones under his feet.
"But that's not the reason I'm upset. There has been a recent development and suddenly we're just the two of us again, so they won't be able to discard me and call other people now. In a way, I should be happy, but I'm not. It came at a cost, it nearly broke them, and left them, well, us, in deep trouble. I…I'm scared. Terrified. I don't know what to do. I need to be strong, for h—them, try to ground them, help them keep their cool. B-but I'm so scared I won't be enough and everything will go wrong and…I went from feeling useless to feeling overwhelmed. I don't know what to do…"
Sabine watched him carefully and noticed how his shoulders slumped inward, as if burdened by an enormous weight. His words also came out in a slow drawl, as if he was considering carefully every word he was saying and assessing the risk of each and every of his assertions. He seemed to be living in fear that something terrible would happen if he let himself go even once. What child went through such a massive amount of stress even while having a breakdown?
She fought her need to hug him to oblivion as he continued, "I have also tried to give up my Mir-uh, mission before, but I just ended up going back. This person is so important to me, I want to help h-uh, them, be there for them, show them that they can trust me and count on me. I don't want to lose them, but I don't know whether they feel the same anymore. Even if they accepted my help at their lowest, I don't know if they will still accept my help when things will look good again."
He gave her a watery look with the blood-shot eyes of a whimpering puppy, his voice shaking as he admitted it, "And I—I'm confused. And so scared. And after Papillon, or Papillombre, or whatever he will decide to call himself from now on… after he appeared again the other day and threatened everyone in Paris… I feel even more scared."
Of course he would; Sabine was an adult and had felt scared and hopeless too when she'd heard what that despicable insect had said just a couple of days before. But then all the people of Paris had come out on the streets and she had, too, with Tom. And seeing how everyone still believed in the heroes, how they called Ladybug's name, how they all fearlessly poured into the streets to show the heroes that they weren't alone… that had given her hope. And she had seen that even the heroes had been moved by the message.
However, those were scary times, and Sabine could totally understand how a literal child could still feel afraid and overwhelmed. She couldn't resist any longer and moved her arms around his shoulders, wrapping him in a bone crushing hug. The boy didn't even stiffen, just hugged her back as though she was his only lifeline. She softly ran her hand through his blond hair and after a short moment, he was sobbing again.
"Shhhhhh," she hummed softly to him. She rocked him back and forth like a baby for some time, allowing him to cry as much as he needed to. Only when his sobs started to subside did she break the hug and look him in the eye.
"It sounds to me that you really need to talk to this person." She affectionately messed with his hair, moving it out of his face. Then, she took one of his hands in hers and continued, "Sure, wait for them to get out of panic mode and find their balance again. But after that, you must have a good conversation with them and explain your worries and doubts."
Adrien winced, not able to meet her gaze. "What's the point?" he muttered under his breath. "They'd never listen. Nothing would really change. I just need to suck it up and keep going, the way I always do. Show them a perfect smiling face, support them as much as I can and keep my problems inside. I can always vent to Pl-uh, to myself when I get home."
"That's the worst thing you can do." Sabine shook her head slowly, her lips stretched into a warm smile. She picked up the bag of groceries that she had bought and emerged from it seconds later with a box containing a tube of toothpaste. She removed it carefully from the box and showed it to him. "Do you know how many couples break up because of something so stupid?"
"Huh?" Adrien looked with a frown at the tube of toothpaste in Sabine's hand and then moved his confused gaze to meet hers.
Sabine sighed. "How do you squeeze the tube, Adrien? In the middle or from the bottom?"
Adrien raised an eyebrow but he proceeded to pick the tube up and attempt a small squeeze at the bottom of it. Sabine picked it from his hand and squeezed it gently in the middle of the tube instead. Then, she gave it back to him, noticing with amusement how the boy's frown had deepened a little and with how much attention he was now looking at the tube.
"Go on. I know you want to do it," she said amusedly, and chuckled softly when Adrien picked the tube again and squeezed it once more at the bottom to smoothen up the rest of the tube. Then she smiled one more time when she saw him widening his eyes in the sudden realisation of what was going on.
"Oh. I see," he whispered to himself and made to give the tube back to her, but Sabine cupped her hand on his and put the tube back into his palm, closing his fingers on it and giving him a soft pat on the back of his hand.
"You keep it, to remember this conversation." She crossed his gaze and saw that his cheeks had tinged in pink. "If you really care about this girl—" She saw him gasping at the word and ruffled his hair some more. "Yes, girl. If you care so much about her, then you must talk to her. Resolve the biggest issue first, that's for sure. Trying to add wood to the fire when it's already burning is a bad strategy in every case. But as soon as the situation returns somehow manageable, you two must talk. Tell her that she shouldn't squeeze the tube in the centre because it really annoys you. Explain to her what is hurting you, even if you think it's something stupid, because a lot of stupid little things eventually become big things. Big things that have the potential to tear you two apart."
"Thank you, Mme Cheng," said Adrien as he finally managed to wipe his eyes dry, but still unable to stop sniffling.
She stood from the bench, giving him a pat on the shoulder before picking her bags up and walking back in the direction she'd come from.
"Mme Cheng? Your boulangerie is the other way," said Adrien, a little louder.
She turned around and smiled at him again. "I need to go back to the grocery store. To buy more toothpaste." She winked at him and walked away, wishing she could have done more for the poor boy.
The gratitude and relief that she could read into his eyes as she walked back to the store lived rent free in her memory for a very long time. She had to do something to help him further. Yes, she did promise him to not tell Marinette about his breakdown. But maybe she could talk to her daughter and gently push her to talk to him, without directly explaining what had happened?
Yes, she thought, she would find a way.
To be Continued…
Author's Note:
Hello there! Yes, it's me with yet another new story.
This one too originates from my life experience: when I had recently moved to the UK about, uh, quite a few years ago now, and met the man that would become my husband, like everyone, I started having a bit of a heated relationship to start with, where we would be good for some time and then have arguments, often for stupid things. At the time I was working for a charity and one of my coworkers was a lady from Russia (yes, this is very actual as a dedication I must say!), Tatjana. She had come to the UK trying to escape a broken and abusive relationship and spent a long time talking to me about her ex husband and her son whom she had to leave in Russia to get away. I in exchange used to talk to her about my relationship and vent, and one day she gave me the same advice that Sabine gives here to Adrien. And let me tell you, that was the *best* advice ever. It may seem silly, but it really helped me in my relationship and maybe if now I'm married and I have my two children, it is even thanks to the advice Tatjana gave me, such a long time ago. And that tube of toothpaste she showed to me like Sabine did with Adrien.
So if you ever read this note, Tatjana, thank you very much; I will never forget your words and the lovely chats we had.
This story was thought out after Kuro Neko; after watching that episode, I really thought that both our heroes needed a reality check and to be given advice like this. Then, it took me a little too long to write it and Strike Back came out and…well, that advice and the situation I had depicted, sounded more actual than ever. So I gave a little rewrite to the story (adding about 3000 words to it) and I upgraded it to be set after Strike Back.
Also, since tomorrow in the UK and Ireland (where I live) is Mother's Day (Happy Mother's Day to all mothers who celebrate it this weekend!), I thought it would be nice to start publishing a story dedicated to a mother and having as main character the best mother in Miraculous Ladybug, Sabine Dupain-Cheng. If you like her character and Tom, please keep following because in the next chapter I expand on her relationship with Tom and give my headcanon about how they got together :)
Please let me know what you thought of this chapter in a comment. I really hope you liked it! I'm always open to a dialogue, I don't mind ANY type of feedback! To all of you who will write a review or a comment for this story, thank you so much! You always make my day!
As usual, if you read this and you're not part of our wonderful Discord server already, but you enjoy reading, writing and talking about Miraculous, please join our Discord server, Miraculous Fanworks (for people on FFN, discord dot gg slash mlfanworks). Also, I recently joined another wonderful server! Even this one is friendly and there's a lot of wonderful people to discuss Miraculous and fanfictions with, so…now you get two invites :D Miraculous Discordance /QwgKdUhJNJ (discord dot gg slash QwgKdUhJNJ ). I wait for you in one of these servers :D
