History Fanfic / ASmallButStubbornFire

''[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/52895497/chapters/133797667 A Small but Stubborn Fire]]'' is a ''WesternAnimation/MiraculousLadybug'' fanfic by [[https://archiveofourown.org/users/KPG/pseuds/KPG KPG]] which covers Sabine as she begins to see signs that Marinette has suffered some sort of trauma. At first believing she has been sexually assaulted but moving away from this has Marinette has widely different kinds of [[TraumaButton trigger moments]], completely unaware that Marinette is Ladybug and the trauma is coming from the pressure she is under. Wanting to help her daughter she begins to ask questions. Questions that Marinette can't give straight answers to.

* AbusiveParents: Flashbacks of Sabine's mother show Meifen was verbally abusive to Sabine and so strict that she pretty much controlled almost everything about Sabine's life. She even has Sabine followed and found out her daughter was seeing a therapist which angered her and made her think that Sabine was weak and betraying their family's secrets. Meifen even threatens to use her own needle (one in her hair) to give Sabine acupuncture over therapy. She threatens to cut Sabine's studies in Paris off over this until Sabine can have better control of her emotions and not betray the family's secrets.
* ActuallyPrettyFunny: When Sabine mentions that Marinette said most of the guys at Garbiel's fashion business are gay, [[TheStoic Nathalie]] laughs because it's true.
* AdultsAreUseless: Sabine is starting to think that the school administration is doing a piss poor job with so many kids have suffered the trauma of the attacks by Hawk Moth and they haven't informed any of the parents or seem to have done anything to help the students.
* AngerBornOfWorry: On top of everything else that has been happening, after Marinette ran off towards an akuma attack, doesn't send any word afterwards and a phone call from school telling her that Marinette has been missing classes, Sabine is very upset with her daughter because it's just confirming that something is wrong with Marinette to her, and she is forced to [[YouAreGrounded ground her daughter]].

** Once Sabine confronts Marinette (as Ladybug) that she knows that she is Marinette. Ladybug makes all sorts of unconvincing excuses that she isn't Marinette. It doesn't help that she babbling in such a Marinette way that Sabine can't help but note how obvious it is.

** The racist ticket inspector shows up on the route that Sabine and Marinette take for their spar day and his presence makes Marinette uncomfortable. Sabine is sure to stare the man down to make it clear not to mess with them.

** Once Sabine confronts Marinette (as Ladybug) that she knows that she is Marinette. Ladybug makes all sorts of unconvincing excuses that she isn't Marinette. It doesn't help that she blabbers in such a Marinette way that Sabine can't help but note how obvious it is.

* After failing to convince her mother that she is not Ladybug and runs out of time and detransfroms in front of Sabine, Marinette tries one final lie that she is just a decoy to take the hits for Ladybug. Sabine, very much unamused, points out that doesn't sound any better.

* InternalReveal: When Rolland makes a comment how Marinette and Ladybug are a lot alike while watching an akuma attack on the news, Sabine begins to see all of Marinette's past behavior in a new light. When she goes to Marinette's room to find her not there, Marinette's diary out right confirming the new revelation and witnessing Ladybug de-transforming into Marinette does Sabine find out that who her daughter is. She does not take it well.

* ParentalAbandonment: A variant in the case of Sabine's mother. Meifen gave Sabine up to Uncle Wang after Meilin was born so she wouldn't have to pay the fines that would have been leveed on her due to China's One Child Policy at the time. [[ParentalNeglect Despite being rich and fully capable of paying the fines but made an excuse that you don't throw away money]]. Meifen did however keep track of Sabine in order to maintain control over her and direct her life.

* SecretKeeper: Alya's behavior, in particular her handling of Marinette's panic attack, cues in Sabine that Alya knows something about what happened to her daughter.
* SecretSecretKeeper: Sabine finds out that Marinette is Ladybug but refrains from telling anyone. Including Marinette.

Summary: What if you were the parent of a teenage superhero, but didn't know they were? All you know is the nightmares, the panic attacks, and the bruises. She's missing school, she's disappearing on you, and she's not telling you anything.

So you assume the worst: Assault. Depression. A permanent rift in the family.

And what do you do when you realize you weren't thinking dark enough? Because your fourteen-year-old daughter is the hero who flirts with death on the nightly news.

Come inside and read about one mother's struggles to raise her daughter in a dangerous world while avoiding the mistakes her own mother made with her.

* AbusiveParents: Flashbacks of Sabine's mother show Meifen was verbally abusive to Sabine and so strict that she pretty much controlled almost everything about Sabine's life. She even has Sabine followed and found out her daughter was seeing a therapist which angered her and made you think that Sabine was weak and betraying their family's secrets. Meifen even threatens to use her own needle (one in her hair) to give Sabine acupuncture over therapy. She threatens to cut Sabine's studies in Paris off over this until Sabine can have better control of her emotions and not betray the family's secrets.

* InternalReveal: When Rolland makes a comment how Marinette and Ladybug are a lot alike while watching an akuma attack on the news, Sabine begins to see all of Marinette's past behavior in a new light. When she goes to Marinette's room to find her not there, Marinette's dairy out right confirming the new revelation and witnessing Ladybug de-transforming into Marinette does Sabine find out that who her daughter is. She does not take it well.

** When she starts to connect the dots that Marinette is Ladybug Sabine is unable to breath probably and desperately tries to find any excuse to tell herself that Marinette isn't Ladybug. It just gets worst form there when she only gets further confirmation. She is unable sleep due to the revelation.

* SecretSecretKeeper: Sabine finds out that Marinette is Ladybug but reframes from telling anyone. Including Marinette.
* SelectiveObliviousness: A very short-lived case, when Sabine begins to connect all of the dots to Marinette's recent behavior after Rolland comments that her daughter and Ladybug are a lot alike, she goes into denial and thinks all she has to do to prove that Marinette isn't Ladybug is go to her daughter's room and find her there, right after an akuma attack. Only she doesn't find Marinette in her room. Sabine is still in denial until she reluctantly reads Marinette's dairy and sees the hard truth. Then Ladybug arrives and de-transforms only seals the deal.

* StatingTheSimpleSolution: Meilin points out if Marinette is suffering so much that Sabine should look at her dairy. Sabine is against this because this would make her like their mother. By the end of the chapter Sabine caves upon realizing that Marinette is Ladybug and reads Marinette's dairy.
* TherapyIsForTheWeak: Meifen has this view and was furious when she found out that Sabine was seeing one. [[TruthInTelevision Sadly, this is a commonly held believe in Asia.]]

** Meifen's believe that therapy is for the weak isn't an uncommon believe in Asia.

* JustFriends: [[CassandraTruth Marinette has to insist that she and Cat Noir are just friends after Sabine catches Cat in her room late at night]]. After Marinette has another panic attack where she says "Kitty" and that he loves her, Sabine mistakenly believes that Marinette is lying to her about this not knowing the panic attack is from what happened with Cat Blanc.

* InternalReveal: When Rolland makes a comment how Marinette and Ladybug are a lot alike while watching an akuma attack on the news, Sabine begins to see all of Marinette's past behavior in a new light and goes to Marinette's room to find her not there, her dairy out right confirming the new revelation and witnessing Ladybug de-transforming into Marinette does Sabine find out that who her daughter is. She does take it well.

* IgnoredEpiphany: PlayedWith. When Rolland mentions how Marinette and Ladybug are a lot alike, Sabine starts to connect all to dots to realize that Marinette is Ladybug. She desperately tries to find a way out of the explanation as it is too much for her. However, finding her not in her room when Marinette should be after an akuma attack, reluctantly reading Marinette's diary and finally seeing Ladybug de-transform into Marinette, she has no choice but to accept the reality of the situation.

* BilingualBonus: There is some French and Mandarin in the story.

* LockedOutOfTheLoop: It's because Sabine is unaware that her daughter is Ladybug that she is jumping to the conclusion, with the nightmares and panic attacks, that someone has assaulted Marinette.

* LoveObstructingParents: Sabine's mother had a firm "no boys rule" on her while she was studying in France. Sabine just opted not to tell her mother about Tom until it was too late to do anything about it.

* NervousWreck: As the day goes by, after Marinette's nightmare, Sabine grows increasingly concerned with Marinette's well-being that even customers start to notice that something is off. It gets so bad that the second she is able to get free from the bakery she runs to her daughter's bedroom and starts to look for anything that can tell her what happened to Marinette.

* JustFriends: Marinette has to insist that she and Cat Noir are just friends after Sabine catches Cat in her room late at night. After Marinette has another panic attack where she says "Kitty" and that he loves her, Sabine mistakenly believes that Marinette is lying to her about this not knowing the panic attack is from what happened with Cat Blanc.

* AbusiveParents: Flashbacks of Sabine's mother show she was verbally abusive to her and so strict that she pretty much controlled almost everything about Sabine's life. She even has Sabine followed and found out her daughter was seeing a therapist which angered her and made you think that Sabine was weak and betraying their family's secrets. She even threatens to use her own needle (one in her hair) to give Sabine acupuncture over therapy. She threatens to cut Sabine's studies in Paris off over this until Sabine can have better control of her emotions and not betray the family's secrets.

* JustFriends Marinette has to insist that she and Cat Noir are just friends after Sabine catches Cat in her room late at night. After Marinette has another panic attack where she says "Kitty" and that he loves her, Sabine mistakenly believes that Marinette is lying to her about this not knowing the panic attack is from what happened with Cat Blanc.

* ParentalNeglect: Sabine's mother was very strict, unwilling to hear Sabine out over lies being told about her and gave her up to Uncle Wang so she wouldn't have to pay the extra fines for having more than one child.

* TheSocialDarwinist: Sabine's mother is clearly one. She views therapy for barbarians and when she found out that Sabine had been seeing a therapist, she is very angered by it and thinks that made Sabine weak.

* TruthInTelevision: France's Civil Code does fine parents for unexplained absences and imprisonment if grades fall on top of that.

And what do you do when you realize you weren't thinking dark enough? Because your fourteen-year old daughter is the hero who flirts with death on the nightly news.

* AdultsAreUseless: Sabine is starting to think that the school administration is doing a piss poor job with so many kids have suffered the trauma of the attacks by Hawk Moth and they haven't informed any of the parents or seem to have done nothing to help the students.

** There is a moment where Marinette lies about having a school project with Alya, Nino and Adrien. Sabine catches this because she had setup a spa day with her daughter and had asked Alya to take notes at school and Alya made no mention of a project.

* BigSisterMentor; A sort of inversion. After she sees Marinette have another trigger moment and she tries to play it off, Sabine confides into her younger sister that she doesn't know what to do and starts to fear that she will become [[MyBelovedSmother like their mother]] and lock her daughter up until Marinette tells her what's going on. Meilin calms Sabine down and tell her about a similar experience she had with her own daughter and how a spa day helped fix things and suggest that Sabine do the same thing. Sabine takes this to heart.

* BlamingTheVictim: Sabine fears that her daughter has been assaulted, and that the reason why Marinette refuses to say anything or open up about her trauma is that she's convinced [[CassandraTruth nobody will believe her]]... or that worse, they'll insist it was entirely her own fault.

* ConfessInConfidence: As is the case with doctor patient confidentiality, Dr Zhu can't tell Sabine what happened that caused Marinette to have another panic attack. The only thing that could change that is if he felt that there is a threat to Marinette's safety.

** When their conversation brings up Cat Noir rejecting Marinette's feelings Sabine points out to Tom that Cat Noir is in love with Ladybug. What chance does their daughter have against a woman in a skintight outfit.

** When Sabine decides she wants to talk to Nathalie about Marinette's situation, Tom is hesitant on a number of reasons, one being Nathalie's coldness. Sabine just tells him she isn't a villain.

* {{Fainting}}: Marinette barely gets a word out before fainting when her parents barge into her room after a CatapultNightmare, possible due to the stress she is under in that moment.

* InterruptedIntimacy: A brief interruption when Sabine and Tom are getting very intimate in chapter five until they hear some loud thumping coming from Marinette's room and out of worry, Tom goes to check up on their daughter before returning and reassuring Sabine it was nothing to worry about and they continue where they left off.

* LoveHurts: Given how they've seen their daughter as a romantic, Sabine and Tom start to wonder what could have happened that led Marinette to sketch a drawing with "love destroys" written on it. At the same time however, Marinette is showing no sign that she thinks this which only confuses Sabine.

** When she hears Marinette screaming in the middle of the night with indications that someone is in her room, Sabine's immediate action is jumping out of bed, grabbing a sword and running to her daughter's room ready to kill whoever is assaulting Marinette.

** Marinette is starting to show signs of seeing Sabine as this as she feels her mother doesn't trust her and is being overbearing. Cat Noir actually defends Sabine and tells Marinette that she is lucky to have a mother that cares about her.
* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: Marinette tells her mother that during the incident with Dark Cupid that some people who were effect by him went and killed their partners and children and they all had a few minutes between being free from the effects and the Miraculous Ladybug undoing everything to see what they had done.

* ParentalHypocrisy: Sabine is worried she is becoming like her own mother who was very controlling over her, something she has tried to avoid. She feels guilty when she starts to wonder if she needs to be more controlling over Marinette to get whatever her daughter is hiding out of her. She is eventually forced to ground Marinette after, in her eyes, her daughter has been acting out too much and Sabine feels she needs to keep closer eye on Marinette.

* ParentalSexualitySquick: After she gets a tease in at Marinette over Cat Noir, Sabine asks her daughter if her father would look good in black leather, she gets the desired grossed out reaction from Marinette.

** After she sees Marinette have another panic attack during her therapy session where she mentions "Kitty" hurting her, Sabine assumes that Cat Noir has attacked her daughter. She is right but it was the future akumatized Cat Blanc not the present-day Car Noir.

** Sabine can't help but note how attentive and caring Adrien is for Marinette that he is checking off all of her boxes. She is very supportive of her own daughter's feelings for him. Sabine is also quick to mark him off as a suspect on her belief that Marinette has been assaulted because he has so many green flags.

* TheShrink: After Nathalie gave her the contact information, Sabine sets Marinette up for one to try and help her with her ever problems she is having. Sabine herself had seen one in her youth to deal with the problems she had with her mother, before her mother found out and forced her to stop.

* TheSocialDarwinist: Sabine's mother is clearly one, she views therapy for barbarians and when she found out that Sabine had been seeing a therapist is very angered by it and thinks that made Sabine weak.
* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome: Even though Marinette is Sabine's daughter (even still a child), Dr Zhu can't tell her what happened during the therapy session that caused Marinette to have a panic attack due to doctor patient confidentiality much to her chagrin.

* ThrillSeeker: After Marinette runs off on her during an akuma attack Sabine thinks that because her daughter has helped Ladybug and Cat Noir in the past that she might be running into danger on an adrenaline high.

** Ayla informs Sabine that many of the people at school have triggers and panic attacks because all of them except for Marinette and Adrien have been akumatized more than once.
** During her therapy session Marinette has another panic attack about Cat Blanc.

* TruthInTelevision: France Civil Code does fine parents for unexplained absences and imprisonment if grades fall on top of that.

* YouAreBetterThanYouThinkYouAre: Marinette as very low self-confidence but Sabine tells her that Nathalie spoke highly of the work she is doing which surprises Marinette.

* ThrillSeeker: After Marinette runs off on her during an akuma attack Sabine thinks that because her daughter has helped Ladybug and Cat Noir in the past that she might be running into danger on an adrenaline high.

** TheShrink: After Nathalie gave her the contact information, Sabine sets Marinette up for one to try and help her with her ever problems she is having. Sabine herself had seen one in her youth to deal with the problems she had with her mother, before her mother found out and forced her to stop.

** When Sabine teasingly aske Marinette if she is Hawk Moth, Marinette plays along but ends up saying Nooroo's name. Sabine doesn't understand what that means and Marinette quickly comes up with an excuse that it is an inside joke with Alya.

* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome: Even though Marinette is Sabine's daughter (even still a child), Dr Zhu can't tell her what happened during the therapy session that caused Marinette to have a panic attack due to doctor patient confidentiality much to her jargon.

* JustFriends Marinette has to insist that she and Cat Noir are just friends after Sabine catch Cat in her room late at night. After Marinette has another panic attack where she says "Kitty" and that he loves her, Sabine mistakenly believes that Marinette is lying to her about this not knowning the panic attack is from what happened with Cat Blanc.

** Marinette is starting to show signs of seeing Sabine as this as she feels her mother doesn't trust her and is being overbearing. Cat Noir actually defends Sabine and tells Marinette that she is lucky to have a mother that cares about her.

* FreudianSlip: A rather funny case through a text message, when Nathalie sends a number for Sabine to get a therapist for Marinette and ends it with a peacock emoji. She quickly sends enough one saying she meant a female and briefcase emoji.

* MyBelovedSmother: Sabine's mother was very strict with her and her sister, often ridiculing her and went as far as to try and influence Meilin's own daughter before getting told to back off. Sabine fears that she will become just like her mother in her desperation to figure out what is going on with Marinette.

* RightForTheWrongReasons: Sabine is right to think that Gabriel is a cause of Marinette's trauma but wrong in thinking that he is sexually assaulting her. She is unaware that her daughter is Ladybug and Gabriel is Hawk Moth, and that Marinette is cracking from the pressure of the responsibilities set on her and other things like Cat Blanc.

* YourMakeupIsRunning: During Marinette's panic attack, triggered by seeing a kid in a Dark Cupid costume, her mascara is running.

''[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/52895497/chapters/133797667 A Small but Stubborn Fire]]'' is a ''WesternAnimation/MiraculousLadybug'' fanfic by [[https://archiveofourown.org/users/KPG/pseuds/KPG KPG]] which covers Sabine as she begins to see signs that Marinette has suffered some sort of trauma. At first believing she has been sexually assaulted but moving away from this has Marinette has widely different kinds of [[TraumaButton trigger moments]], completely unaware that Marinette is Ladybug and the trauma is coming from the pressure she is under. Wanting to help were daughter she begins to ask questions. Questions that Marinette can't give straight answers to.

** Nathalie as well is supportive of the idea of Marinette and Adrien being in a relationship and finds it much better than Adrien's obsession with Ladybug.

** Even after being grounded Marinette tells her mother that she loves and trusts her, right after Sabine came so close on whether or not to violate her daughter's privacy and read her diary. Sabine feels so ashamed that she has to go to her room and cries.

* CompulsiveLiar: Sabine's own mother accused her of being one and never heard her out. This is a big reason why she is so hesitant to call her Marinette out when it is clear to her that her daughter is lying to her out of fear that [[ParentalNeglect she will become like her own mother]].

* MistakenForPedophile: At first, with the limited information Sabine is getting, all the signs she's getting -- from her daughter's nightmare to the sketch of a man in a white suit -- tell her that Gabriel is assaulting her daughter during Marinette's internship. However, after seeing Marinette have a panic attack over a guy in a Dark Cupid costume she starts to move away from that suspicion.

* AngerBornOfWorry: On top of everything else that has been happening, after Marinette ran off towards an akuma attack, doesn't send any word afterwards and a phone call from school telling her that Marinette has been missing classes, Sabine is very upset with her daughter because it’s just confirming that something is wrong with Marinette to her, and she is forced to [[YouAreGrounded ground her daughter]].
* BlatantLies:

** Given that Marinette keeps telling her mother she is fine whenever Sabine asks her how she is doing after she has a [[TraumaButton trigger moment]], Sabine doesn’t believe Marinette for a second when her daughter says that the bruises on her chest and shoulders are from falling down the stairs at school. She only lets it go for the time being due to her own trauma from her own mother calling her a [[CompulsiveLiar liar]].
* BigSisterMentor; A sort of inversion. After she sees Marinette have another trigger moment and she tries to play it off, Sabine confides into her younger sister that she doesn’t know what to do and starts to fear that she will become [[MyBelovedSmother like their mother]] and lock her daughter up until Marinette tells her what’s going on. Meilin calms Sabine down and tell her about a similar experience she had with her own daughter and how a spa day helped fix things and suggest that Sabine do the same thing. Sabine takes this to heart.

* CatapultNightmare: Sabine comes into Marinette’s room right after one as she sees her daughter sitting up looking terrified.

* CopeByCreating: While looking at the sketch that Marinette has made of a man in a white suit with words like “love destroys” and “regret” Sabine wonders if this is a silent cry for help from her daughter over being assaulted, not knowing that the drawing is of an akumatized Cat Noir.

** When their conversation brings up Cat Noir rejecting Marinette’s feelings Sabine points out to Tom that Cat Noir is in love with Ladybug. What chance does their daughter have against a woman in a skintight outfit.

** When Tom is hesitant about Sabine going to talk to Nathalie about if anything has happened to Marinette during her internship due to the woman’s coldness, Sabine writes it off and tells him that Nathalie isn’t a villain. Little does she know that she works for Hawk Moth.
** Nathalie thinks that Adrien being in a relationship with Marinette would be much better than is obsession with Ladybug.

** Marinette thinking that Gabriel and Nathalie are having some secret fling as they disappear to dark corners not knowing that Gabriel is Hawk Moth and Nathalie is his loyal follower.
** When Sabine decides she wants to talk to Nathalie about Marinette’s situation, Tom is hesitant on a number of reasons, one being Nathalie’s coldness. Sabine just tells him she isn’t a villain.
* EvenEvilHasStandards: When Sabine expresses her concerns to Nathalie over the possibility that Garbiel has assaulted her daughter, Nathalie shoots this down sighting that Garbiel is not a monster and would never do such a thing.
* {{Fainting}}: Mainette barely gets a word out before fainting when her parents barge into her room after a CatapultNightmare, possible due to the stress she is under in that moment.
* ForgivenButNotForgotten: Although it seems that Tom isn't holding a grudge against Cat Noir over the "[[Recap/MiraculousLadybugS03E06Weredad Weredad]]" incident, he hasn’t forgotten about it and is still a little sore over him rejecting Marinette.

** When Sabine makes a joke about Marinette love life, and how Cat Noir seems like a playboy, not realizing that her daughter is Ladybug while knowing for well that Cat is in love with his partner, Marinette doesn’t respond to the teasing.
** Even after being grounded Marinette tells her mother, she loves and trust her, right after Sabine came so close on rather or not to violate her daughter’s privacy and read her diary. Sabine feels so ashamed that she has to go to her room and cries.
** After to incident above when Sabine tells Tom she is going to talk to Nathalie and he tells her that he will trust her to handle it, those words hurt Sabine.
* InterruptedIntimacy: A brief interruption when Sabine and Tom are getting very intimate in chapter five until they hear some loud thumping coming from Marinette’s room and out of worry, Tom goes to check up on their daughter before returning and reassuring Sabine it was nothing to worry about and they continue where they left off.

* LoveHurts: Given how they’ve seen their daughter as a romantic, Sabine and Tom start to wonder what could have happened that led Marinette to sketch a drawing with “love destroys” written on it. At the same time however, Marinette is showing no sign that she thinks this which only confuses Sabine.
* LoveObstructingParents: Sabine’s mother had a firm “no boys rule” on her while she was studying in France. Sabine just opted not to tell her mother about Tom until it was too late to do anything about it.
* MamaBear:
** When she hears Marinette screaming in the middle of the night with indications that someone is in her room, Sabine’s immediate action is jumping out of bed grabbing a sword and running to her daughter room ready to kill whoever is assaulting Marinette.
** Sabine gets really pissed off when the delivery boy makes moves on Marinette, who is clearly uncomfortable, and threatens to shove a bread handle up his ass if he doesn’t leave.
* MistakenForPedophile: At first, with the limited information Sabine is getting, all the signs that she is getting, from her daughter’s nightmare to the sketch of a man in a white suit, tells her that Gabriel is assaulting her daughter during Marinette’s internship. However, after seeing Marinette have a panic attack over a guy in a Dark Cupid costume she starts to move away from that suspicion.
* MyBelovedSmother: Sabine’s mother was very strict with her and her sister. Often ridiculing her and went as far as to try and influence Meilin's own daughter before getting told to back off. Sabine fears that she will become just like her mother in her desperation to figure out what is going on with Marinette.
* NervousWreck: As the day goes by, after Marinette’s nightmare, Sabine grows increasingly concerned with Marinette's well-being that even customers start to notice that something is off. It gets so bad that the second she is able to get free from the bakery she runs to her daughter’s bedroom and starts to look for anything that can tell her what happened to Marinette.
* PapaWolf:
** Like Sabine, Tom charges into Marinette’s room ready to kill the (nonexistent) assaulter of his daughter.

* ParentalNeglect: Sabine’s mother was very strict, unwilling to hear Sabine out over lies being told about her and gave her up to Uncle Wang so she wouldn’t have to pay the extra fines for having more than one child.
* ParentsAsPeople: Sabine increasingly trying to figure out what happened to Marinette, having given her daughter a lot of free reign over her life, now starts to dig into Marinette’s business when Sabine feels like her daughter isn’t opening up to her over possibly being assaulted. When more issues arise, and she feels that Marinette’s behavior is become worse she is forced to ground her daughter. As she grows even more desperate Sabine comes close to violating Marinette's privacy by reading her dairy but stops herself. She is so ashamed of herself when soon after Marinette tells her how much she loves her and trust her that Sabine has to go to her room to cry.
* RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil: Nathalie knows full well the kind of things that Garbiel has done as Hawk Moth but even he wouldn’t go as far as taking advantage of a young girl.
* RightForTheWrongReasons: Sabine is right to think that Gabriel is a cause of Marinette’s trauma but wrong in thinking that he is sexually assaulting her. She is unaware that her daughter is Ladybug and Gabriel is Hawk Moth, and that Marinette is cracking from the pressure of the responsibilities set on her and other things like Cat Blanc.

* SecretKeeper: Alya’s behavior, in particular her handling of Marinette’s panic attack, cues in Sabine that Alya knows something about what happened to her daughter.

** Sabine can't help but note how attentive and caring Adrien is for Marinette that he is checking off all of her boxes. She is very supportive of her own daughter's feelings for him. Sabine is also quick to mark him off as a suspect on her believe that Marinette has been assaulted because he has so many green flags.
** Nathalie as well is supportive of the idea of Marinette and Adrien being in a relationship and finds it much better than Adrien’s obsession with Ladybug.

* SurvivalMantra: When Sabine has a terrible memory of her mother belittling her and stating how “you don’t waste money” as a reason to give her up to Uncle Wang so she wouldn’t have to pay fines, Sabine has to remind herself repeatedly that her mother isn’t there.
* TraumaButton:

* YouAreGrounded: After Marinette pushes Sabine to the ground to get her cellphone and runs off during an akuma attack, stays away form home for hours afterwards with no contact and getting a call from her principle about being absent from school, Sabine is beyond upset with her daughter and grounds her believing that there is a problem with Marinette.