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Marinette reviewed her options as she stirred the cupcake icing by hand. Let Chat Noir tell her his identity or not let him.
Her father's voice floated in from the shop as he happily chatted with strangers. Beside Marinette, Sabine stepped up onto a stool and peered into the huge vat of bread dough for tomorrow morning's loaves.
Chat Noir already knew who she was and had been taking full advantage of it by visiting her nine times in the past two weeks, though after that second time, he hadn't brought up sharing his identity again. She was grateful. She needed time to think, to decide.
"Marinette, I think it's combined enough."
She blinked and looked down, vaguely surprised to find herself in the bakery and not upstairs in her room, looking at a ceiling full of plastic stars and listening to Chat tell her about musical theory or what an aperture on a camera was, or a hundred other things that she hadn't known he knew. White icing climbed up the edges of the red bowl. She'd been mixing too hard.
"You seem distracted, bǎo bèi." Sabine reached up, pushing Marinette's dark bangs out of her eyes. "Something on your mind?"
Marinette's held breath left her in a puff, and she put the bowl back on the counter. "No."
"You're getting forehead wrinkles again." Her fingers traced them back and forth. "Which means you're thinking heavy thoughts."
Marinette groaned. There was no chance of hiding it from her now, and maybe she could help. "When should you share secrets?"
"What kind?" Sabine added more water to the dough. "If someone's asked you not to-"
"Not like that," Marinette said. "More like, personal info about yourself with someone."
Sabine hummed, staring intently as the dough hook spun. "Do you trust them?"
"Sure." She'd been lucky it had been Chat Noir who had found her out. He wouldn't do anything with the knowledge ever. He'd never hurt her, and she'd also never betray him. That wasn't really the problem, but Sabine wasn't finished.
"Will they respect you even when they're mad at you? Or would they use the secret against you to get even or win an argument?"
That was easy. Of course she wouldn't use it against him. "But what if something goes wrong?" Marinette asked. She tightened a pigtail to give her hands something to do. There were so many bad things that could happen to him if she knew.
"Things will always go wrong," Sabine said, "whether you share or not"
Marinette leaned against the counter. Not exactly the pep talk she'd been hoping for.
"It's not wise to only think of what could go wrong if you do something. Look at it from all angles. What could go wrong if you don't share? What could go right if you do?"
Huh. She'd never thought about it that way.
"Sharing information can lift burdens and create intimacy, but it can also give someone everything they need to hurt you deeply. But keeping secrets because you're scared of being vulnerable is just as damaging." Sabine smiled at her, like knew she'd hit Marinette's sore spot. "You need to make sure you're sharing or withholding for the right reason. It's not a decision to be made lightly."
It wasn't the threat of Hawk Moth that was holding her back. And it wasn't a fear that she'd hurt him. In her lists of what could go wrong, her fears all focused on one central theme: How would their dynamic change?
But that already started changing when he found her out. Did she want to create a deeper bond between them?
Marinette let herself be pulled into a hug. Sabine's bangs tickled her cheek. "Thanks, Maman. I'll think about it."