It's been a year since Marinette — or as officially stated, her witch persona, Ladybug — had assumed the throne.

The throne of the Second Mage of the Kingdom, that is.

And, it's been a good year. Adrien had ditched the princess for her. A wonderful character development.

For Marinette.

No, but really, he had left Chloe, and ever since, Marinette's not sure if Chloe has left her room at all.

As much as Marinette wants to give a smug, "Ha. Serves her right!" she's honestly a little worried. Because, as the narrator has already stated, it's been a year.

One full year.

Like the almost full year it took for the author to finally write out this sidestory.

(Tragic.)

And one full year is a very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very long time not to leave your room.

(At this point, the author would like to state that it has also been a very long time since she left her room. But, unlike Chloe, she was not tragically broken up with by a handsome fiance, so she has no excuse.)

So, since it's been a very long time, Marinette has begun contemplating whether or not it would be a good idea to start a 'Missing Persons Alert' for Chloe.

But...nah.

After all, this story is about Marinette, not Chloe. There's a reason why the story isn't titled, "Chloe, the Teenage (Sassy) Witch."

I mean it almost was. But Chloe didn't cut the minimum level of sass necessary to be in consideration for the protagonist.

Yes, I know what you're thinking. There are auditions for fanfiction too, silly reader.

Anyway, back to what else went down during the year.

Well, there was that one time Marinette almost blew up half the Waterfront kingdom after trying to capture a criminal by using her trusty yo-yo. There was also that one time Marinette transcended the reaches of space and time, opening up a portal to an alternate dimension and finding herself in the foreign lands of Australia, where she was forced to survive a full week on only Golden Gaytimes that she ransacked from a heavyweight, kickboxing champion named "Kendawg the Kangaroo." Oh. There was also that time she raised a hellish landscape of bread zombies because some people liked to waste beautiful flour products, and she, as a champion of justice, just could not let that slide.

But none of that's really important. Or interesting, for the matter.

You know what is important and interesting?

Adrien.

Speaking of Adrien, Marinette's learned a very interesting thing about him recently.

Very interesting.

And very tragic.

See, Adrien has a mother.

Well, he had a mother.

Up until the point when she fell through a rift in space and ended up in the foreign lands of Australia. (Marinette had to fight off T-Swizzle the Tremendous Tarantula and Bob the Opossum to recover Adrien's mother and deliver her back to his handsome hands. But, I guess since she's been returned to Adrien, that means he once again has a mother.)

Anyway, this mother of his gave him many precious memories. One of them being her magical-well-not-quite-magical-since-she-couldn't-actually-do-magic-but-they're-magical-because-delicious-is-why cookies.

Cookies.

Cookies.

Cookies.

Marinette's worst nightmare.

And she knows what you're thinking. But Marinette? Aren't cookies just like bread?

No.

Wrong.

Absolutely completely utterly incorrect. How dare you even try to insinuate that.

See, bread is soft and melts gently in your mouth when you bite into it.

Cookies are hard and made of sadness.

Well, turns out, it's been years since Adrien's had any cookies. In fact, the first thing he's asked of his mom upon her return from the dangerous lands of Australia was for her to bake him some cookies. Up until this point, Marinette had had absolutely no idea he was into such monstrosities. And it is now up to her to rectify this singular fault of his.

This brings us to our current situation.

Marinette.

In the castle kitchen.

Four hundred thousand pounds of flour, six tons of butter, and every other ingredient known to witchkind.

The kitchen staff cowering in terror in the corner.

Today, ladies and gentlemen and dapper nonbinary fellows, Marinette is going to make the most delicious batch of bread the world has ever seen.

And she's going to share it all.

With Adrien.

And only Adrien.

Smile on her face, she gets to cooking.

~Obligatory Time Skip Because the Art of Breadmaking is an Ancient Art of Which the Author is Not Knowledgeable~

Marinette smiles, wiping off the sweat from her forehead and the tears of joy from her eyes. Yes, it's finally complete.

All the bread imaginable finally at her feet.

It's beautiful. (Bread beautiful.)

Delicately placing select pieces of bread on a tray, Marinette tries to get the perfect baesthetic. (Bread aesthetic, but also bae aesthetic because this is for Adrien and he is the bae.)

And with that, she leaves the kitchen with a skip in her step, leaving behind a bunch of terrified chefs with tears streaming down their eyes as they realize in horror that they'll have to serve bread to the king for the next half century.

"Oh Adrien~" Marinette struts confidently into the room. "I have a surprise for you!"

"Really?" He turns around, relaxing his arms from a spell he had been trying to craft for the past hour.

It was a spell on how to turn himself into a peacock.

Don't ask why.

Seriously.

Don't.

With the most adorably innocent smile in the world, Marinette offers him the tray of bread. "Here. I made these for you."

Adrien looks down, quickly counting about twenty pieces of bread. And they're all different types of bread, too. He counts several pastries, a croissant, four buns, two rolls...oh dear.

"What is this for?" he asks.

"Oh, just—" Marinette shrugs. "—I wanted to surprise you, is all."

"Well, thank you, Marinette." He reaches to try the croissant first.

And here, the author would like to pause the story and introduce to her readers a brand new segment! It's titled, "Marinette the Teenage (Sassy) Witch Sidestory, but every time Adrien eats a piece of bread, the reader gets the entire Bee Movie script instead!" Ready?

Well, ready or not, that's what you're getting.

Raising it to his mouth, Adrien takes a bite of the croissant.

According to all known laws of aviation, there is no way a bee should be able to fly. Its wings are too small to get its fat little body off the ground. The bee, of course, flies anyway because bees don't care what humans think is impossible. Yellow, black. Yellow, black. Yellow, black. Yellow, black. Ooh, black and yellow! Let's shake it up a little. Barry! Breakfast is ready! Coming! Hang on a second. Hello? Barry? Adam? Can you believe this is happening? I can't. I'll pick you up. Looking sharp. Use the stairs. Your father paid good money for those. Sorry. I'm excited. Here's the graduate. We're very proud of you, son. A perfect report card, all B's. Very proud. Ma! I got a thing going here. You got lint on your fuzz. Ow! That's me! Wave to us! We'll be in row 118,000. Bye! Barry, I told you, stop flying in the house! Hey, Adam. Hey, Barry. Is that fuzz gel? A little. Special day, graduation. Never thought I'd make it. Three days grade school, three days high school. Those were awkward. Three days college. I'm glad I took a day and hitchhiked around the hive. You did come back different. Hi, Barry. Artie, growing a mustache? Looks good. Hear about Frankie? Yeah. You going to the funeral? No, I'm not going. Everybody knows, sting someone, you die. Don't waste it on a squirrel. Such a hothead. I guess he could have just gotten out of the way. I love this incorporating an amusement park into our day. That's why we don't need vacations. Boy, quite a bit of pomp...under the circumstances. Well, Adam, today we are men. We are! Bee-men. Amen! Hallelujah! Students, faculty, distinguished bees-

No, the author is kidding. She's not going to subject you to the entire Bee Movie script. Not because her friend has begun kinkshaming her over it. Nope. Definitely not because of that.

Anyway, just as Adrien finally took a bite out of the croissant, his mom came waltzing into the room.

"Adrien!" she calls out. "The cookies are finally ready."

In his moment of glee, Adrien's hand jolts, accidentally releasing the croissant which then falls ever so slowly onto the floor.

Adrien looks down.

Marinette looks down.

Adrien's mother smiles.

"Marinette...I'm really sorry about that," Adrien says, rubbing his hair worriedly as he looks upon the carnage.

"No, no." Marinette tries her best to hold back her sniffles. "It's fine."

It's not fine. She worked hard on that croissant. And now it's on the dirty castle floor.

Still, Adrien walks over to take from his mother's tray of cookies, and takes a bite without hesitation.

And then he smiles a smile so radiant it rivals the sun.

Marinette has never seen him so happy.

Curious now, she puts her tray of bread down and takes a cookie from Adrien's mother, still giving her warm motherly smile.

Marinette takes a bite.

It's crunchy. It's too sweet. It's a little burnt.

Marinette doesn't get it.

"Alright, I have some business to attend to now." Adrien's mother sets the tray of cookies down on one of the tables. "Don't eat them too fast now, dear." She leaves.

Just as she does, Adrien finishes his cookies.

Marinette, too, finishes swallowing her bite. She looks down at the cookie, puzzled.

Why does Adrien enjoy these cookies so much?

What do cookies have that bread doesnt?

"Marinette," Adrien calls out. "You have some crumbs on your lips."

A little flustered, Marinette moves to wipe it off her lips. But she's a little slow, for just as she raises a hand to brush the crumbs off, Adrien is suddenly in front of her, leaning in to her. She gives out a small squeak of shock, but too late — his lips are already on hers. She moans slightly into his embrace, and as he parts, he licks her lips.

"There." He smiles. It's angelic but she knows that there's still traces of the sly, cat-boy debonair in him. "I got it for you."

If Marinette was flustered before, then there are no words for how she feels now. Even after a year of being courted by this handsome wizard, every kiss still leaves butterflies in her stomach.

But...

Marinette eyes the tray of cookies.

Maybe cookies aren't so bad after all.

For the next week, Marinette walks around everywhere with cookie crumbs all over her face but Adrien never pulls off that kissing stunt again, leaving the rest of the castle staff to think Marinette an unsanitary witch trying to push the limits of fashion. Chloe also exited her room for the first time in a year, only to return back to her room in a fit of tears when she realized that Adrien was still dating that disgusting witch who lacks the absolute shame not to dump her face in a vat of crumbs.

But still, they all lived sassily ever after.

A/N: Hi! Sorry for the very long wait. I hope this even half made it up for that! Anyway, this story is officially done and I am finally rid of a small part of my guilty writer's conscious.

Anyway, as this story suggests, I would like to propose a new headcanon involving Adrien's mother:

Adrien's mother is not dead. She's in Australia. They have all these emo paintings on the wall because you can never escape Australia. It is impossible to swim out of Australia with all the box jellyfish living ominously in the ocean.

End of headcanon.

Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed!