Chapter Text
The skies above Uncle Gumbald’s cabin were beautifully clear. Stars littered the sky, glistening millions of miles away from the Land of Ooo. If it weren’t for the rhythmic chirps of crickets breaking the silence of the night, Marceline might have thought time was frozen where she stood. The subtle but chilly breeze in the air was another indicator that clocks were still ticking, swaying pumpkin leaves and blowing strands of hair in her face; it was nothing Marceline’s letterman couldn’t protect her from. Princess Bubblegum however, resting gently on Marcy’s shoulder after their varmint-filled excursion, shuttered in her sleep.
Marcy looked to her right and watched as Bubblegum's eyelids flickered in her dream state. She didn’t feel bad for not waking the ex-Princess of the Candy Kingdom up in 15 minutes like she’d requested. It wasn’t for malicious reasons, of course. She just figured Bubblegum needed some well deserved rest, and if that meant sleeping on the porch with a shoulder as her only headrest, then so be it. She would take the obstructed blood flow in her arm if it meant Bubblegum could shut her eyes for a bit. Glob knew she needed it.
In the calmness of the night, Marcy couldn’t help but blush as she imagined what the princess could possibly be dreaming of. Dare she hope it was about her? It was quite bold for her to think, so like the strands of hair blocking her eyes in the night, she pushed the thought away. Their relationship was just beginning to go back to normal, and she didn’t want to mess that up by reigniting extinguished flames. Although, after their moment in the Rock Candy Mines, it seemed like her candle never really went out. Regardless of her real thoughts on the matter, she didn’t want Bubblegum under any more stress than she already was, so she tried to think of something else while she surveyed the pumpkin patch for varmints.
A couple more minutes went by and another breeze grazed Bubblegum’s pink skin, causing her to shudder again. It was getting colder by the minute, and Marcy thought that if the varmints hadn’t come back yet they probably wouldn’t for the rest of the night, so she carefully picked up the shivering Princess and carried her inside to the bedroom. This bedroom was significantly less extravagant than her pink painted room in the castle, but it did its duty and provided shelter for the exiled monarch, so what was there to complain about? Marcy gently placed Bubblegum on the bed and covered her in a warm blanket to fight off the crisp air outside. Once again, as unwelcome as intrusive thoughts were, she couldn’t help but hope somewhere in that intelligent brain Bubblegum was thinking of her.
Oh boy. She’d have to figure all that out later.
For now she thought it best that she just end the night on a high note and fly back to her sweet, comfortable cave. Marcy walked back out onto the porch with her hands in her pockets and took a deep breath of the cool air.
“Hey Pepbutt, you can come back now,” she yelled.
Peppermint Butler, as determined and loyal as ever, jogged back over to the small cabin from the bottom of the hill, making a hup hup sound with every step his short, little legs could take. His blaster didn’t look used, meaning he likely hadn’t seen any varmints since she and Bubblegum trapped them in the mines a couple hours ago.
“Will you take over the watch for me? I told Bonnie I’d do it, but I should probably get back home before the sun comes up. I don’t have an umbrella with me.”
The truth was that while the sun was a partial motive, she also wanted to leave to clear her head about the situation. Just earlier in the night she was asking Bubblegum to hang out as a friend, but now it was different. How would she act the next time they spoke to each other? Marcy was convinced Bubblegum would be the same, but after their interactions tonight, it was going to be a little difficult for Marcy to pretend she didn’t feel something other than friendship. She really didn’t want to find out any time soon, so leaving was the best course of action.
“I was beginning to think I was going to have to stay over there all night.”
“Yeah, sorry about that. I kinda forgot.” Marcy chuckled and gave a smile.
“Where’s the Princess?” he said.
“Oh I put her to bed. She was really tired from fighting those varmints, but don’t worry. She’s safe and sound all covered up.” Marcy had the image of Bubblegum sleeping cozily in her brain, her chest moving up and down methodically from her breathing. How adorable…
No! Stop thinking that!
“I’ll catch you around, candy clown,” she said hastily. She gave double finger guns and flew off towards the bed waiting for her at home. She could hear a distant “hey!” from the candy butler as she lifted off. She chuckled again.
On the trip home she thought about what she was going to do to fix her brain from seeing Bubblegum in that way again, but eventually she stopped fighting the feeling when the thrill of delusion convinced her to give in to its embrace. Tomorrow she’d for sure commit to burying those feelings deep within her. How hard could it really be?
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The following morning Princess Bubblegum woke up to warm sunlight nipping at her face through her bedroom window. She remembered falling asleep on the porch and using Marceline’s shoulder as a headrest the night before, but she couldn’t piece together how she got from there to her room. A bed was by far more comfortable than a shoulder, but she had to admit it was nice to be that close with her again. Part of her wished she’d woken up still laying on Marceline. The thought caused heat to rise in Bubblegum’s cheeks, no doubt turning pinker by the second. To her those were almost forbidden thoughts considering their history, so she pushed them away in an attempt to convince herself she never felt them in the first place. Those were silly feelings anyway. She was the ruler of the Candy Kingdom for crying out loud! She couldn’t cloud her mind with adolescent thoughts like that. But it was nice…
Bubblegum rose out of bed and stretched her limbs in all directions to wake them up. She shuffled to the kitchen and found Peppermint Butler reading a newspaper at the dining room table.
“Good morning, Princess,” he said with enthusiasm.
“Good morning. Where’d Marcy go?” She tried to stifle her true curiosity about the answer to that question.
He put down his newspaper, revealing bags under his eyes, “She carried you to bed and left me in charge of the varmints. I’m happy to report I didn’t see any all night!”
Bubblegum blushed at the thought of Marceline carrying her to bed. Why didn’t she just wake her up in 15 minutes like she’d asked? Despite her pride trying to fight the gesture, her heart couldn’t help but be grateful to have someone like Marcy. As a friend, of course. Only as a friend.
“Oh, I see. That was nice of her,” she said in a semi-flat tone, hoping it wouldn’t reveal too much. “And thank you for watching over the pumpkins, Pepbutt. Our new garden kingdom is finally on an upward trajectory,” she declared with pride. She poured some coffee in a mug and walked to the window to survey the garden.
“Thank you, Princess. I stayed up all night.”
“Yeah I can tell. I’m surprised you’re still standing, to be honest.” She took a sip of her drink.
“My loyalty to you surpasses my need for sleep,” he picked up his newspaper and kept reading. Although to Bubblegum it looked less like reading and more like he was staring aimlessly at the page, most definitely due to sleep deprivation.
She sat in a chair across from him. “I think you should get some sleep, man. You’ve been up for over 24 hours.”
“That’s nonsense. We need to add fertilizer to the garden today. You can’t do all that by yourself!” He put the paper back down and looked at her with ____. From across the table Bubblegum could really see the bags now.
“As your Princess I command you to get some sleep!” she said matter of factly. Maybe if she pulled the superiority card he’d finally listen to her.
“But who is going to help you with the garden? Finn and Jake are helping Hot Dog Princess with her kingdom’s crow problem.”
Bubblegum thought about it for a second. That was true, Finn and Jake were occupied for probably the rest of the day. She didn’t have banana guards to help her out anymore, and the citizens of her new “kingdom” were inanimate, so they would obviously be of no aid. That left one other person she could call, and after last night she wasn’t sure how to approach said person. She began to break the situation down using logic:
From a rational standpoint it wasn’t so awkward that a friend would take her to bed after she slept comfortably on their shoulder for hours. And it wasn’t so awkward that she would request to see them the next day, either. And, y’know, it wasn’t awkward that she would have honestly preferred her friend to stay the night because she appreciated them so much and would have enjoyed their company in the morning…as a friend. All completely normal friend behaviors. Thus approaching that friend would be the same as if none of that happened. Problem solved.
“I’ll call Mareline and ask her to help out again. In return I’ll bake her a cherry pie,” she said, hoping the cherry pie would make it more of an act of service in exchange for payment rather than her wanting to spend time with Marcy. Thinking about them being alone together made her stomach subtly tie up in knots, or maybe it was butterflies. She couldn’t tell which one it was, but it made her question why calling Marceline was such a daunting task. Marcy was just a friend, right?
Peppermint Butler eyed her up and down, trying to find something he felt was there, but couldn’t tell what. “Very well, Princess.” He stood up and pattered his way to his bedroom. The minute the bedroom door closed she heard a loud thump sound - no doubt it was Pepbutt collapsing from exhaustion. Bubblegum appreciated her butler’s commitment, but she knew that sometimes he could push himself a little too far for his own good. Try as she might, she couldn’t get him to take any breaks without explicit permission, and even then he’d fight it.
She took another sip of her coffee, enjoying the silence of the cabin. The noise was the one thing that was totally different between there and the Candy Kingdom. Out by Lake Butterscotch the only noise made was by animals going about their business or the trees ruffling in the distance from the cool wind. A stark difference from the kingdom where the noise of her subjects was the one constant in her life. That’s not to say she didn’t welcome the noise though. After all those centuries ruling over her candy citizens it almost became a comfort to hear their laughs or silly conversations play out. When she first moved out into her uncle’s cabin it was eerily quiet to her, amplifying her anxiety about the situation ten fold, but she learned to appreciate it fast. What else was she to do? She couldn’t go anywhere else. After she quit her job as Princess she considered asking Marceline to let her and Peppermint Butler bunk in the cave for a little while, but she wasn’t sure how the Vampire Queen would respond to such a request, so she thought it was best to keep to herself.
Bubblegum got up from her chair and put her now empty mug in the kitchen sink. She guessed now was as good a time as any to get that phone call in. She walked over to the wired phone mounted on her wall and dialed Marceline’s number.
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Ring, ring…
Marceline’s room was dark, illuminated only by the dimly lit lanterns draped across the ceiling beams. She floated above her bed on her side with her knees tucked to her chest, hair dangling from the height. The buzz of her musical equipment in the corner filled the room with a calming white noise.
Ring, ring…
She stirred in her sleep, trying to block out whatever noise was coaxing her awake. To her it was incredibly early and she had plenty of reasons to be asleep.
Ring, ring…
The phone was winning the fight, but she threw a pillow at it in a last ditch effort to emerge victorious. It missed.
Ring, ring …
“Ugh…fine!” She rolled over and grabbed her blue leech shaped phone and answered the call. Drowsily she began to speak, “Hello?”
“Hey Marcy, it’s Bubblegum.”
Marcy’s eyes widened. If she had known it was the Princess she wouldn’t have let it ring for so long. Was she calling about last night? “Oh hey…I didn’t expect you to call.” She tried not to sound like she was just asleep, but her sleep ridden voice was betraying her.
“Yeah, I’m sorry. Did I wake you up?
Yes, you did, but that’s okay. “No, no I was just playing my bass. Thinkin’ up some new tunes, writing new songs…you know the drill.” She floated over to her bass to play a couple strings in an effort to convince Bubblegum she wasn’t lying.
“Oh that’s good,” it worked , “Hey, I was going to ask you a question. Peppermint Butler is pretty beat from varmint patrol last night, so he won’t be able to help me lay some new fertilizer in the garden. I was wondering if you’d be able to help me? I’ll bake you an apple pie in return for your troubles.” Marcy heard Bubblegum shuffle through the phone. She guessed she was clear of any conversations about last night, which made her simultaneously relieved and curious to know how the actual conversion would play out. But for now she would have to sit with that curiosity.
“Oh, yeah I can come and help. I’ve got nothing else to do today other than some laundry. What time?”
“I was thinking around sundown. I know you can’t be out in the sun and gardening isn’t an indoor activity…well at least not the gardening I need help with. I have some bioengineered plants in the lab I’ve been working on. They’ll be the new subjects for my garden kingdom when they’re finally finished...” Marcy thought it was really sweet to hear Bubblegum going on about her passions. There was something about the Princess’s confidence and intelligence that she found really attractive. She was sure plenty of people would have checked out of the borderline scientific lecture by now, but even if Bubblegum were to talk about it for hours upon hours, she’d be right there to listen. “But anyway,” Bubblegum’s speech came to a close, “it’s not too much. We just need to lay down some fertilizer if you’re okay with that.”
Marcy was quietly plucking some strings on her bass. “Yeah, totally. I’ll be there,” she said a little more enthusiastically than she wanted to.
“Great! Thank you so much. I’ll see you then!”
“Okay. Bye!”
And with that the phone call came to a close. Marcy gave a huge sigh of relief knowing she didn’t say or do anything stupid to compromise the facade. Try all she might, though she couldn’t help but analyze their conversation. Maybe if she tried hard enough she could find something that alluded to Bubblegum liking her back. When she said “I’ll see you then” was she smiling? It sounded like she was smiling. She chastised herself for letting last night’s delusion bleed into the next day despite her promise to stop, but she still had the rest of the day to figure it out. It was imperative that she control her thoughts before she had to put up a front in person because if she didn’t, she’d be in for a world of embarrassment. Thankfully she didn’t have to be there until sunset, so for now the only goal was to knock herself out of it.
“Okay, Marceline…,” she said to herself. She got up and walked towards the bathroom. “Let’s do it.” She started the shower and closed the door behind her.