of vampire queens & jellybeans

chapter 0

flavors of red

red comes in all different shades—brick, crimson, ruby, burnt…the list goes on and on, longer than Marceline's got either the time or patience to continue. The point is, there are a lot of different shades—a lot of different…subcolors…crammed into one very general color.

So, really, it follows that red comes in all different flavors, as well.

And it's a good thing, too, because red's all Marceline's eaten since…well, since a long time ago, since her (actual) twenty-first birthday, and if red came in just one flavor, life would get very boring, very quickly.

And Marceline hates being bored.

Unfortunately, a lot of things tend to get boring when you've been assing around for a thousand years and will continue to do so for a thousand more until the bloody world comes to an end. Then again, she survived one apocalypse—who's to say she won't survive another?

But that's depressing.

Back to the topic at hand, then.

A lot of things get dull once you've lived through them enough times.

Red doesn't, though. Red never gets dull, because it feels like for each time Marceline's let the thought cross her mind that perhaps, perhaps she's tasted all the shades of red there are to be sampled, something just a little bit darker, just a little bit lighter, just a little bit completely and utterly different than anything she's ever come across in her thousand years turns up.

And she loves it.

She adores it, basks in the uniquenessof each flavor, from the juiciest of rubies to the most bitter of bow ties. It isn't the taste that matters, not anymore—it's the feeling she gets from encountering something new, even after all this time. It doesn't even matter if it's the most delicious thing she's ever tasted or if it's absolutely wretched, just as long as it's new and it's different and it's red.

Still, if she were to list her favorite reds, the list would be comprised mostly of the darker end of the spectrum—you know, your crimsons, your rubies, your darker fuchsias. Burgundy is delicious. They're juicier, more flavorful the darker they get, like the red itself is the very essence of flavor, and the degree to which it is present in an object drastically effects the overall taste. When red starts to get lighter, particularly when there's a whole lot of white mixed in, it starts to taste weak, like that nasty 'tea' junk Bonnibel's always sipping (with her pinky raised, ankles crossed prim and proper just like the perfect little princess she's always been—although, and maybe it's just Marceline, but it doesn't seem like Bonnibel used to be quite so perfect).

Sometimes, though, the strength of the flavor stays, but the flavor itself is corrupted, and it ends up tasting like medicine. Not that Marceline remembers what medicine tastes like.

Pink's a lot like that. Pink is thick and Marceline is quite sure that if colors had textures, it would be thick, difficult to swallow, just barely a liquid at all.

And why, you may ask, would Marceline the Vampire Queen ever even want to try pink, being knowledgeable as she is on shades of red and which to avoid?

Well, first of all, it, like most mistakes that we wish we could regret but don't, was an accident. She'd been messing with Bonnibel (back before the Ooo's precious princess had gotten that stick lodged quite so far up her…well, anyway), floating around in her 'thinking space', but just out of the princess's line of sight. She danced around in her peripheral vision, waiting for her to bite, waiting for her to start a fight, waiting for her…just, waiting. Bonnibel, of course, hadn't disappointed.

"Marceline!" she'd snapped then, slamming her hands down on the ridiculously long table she'd been sitting at while pouring over some (extremely boring) academic books, "Can't you see I'm studying? Stop being such a patoot or, at the very least, go bother someone else!"

"A patoot, really, Bonnibel?" Marceline had snorted, relaxing into a lazy position, back hunched and arms swinging between her legs. "Is that the best you could come up with?"

"On the spot, yes!" the princess had defended, coloring prettily. Marceline had cocked her head then, eyes glittering with mischief. Unfortunately, Bonnibel had either not recognized the little spark or had chosen to ignore it at her own risk, and continued, "Besides, it's true, isn't it?"

Marceline had sighed, stretching her lean body out to its full extent, arms twisted behind her head. "Yeah, I guess," she'd said, shrugging. Then, with renewed vigor, she'd lunged forward so that her face was less than an inch from Bonnibel's, grinning toothily. "Hey," she'd said then, wanting to work quickly lest her friend break from her closeness-induced stupor (Bonnibel was staring at her like a cat in heat, eyes blown and cheeks coloring even further), "I've always kind of wondered what pink tastes like."

Unfortunately for Marceline, that seemed to have been some sort of trigger, because Bonnibel's back went rigid once more, and she had pulled away from the vampire with a huff. "Well, clearly," she began (in an unnecessarily patronizing tone, Marceline had noted), "it would taste like any other shade of red, just in a lesser concentration. It stands to reason that white, the second primary color involved in the mixing of pink (although, really, white isn't actually a color so much as it is a shade), would have little to no taste, meaning that it would take away from the flavor of the red, although I still don't see the scientific merit behind feeding on colors. Although I suppose there are more colors in the world than there is food, so perhaps—"

Okay, so here's where Marceline had messed up. She'd only meant to shut her up—only meant to shock her a little bit and then get a few good hours of teasing in from it—but Bonnibel had moved at the last second, and suddenly Marceline's long, sharp fangs, which had been set to merely prick the princess without actually breaking the skin, were piercing straight through.

It had all happened exceedingly quickly after that—the taste exploded into Marceline's mouth despite the vampire's (somewhat ambiguous, but nonetheless generally) moral intentions, Bonnibel had let out an involuntary, breathy huff of air that could have been mistaken for either a gasp or a moan, but not both, and as much as Marceline had wanted to recoil, both for the sake of their friendship and the sake of her taste buds (because pink really was a horrible flavor), some…thing held her there, motionless and powerless to her baser reflexes.

Bonnibel had slapped her after that and promptly kicked her out of the castle, despite Marceline's (extremely rational) protests that the accident itself was actually not her fault, but Bonnibel's (although in hindsight, she did see the downfalls of that argument). Still, the princess demanded Marceline leave the Candy Kingdom and never return.
Naturally, Marceline had shown up at her window the next day, dodging miscellaneous pink missiles hurled at her by the princess, wrinkling her nose involuntarily at the very sight of the color. And really, Marceline's heart was in the right place—she'd meant to come to apologize, to hug and make up.

And she had. Except then a tight embrace had turned to a tentative kiss on the cheek, had turned to a shy kiss on the mouth, had turned to a less than shy kiss on the neck, had turned into the night that would change both of their lives (and relationships with each other) forever.

Because Marceline has (had, will) always thrown every ounce of herself into everything she does, so of course despite their mutual desires to pretend that night had never happened and their (also mutual) fears of commitment and, much more so, depending on someone else after having been independent for so long, she found herself swiftly falling for the pink-haired princess. And she knew (she knows) Bonnibel had too.

It's just that Bonnibel was always just a little bit better at hiding her feelings—a little bit better about manipulating those around her to cover her own insecurities. When sweet, innocent little monster-mashing Finn had come along with his dog and his puppy-love, it had provided Bonnibel with the perfect distraction, and Marceline was never able to get a moment alone with the princess, be it due to her princessly duties or Finn's (admittedly humorous) antics.

And, really, it's stupid that Marceline cares at all, especially after several years have passed since Finn had come around (and several more since that night). It was only one night (mixed with a thousand glances, a thousand almost-touches), and surely that wasn't enough to grow any substantial feelings for someone, but Marceline has since come to the conclusion that maybe, just maybe, that night wasn't so special after all. That maybe, just maybe, that night hadn't changed anything at all except how they acted around each other.

That maybe, just maybe, Marceline the Vampire Queen had always been just a little bit in love with Bonnibel Bubblegum. Sorry, Princess Bonnibel Bubblegum.

Marceline will never admit it, but even now, years after she'd tasted…well, Bonnibel, but that sounded dirtier than even Marceline was cool with…she spends every night, every free moment she now has since Bonnibel generally rebuts any attempt at any type of exchange between them, flying across Ooo and beyond, trying to find a shade of red that can get the taste of pink out of her mouth.

This was written on a complete whim, since I can't get to sleep and been having SERIOUS issues with writer's block for a LONG time now (and had a rather shitty day at school-who knew bullying still happened at Veterinary Assistant school?), but I'd appreciate a review if you liked it! I want to continue this into a chapter fic (not a drama, that was just the prologue, I get enough drama in life that I don't need it in my writing), but I do wanna know if anyone would be interested in reading more if I put more up, so PLEASE review! It's very motivating for us writers, believe it or not.

Thank you for reading- I hope you enjoyed it (and that it was halfway well-written, it is almost 3 am here XP), and if you have any particular plot events you'd be curious about seeing, let me know! I don't quite know where this is going yet, so while I can't promise anything, I'd love to hear suggestions! :)

Please drop me a review if you liked it/want to see more!