AN: I've been working on this on and off for almost a week, and finished in the middle of the night, so please feel encouraged to bring it up if it does not make as much sense as it could. Cheers.
All the madness in the wake of the Ice King's latest folly aside, Bonnibel finally found the time – however close she was cutting it – to manage the arrangements for The Candy Kingdom's Annual Spring Feast Hunt. Three hours to herself! Three whole hours without delegating task forces and committees to their jobs, overseeing the processes, or greeting noble guests from various other parts of Ooo; it seemed like a dream, which was exactly where she was heading to if she could have her way – to sleep.
The night before was hectic. Not everyone was so ready to leap back into the preparations so soon after being de-glitched. She had to pull some major Princessing to convince everyone that the Spring Feast Hunt was worth upholding upon its scheduled time: sunrise on the equinox. As a scientist, she did not see the significance of the day that held no relevance for the nearly eternal spring of the kingdom, or the fact that they had to go through several mathematical formulas to appropriate the correct date for the occasion seeing as Ooo hadn't had a proper equinox since before the Mushroom War. Equinox in itself, according to the records in the royal information chamber, was not all it was originally thought to be. But people celebrated it before, and they continued to. As Princess, it was her duty to uphold traditions. She would lead the people in the hunt as soon as she got some rest.
Rest would never come.
A click, and it was a subtle click, was nothing she would have picked up if she weren't so high strung from the stress. Well, that happened a lot, so she could not think of a time where it wouldn't go noticed.
Nothing was at the window that she turned to find was open even though she knew she closed it. Therefore, there was only one thing it was likely to be, and that wasn't the wind.
"Heeeeey, Bonnnnnniiiiiiie," a smooth humming sounded from above Bonnibel's bed, which she laid flat upon her back attempting to succumb to sleep.
Turning her head again to face forward, looking above her, she saw nothing but the ceiling.
"Marceline! I-" she began with a harsh tone she quickly realized was the wrong way to go about with Marceline. She had learned from the Door Lord indecent. Calmly, she tried again, "- I mean, Marcy... Are you going to stay up there all night?"
Her voice lowered into a whisper, sounding sincerely caring despite how Bonnibel really did want to get some sleep. She also really wanted to see Marceline, the only noble in all of Ooo she looked forward to greeting, but... but sleep.
As an answer, Marceline dropped the invisibility act and literally dropped from above.
Her knees landed on split opposite sides of Bonnibel; her left more beside Bonnie's waist and her right further up on the left side of Bonnie's stomach. Her hands fell below Bonnie's arms, but did not stay there. Marceline pushed them forward, and they dragged on the sheets covering the princess until they wormed under the girl's shoulders and Marceline could hook her into something of a hug.
Instead of left or right, Marceline's head faced forward until the bridge of her nose pressed against the curve of Bonnibel's forehead. Bonnibel noticed Marcy had a soft spot for intimacy that didn't just involve kissing and other higher tiers of a relationship. Marceline found comfort in the contact, however much she would never speak of it or would in fact deny. She had called it when she first put their foreheads together without a kiss to begin or follow it, the world's softest headbutt before laughing. Marcy liked it. Bonnibel liked it, too. She didn't really care whatever it was Marceline called it; if she wanted to do it, Bonnibel would let her.
Marceline laughed when she felt Bonnie's arms run up and wrap around her neck, tightening like a lock, but in no way near aggressively. Marceline just pushed forward.
Bonnibel groaned and felt the press of themselves against each other. Her eyes fell closed moments ago, and were struggling to stay that way. She also struggled to hold the other back, not necessarily against Marceline, but with herself to stop letting her. For now.
"It's bed-time," she stated the obvious almost remorsefully.
"Well, yeah, duh. That's why you're in bed," the queen smirked with her razor fangs dangerously close to the pink of the princess's lips. She pulled back enough to see the flush of color across her face; beautiful, beautiful pink crossing the border into delicious, delicious red. Suuuch a sight.
Bonnibel groaned again, curtly with a small frown.
"Bed-time as in I need my sleep, Marcy," she explained in a sigh.
Marceline's dark eyes watched the motion covered by Bonnie's eyelids. Her face was serene other than that. Marceline brought her hand to displace the layer of fringe falling over Bonnie's face, smoothing over the princess's skin, around her temple, and down the curve of her cheek until she cupped her jaw.
"Then sleep, silly," Marceline instructed.
"Close my window, Marceline," Bonnibel ordered.
Marceline let her grip on the princess relax, and began to float again. Drifting away from Bonnibel, Marceline rolled through the air and back over to her point of entrance. She grabbed it firmly and yanked it closed. The wood hit together resolutely. For good measure, she twisted the lock.
"Ain't no more baddies sneaking in through your window, Princess," Marceline informed her, craning herself back and crossing her legs. She put her arms behind her head and watched as the princess rolled off of her back and finally opened her eyes again.
"Hm, what good does that do if the baddest baddie is already inside my room?" Bonnibel mused lightly, watching the vampire watch her.
Marceline flushed a little remembering when she had claimed that, back when she was still playing evil, back when Bonnibel, or anybody really, didn't know any better.
"Well I guess you're just stuck with the Vampire Queen," Marceline drifted forward "onto" her elbows and craned over the princess losing the battle of consciousness.
Bonnibel's hands reached out as pushed the covers back and tugged the Vampire Queen in by the collar of her striped, V-neck shirt. Those, long jeans, and boots may have been okay for the hunt in a few hours, though being a predator herself Marceline could probably wear anything to hunt, and certainly more prepared to be worked in as opposed to other guest royals attending the event, but it didn't look all that comfortable to lounge in bed in. Not when compared to the t-shirt and shorts Bonnibel wore, at least, but Marceline seemed just as content when she eventually settled next to Bonnibel in her bed. When she felt something, that turned out to be Bonnie's feet, hitting her in the boots, she kicked them off and they fell over the edge. Only then did Bonnibel bring the sheets over her companion, even though they both knew she wasn't getting cold any time soon.
Quiet surrounded them like the covers themselves. Bonnibel's hands came to rest again on Marceline's collar bone, but then left that spot to drag across the gray skin of her neck and finally, tenderly, placing Marceline's face in their hold. All the while, Bonnibel kept her eyes on Marceline's bite marks.
"I wouldn't have it any other way, you know... Vampire Queen," Bonnie commented softly, like a whisper. The thing about whispers is it conspires for more whispering, even when the rest of the castle seemed miles away from the two and wouldn't bother them regardless.
"Can I be your queen?"
The meekness overcame the jest in Marceline's words. She had slowly figured out that Bonnibel was well with finding the Marceline hiding behind the facade of evilness and titles like The Baddest Girl in all of Ooo. And like the conspiracy of whispers, this realization brought on the question of the point in it anymore. Bonnie drew her out of her hiding spots.
Bonnibel couldn't keep away from looking into Marceline's eyes anymore, as hesitant as she was to make this too real for the other. Marceline could not just let this be not real. She was willing to hold things back, but keeping this feeling inside and unacknowledged seemed like the most unjust thing Bonnibel had ever heard of. That just can't.
Marceline's pupils dilated from an empty-looking black into red pin-marks that Bonnibel recognized as a very vampire thing, a mechanism of defense.
"Marceline-" Bonnibel started cautiously when she felt the other's hands shoot up and grab her something akin to how her hands were previously holding the vampire's face, only slightly more panicked and rougher in that panic. Almost violently, Marceline pulled Bonnibel into a tight hug around her neck. Bonnibel's face was forced into Marceline's shoulder and she could hear Marceline laughing forcefully. She was nervous, uneasy, panicking.
"Ah, hahaha, just messing with ya, Bonnie!" she "admitted" although Bonnibel wasn't close to believing it. No, Bonnibel couldn't believe her. She sighed, and waited until Marceline felt awkward enough to stop laughing at herself to hide the truth of the moment. Eventually, she did, and they went back into the silence of the night around them.
Her hug wasn't any less tight, though. Bonnibel almost couldn't breathe, but she wasn't trying to very much; she tried to control it. Again, she was worried about scaring the vampire off by doing such a thing like breathing too hard.
Bonnibel was too close to Marceline's markings for her liking, but Marceline's skin was nice enough to kiss, she thought. They didn't do much kissing, but that didn't mean Bonnibel didn't want it. Sometimes, she would just want it out of nowhere. Nowhere, tonight, was in the wake of an adorable, irrational panic.
If anything, the hug got tighter when Bonnibel didn't say anything. Bonnibel, even more cautious than before, wound her arms around Marceline's back, and tucked herself into a more comfortable position fully closer to Marceline. She turned her head into the vampire's neck column and then moved her mouth to Marceline's slightly pointed, entirely sensitive ear.
She considered not saying anything, but couldn't.
"I love you, Marceline," she whispered to the vampire's immediate tension. "And I have no idea what you worry about, but I know you worry very much. Too much. I only want you to be yourself."
That's when the hug started to loosen, but Bubblegum couldn't let her let go, not right now, not at least until she has said this because there was no stopping it now. And she couldn't argue against wanting this herself.
She almost reminded Marceline that she meant it that she never said Marceline had to be perfect. She didn't care for Marceline to be perfect. She only cared for Marceline and the feelings that Marceline gave her that she could never talk about let alone show.
Content in Marceline's embrace, however the position came about, Bonnibel could already feel the reaches of sleep getting to her. Her eyes fell heavily.
"That's why I won't demand anything of you. I don't even expect anything of you. I'm just going to lay here, and go to sleep. If you stay here, you're just staying here. If you leave, you'll just go. It's simple like that, Marcy."
Bonnibel had no idea what to think was going through Marceline's mind anymore. She was too tired, and she needed to get up again in two hours for the festivities. Marceline, lucky her, didn't have to worry about a thing like sleep. She was a creature of the night, after all. She could do as she pleased at night, and if she kept away from the sunlight, she the day is hers too.
"What do you want, Bonnie?"
The princess almost missed it, and she couldn't even decipher the inflection of the question. She already knew that the vampire was confused about how to deal with these things, though. She guessed she could be patient a little longer.
"Me?" the princess considered, or pretended to consider because she was pretty sure of herself. "I want you to be with me. I want to be with you."
Bonnibel wasn't leaving any room for misconceptions.
"We can be together, you know. If we want to be together, it's that simple too. But I won't make you, no matter what I want. You're going to have to want it for it to happen... Want me."
Although she was sure of herself, and adamant not to put pressure on Marceline, Bonnibel couldn't help how the last part came out pleadingly because she was sure this was real. She wasn't fooling herself, or wasting her time. They could be together. That simple.
"...I'll stay the night," Marceline said.
Bonnibel nodded into Marceline's neck, almost nuzzling as she fell deeper and deeper into sleep. Finally.
"And the hunt is in about an hour," Bonnie reminded her.
"I'm ready for that," Marceline grinned.
"...I made sure there was enough red to go around."
"Reeeally?"
And it was probably pushing it, but Bonnibel on the precipice of a subconscious space of her own design and desire, could not help it. She began to squeeze until her hold on the vampire could not be any stronger. In the cramped space left between Marceline's neck and shoulder from the equal hold Marceline still had Bonnie, Bonnibel breathed and bit and kissed so gently that even Marceline's deepest state of denial could not refuse the feeling, the meaning. Even in her state of half-aware, Bonnibel was so concentrated on the actions of her lips whispering love into Marceline's skin on the only level Marceline would accept.