Aftermath

The song ended.

Setting her bass down Marceline looked to the aged king not sure what to say "Simon... I don't-... oh glob... I mean."

The Ice king looked back at her but not with eyes of familiarity as the vampire queen hoped. Just a blank childlike stare and a gleeful grin full of shark's teeth from behind his drum set. "Wow, now that's what I call a jam sess."

Marceline's mouth just hung agape. "Seriously? You come here with all these papers and clippings, we did that song and still nothing?!" She yelled frustrated by the fact that she had only just learned about the negative effects of the crown.

"What do you mean?" The king tilted his head; he couldn't understand what was making her so upset.

"You brought them because they meant something. Didn't you?" she asked desperately looking for some sliver of her oldest friend. She felt that she was closer to having him back than she ever did before.

He walked out from behind his drums with his blue bony hands up defensively. "Hey now, I think you're looking way too much into those old things. They're just words on old clippings from my scrapbook." He lied. Honestly he did feel some attachment to the clippings when he found them but it felt no more significant than a dream... without the cosmic owl that is.

"Wait, scrapbook?" she pondered the implications of there being physical proof of his memories silently. Feeling somewhat awkward with all the tension in the air the ice king decided it would be best to leave.

Marceline grew confused as she watched the old man started to pack his things. "You're leaving? Now?" She held her hands to the top of her head almost temped to pull her hair out due to frustration.

The king tied his drum set and old keyboard to his back. "Yeah it looks like you got some stuff happening here" he said awkwardly rubbing the back of his neck. "And I'm the Ice king not a drama queen OkaAay~." He said in a tone jokingly similar to the Lumpy Space Princess.

'Is he even capable of taking anything seriously anymore?' Marceline thought as a familiar sadness started to drown her heart. 'Is it even the crown doing this or is it just that he doesn't care about me anymore. First my own dad and now him, is it me? Am I to blame for being forgotten somehow?' Her face burned red as she began to sob.

The ice king grinned to Marceline but it fell as soon as he noticed the tears started to fall to the carpet. It resonated inside him, like an echo in a cave he had long forgot about.

He's the king infamous for kidnapping every princess in Ooo he could get his hands on but no matter what he did or how he did, he never made a signal one cry. Yet she was and he didn't know why or what the appropriate thing to do was.

To her surprise and the relief from the depression she felt trying to come to terms with losing her friend yet again, she found herself in another embrace. This one was different from the last, the last one was full of uncertainty over the meaning but this hug was familiar as well as simple; she was crying and he wanted to her to stop.

She buried her tears into his long, oddly absorbent, beard embarrassed by her breakdown but more ashamed that she let such a dear friend loose so much of himself and not help. She always thought that he was just a few pages short of a book but instead he was just an old man who was falling apart at the seams with no one to help.

Looking up to his face, her heart fell at his blank expression. It was like all that he was doing was the appropriate to do but he felt nothing and more tears fell.

Then something else happened that surprised Marceline. An ice cold gentle cyan hand came up to her crimson cheek wiping away the tears. Marceline watched his eyes in stunned silence as they studied his hand, like it had just moved independently from the rest of him. The ice king released her from the hug guiding her to her couch, gently sitting her down.

"Well I'll be going now" he grinned awkwardly, pointing both thumbs to the door "If you want to... umm come by later I'll probably have kidnapped princess over for you to talk to about... umm girl stuff?" he half joked confused over what happened.

"Just go you crazy jerk." She growled at him while hugging a pillow annoyed at his obliviousness but she had to admit even with his messed up mind he was still more sensitive to her than her own father.

"Hey that's just hurtful." the Ice king weakly defended before getting a face full of pillow, he grunted as he walked out of the door. Only to be stopped by his drum set and keyboard tied to his back that clashed against the frame.

"Clash"

"Oh jeez"

"Clash"

"For the love of Glob, come on"

"Clash"

"How did I even get in here in the first place?!" he shouted in frustration in the same sense as an old man getting angry at an overly complicated piece of technology.

"Will you leave already?!" Marceline yelled. She used to find his bumbling funny when she was a kid but now it was just really annoying.

"I'm trying!" the king whined pitifully wiggling his arms in the air like a tortoise stuck on its back.

Marceline grunted irritated. She just wanted the night to be over but that would mean she'll have to help the crazy king. Getting up, she marched over and examined the jam the king got himself in.

"Right when I count to 3, you pull and I push" Marceline instructed bracing herself against the drums.

"Gotcha" the king agreed holding a thumbs up above his head for her to see.

"Good... 1... 2... thre-"

"Wait wait wait!" Ice king interrupted waving his arms in the air urgently.

"Huh? What's wrong?" she asked worried that something might have happened to him.

"Did you mean on 3 or after 3?" he asked innocently unaware that a red faced vampire queen was grinding her teeth at his silliness.

Of course it was 5 seconds till the ice king heard a very angry "Vampire Kick!" Suddenly flying through the air unaided by his snowy beard but it did make for a softer face-plant in the hard cave floor.

"Ouchies" the king whimpered picking himself up and rubbing his kicked butt, thankfully he wore bandages as underwear because he got his butt kick so often. He felt like such a genius when he thought of that one.

He turned around to see Marceline scowling at him from her dented door way. He smiled nervously and waved. "Well I had a great time jamming out with you, lets-" she slammed the door hard enough to crack the wall around the door frame. "- hang some more, some time."

He scratched his stomach idly as he stared at the door not noticing Finn and Jake staring at him.

"Hmm J. T. Dawgzone was right, some ladies are "straight tripping yo" " he huffed to himself before flapping his magical beard and flying away.