"Hey Bonnie?" Marceline's voice was neutral and a bit tired, as if she'd just woken up from an afternoon nap – which wasn't quite far from reality.

"Yeah?" Bubblegum replied in a similar tone, while staring at the night sky nonchalantly. Both of them were lying side by side in the grass, arms touching and hairs sprawled behind their heads.

The newly-but-not-really crowned Princess of the Candy Kingdom had once again sneaked out of her duties to spend time with the newly-but-not-really crowned Vampire Queen, like she'd been doing for the past few months, and she was sure Peppermint Butler was looking for her everywhere by now. She'd made sure to keep the rendezvous a secret from everyone, not really wanting to be bothered with work for a while, and Marceline had happily obliged.

Even after the whole vampire incident, Marcy had refused to live with Bonnibel in the castle, but that didn't mean she disliked the company. Actually, Bubblegum was the only person she didn't mind seeing right now, but she had a reason for that. A reason she had figured out literally just now and was beating herself up for it.

"If I say something, will you be mad at me?" The vampire asked, not taking her eyes away from the falling stars above.

"Probably, yeah," Bonnie answered, in a jokingly manner. "There are a lot of 'somethings' you could tell me though, so statistically…"

"But, like," Marceline apparently wasn't in a mood to take jokes very well. "What if it's something I know will make you mad, but I need to tell you anyway?"

The Princess lifted her torso to stare down at the girl next to her. "Ok, this is getting intense," When Marceline avoided eye contact Bonnie frowned. "Marcy?"

"Ugh, you're going to kill me. Just… never mind." Both of them had had a really nice day together; they've planted some things on Marceline's new garden, played a lot of Sudoku, and the vampire even started teaching her the basics of bass playing. She didn't want to screw everything up.

"What? Lame," Of course Bonnibel wasn't going to let it go. "Come on, man, I can take it."

"Nah, this isn't a good moment."

"We're literally not doing anything, Marceline," Bonnie refuted, curiosity starting to gnaw her insides. "It's a beautiful night to end a really nice day, come on."

"That's exactly why!" Marceline finally had the courage to look at her. "I'll tell you tomorrow."

"Marcy…"

"I will! Promise."

"So not fair," Bonnie decided to lie down again in the grass. She turned on her sides to face the vampire and poked her in the ribs. "Fineeee, buttface. But you will tell me tomorrow, first thing in the morning."

Marceline started laughing and tried to grab Bonnie's hands. "S-stop, you know I'm ticklish!"

"That's your punishment!" With a smile, Bubblegum poked harder from every direction, earning a full-on laughter from the girl she'd once spent centuries with. She realized it was the first time in years she heard that kind of sound coming from Marceline, and her chest grew very warm. They used to make each other so happy back then, it was good to have that kind of memory back, even if for only a brief moment. But as fate would have it, Marceline had the power of floating, and soon got out of reach.

"You're so in trouble, princess." With a swift move, she flew down and Bonnie prepared herself for being tickled mercilessly. But instead she felt her whole body being lifted up. Looking down, she saw the spot they were on gradually get smaller and smaller.

"What are you doing?" Bonnie said, hugging Marcy's neck for safety. She didn't feel threatened in the least, though – it's not like the vampire hadn't taken her on night flights before.

"I'll take you to the Moon and leave you there until you learn to behave nicely," Was Marceline's answer.

"Oh, please do," Bonnie sighed, relieved. "Anything to take me away from that chaotic kingdom for a while."

Marceline giggled. "Can you breathe in space?"

"Can you?"

"I don't need to breathe."

"Oh, yeah." Bubblegum adjusted herself better on Marceline's arms. "Well, technically your body would still explode from the atmosphere's pressure, not to mention we'll probably freeze to death if you keep going higher. Also, the time it would take to get to the Moon at this speed would be-"

"Glob, you're a brainiac." Marceline finally stopped gaining height and just floated absentmindedly with the princess on her arms. "I just wanted to chill up here with you. It's been a while since we've seen the valley illuminated by the full moon together."

"Oh." Bonnie had no smart comments for that. She felt her face getting warmer and buried herself closer into Marcy's arms. She did it instinctively, like most things that happened around the vampire lately, things that felt natural despite the conflict that had recently happened between them. Bubblegum wondered if it was because of the thousands of times they've spent lazily hugging and touching when they were younger. Well, not younger, they've never aged, but teenagers in spirit. It was so unconsciously frequent too, now that Bonnie thought about it – the way they apparently just couldn't stand apart for a second back then. Hands, feet, arms, legs always in reach.

"You cold?" Marceline's voice was low and a gentle breath tickled Bonnie's ears, bringing her back to reality.

"Hmhmm…" The soft swing of the vampire's body was making her sleepy as well, but she wouldn't mention that. In a heartbeat Marcy took off her jacket and covered Bonnie. "But then you'll be cold."

"I don't get cold easily, don't sweat it."

"Hm." Without really wanting to let go of the warm piece of clothing on top of her, the princess just allowed the gesture to go by. "Why don't you turn into a big furry thing?"

"Like what?" Marcy had wrapped her arms around her and didn't even notice; another unconscious act, straight out of the past.

"Like a… uh," Bonnie had to think for a bit. "Big… winged… bunny." She waved her arms with each word for exaggeration. Marceline chuckled and she could feel her stomach go up and down.

"Sounds dumb."

"You're dumb."

"Ouch," Resting her chin on top of Bubblegum's head, the vampire closed her eyes. "Don't feel like turning into any animal tonight. I like that we're kinda the same size."

"Oh yeah…" Looking down at her legs, Bubblegum noticed that she was practically using Marceline's body as a bed as they floated through the sky. Not that her friend seemed to mind. Her legs rested atop Marcy's legs, fitting perfectly "That's kinda cute."

"You're cute."

"That wasn't an insult, dumb dumb." With a chuckle, Bonnie closed her eyes. Then she had a thought and opened them again. "You know, from this high up you could tell me your secret thing and I wouldn't even be able to be mad."

The princess felt Marceline's body flinch. "Why can't you wait till tomorrow?"

"I'm not a patient person, you know that better than anyone." Bonnie wanted to turn around to stare at her in the eyes, but shifting positions at this point would result in an awkward pose.

"Unfortunately…" Marceline mumbled. She was angry mainly because the mood was actually perfect for the talk, but at the same time she was afraid to say it. Still, Bonnie was right, they were hundreds of feet off the ground; the vampire had all the power in the world there. "Uuuuugh, you're so annoying. Fine."

With a nod of encouragement, Marcy sighed. "It's just that I realized something today. Something that will make you mad."

"I am not going to be—"

"Yes, you are, I know you Bonnibel."

"Then what is it?!" Bonnie yelled.

"That I never stopped crushing on you, you dumb candy!" Marcy yelled back.

Well, there was that. For a good ten seconds everything went silent; even the trees seemed to have stopped gossiping and Bubblegum was almost sure she heard someone whisper "oh my glob" from afar. Then her brain started doing the thing it always did when faced with hard situations: think logically.

"When did you…?"

"Today."

"What? I mean, how did you reach this conclu—"

"We were stargazing and I was thinking about how you helped me with the whole vamps biz, and then my mind wandered off to our first encounter, then to our first date, and then to the time when we argued and broke up, and to how actually devastated I was with that, and then to up until recently when we made up, and I think I just put all the pieces together and realized that I never stopped loving you since that day?"

"Don't end this sentence with a question mark!" Bonnie's face was completely red at this point and nitpicking was honestly how she managed to cope with the sudden confession. The outburst made her sit up, momentarily forgetting that she was on top of a very thin vampire floating in the air. "Woah!"

Marceline's arms tightened around her to keep the nervous princess from falling down. "See? Told ya you'd be mad." Bonnie slowly returned to her initial position, now very aware of the arms around her and their intertwined legs.

"I'm not mad, I'm… I mean, I have the right to be surprised." Bubblegum was calming down, absorbing the information. She'd never been the best to deal with matters of the heart; Marceline has always been the one to take the lead on that part of their relationship. "It's been so long, I had no idea you still thought about this."

"Don't you?" Marceline started to descend slowly. She was thoughtful, but not necessarily sad or upset. "It's just… I thought I had gotten over you, and I actually did for a while, when we stopped talking. But then suddenly we're friends again and all of those good times we had together come crashing down on me. And I realize… If you were to kiss me today or tomorrow I wouldn't be able to say no."

Bonnie was speechless. That was so unexpected. She looked down and decided not to say anything until she could really organize her thoughts. But another part of her brain reminded her that logic and love didn't walk hand-in-hand.

"I…" She didn't want to say things on impulse. She hated improvising; she's always needed to have a plan or schematics to guide her through things. Then she remembered her earlier thoughts, about how happy she was feeling minutes ago in the arms of the vampire, floating mindlessly through space and time. There was no reason to think right now. "I probably wouldn't say no, either."

That was pure impulse. She got rid of all the thoughts of possible consequences for that sentence. It felt so foreign to her, but also good in a way.

Marceline finally touched the ground and let go of Bonnibel. Bonnie didn't let go of her.

"That was the thing. I'm sorry for laying this on you out of nowhere." Marcy said.

"No, don't…" Bonnie took a deep breath and finally looked at her. "Don't be. Thank you for being honest with me."

They stood there for a while, listening to the wind rustling leaves and with no idea on how to continue the conversation. Bonnie still hadn't let go of Marcy's arms, another thing that went by unnoticed by both girls, even with the current events.

"I should probably take you back to the castle," Marceline finally broke the silence.

"No!" The answer was instantaneous. "I… don't really wanna go back now." The princess knew she was probably going to get scolded a lot in the morning, but she couldn't focus on that right now. "Can I… spend the night?"

Marceline's eyes widened a bit, surprised. "Oh. Um, sure." She scratched the back of her neck "I can sleep in the couch, the bed is more comfortable anyway."

Bubblegum giggled at that. "You can sleep floating, you don't need a bed."

"Oh, right."

Without another word, Bonnie grabbed her hand and both girls went inside.

The first hour went by and Bubblegum was sure she was going to go crazy. Marceline had bid her goodnight after a late-night snack in the kitchen – which was mostly silent and very awkward – and then head to the couch in the living room, while Bonnie stayed in the bedroom. The only thing separating them from each other was a wooden door, and Bonnibel had been staring at it for exactly fifty-nine minutes now. She decided she couldn't take it anymore and got up in a jump.

There wasn't even time to reach the door, since it opened by itself. Marceline halted on the other side once she saw Bonnie going for the door handle. "Oh! Sorry, did I…?"

"No, no! I was going to call you, actually." The princess' heart started beating like crazy and she tried to force it to calm down. "Um…"

"…Couldn't sleep?"

"Not really."

They stood in silence for a while, that awkward mood threatening to come back again. Before it could ruin everything once more, they opened their mouths.

"Can I—"

"Do you—"

Both blinked in surprise after talking in unison. A cricket started to play a song by the window and Bonnie was the first to break the silence with a laugh.

"This is…" She grabbed her stomach to stop from falling. "So dumb!" Then she launched herself into the arms of her ex-girlfriend. Marceline grabbed her and twirled around, confused at first but then joining in the laughter as well. She squeezed the girl in her arms as strongly as she could without hurting her, and Bonnibel did the same. It felt so good to let all the emotions flow freely for the first time in centuries. Bubblegum never wanted to let go of this feeling that'd taken over her body.

"We are immortal creatures that have lived for a thousand years," The princess was still laughing when she mumbled that into Marceline's neck. "Why are we so awkward?"

"Wasn't there a saying that went 'Love can kill even the immortal stuff' or something," The vampire replied.

"Definitely not."

"Well, now there is." Marceline pulled back from the hug to look at Bonnie's face. She kissed her eyelids, then her cheeks and her forehead, earning more giggles from the princess. "Glob, I'm in love with your pretty pink face."

Bonnie's heart felt like it was going to leap right off her chest and she couldn't stop smiling. "That tickles!" Then she leaned forward to place a kiss on the vampire bites in Marceline's neck, going all the way up to the back of her ear. "Revenge!"

Marceline laughed, moving her head away to place more kisses on Bubblegum's face. Her brow, the bridge of her nose, her chin, there wasn't a single spot untouched. The princess stepped back while trying to get away from the attack, and eventually tripped down on the bed, falling on her backs. Marcy made sure to hold her while she fell, resting gently on top of the girl. She pulled away, hovering over the giggling princess. "Surrender?"

"The Candy Kingdom will never surrender!"

Then Bonnibel pulled her down and placed a kiss on her lips. Marceline saw this coming, but it still caught her completely off guard. Her eyes fluttered shut as they moved their lips together, Bonnie gripping the back of her neck. Marceline tilted her head slightly and licked Bubblegum's lower lip, making the girl open her mouth and savoring the sweetness of her tongue for the first time in hundreds of years.

The vampire didn't need air, but Bonnie did, and eventually they had to part. She was breathing hard, her eyes moistened. Marceline's eyes were soft and had a gleam to them as well. She cupped the princess' face with one hand. "Bonnie?"

"Yeah?"

"Can we start over?"

Bubblegum sniffed and let out a broken laugh, grabbing Marceline's cheeks with both hands. "I'm so glad I've lived long enough to hear you say that." She pulled her down for another kiss, and smiled as she felt Marceline's hand make its way under her shirt.

I rewatched Stakes today and the inspiration bus hit me SO HARD you guys have no idea. I hope you enjoyed it!

-niigoki