"Princess."

Bubblegum huffed and started down at the papers she was working through. Maybe if she looked busy – which she was – the intruder would go away. Blanking them was obviously the best idea.

"Princess," The voice came again, and Peppermint Butler stepped into view, blocking the strip of light from the doorway with his diminutive build. "It's imperative that we talk."

Bubblegum let out a full blown sigh then, but didn't lift her gaze from her papers. She'd been told that she had to look over some royal documents about the Candy Kingdom's alliance with the Breakfast Kingdom – apparently the King of Ooo had neglected to trade with them during his reign, which just put added stress on her – and she figured that whatever Peppermint Butler wanted to talk about was a lot less important than her work.

(Getting the Candy Kingdom back under control was hard.)

"Can't it wait?" Bubblegum finally looked over to him, "I have some really important stuff to work on."

Peppermint Butler sighed in response. Glob, she was the one with all of the power, here. She could easily just-

No, Bonnie, Bubblegum cut that train of thought right off, he was the only one of your citizens that stuck by you after you lost power. Stop being so…tyrannical.

He cleared his throat. "M'lady, I think we should return to work on finding you a suitor."

Bubblegum rolled her eyes and then turned them back to her work. Suitors? She didn't have time for that. Braco had been a major distraction, and that was why she'd built him the Bubblegum-Bot. Romance wasn't something she was allowed to indulge in while she had a kingdom to run. Dedicating her time to both was hard. The only person who she'd ever tried to date while running a kingdom had-

No, she stopped thinking about that, not something you need on your mind.

"You know that I won't have any interest in the suitors that come to court me." Bubblegum looked to Peppermint Butler again with a sad smile. "I have no interest in finding a prince. You know that."

"It would be for the best, though," He didn't look like he planned on giving up any time soon, so Bonnibel tried to tune him out as best she could. "It could prevent someone else from taking your crown, if you had someone else to protect it."

"I do perfectly fine by myself." Bubblegum quickly retorted. "Monarchies aren't democracies. I think the candy people know that now. King of Ooo won't take power again, I can assure you of that."

He sighed again, wringing his hands together in nervous habit. "I know that you didn't like being dethroned and-"

"I never said I didn't like it. It was…peaceful, with nobody to govern." Bubblegum glanced out of her window, the little shack she'd resided in merely a dot on the horizon. "I had more freedom to do what I liked. It was nice. I could hang out with Finn and Jake more, and I got closer to Marceline again."

At the mention of Marceline, Peppermint Butler seemed surprised. "Have you seen her since last month?"

"No." Bonnibel murmured, drumming her fingers on the table. She picked up her pen again and readied it to jot her signature down. "She said she would come over after I'd settled back in. Why hasn't she come over?"

Actually, Bubblegum had been worrying about that a lot. She'd stayed up as late as she could every night, not doing science like she usually would, but waiting. Waiting for Marceline to float through her window, proposing a late night adventure that they'd talk about years in the future with nostalgic smiles. Usually, Marceline visited her every week, two weeks between her visits at a push.

So why hadn't she shown up for month?

Peppermint Butler seemed to sense that they were stepping onto dangerous territory. "I'm sure she's just taking time to…think things over. No need to worry about that, princess."

Bonnibel blinked. It still seemed kind of weird to be referred to as 'princess'. Even though she'd been called it her whole life, being plain old Bonnibel for a few months had been nice.

She stood up and dropped the royal documents on her desk, pushed past Peppermint Butler and made her way down one of the castle corridors towards her bedroom. "I'm going to go see her."

"Princess-" Bubblegum ignored his indignant tone and pulled a purple coat from her closet, pausing only to glance at the picture of herself and Marceline that she'd taped to her closet door.

Then, continuing to blank Peppermint Butler, she all but sprinted out of the castle doors and in the general direction of Marceline's house.

Marceline was floating above her couch, her hand curled around the neck of her axe-bass when her front door burst open. She blinked in surprise and slowly landed on her feet, coming face to face with an irritated Bonnibel Bubblegum.

Princess Bonnibel Bubblegum. Marceline kept forgetting about that.

"Um, hey, Bonnie," Marceline rested her bass on her couch, "What's up?"

"What's up?" Bonnibel repeated and stepped forward, jabbing a finger into Marceline's sternum. "You don't speak to me for a month and all I get is what's up? I can't believe you."

Marceline, instead of apologising like Bubblegum wanted and expected, just laughed. "So…you're angry because you haven't seen me in a month, and you sprint all the way to my house to yell at me? You have a perfectly good telephone in that castle of yours, don't you?"

Bonnibel deflated, warmth rushing to her cheeks. Now that she thought about it, maybe she had been a little stupid. Yelling at Marceline through the phone would've been a lot more convenient.

(Well, whatever. She was here, might as well do what she came to do.)

Bubblegum flopped down on Marceline's couch, regretting her action immediately. She'd kind of forgotten how hard and uncomfortable it was. "Just…call me, okay? The last time I hadn't heard from you for a month…"

Marceline floated above her, eyebrow raised and a mocking smile tugging at her lips. Stupid, irreverent vampire. "What? Is the princess getting paranoid?"

"Shut up," Bonnie was quick to snap back, "You nearly died from poison a month ago. I nearly lost you. You're my best friend, Marceline."

"Good to know I mean so much to you," Bonnibel let out a soft squeal when Marceline hoisted her from the painful couch – apparently she'd picked up on Bonnie's uncomfortable shuffling – and onto her lap. "You could've came here, if you missed me so much."

Bubblegum rested her head on the vampire's shoulder, curling into her friend's form. "I wish you'd taken me up on my offer."

"What? Of my own special room in your palace?" Marceline's eyebrows shot up into her hairline as Bonnie nodded into her shoulder. "Not really my thing. Besides, the candy people are kind of scared of me."

"They're not." Bubblegum was quick to reply. "They used to be, but after you absorbed the Vampire King's spilt essence and saved everyone…they like you. But that shouldn't be important. I like you. That's what's important."

Marceline sucked in a breath and let it out in a sigh. "I know. Still, I prefer the quiet. More space to fill with my jams, you know?"

Bonnibel hummed. The quiet could be nice, but Marceline's music was nicer. "Peppermint Butler is trying to find me another suitor. Even though I haven't exactly told him, I figured that by now he'd have gotten the message that I'm not interested."

"Please tell me he didn't find another Braco for you." Marceline looked down at her, mild amusement written across her face. "That whole thing was a disaster."

Bubblegum laughed. "No, nothing like that. He only brought suitors and courting up again, but I can't- I don't want to have to tell him, Marceline."

"He won't care if you're gay." Marceline assured her, "Come on, Bonnie. The candy people probably don't know what sexuality is. They won't care, either. So what if you'd rather find a princess? To nuts with suitors."

Bonnibel had to stifle another laugh. "Marceline, it isn't- I can't just not find someone to rule with me. It's in some sort of rulebook."

"I'll be your suitor."

Bubblegum blinked in surprise and nearly fell out of Marceline's arms in shock. Did she really just say that?

She quickly concluded that no, Marceline didn't say that at all. There was no way. Marceline had made it perfectly clear that they were better off as friends. Whatever past relationship they'd had was rarely mentioned by either of them, even if they were talking about something they'd done when they were romantically involved. They usually cut out the way they'd looked at one another, the way Marceline's lips were so soft and tasted of strawberries, the way the vampire's fangs would brush against Bonnibel's bubblegum lips-

Bonnie squeezed her eyes shut, her throat closing over. Thinking about that never ended positively. "Did you just-"

"Offer to be your suitor?" Marceline finished for her. "Yeah. I did."

Bubblegum frowned. "Why?"

Marceline snorted with laughter. "Seriously, Bonnie?"

"Yes, seriously." Bubblegum folded her arms across her chest and sent her friend an indignant stare. "You've made it perfectly clear that any kind of romantic involvement we've had in the past just wouldn't work, and it's not worth wrecking our friendship for. It took us so long to be comfortable around one another again and I don't-"

A small squeak came from the back of Bubblegum's throat when Marceline kissed her, fangs brushing against her bottom lip. The moment of surprise didn't last long, though – it wasn't long before Bonnibel was tracing up her friend's jawline, pink fingers disappearing into wild onyx locks, outlining pointed ears before locking at the nape of Marceline's neck. Marceline's fingers were cool, but not unpleasantly so, as they rested on Bubblegum's jawline and kept her held in place, fangs tugging on her friend's bottom lip.

It was Bonnibel who pulled back.

Her hands rested on Marceline's shoulders and she looked towards the ground they were hovering a few feet above. "What are we doing?"

"I believe that's called kissing, Bon."

Bonnibel sent the vampire a scathing look. "You know what I meant. Why do you want to…kiss me? What did I do?"

"Exist." Marceline murmured, "I don't know, alright?"

"You don't know why you kissed me?" Bubblegum's frown was accompanied by her fingers tracing soft patterns on the base of Marceline's neck. "Why did you offer to be a suitor?"

"Because the thought of you with someone else is- I don't like it." Marceline stared at her, green irises piercing through Bonnie's entire being. "You want to be with a woman. Why not date a queen?"

Bubblegum smiled. "Marceline…that would be lovely."