It had been a while since they have fallen apart, but she didn't counted the days anymore. Who was she kidding, of course she counted every day without her; to her dismay it had been 697 days, or one year and almost eleven months if you prefer.

-"Oh, one month more and it will be two years…" She said to herself while crossing out another day on her calendar.

She supposed after all this time she would have most likely forgotten her, but she still felt the same. In her defense, Bonnie was the one who broke up with her. She said she need to focus on her kingdom and her people and that it was nothing personal, of course they could still be friends. Marceline understood, or at least she acted like she did, but the truth was she couldn't bear the pain.

-"Another way of saying 'I don't love you anymore'." Marceline whispered.

If she had a soul, it sure was shattered just as her heart was. She tried playing it cool, as if it wasn't a big deal; she even dated Ash thinking it would be perhaps a new start and she will forget about what she felt for Bonnie altogether. Of course, that went south pretty fast and honestly it wasn't worth it.

Marceline was not exactly the person who was always is the need of someone but one thing was for sure, Bonnie was irreplaceable. After their break up, Marcy decided to get lost for a while, thinking that if she stop seeing Bonnie maybe the pain will go away, it didn't. And she was constantly worried about how was Bonnie doing; not seeing her was a torture as well.

So Marcy returned and acted like everything was forgotten and everything was fine. She began to spend time with Bonnie again, as friends, of course. Just helping her with her silly experiments, or casually hanging out with Finn and Jake. But for Marceline all of these were a struggle, no matter what she did she felt that heartache; she couldn't live with or without her. And that was defiantly a complicated situation.

The only thing that managed to distract Marceline a little bit was her music. She took her lyrics notebook and began to flip the pages. She regularly made her friends come over and listen to her new songs, like some sort of private concerts. She got to a song she wrote shortly after her break-up with Ash, even though it wasn't about Ash at all, she remembered the day she played it for her friends…

She had invited Finn, Jake, BMO, LSP, and Bonnie over, the usual gang. She played maybe four song at first, all of them full of her traditional dark rocker style. She thought Bonnie was just clapping because she liked her singing; Marceline knew Princess Bubblegum was not fond of the themes she sang about.

-"Wow, those are some rad song you've got there Marceline!" Finn exclaimed, the little man was always so enthusiastic about everything.

-"You sure have been working hard on those." LSP said, giving a nod of approval.

-"Thanks guys, but I've been saving the best one for the end, it's a little bit different from my regular style but I think it might be the best, besides I wrote it just a few days ago."

Marceline began playing again, the tune was certainly different, much slower and much softer than rock, her voice was also so much lower as she sang…

-"C'mon skinny love, just last the year. Pour a little salt we were never here…Staring at the sink of blood and crushed veneer. I tell my love to wreck it all. Cut out all the ropes and let me fall. My, my, my, my, my, my, my, my. Right in this moment order's tall."

Marceline had her eyes closed while she sang so she didn't notice the princess' expression had changed slightly as picked up the lyrics.

-"And I told you to be patient, and I told you to be fine, and I told you to be balanced, and I told you to be kind. And in the morning I'll be with you but it will be a different 'kind'. I'll be holding all the tickets and you'll be owning all the fines.

"C'mon skinny love, what happened here? Suckle on the hope in lite brazziers…Sullen load is full; so slow on the split…Now all your love is wasted? Then who the hell was I? And I'm breaking at the britches and at the end of all your lines.

"Who will love you? Who will fight? Who will fall far behind?"

Marceline opened her eyes as her song came to an end, her friends were clapping and smiling and a tear seemed to drop from LSP's eye. Bonnie was smiling too, but her eyes told a different story. Her eyes were gloomy and…sad?

-"Well, at least something good came out of your relationship with Ash, that song was beautiful!" PB said, now with a much wider smile, but was she faking it?

If only she knew that song was for her, or did she already knew and she was just playing fool? This sure was complicated and frustrating.

-"Yeah, that's the only thing that douchebag was good for." Marceline replied with a devilish laugh.

Marceline remembered this day from time to time. She had written many song for the princess but that one was somehow special; speaking about the princess, they were supposed to meet the PB's lab. Another day helping her with the experiments, it had become part of Marcy's daily routine by now. Marceline picked up some of her stuff before leaving, her keys, her sun hat, her bass, and of course her lyrics notebook, she never left it behind. You never know when I good idea is going to come to you, so better be prepared.

She gave a final glance to her room, making sure she didn't forgot anything. Putting on her sun hat, she locked the front door and began to float towards the princess's castle. She got to the castle and looked up at the pink towers, she could enter through the window as she used to, but there was no point in it anymore; she just knocked on the huge door and Peppermint Butler received her.

-"Please do come in, Princess Bubblegum is waiting for you." The little candy said, opening the door and letting Marcy float inside.

-"Save the courtesy, Pepps, I know you better." Marceline said, she completely avoided the little candy and just kept floating towards the lab.

-"Pff, yeah, yeah, just get in and try not to break anything like last time." Peppermint Butler said, closing the doors with a loud thud.

-"You know, I should give you the key of the door so I don't have to come and open it for you every single day." He continued. Marceline just ignored him and opened the door which leaded to the lab.

She entered the lab and saw Bonnibel writing down some notes and mixing some strange liquids. The queen landed on the marble floor with a light "click" of her boots. The princess turned around at the sound, and was eager to begin her experiments with, or shall we say "on" Marceline.

-"Marcy! Glad you're here, always so punctual! PB said with enthusiasm

-"The royalty deserves punctuality, besides I had nothing better to do." Marceline replied teasingly.

-"So what are you trying on me today?" Marceline asked trying to sound interested, even if she wasn't, Bonnie was going to give her a huge lecture of the importance of the experiment anyway.

-"Well, some of my citizens report having trouble sleeping, so I figured I could create some sort of medicine to help them relax." Bonnie said while fetching for some jars on one of the many counters of the lab.

-"Like sleeping pills or something?" Marceline asked, sitting on the table where Bonnibel usually practiced her experiments on her.

-"Somewhat, but I have come out with a tea with all the benefits of sleeping pills and none of their awful side effects." Bonnie retrieved the liquid from a jar and put it inside a cup, she then looked at Marceline who was sitting idly on the table.

-"Oh, we'll do this one in a different place since you will most likely fall asleep and fast; I set up a bed for you at the back of the lab. I wouldn't like you to sleep on that table and waking up with some pain on your neck or something." Bonnie said while leading Marceline towards the bed.

-"Wow, I didn't reckoned you cared that much about me sleeping comfy, Princess, you shouldn't have." Marceline answered, still mocking a little bit.

-"Of course I care, silly, friends care for each other." PB replied with a smile as she placed the cup on the small table beside the bed.

-"Yeah, friends…" Marceline muttered, she sat on the bed and took the cup into her hands; for her delight, the liquid was colored red. It didn't look suspicious, but coming from Bonnie it sure was more than meets the eye.

-"So for how long will I be asleep?" Marceline questioned, she didn't wanted to sleep forever that was for sure.

-"A normal dose should get you eight hours of peaceful sleep, but since we don't have that much time today, this one will just put you to sleep for like two hours maximum." PB said, sitting on a small chair she had placed in front of the bed to watch Marceline while she slept…Just to take notes and record the outcome, of course.

-"Ok, here goes nothing." Marceline sighed before she drank the whole cup of tea, it surprisingly didn't tasted bad at all. She set the cup aside back over the table, then she made herself comfy on the bed and pulled the covers over herself.

-"Are you going to be watching me the whole time?" Marceline asked with a small laugh.

-"Yeah… to take notes and record what's happening." PB answered, picking up her pen.

-"Ok, but don't take any pictures." Marceline smirked, she could tell Bonnie was smiling.

-"Don't worry, I won't." Bonnie answered, smiling in fact.

An hour had passed through and PB's paper was still empty, not because there was nothing to write though, but because she could not remove her gaze from Marceline's sleeping figure. She watched her, grinning like an idiot, she forgot this was "Research" time not "Marceline appreciation" time. She couldn't help it, she shook her head as the thoughts began rushing into her head trying to brush them away; it was helpless. Marceline looked gorgeous like this, well she always did to be honest, but Bonnie had forgotten how cute she looked while she slept.

Her thoughts were interrupted when she saw Marceline twitching, she quickly wrote some nonsense unto her paper, she knew Marceline wouldn't ask for results or anything but at least it would seem like she got some actual research done. Shortly after, Marceline slowly opened her eyes, looking at Bonnie with a half-asleep face. Bonnibel felt her heart pounding inside her chest and fought the blush crawling up her cheeks at the sight of Marceline.

-"That was one of the best sleeps I've ever had." Marceline said with a yawn, rubbing her eyes as she slowly got herself out of the convers.

-"For how long was I asleep?" Marceline asked, slowly getting up and putting her boots back on.

-"One hour and fifty-five minutes to be precise." Bonnie answered, the time was the only thing she had actually recorded.

-"Well, I think you can call this experiment a success, but if you need to try it again for a larger period of time please do tell me. I could use some more good siestas." Marceline said, floating towards the table and picking up her stuff. It was dark by now so she didn't need to wear her sun hat so she just carried it under her arm.

-"Yeah? Ok, see you tomorrow then?"

-"Sure, Princess, I'll be here at the same hour, now goodnight."

-"Goodnight, Marcy, and be careful on your way back home."

-"Don't worry, I'll be fine." Marceline could not help but smile at the princess's comment, she then proceeded to head outside the lab and closed the door behind her.

Bonnie was left alone again, she reorganized the lab and prepared everything for tomorrow's experiments. Despite how hard she tried, she couldn't sweep away the thought of Marceline's sleeping face. She mentally slapped herself many times but it did nothing. Whether she admitted it or not she missed Marcy, a lot but as she once said "responsibility demands sacrifice."

While she was cleaning she noticed something unusual over the table; she went to investigate and realized it was Marceline's lyrics notebook.

Looks like she forgot it, I should keep it and give it to her when she comes tomorrow. PB thought, however her distinctive curiosity kicked in and she felt the need to read what Marcy had been writing. No, it wasn't correct, these were Marceline's personal thoughts, none of her business; she will just keep it for her, yeah, that's what she will do.

She grabbed the notebook and took it upstairs with her, to her room. She carefully placed on the small table beside her bed as she made herself ready to go to sleep. She put out all the candles except for one, (she had the custom to always leave one lit) and crawled into her pink covers.

The clock was advancing and Bonnie could still not fall asleep, the notebook beside her just yelled "READ ME" again and again not letting her even phantom the idea of sleeping. She silently cursed her curiosity and thought things over: just a small peek won't hurt anyone, she figured.

She grabbed the notebook and began flipping through the pages, Marceline always wrote the date she began a song at the top right corner of the page and the day she finished it at the bottom left corner of the page. This enabled Bonnie to know exactly when she had written the song and whether it was complete or not. The first songs covered themes Bonnie found quite distasteful so she didn't paid too much attention to those. She then got to the song Marceline played for them a while ago, "Skinny Love" read the tittle.

-"Of course I know this song was for me…" PB muttered, she was about to close the notebook when a little paper sticking out of one of the final pages caught her attention.

She flipped up to that page and was surprise to find out that the paper sticking out was actually a picture of Marceline and her pasted unto the page, coincidentally the same one she had inside her closet. Bonnibel was genuinely surprise to discover that Marceline had kept this picture after their break up, she pretty much assumed she would have thrown it away.

The page which followed the picture was another song entitled "Photograph", Bonnie assumed it was based on the photo before so she decided to read the lyrics.

-"Loving can hurt, loving can hurt sometimes. But is the only thing that I know.

When it gets hard, you know it can hard sometimes. It is the only thing that makes me feel alive.

I keep this love in a photograph, I made this memories for myself.

Where my eyes are never closing, my heart is never broken and time's forever frozen still."

Bonnie paused after reading this, yet another song about her. This made her heart shudder and feel stabbed. She still loves Marceline, with all her heart but responsibility demanded sacrifice…Wait, no, no, that's stupid, that's utterly stupid.

PB's eyes widened as the sudden realization hit her. What's the point of having the most perfect kingdom in all of Ooo if at the same time you're the most miserable monarch? Princess Bubblegum looked at the date the song was started, it was just three days ago, she was still on time to get Marceline back. But if she was going to do it, she will do it with class and style.

She was no song writer but she was sure she could express her love for Marcy with written words, after all she had always helped her with her experiments, so she might as well return the favor by helping her finish this song. First thing first, she changed some minimum thing on the already written verse. She changed all the singular pronouns for plural ones, just to show the feeling was mutual. Next, she took out a picture of one off her drawers, it was one of the, oh so many pictures Marcy and she had taken together.

She pasted the picture on the other page and began to write:

-So you can keep me, inside the pocket of your ripped jeans.

Holding me close 'till our eyes meet, you won't ever be alone. Wait for me to come home.

She could have written many other things, but she didn't wanted to go overboard without Marceline's consent so this small verse will have to do for now. She closed the notebook and set it on the pillow beside her, she smiled, tomorrow when Marcy came over she would be sure to have everything ready for her.