"La de dah dah dah." Marceline sang to herself as she watched the current speaker on the waffle stage from her place. She was uncomfortably sandwiched between two other girls at the breakfast castle. It was for one of those stupid 'princess council meetings' or whatever they were called. In her opinion, she shouldn't have been forced to suffer through listening to this. It was just one high maintenance girl complaining about that one flower that was planted in the wrong place or something of equal ridiculousness after another. She was Marceline, the Vampire Queen after all. She wasn't something petty like a princess. If anything, she should at least be in charge of these meetings. Then maybe they were required to attend would have some significance.
Marceline hadn't attended one of the meetings -the PCM's as the most annoying of the girls likes to refer to them as- in forever. She'd been a bit preoccupied due to her traveling around the world. For a while it had been to look for the rest of the humans, to bring them to safety. But, after a while, that whole idea got a little bit lost to her. After the first month and a half it was just about her looking for the next grand adventure to go on. Eternal life was cool and everything, but it got a little boring after a while. There were only so many different combinations she could make with the four strings of her bass.
Her plans had worked out pretty well. She'd partied with some large fish, revived a previously extinct species known as Manatees, and partied hard in the Fire Kingdom. But, in the end, all roads lead her back to home. She'd tried to avoid it as long as she could, but she still had some responsibilities as the Vampire Queen. She was technically supposed to be coming to these meetings monthly. But, after going A-wall for just over three years, she was finally threatened by one of the other princesses to come back. Besides, she had to take care of Simon. She'd left when he was going through a rough patch.
It was that stupid crown of his. Once he'd finally managed to take it off, Betty -his ex fiance- was long gone. Marceline would've felt awful if she hadn't been too wrapped up in running away from her problems. Well, more like floating away. After killing the Fool, she'd learned just how stupid walking really was. After all, why walk and do work when you can just sit down and glide and still move faster? It's not like she was going to ever be unhealthy. When the Vampire King bit her, she was in near-peak condition for her age group. And, since she became immortal that day, that sort of thing was never going to change.
"Hey," Marceline whispered to the princess sitting to her left. They weren't anything close to a humanoid figure. More like the abstract art piece of a four year old. Instead of a body, whatever she was talking to had only a mass of a purple, floating cloud. "You got a pencil? I need something to stake myself with." Instead of a response the rude little cloud just rolled their eyes turned to face the other direction.
"Fine." Marceline scoffed, as if they were still listening. She'd given up on caring what other people thought. She'd realized just how futile it was to try to please everyone. Instead she was content with just living in her small little house on the edge of the Woods. It wasn't so bad. It's not like there were enough interesting people in Ooo to bother trying to get a house close enough to visit on a regular basis, anyway. Plus, the trees provided enough shade that the sun wasn't any sort of problem.
After a brief moment she saw something vaguely circular and orange slide across the desk. The desk in question sat one other person beside the rude little lump of space and Marceline. She looked to see who had given her the pencil, only to have her eyes attacked by a near obnoxious amount of pink. If only she hadn't been asleep for the first half hour of the Princess Council Meeting. She most definitely would've noticed this attack on her eyes before.
"Personally, I don't recommend staking yourself with this." The Pink Princess whispered to Marceline. She kept her eyes trained on the princess leading the group discussion from the front of the room, Marceline wasn't even sure she was blinking. "I'd try doing something that won't end up hurting yourself."
Marceline just stared at the princess in shock. The pink being to her right not only seemed nice -and not the nice that annoyed Marceline to no end, the good type of nice. She type of nice person that knew there were good people out there who were awful, personality wise. But then managed to triumph over them in every single way while still being humble about it.
Not only that, but she was ridiculously, stupidly adorable. Adorable in the way that kind of made Marceline want to pinch her cheeks and kind of made her want to do a few bad things.
"I wasn't." she said after a moment of careful silence. If there was any blood in her, Marceline was positive it would be rushing to her cheeks and giving her pale skin a blush. "Going to stake myself, I mean. I was just kidding about that. I just wanted something to draw with."
"You draw?" The princess asked her, this time turning to face the Vampire Queen fully. Oh my Ooo, Marceline thought as she got her first good look at the princess from the front. She isn't just adorable. She's actually crazy cute. What am I supposed to do now?!
"Y-yeah." Marceline stuttered. And then she cursed herself for stuttering. And then cursed herself for taking to long to continue because she was mentally cursing herself. "I mean, yeah. I doodle a bit. Nothing big and fancy." Smooth, Marcy. Real smooth.
"I appreciate a good doodle." The princess laughed but didn't. How was that even possible? Marceline asked herself. How did this girl convey the fact that she was laughing without even laughing? Was it just the way she spoke?
"I'm Marceline." She held her hand out to shake, finally regaining her cool, relaxed vibe she loved so much to come across as.
"Princess Bonnibel Bubblegum."
"That's too long," Marceline decided then and there. It was a lie. It wasn't too long at all. In fact, Marceline thought that it rolled off the tongue rather nicely and had a sweet little ring to it. Like the world's tinkly-est of bells. Marceline thought it was rather nice just the way it was. But she wanted to keep the conversation going. "You need something shorter."
"Because Marceline the Vampire Queen isn't any more complicated to say." The pink princess responded, making Marceline like her all the more. If there was one thing that could make the vampire swoon it was someone with a sharp tongue and sharper wit. It was ironic, she noted, that someone who looked so innocent and sweet had a sarcastic nature to her. And it was far from a bad thing. Marceline loved it.
"Well," she arched one of her thin, black brows, "If you let me give you a nickname I'll let you shorten mine, too." That was a good start, right? That was something that didn't make her sound like a complete doofus, right? Right?
"That sounds like something that people who don't really know each other wouldn't do." The Princess tilted her head to the side, her hair falling as she moved. Wait a second? Was that gum? Was her hair actually made out of gum?
"Then maybe we should get to know each other a little bit more." Marceline smiled, her fangs exposed just slightly. "That way it wouldn't be all that weird."
"And just how would we do that?" The princess asked, though she was smiling too. Glob, even her smile was perfect. It was like her teeth were attracting the sunlight that filtered in through the dried-syrup windows. It was radiant.
"How does blowing off this meeting for some well deserved lunch sound? I don't know about you but I'm not much of a breakfast person. Not enough options, you know?"
"I think that you're hitting the nail right on the head. I've got a bit of a sweet tooth, and breakfast doesn't do much of anything for that." She giggled again and began to place the stack of papers she had inside her bag.
"Oh my Glob just leave already!" The purple being to Marceline's left shouted. This, unfortunately caused the princesses sitting around them to cast disapproving glances in their direction. With that, Marceline and Princess Bubblegum ducked out of room, trying to draw as little attention to themselves as possible.