She was young still, young enough to lack the responsibility of a kingdom but also old enough to bear it once the time came. Smart as a whip's crack, sharp as the first breath of winter, and sweet as... Gum.
Bubblegum, to be precise.
She was 16 and working on an experiment, nurturing the love of science that she'd carried with her since she was a child. Various documents scattered themselves around her lab amongst the fluorescent, vaguely ominous beakers of bubbling liquids. A large chart occupied the far corner, so jammed with symbols and figures that it was dizzying to even glance at. At the center of it all was Bubblegum.
The princess had been hard at work since the night before, pausing only to eat. After much trial and error, she thought she'd finally cracked it.
With a piece of chalk, biting her lip in concentration, she drew a face on the floor. Then, she poured a flask of white liquid over the drawing, causing a thick, pungent smoke to form. She coughed, gained her composure, and finished her task by chanting "Maloso vobis cum et cum spiritum!".
Somewhere under the floor, a distant screaming could be heard.
A fiery portal yawned open in front of her, and she found herself gazing into the strange sights of the Nightosphere. Bubblegum's hands scrambled around her for a paper and pen. When she finally had these items in hand, however, she found herself staring at a girl's head rather than dark horror,
The girl's mouth broke into an impish grin, showing fangs. A low hiss issued from her lips. "Sssss... So you're the Bonnibel I've been hearing so much about." Her head floated upward through the portal to reveal the rest of her body, pale and thin and clothed in black.
"I'm Marceline, the Vampire Queen."
"Not lookin' too shabby, Bonnibel."
"Hush, Marceline. I'm going to be late thanks to you."
A chuckle, stinging in its lightness, punctured the air, "You can't be late to your own party."
Princess Bubblegum sat in front of her dresser in a slip, frantically trying to brush out her hair, "You could at least get my dress, you know."
"Okay, okay." Marceline, stark naked, rose from bed and retrieved the dress from the corner of the room where it was flung earlier. "I'll even help you zip up the back."
"My knight in shining armor," replied the princess, deadpan.
Once her hair was sorted out and pinned up, she moved towards Marceline, who was purposely holding the dress out like a limp dandelion. Bubblegum rolled her eyes and stepped into it anyway. The dress itself wasn't her normal court affair; for a ball she decided to make a departure from her conventional clothes. It was an off-the-shoulder dress the color of blush. The fabric, a luxurious blend of silk, flowed down the princess' body just so. She turned around to let Marceline do the zipper.
Once that was done, the vampire pulled the princess close. Her hand slyly dipped between Bubblegum's legs, cupping her crotch and pressing hard through the layers of her dress. Automatically the princess leaned her hips into it, a whimper slipping between her lips as an electric pleasure crept up her spine. "I'll see you later, Princess," Marceline whispered hotly, sealed with a nip on the ear as a goodbye.
And then she was gone, leaving Bubblegum flushed and alone. She self-consciously straightened out her dress and rearranged her hair, vestiges of the previous moment still abuzz in her legs. Moments like that annoyed her to some extent, but it was part of the thrill of Marceline. The spontaneity, the reckless-but-smooth way she touched her, the sudden force of her always disarmed the princess. On paper they seemed like a terrible match, a bloodsucker settling for dime store candy (or worse, vice versa), but it was royalty for royalty. Or so Bubblegum told herself.
"Hey, princess!" Marceline shouted as she gleefully kicked in Bubblegum's window. The window, thankfully, was of the sort that looked like a pair of very small doors. However, they made a hellish clacking sound when slammed against the bedroom walls.
The princess was less than pleased to wake up.
She sat up and blearily opened her eyes. This was the third day in a row of being awoken by the vampire. "What is it, Marceline? And stop kicking my window."
"Come on, we're going somewhere." Marceline drifted into the room, twirling an oversized parasol in her hands. She sat herself on the edge of the bed and reached over to rustle Bubblegum's hair. "Like, now. Get dressed," she chuckled.
The princess made a face, but she assented and tossed off the covers. The past two days, despite the constant chicanery by the vampire, had proven to be surprisingly fun. She grabbed some clothes from her closet and went into the bathroom to change. "Where are we going this time?" she asked, talking through a crack she left in the door.
"Since you'll be head honcho soon, I figured you should learn more about your kingdom," Marceline replied, scooting in to the middle of the bed so that she occupied the slight indent left by Bubblegum's body. The leftover warmth was nice, she had to admit.
"Hmmm. Historical site? Some old ruins?"
"Nah, Bonnibel. You'll see. Oh, and wear shorts."
When Bubblegum came out, she had on pinstriped shorts and boat shoes, with a tank and a long braid of hair tumbling over one shoulder. "Okay, I'm rea-" she managed before she was cut off by Marceline grabbing her hand and sweeping her out the window in one violent motion.
After the initial shriek, Bubblegum quickly regained her composure and looked up at the vampire, who was dangling her in midair like she was a prime fish. "MARCELINE," she interjected, between the cackles that issued from Marceline, "That was crazy rude!"
"Ah, come on. You need to expect the unexpected!" And with that, the both of them flying quite high above the landscape, Marceline pulled her up while at the same time twisting her own body so that she was on her back, like she was floating in the water. Bubblegum came to lay perfectly horizontal on her.
And, strangely enough, the princess found herself pushing her lips into Marceline's.
Bubblegum had been working the ballroom immaculately for the last two hours, chatting up foreign dignitaries and her own subjects alike. The palace was packed to the brim, bodies spilling out into the courtyard in the back. Despite this, she moved through the crowd with a fluid effortlessness, balancing a thin flute of apple cider in her fingertips like it was made of air.
"Hey! Peebs!" Finn yelled from the entrance, hopping and waving enthusiastically. She could just barely spot him from where she was, but she waved back. Jake grabbed him and stretched an arc over the crowd to land right beside the princess. "Yo, Princess. This is a rad party!" He threw his arms up in the air, for emphasis.
She giggled, "Thanks, Finn. There's food scattered around everywhere if you're hungry. I've got to go talk to a few more ambassadors and then I'll find you, okay?"
"Sure, no big," he replied, watching as she walked off to speak to a short, trollish fellow. That moment of distraction proved to be an open invitation for Marceline, as a small bat, to hop into his backpack.
Shortly after that, it burst open with a tangle of twenty snakes.
Finn and Jake, as well as quite a few party attendees, shouted in surprise. "Aggh! Snakes! Where did they come from?!" He exclaimed, alarmed.
"Looks like they bust out of your pack, dude!" Jake answered, collecting a few before they all slithered away. A wave of panic spread through the crowd as snakes began to curl around their ankles.
"Woah! People! Remain calm! We've got this under control! " Finn, having regained his composure, snatched a top hat off of someone and began jamming serpents into it.
Marceline, escaping unscathed, watched the hubbub from the chandelier. She silently complimented herself for such a clever distraction. She let herself drift downward, landing noiselessly behind Bubblegum, who was busy trying to placate her frenzied guests. Her hand shot out and gripped the princess' ass firmly. She leaned forward, her lips and fangs grazing the other's ear, "Hey, Bonnibel. It looks a little dangerous here. Why don't you come with me?"
Bubblegum sat on the floor of Marceline's room, rifling through a mini-fridge full of old records. "Some of these are really funky, Marceline. The Jiffy Malones? Harvey Blenderhead? Horses and Horses?" She held up the last record she named, indicating the poorly-stenciled cover to prove her point.
"Hey! I spent hundreds of years collecting those!" The sound of idle bass strums was abruptly cut short as Marceline protested from the opposite end of the room. She immediately glided over and snatched the record out of the princess' hand. "This is a really good band, okay? Don't knock 'em until you have a listen." With that, she set her bass on the floor and put the vinyl on the (admittedly very beat-up) record player beside the mini-fridge.
The player's arm initially protested with a few random jerks and skips, but after a second it settled down into the grooves on the disc. A wave of soothing synthesizer and low-key guitar tones unfurled from the speaker.
Bubblegum closed her eyes, nodding slightly. "Hmm. They're not bad. They could use some xylophone. Or maybe glockenspiel..." She trailed off as the music intensified, pulling her knees into her chest and letting her chin rest on them.
The vampire couldn't help but smile at the sight of the princess losing herself in something. She craved that expression – that level of focus. Bubblegum looked most like herself when she was deep in lab work, adrift in thought. There was this way that her lips pursed when she was like that...
Marceline slid behind her, and placed a hand on the juncture between her neck and shoulder. Bubblegum made a small noise at this, a tiny acknowledgement. The hand then moved around to gently grasp her jaw, guiding the princess' rosy lips to meet Marceline's in a deep kiss. The forked tongue knew exactly how to intertwine with hers, it seemed. She shifted her body to face Marceline fully, her own hands raising to bury themselves deep in that wild, dark hair and flow downward over the tautness of the vampire's back and waist, stopping at the points of her hips.
Marceline leaned into the kiss more, pulling her torso into Bubblegum's body and wrapping her legs around the princess. She broke apart their mouths for a second to look into the other girl's eyes. They, too, looked as if she were barely able to stay afloat in the depth and breadth of her lust. The vampire deftly slipped off the princess' jacket and started to tug up her shirt while, simultaneously, Bubblegum tried to unbutton Marceline's jeans and slip her wanting hands under that red-and-black sweater. It was an uncoordinated tangle of removing clothes that left a trail up to the edge of the bed, where pink low-cut panties laid on top of simple black boy shorts.
And suddenly, very suddenly, Bubblegum was on top of Marceline and sucking on her nipples hard while her fingers pushed into a very wet pussy. She kept a thumb on the vampire's clit, maintaining pressure on it while she thrust in and out. She could feel nails gripping her left shoulder hard and hear the sound of bedsheets being twisted and the constant bucking hips urging her on. After what seemed like a short time Marceline's brief, gasping moans quickened and became higher and higher-pitched till she climaxed, her back arching and her nails drawing blood from Bubblegum's skin. Her body shuddered as she felt fingers slide out of her.
Breathing hard, she sat up and sucked the blood from the crescents of her fingernails. She looked at the princess with an expression of pleased surprise. "Sorry about your shoulder, Bonnibel. But you're full of surprises, aren't you?" She murmured, smirking as she pushed Bubblegum onto her back.
"It's okay. I kind of like it..." Bubblegum replied quietly. In a split second Marceline was floating at the foot of the bed, pulling the other girl down by the ankles so that her legs were over the edge and her pussy was open and exposed. An incredibly warm tongue teased the inside of her thighs and sampled the dampness all over her. The princess expressed herself in long, soft whimpers that rose sharply in volume whenever the tongue drifted over a particularly sensitive area. The vampire went straight for her clit first, letting it feel the fork of her tongue and alternating between rubbing it and sucking on it. Bubblegum's hands were on Marceline's head, pushing her to hit certain spots. Of course, Marceline pointedly avoided them and took pleasure in the desperate notes that crept into the princess' voice. When she did finally hit them, after Bubblegum had almost gone mad, the effect was instantaneous. She gave a long, passionate moan and her hands quivered.
Once it was over, she pulled Marceline over to her and kissed her on the cheek first, then on the lips.
They laid together for a long while, running their fingertips over each other's bodies and speaking in low voices.
"Are you kinda scared, Bonnibel?" the vampire asked, eyes looking at the princess in a searching way.
Bubblegum bit her lip. "A little, Marceline," she admitted.
"Me too."
"I know."
Marceline's cool hand gripped Bubblegum's, tugging her away from the chaos at in the ballroom.
"You planted the snakes, didn't you?" the princess chided, looking back at the party with concern. As if to reassure her, the sounds of Finn and Jake emphatically fighting echoed down the hall.
The vampire chuckled, eyes ahead, "Of course not. Snakes are... native here, right? Besides, they probably aren't venomous. Come on, Princess."
And so the princess left certain danger for an uncertain one.
Marceline herself wore a charcoal, backless dress that complemented the fine details in the muscles of her back. Her hair was tied up in a messy bun, exposing her pointed ears and a pair of tinkling earrings that looked to be made of mouse skulls cast in silver. A long slit extended up one leg, ending just at mid-thigh. The clack of her red heels was a stunning contrast to the softer tread of her well-worn boots.
They passed through the less-traveled parts of the castle, down the passageways with stale hard candy columns and cobwebbed arches. Bubblegum eyed the paintings that adorned the walls, and could only barely recall the faces from her childhood. Not that she ever met them while they were alive. No, she always knew them as drab, flat portraits instead of family. The further they went, the darker the halls became, and an undeniable chill began to sink into the princess' skin.
"Where are we going, Marceline?" she inquired.
"Your castle has a lot of secrets. It's a shame you don't know more about them," the vampire replied cryptically. "Hurry up, we'll miss it!" She quickened her pace, stubbornly pulling the princess along with her.
The two kept moving at a rapid walk, up and down staircases and through ancient, heavy doors. Finally they arrived in a circular brick-walled room with a bafflingly high ceiling but no wider than the span of Marceline's arms. A shaft of light from the night sky sank in from what appeared to be the only window, set in the wall far above them.
The princess' teeth chattered, "Is t-this it? You dragged me all over the castle to show me this? What were we going to miss?" She wrapped her arms around herself.
"Oh, nothing. I just wanted you to hurry up. And we have to go just a bit further..." Marceline breezed, pecking Bubblegum on the cheek. She gingerly snaked an arm about the princess' waist. "You'll like it."
Slowly, the pair floated upward till their heads brushed the ceiling. A door, improbably placed in the wall almost a hundred feet off the floor, greeted them. With a gentle push, it opened to reveal a living room not unlike Marceline's current one. Everything was a bit dusty, but the furniture sat more or less in the same place. The vampire set the princess down in the middle of the carpet, but remained drifting in air herself. "Nice digs, huh?"
"M-Marceline! What? How did you ever find this place?" Bubblegum's eyes darted to and fro, struggling to take everything in.
"Oh, I lived here a while back. It's nice to visit sometimes," the vampire answered casually, which elicited a "hmm" from Bubblegum before she wandered off. Marceline glided toward the fireplace, and after some gentle coaxing and flame sprouting from her fingers, a lively fire began to fill the room with warmth. She reached under her for the Persian rug on the floor, and took it by the corners to shake it out. Huge clouds of dust blew into her face, causing her to cough.
Meanwhile, the princess was already in the next room, exploring the trinkets that Marceline kept around. Most of it was fairly blasé stuff, things one could find digging around any quarry in Oo, but... She held up small, clear plastic box that contained a watch decorated with cartoon characters. It even read the right time, still. Her hand went to her chin, brow furrowing as she contemplated how it still worked after the Mushroom Wars. So deep in thought was she that the sharpness of Marceline's calling voice startled her.
"Hey! Come over here, Bonnibel."
Bubblegum returned to the sight of the vampire reclining in front of the fire, hair down and partially gathered her shoulder. Marceline's hand gestured for her to come closer.
"This better not be for long, Marceline..." the princess warned as she laid down on the vampire, but her tone didn't have even a hint of an edge to it.
"It sure won't," Marceline promised, adjusting to let the other girl rest her head on her chest.
"Tell me how you got that watch in the other room," Bubblegum said, one of her fingers absently twirling a lock of the vampire's hair.