Disclaimer: I don't own Adventure Time and make no profit from it.

Bubblegum moved slowly and with an almost exaggerated ease, dress drifting and set into motion by her every movement, and Finn moved with her, trying not to step on her feet and meekly following her lead.

Why she danced, why she took Finn with her to dance in the shelter of her chambers; he did not know. He only knew that was what she wanted, and she thought it would be fun for them, so he did as she said. That was the nature of his duty, and he loved every moment of it.

That her hand was gently but firmly fixed in the back of his neck and her other hand upon his shoulder, keeping him close to her, was part of it. She was stronger than him now, and every so often he made a misstep that almost led him away from her, but she kept guiding him back to her, keeping him on her crooked and whimsical little dance small corrections and a grip harder than iron.

There was probably a metaphor in that. Finn noticed. "Peebee!" He said. "Peebee?"

Her humming was like music, echoing in his head and going straight down, like it was going to be there forever. Her voice, commanding him and giving him order. It sounded nice. "Yes, Finn?"

She brought a foot down on the floor and moved him with him, almost spinning were it not so slow and gentle. Finn just knew he should have stepped on her foot by now, but she was guiding him too well; his every motion and involuntary gesture was planned, predicated and totally controlled by Bubblegum's gestures and dance.

He squinted his brain, and she moved his body for him, her hand drifted down, sliding under his shoulders, and a lovely shiver rocked him with a dopey smile as she secured her hands and picked him right up, moving him into the air and pulling him up, up, until he was higher than he ever thought he'd be, and was looking right into her pink smiling face.

His head went dim. " I think!" He started to say. "I think I… oh, what's the word? When you have a headache but there's also pictures and words, I guess?"

Bubblegum tilted her head, still in motion, her momentum carrying her in a slow paced spiral. Finn wasn't scared that she might trip and drop him, or fall right on him or something painful like that (she was much heavier than she looked, and candy bio-mass was very dense); she was so strong and held him so easily he felt as light as the stuff clouds were made of. "You mean an idea?"

"Yeah!" Finn tried to think of it. But it was so hard to think with her holding him like this. It felt so nice, it felt good. It reminded him a little of being younger, of having a family and the warm fuzzy feeling that he didn't even know was there until his parents were dead and he and Jake were alone in the world. But Bubblegum was secure, eternal, his mentor and superior and best friend all wrapped up into one beautiful wonder; she made him feel so… the word came to mind, and he blushed a little just thinking it, but she was just so… safe.

On his cheek, the scar itched a little. He barely noticed, but a treacherous thought came for a second that maybe she wasn't so safe, maybe she was more than a little crazy and could hurt him without meaning or wanting to, she was spinning him around in the air for no reason right now and she was still a lot bigger than him and now she was stronger than him and if she wanted to do something to him there wasn't anything he could do to stop her-

The treacherous anti-Bubblegum thoughts passed, like the fading lies of a malicious trickster. And, the rest of those thoughts came to him properly; Bubblegum could do anything she wanted to him. That was her right; he was a citizen of her kingdom, her knight and soldier. There was a word for kings and queens (and princesses too, he figured) doing… stuff with their subjects but he couldn't remember it, but that was okay, he was feeling too warm and fuzzy and pink (that was funny, so he giggled a little) to care.

"What were you thinking about?" Bubblegum asked Finn.

Finn giggled again. "I don't know, I think I forgot."

Bubblegum giggled too, a warm flitting sound like chemical vapors hissing over flasks as they synthesized, two elements that seemed different on the surface but were so alike at the base level that there was no choice but to come together and transform (a suitable metaphor for her and Finn, she might have said), and her arms adjusted, suddenly squeezing him to her in a fierce hug that knocked the breath right out of his body. "Hrm," Bubblegum murmured as Finn's legs hung helplessly in the air, and his astonished plump face gaped, his cheeks pinned at either side by her neck or surprisingly strong shoulders. "I think I know the feeling."

She stopped, still hugging him, until she reluctantly placed him down before him, giving another quick hug before she let him touch down on the ground before here, and stood up straight. Finn stumbled back a half-pace for a second, blinking in muffled surprise, the younger and smaller boy perhaps coming up to her navel.

Finn was aware that he would never grow as tall as he had once imagined, and hoped. (He was compact and stout, Princess Bubblegum had once told him, giggling still and kissing him light as cloud-touches right over his eye, a perfect cuddly hero, hers forever and ever.) A time ago, perhaps this would have bothered him. Before his princess, his liege, his love, his friend, it didn't matter at all.

It occurred to him now, it was nice being smaller than a girl, when hugging her turned the world into soft loving safe-ness.

He giggled again.

Cautiously, Bubblegum leaned down a little bit, hands on her knees and smiling down at him. "You know," she said softly, and placed a finger to his mouth. "You have lips like… like a girl!"

"Peebs!" Finn whined. "I'm not a girl, I'm a big awesome dude!" He raised his arms up in a heroic posture. "See? Look! Muscles and junk!"

Bubblegum smirked slyly. "Oh yes," She murmured, her hands taking hold of his biceps, fingers squeezing lightly into the firm softness of his flesh. Finn squeaked; not shocked by her boldness (it was far too late for that), but at being squeezed as hard as she suddenly did. "Girded by lovely boy-fat, I should say."

"Don't say boy-fat," Finn squeaked again. "It doesn't sound cool!"

"Oh, but I like it!" Bubblegum said, earnestly. Her hands went downward, to his sides. Palms fastened and fingers went wide, and her lips seemed oddly moist, as if she were craving as much of him as possible. She squeezed his sides, his stomach-

"Ach!" Finn squeaked again. "Not my chubs, Peebs! …That sounded dirtier than I meant."

"Ah!" Bubblegum said, oblivious to his awkwardness. "Now here is the muscle! Layered under your most… lovely and copious softness, I should say!" She giggled, and suddenly her head ducked forward, and kissed him right on the nose. A brief passing warmness, her nose bumping into his face – a popping sound- and then she was standing straight up again, and giggling.

Finn made a small helpless sound. "…Heroes aren't supposed to be all chubs," he said.

Bubblegum clapped merrily. "I like soft and chubs," She said, earnest and totally honest as always.

Finn blinked. After a moment, he dared to smile up at her.

"So! Finn!" Bubblegum leaned down to his face again. "What was your idea?"

Finn giggled. "Um. Heh! I think… I think it was something about the way you dance with me. It's a little like… like how you get me to do stuff we both like and want to do but it's better when you get me to do it anyway…" He pouted. "Flump it, this isn't making sense!"

"No no no!" Bubblegum said quickly, cutting off his discontent. "It sounds good! It's a good idea!"

"…You do?" Finn said hopefully.

"OH yes!" She smiled, and took his hands. Her fingers wound around his, and squeezed gently. "You know," she said. "You have hands like a girl's, a little bit."

Finn pouted again. "Peebs…"

"In a nice way, Finny!" She giggled again, perhaps over-pleased at her nickname for him. "Your hands are scarred, and calloused, but… they still aren't very rough. They are soft, your fingers are shaped so gracefully, they're rather smaller for your size…"

She leaned in, smiling. Suddenly her face was a lot closer to Finn than he had expected. "You know, you have so many delicate feminine features. It's… very alluring, Finny."

He swallowed, nervously. Bubblegum could get… intense. She had a certain reputation for being pure, sweet and very feminine, and she was all those things. But when they were alone, when she had Finn all to herself…

Well. 'Bold' was one word for it. He'd sometimes thought to himself that what everyone thought about Marceline and Bubblegum was all mixed up. He knew, given that he had spent… alone time with them both, being involved in a peculiar three-way romance between the two girls, and they with each other. Marceline put on a good show of being uncontrolled and wild and totally about what made her feel good… but with him, she was so shy, so hesitant to show affection, and she thought just kissing someone was the big high point of a date (not that he disagreed; her lips were cool but not cold, with a pulse like bottled electricity, and her fangs pricked his skin just right).

Bubblegum, on the other hand, actually was everything people thought Marceline was like, at least in private. Sometimes he swooned just thinking about alone time.

"I mean," Bubblegum said with a meaningful chuckle. "Just look at your face?"

"My face?" Finn said.

"Oh, yes. Why do you think all the princesses were after you?"

"…Because I'm a hero, and that's just a thing princesses do?"

She chuckled again. "Close enough. But you see…" She put his hands on both sides of his face. "Your face! It's so soft and rounded, a perfect symmetrical display of femininity-aspected masculinity. Very distinctly a boy… and yet, oh Finn, you'd have made such a lovely girl!"

She kissed him on the nose, silencing any comebacks he might have offered. Her kiss felt distinctly wetter that time.

Her eyes moved up his face, around his cheek, and she paused for a long, long moment. Maybe a bit too long.

Her fingers slid up his cheek, just barely touching the itching scar there. She pressed her fingers against it, staring silently, and without a word, kissed it softly and sadly.

Sometimes silent apologies said a lot more. ('I'm sorry' Bubblegum had said time and time again, and so many times she kissed that scar; her lips and her touch lingered on it, as if she thought that by kissing it enough it might vanish and this physical reminder of hurting him might vanished.)

Finn bowed his head, trying to stop his lips from trembling. He hated that he could never think of anything to say.

The moment moved on, and she turned to other matters. "Your features are very soft and graceful," she said, more business-like this time. "You're just… you're very good looking, but not in the way of being handsome. No, you're… you're beautiful." She said this lovingly, almost worshipfully, her eyes wide and lips sliding around the shapes of her words with… zeal. A distant and more respectable cousin of fanaticism.

('When Peebee really cares about something, Marceline told him once, after he'd talked about how intense she was getting over a science thing. She gets…uh, INTENSE. Obsessive. You oughta watch your back, Finny. Or your butt, probably.)

Now her face was so close to his that he felt her warm breath pushed out, gusting lightly on his mouth.

"And, your lips," She said softly, almost dreamily. She adjusted herself, goo-like hair sliding down her shoulders and bouncing slightly once individual masses of hair hit their maximum length point, slapping gently into Finn's font. Her hair clung to him, like they were alive, feverishly sucking at him before dropping away, little mad consuming kisses.

Bubblegum put a finger to his lips, tracing the fullness of them, sliding past and pushing down on his lip, a thickened extension like a fingernail poking one of his teeth gently before withdrawing and moving over his lips again.

She shivered gently, and swallowed. A little nervously, a little hungrily. She smiled, moving slightly from side to side. She tilted his head up, kissing him on the nose, and it was a fierce kiss, almost rough-

"You really have lovely lips," she said, resting her forehead against Finn's and smiling slightly. "You know. You're prettier than I am."

('When she REALLY likes you, Marceline had told Finn earlier that very day. You can tell, because she starts obsessing like you're a science thing. It's kinda nice, actually.')

Finn, feeling as though he were in a dream, thought it was.

Suddenly aware of how much larger Bubblegum was than him, aware that this could go so terribly wrong, he dared to reach out, hands shyly grasping at the sides of her dress and shaking, he was just so scared that he was doing this wrong, he just wanted to hug her so badly-

"Ah!" Bubblegum said, and she sounded so happy. Bubblegum's hands moved, securing around his back and drifting down before she pulled him in for a deep and powerful hug, squeezing him tight to her, holding him so close-

She pulled him up, still holding him so close he could feel her body start to fold around him, candy-flesh yearning to engulf him completely in a totally perfect love-hug until his universe was strictly defined in everything being Bubblegum,-

He was face to face with her again, suspended once more solely by her strength and desire to have him close. Her eyes stared into his, thinking unknowable and intense thoughts, and then suddenly her mouth was on his, her lips strong and warm and over his own lips, and his arms were around her shoulder and holding her tight, and she was squeezing him with all her might and it hurt a little but he liked it.

She kissed him deeper, harder, stronger. Their heads leaned forward, and suddenly their lips popped free again and their foreheads bumped together. They blinked, shocked, and then at the exact same time they both started giggling like little kids.

"…I, I really-really-really like you," Finn whispered to his princess, face blushing fiercely.

"I, um, I like you too, with all the reallys I can say," Bubblegum said, giggling again.

Again, she kissed him, soft and sweet and so tender it was like coming home at long last.