After Bubblegum's help with getting back Hambo, Marceline and the Princess seemed to be getting along a lot better. The bad blood that was between them was sucked dry by the vampire queen herself. Marceline's long black hair rested on Bubblegum's lap as they sat in Marcies cave. She was looking up at Bubblegum's pink face and pretty smile. The smile on her face couldn't seem to leave in Bubblegum's presence. When she saw her, her stomach dropped down to her buns, did a backflip and kicked her in the lungs.
"Marcy, you seem distracted, are you okay?" Bubblegum asked tilting her head questioningly.
"I'm good, Bubble butt." she said with a smirk. Bubblegum crossed her arms and pretended to be mad, but Marcie could see that she was just pouting. "Oh don't be like that!" When she continues to be fake mad, Marceline pulls herself up onto her knees and forces her arms into Bubblegum's armpits. "Now I'm going to count to three or I'm going to tickle you until you pee all over the ground." She refused to stop her tantrum and forced Marcy to bring the tickle wrath down upon her. With squinted eyes, she moved her fingers in the most tickly way possible. Bubblegum squealed at the torture. Tears formed in her eyes and she thrashed trying to escape. The two ended up falling because of Bubblegum's moving about with Marcy on top of the Princess.
Both of their eyes widened at the suddenness of the fall and their position. A bright red blush spread across Bubblegum and Marceline's faces. They muttered apologies and sat up moving apart from each other. A long pause followed the very awkward moment between them. Marceline looked down and found something to say after a while of thinking, "So Bubblegum.. what exactly happened back at Maja's house? I'm honestly surprised you could get Hambo from her."
"Well I had to give her something in exchange for Hambo. She legally owned Hambo so I couldn't just take it. Technically I traded it."
"For what exactly?" Marceline wiggled her eyebrows at her.
"Oh nothing just something that had a lot of personal value to me."
"Personal value? Like what?" she asked. She was a bit surprised that something had more personal value to Bubblegum than Hambo meant to her.
"Just a gift.."
"A gift? Like what?" She asked turning onto her stomach and looking at Bubblegum.
"Just.. a gift.." She said turning away from her.
"Wow way to change the subject, Bubble butt." She says smiling up at her.
"Okay okay... I gave her... the shirt you gave me..." The blush returned to her face now only brighter.
"Oh... wow.. you mean that..." The blush seemed to spread from Bubblegum's face to Marceline's. "So you really liked that shirt a lot huh?" Marceline mumbled out.
"Um.. yeah.. it smells nice.. i used to wear it to bed.." The combined blush almost seemed to give off a glow.
"That shirt must have meant a lot to you then. It meant more to you... than Hambo means to me.. and you gave it up to make me happy." It was blush central in here by this time.
"Well yeah I'd do anything to make you happy, because I love y-" She stopped herself and cleared her throat. "I mean like as a best friend."
"Yeah man.. a best friend.." Another long awkward pause. They were both lying and they knew it. The feelings they had towards each other made them want to smooch. Friends don't smooch. Not even best friends.
Marceline looked over at Bubblegum's beautiful pink face and shook her head. "Bubblegum, this means so much to me. You don't even know." She kissed Bubblegum on the cheek and looked away quickly. They both twiddled their fingers. "Oh glob it!" Bubblegum yells out getting quite annoyed at the stupid games. She grabbed Marceline's dumb cute face and kissed her right on the lips. "THERE. I DID IT." She raised her arms in triumph and slumped back down holding her knees.
Marceline was overtaken with shock. She skipped tier one and went immediately to tier two. She would have been surprised if they had gotten to tier two! But Bubblegum had jumped the first step completely and smooched her straight on the mouth. All the years of hating her for her smug looks and her fancy clothing and her giant castle crumbled to her feet. She realized that it was so stupid for her to hate someone so nice and smart and pretty as her. Wow did she feel dumb.
"Hey.. um.. Marcy? You wanna go see a movie sometime? Like a... date?" Bubblegum looked at Marceline who seemed to be in some weird state of either confusion or anger. She couldn't tell exactly.
"I.. um.. i...y...yes" She managed to pull from her throat.
"Okay how about Saturday at 8?" Bubblegum asked not exactly sure how these sort of things went.
"Uh yeah sounds.. good." Bubblegum got up and so did she. "I'll see you Saturday then?"
"Yeah." Bubblegum smiled and pulled her into a tight hug. It was warm and nice. A bit sticky but sweet. Bubblegum kissed her cheek and Marceline pulled her in for a real smooch. The smooch was short but brought both of them happiness and filled them with butterflies.
"Tier one.. yesssssss" Marceline whispered to herself.
"What?" Bubblegum asked not catching what she said.
"Oh nothing... it's nothing.." She smiled at her new found love interest as she departed to her kingdom. "Now if we can only reach tier three."