Princess Bubblegum watched intently one of the many miniature fields, searching for any signs of the seeds reacting to the drop of liquid. Several minutes of observation led to the same repeated conclusion: it was not the answer to her problem. It was nearly the end of winter, and the majority of the Candy Kingdom's famous fields of cotton candy had yet to bear fruit, or presented low quality cotton candies. And as the Princess of the Candy Kingdom, it was her responsibility to solve the equation as fast as possible. She was communicated too late to save the whole harvest, but she would exhaust all possibilities, even if for the lowest probabilities.
She sighs once more, and registers the failed result on her clipboard. Her hands are freezing, and the chilly pockets of the lab coat don't seem to make it any better. There's another yawn soon after, and Princess Bubblegum wonders just how late it's getting. The wall clock informs her that it's the middle of the night, which is enough to make her question whether the sound of an acoustic guitar being played is just her imagination playing a trick on her or not. But the voice that followed the notes left no doubt of the source. It rang low, clear and evenly, yet the source was nowhere to be found.
Hey, hi, hello, what'chu doing?
All caught up in that chemistry,
watching those plants blooming.
Is it a riddle? A mystery?
Not for my buddy, my chum,
little Princess Bubblegum.
Like an apparition, the shape of Marceline materialized in front of Bubblegum. The Vampire Queen was facing her upside down, mere inches apart and defying the rules of gravity, like usual with any rule at all.
"'Sup Bonnie. A little blond bird told me you've been tucked in the castle for a while, so I thought I'd drop by."
"Hello, Marceline." - And one more sigh - "I've been considerably busy lately. And these are not just common 'plants'. They're miniature Gossypium¹ Cottoncandys, also known as mini Cotton Candies. I don't intend to sound rude, but I have to ask you not to stand so close."
Princess Bubblegum takes a step back out of reflex, but doesn't notice the change on Marceline's expression.
"Also- for glob's sake, Marceline! Your hair is floating all around! Could you please try to be more careful? This experiment is very important and delicate. These test and control samples are currently undergoing a rigid evaluation, and I can't afford to have them spoiled."
The doubt on the vampire's part as to whether or not she should have been offended by the earlier comment is now pure displeasure. She assumes an upright position, and her sentences vary between muttering and snapping:
"Look, I am careful ok! That was...an isolated case. You weren't even messing with liquid stuff this time!²" - She pauses and looks to the tiled floor, arms glued to her side and hands fisting her denim pants - "Ugh, whatever. I'll just leave you with your precious gossiping cotton candies."
"Marceline-
But Marceline disappears mid-sentence, leaving the room as empty as before, save for herself and Science, the rat. PB leans over the counter and sighs for the thousandth time, cupping her tired face and observing the failed samples. What a doomed day it had been. It was when everything suddenly clicked together - how hadn't she thought of this earlier? The answer to the case of the late sprouts could be as simple as a combination of Hydrogen and Oxygen. She herself had been feeling the effects of the exorbitant levels of humidity for the whole month, and the Gossypium Cottoncandys were a species with a short margin of resistance to environmental changes. Princess Bubblegum, the Candy Kingdom princess and renowned scientist, had forgotten to test Water.
~~~~ / ~~~~
Marceline bangs the door of the purple swamp house behind her, swinging the acoustic guitar around her body to get a hold of it. After she makes sure that it's safe inside its case and on the support, she floats up the stairs to her bedroom. The earlier encounter went horribly. It was not really the worst they had had, but it was far from the best. But you know what? It was not Marceline's fault. Once again, she had made the mistake of going all the way to see PB, only for it to end terribly. It sucks a lot, because it's always a game of Russian Roulette as to whether their presence will ignite sparks or not, which only leads Marceline to hope that if she makes the effort, this time it won't be as bad. As weird as it might sound, they did get along, eventually. And those moments justified all the disturbance.
Ugh, what was she thinking? Why did she even keep trying. Bubblegum clearly doesn't even want her standing near her royal butt. She herself made the favor of oh-so-politely stating.
Marceline growled in frustration, and if the innocent pillow that was on the floor had feelings, they would be hurt as well as it was kicked across the room and into the wall. Whatever. She had better things to do. Like... hang out? With whom? Finn? Well, no way. At least not in that state. So... Why not give the bass a chance?
And playing it was, for the next few hours and until Marceline deemed enough to empty out the frustration. Or at least forget it for a while.
~~~~/~~~~
The phone on Marceline's nightstand rang through the house, but it took Marceline at least a few minutes to recover consciousness and realize she had been actually sleeping; which is not unusual, given that the use of her abilities (namely floating, invisibility and, mainly, shape-shifting) did consume energy in the long run. What were news was that she was actually face-down on the mattress this time, instead of floating above it. The day before the last one must have been more tiring than she had previously thought. It was impossible to tell exactly how much she had slept, but her best guess would be a day or so. Oh, well. The ringing was insistent despite her will to ignore it, so she finally gave in and decided it should be at least half-important.
"Yeah?"
"Marceline, you've gotta check this out! Me and Jake found a cave full of crystals and they, like, change colors and stuff! Dude, it's totally mathematical!"
Oh, it was Finn. What time was it? For him to call her in the middle of an adventure, it was certainly (or very likely) that it was sometime in the morning.
"Sure."
Marceline then heard BMO start giggling hysterically, for completely unknown reasons. Finn tried to silence the little video game, but whatever was going on didn't seem to make it better.
"BMO, stay quiet! I'm trying to talk to Marceline!"³
"I-I can't! You are pressing my buttons!"
"BMO that's my face you're kicking!"
BMO kept giggling incoherent words. The line was starting to get erratic, and she heard Jake mumbling something in the back. Talk about awkward.
"Um, I'm gonna hang up. See you guys later."
Marceline wasn't sure if the message had gotten across, but she didn't really want to wait and see, either.
~~~~/~~~~
The Vampire Queen squinted her eyes, trying her best to find the badly described location of the mine without letting any uncovered part of her body be exposed from under the pink polka dot umbrella, and consequently burn in the sun. She was currently floating around the borders of the Desert Lands, looking for a "square hole with a set of stairs" in the nearly desert plane.
Oh, wait. There it was, along with dweeb #2. Marceline landed nearby, and noticed BMO was also there, being played by Jake.
"Hey BMO."
" Hello!" - He waved his tiny green arms at her enthusiastically.
She then greeted Jake, morphing her expression into one that would with no doubt creep into his nightmares at least once. This time, she went for something more werebear-like.
"Hello, Jake."
The dog claimed not to be afraid of her anymore, but she was certain it was not entirely true. Seeing him trying to keep his fear in secret was just way too fun.
"Where's Finn?"
Upon hearing his name, Finn's head popped out of the hole, grinning like he'd discovered the eighth wonder of the Land of Ooo.
"Hey Marcie! Think fast!"
The human boy threw something at her, which she caught just as it was about to fly past her ear. The crystal was hardly bigger than her palm, and against her gray skin the dark blue tone seemed to look even darker. The more she stared, the more the color seemed to surreptitiously shift. But after a few minutes, she was at least 20% sure the color was indeed getting darker. Strangely, it reminded Marceline of the 80's.4
"Rad. How did you guys find this?"
"It all started during breakfast. Jake was going to eat a fortune cookie when suddenly a little guy pops out of the cookie. Turns out he had been stuck there for 2160 seconds, and Jake freed him. He was so thankful that he..."
Of course that after one or two minutes, Marceline stopped paying attention completely. Her thoughts wondered far, and every once in a while she caught glimpse of Finn's overly-excited gestures, bits of the story or one of Jake's remarks as to how "Finn wasn't being true to the story".
"...and it was when we saw that the cake was actually a trap-"
If Marceline had been more attentive, she would've noticed Lady Rainicorn landing close behind her. Her body froze instinctively once she was brought back from her boredom trance by Princess Bubblegum's voice.
"Greetings, everyone!"
All greeted her back in their own way, except for Marceline. But she was quick to add a remark of her own, irritation evident:
"What is she doing here?"
Bubblegum, now fully rested, maintained her composure.
"My Banana Guards registered a disturbance in the underground passages to the North of the Desert Lands, so I came here to make a few measurements inside and outside the mine. " - She pulled a small rectangular device from inside her lab coat pocket, and began the procedure, walking around and stopping eventually to make the needed measurements and write them down. - "It won't take long."
After three or four times of holding the device in the air in apparently (but probably not) random locations, PB headed to the entrance of the mine, stopping mid-way down the stairs solely to turn to the vampire and state:
"Oh, and Marceline, I'd like to talk to you after I'm done."
It didn't matter to Marceline, because the feeling was not mutual. She grimaced and darted into the sky, driven by the intent of avoiding Bubblegum's approaches.
"Marceline, are you coming to Movie Club tonight?"
Finn shouted at her and Jake, who was now by his side, pulled his best friend by the shoulder to whisper:
"Dude, I don't think we should meddle in this!"
Despite the comment having been not-so-quiet, it went unnoticed by Marceline. She eased the grip on the black crystal that was still in her possession, taking a deep breath to calm her boiling nerves. Still, she chose to remain with her back to them and answered flatly, contrary to Jake's fear of Finn having triggered an outburst:
"I don't know. Talk to you later."
According to Jake's Manual of Life Experiences, it was a clear 'no'. Marceline resumed floating away, this time slower. After several minutes of heavy silence, Finn finally commented:
"Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeird."
~~~~/~~~~
Princess Bubblegum stands before Marceline's door, and she wonders if it is the appropriate time to be there. There's no music, so it's possible that the Vampire Queen is not even at home. Anyway, she had taken the time Lady Rainicorn could've spent with her boyfriend to bring her there, so it was not fair that she backed down now without even giving it a try. PB took a deep breath, and finally knocked on the door.
It was only after one or two minutes that it was opened. Marceline seemed to be giggling and muttering something that sounded vaguely coherent, but she instantly went serious once she laid eyes on Bubblegum5. Even though the vampire girl emitted no heat at all, the princess felt even colder only by looking at Marceline's outfit, a combination of white shorts and a torn, steel-grey, off-shoulder shirt. While her pink trench coat with candy buttons was indeed very cute, it was proving not to be so effective in keeping heat as the outside temperature dropped.
"What brings you to my humble house, princess? Shouldn't you be at movie club night at Finn's or taking care of some royal affair?"
"Shouldn't you be ignoring me?"
"I am ignoring you."
"Then why are you ignoring me?"
"Aren't you the little genius? Figure it out!" - Marceline had been calm, but her irritation was progressively showing.
"Marceline, could you stop behaving like a child? If it's about that day in the lab, I recognize I might have been a bit rude but you're not making this any easier!"
"Oh I am so sorry! Does the way I act bothers you, your highness?" - Marceline curls her legs against her chest, hovering so high that she's nearly touching the door frame. With each sentence, she floats closer to the Princess. - "I deeply apologize for visiting you, making sure you are at least alive, and making you a flippin' SONG. Of course, it's just fair that you tell me to stay away of your little sweets and pretentious face! Well guess what? This is my house and I'll do whatever I want!"
PB took a step back, only remembering of the small set of stairs when her foot nearly slipped on the first step. But once their foreheads touched, the fall was imminent. Bubblegum stumbled backwards and down the three steps, their now glued bangs causing Marceline to be pulled along with her.
Marceline opened her eyes to evaluate the damages of the fall, only to be greeted by Bonnie's face a breath apart from hers and their lower limbs tangled awkwardly in a kind-of sitting position. She instantly scooted backwards, realizing it was a huge mistake too late. It only made the bubblegum stuck to her hair stretch and eventually retract, smashing their foreheads together.
" Ouch! Marceline, stop moving!"
And she complied, staying immobile in fear of making it worse.
"See? This is why I told you not to get near me. This season has been overly humid, so my hair tends to do this. It doesn't matter what I do, it becomes sticky again within a few hours."
"Oh..." - Marceline looks up to the sticky mess, ashamed of herself for having made such an unnecessary fuss. The fact that Bonnie wasn't mad at her for it didn't make her feel any better, either. She was surely blushing by now, but not even in a thousand more years would the Vampire Queen admit it.
"And... sorry about the experiment. It was very urgent. But you went away before I even had the chance to explain myself back then"
"It's... alright, really. Sorry for... well... everything and stuff." - She can't help but feel like a repentant child, but she's probably looking like one anyway.
"Apology accepted."
"So... How are we going to, you know, fix this?"
Princess Bubblegum stares at the knot for a little while, seemingly choosing the best alternative.
"Hmm... Do you have powdered sugar?"
"Guess."
"In this case, I suppose we'll have to go to my castle."
Marceline only nods. This time, something tells her that being with Bonnibel won't be that bad.
~~~~/~~~~
1- .org (/) wiki (/) Gossypium
Obs.: In Adventure Time, cotton candy actually grows in trees, but I chose not to care.
2- Another headcanon: Marceline had been banned from the laboratory long ago because of certain "events", but she never followed the rule, so PB just gave up on trying to keep her out. Though Marceline was still wise enough not to mess with possibly dangerous stuff.
3-Yep, he's calling her using BMO.
4-The crystal are thermotropic ones (as explained here .com (/) ), but of course they're not liquid for practical reasons. it's pretty much an adventure time'd ring mood crystal, and it works the same way. Marcie's body temperature is nearly ambient in my headcanons, so in her hands it gets way cooler than in Finn's (another headcanon of mine is that his outside body temperature is like, baby-high). But again for practical reasons, I'll mix the mood the color represents and actual body temperatures to my advantage. On a side note, mood rings were actually invented in 1975, but after living for a thousand years, you can't expect too much historical accuracy (and it's also linked to her memories regarding that time anyway so).
5- What's a vampire's favourite kind of dog? A Bloodhound.