Special, special thanks to Night Monkey, who Beta'd. Wouldn't have happened without 'em!

Enjoy!

"IIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"

Finn paused, sword poised against the throat of a huge ogre.

"What was that?" Jake asked from his place behind the other boy where he guarded Princess Muscles. He lifted a paw to his forehead, shading his eyes from the sun as he looked questioningly up at Finn.

"It sounded like Princess Bubblegum! She must be in trouble!" He jumped down from the ogre's chest and sprinted in the direction of the Candy Kingdom.

"I haven't heard a scream like that since the winter of the Great Candy Cane Shortage. Truly a terrible winter..." Jake shook his head at the lugubrious memory. He turned to the pair behind him, waggling a finger. "Now you two get along while we're gone! Or next time, Finn will really cut your head off, heh heh."

The Damsel and the Monster glanced bashfully at each other as Jake to his companion. The latter took something out of his pocket and gently pushed it toward Princess Muscles. "You like…apple?"

The juicy red offering glinted in the sunlight. A shy smile was the response.

Jake met Finn at the castle entrance.

"How do we know where she is?" Finn cried.

Jake sniffed, and pointed to a laboratory tower. "Finn, look over there! There are explosions coming from the window!"

He grabbed Finn and stretched them into the room. Finn leapt off Jake, ready to defend their Princess, and landed in quite a mess.

"What smells like burnt candy?"

The laboratory was littered with glass, smelling of scorched steel and hot sugar. Marceline the Vampire Queen was pink with laughter, floating just out of reach of Princess Bubblegum's wildly flailing fists. The female scientist was fuming, literally! Small plumes of smoke rose slowly from the blackened ends of her hair.

Bubblegum finally whirled around to face the boys, who stumbled backward in surprise at her disgruntled appearance. Her shoulders shook from heavy breathing, her eyes were wide, her jaw clenched tight, and it almost looked as though…

"Bubblegum, what happened to your hair?" Fin ventured.

Jake rested his knuckles on his hips and said, "Alright Marceline, what's going on here?"

Marceline cracked a sinister smile and pushed a black lock of hair out of her eye. "I don't know what you're talking about, Jake. I guess miss perfect can't handle a little heat." She winked at Bubblegum.

"'A little heat'?" Bubblegum shrieked. 'You set me on FIRE!"

Marceline roller her eyes, "Oh, don't be dramatic. I set your patient on fire, you just got singed."

The two heroes gaped at her. "WHAT?"

"You set WHO on fire?" Finn demanded.

She let out a laugh, "Don't look so freaked, it not like he was alive or anything."

Jake turned on Bubblegum, "What were you doing with a dead body?"

The princess took a deep breath in an attempt to regain some composure and with it, scientific dignity. She stepped to the side to reveal lab table adored with an immense scorch mark, and cleared her throat to begin. "I was attempting to produce a protective, fire resistant formula to defend the candy people against the risk of Dragons, a problem on the rise with the influx of warm wind currents from the Breakfast Kingdom since the increase in the demand for pancakes. In attempts to prevent my people from melting into sugary goop, I had to have a handy chemical that would induce a hot enough chemical reaction to ignite the subject in order to test my formulas. I couldn't practice on a live patient!"

"Okay, but that doesn't explain what happened to this guy?" Jake jerked a thumb at the remains of the gummy bear.

"Marceline handed me POTASSIUM chlorate when I asked for CALCIUM chlorate!" She raged, her composure lost.

The boys shared a blank look and Marceline shrugged at the princess, "Hey, it's not my fault all your bottles look the same. You pointed in a direction; I grabbed the first beaker of the Bunsen burner."

Bubblegum wheeled on her, "You could have killed me!"

Marceline smirked, "Please, I put you out."

"UGH!" Bubblegum shouted and threw an empty beaker at Marceline, who easily moved out of it's way. It crashed against the wall and shattered against the ground.

Jake sighed and grabbed a broom. "Well Finn, I think it's pretty clear what happened here. Let's clean it up."

Finn moved toward Bubblegum as Jake swept around them. "Princess, you've gotta calm down. I don't see what the big deal is."

"Finn! You don't know what happens when heated Potassium Chloride and sugar chemically react?!"

"Uhhh…no," He grinned sheepishly.

"IT BURSTS INTO FLAMES!" She shouted, eyes huge, "Mr Gummy over there EXPLODED and burned for a full two minutes before he finally went out!"

Jake paused, dustpan in hand. "So that's what happened to your hair."

"That's what I've been telling you!" Bubblegum threw her hands into the air in exasperation. Sometimes it was difficult being a scientific mind in the Land of Ooo.

Marceline glided down next to her. "Cool it, Princess. I like your hair; even when it's on fire."

Before Bubblegum could form a response, the Vampire Queen herself leaned in and kissed the other girl's soft cheek. Bubblegum was unable to react, anchored to the spot by the surprise of such an unexpected gesture. As she watched Marceline retreating through the still open window, the small pink scientist turned even pinker.

A/N: Thanks for reading! This story is the result of a fanfiction inspiration where I grab one piece of paper from two different bags and retrieve a theme and a fandom. The theme was 'Ends', and I thought, how funny would it be if somebody burnt off the ends of Bubblegum's bangs? I decided the person would have to be Marceline, since Marceline/Bubblegum is probably my favorite fem/fem pairing. Happy FemSlash February!

Thanks again for the read, cheers!