"Do you know about this?"
Marceline raised her eyebrows when Bonnibel handed her a tattered leather bag. Apparently it had already travelled through ages – part of the leather was peeling off, and part of the bag was stained with some unknown pigment.
"Bonnie, this is a bag made out of leather. One that is ancient." She smirked, "I thought a brainlord like you would have been able to get the answer in five seconds."
It was Bubblegum's turn to raise her eyebrows. "Marceline, I am talking about the item placed in the bag – not the bag itself. Isn't it obvious?"
It was weird for the princess to appear in front of the vampire in the afternoon, yet to speak of the fact that she had just presented to the latter a strange rectangular metal block. Usually Bonnibel was either working for the kingdom, handling documents or toying (in Marceline's point of view) with the solutions and beakers and mysterious powders in her precious laboratory. And the queen herself would be strumming her axe bass and let the notes flow with the afternoon breeze relaxingly. To be honest, she didn't even have the slightest idea why the rosy girl would show up in this hour.
The princess started to blabber, "I have read in some ancient books that this is a camera – one that had been considered as quite old-fashioned even before the Great Mushroom War took place. But, Marcy, this is not an ordinary camera, not the kind that we usually take photos with nowadays. The books say that it is an "instant" camera, and do you know what does that mean? I had a hard time figuring it out and at last, given that part of your life was spent before the war – though it was terribly insignificant in comparison with your age – I think you may know about it. Do you have any idea?"
Marceline couldn't help but to enjoy the sincerity flowing out from her girl's words; in fact she enjoyed everything from Bonnibel. But she managed to answer with a chuckle, "Bonnie, geez, you yourself have already stated the fact that I was only four when that freaking war happened, so please don't give much expectation on my ability to identify an item that is more than one thousand years old."
"At least give it a try?"
The vampire gazed at the metal block that she had just pulled out from the bag. It also had part of the surface covered with leather, but, being the same as the tattered bag, most of it was peeling off. It looked strangely familiar to Marceline, and she was positive that she had seen something akin before; though the memory was stored at some dark unreachable corner of her brain.
Boonibel started blabbering again, "It is kind of flexible – foldable…" Her pink fingers pushed a button and gave the front part of the metal block a gentle pull. With that the block seemed to sprang to life, its true form wholly shown to the girls; the camera had a sense of architectural beauty, and the delicate red button placed next to the lens only made it even more tempting. Bonnie's eyes beamed in delight, "See? This is extraordinary fascinating, isn't it? I have lubricated it so the parts can move much more smoothly. Do you have any idea about it? Marcy?"
She was long lost in her thoughts. The memories, one after one, escaped from the dark eerie corners and swirled around in her brain, whispering tales and moments and stories that had been forgotten for ages. They – the memories – were afire; like fireworks they sent waves of dazzling light down from her brain to the heart, where her soul was located and it was instantly lit with a golden flame.
C'mon, Marcy, at least give me a smile –
She closed her eyes and gave out a long, depressed sigh.
One, two, three; say cheese!
She gently placed the camera on her princess's vanity and met the rosy girl's worrying gaze. "Sorry, Bon, I just can't bring myself to talk about this now. Yes, I recognize it, but it," she eyed the item warily, "this kind of camera that is probably more than one thousand years old, remindes me of something from the past. Some unpleasant memories, y'know?"
The princess decided to drop the topic as soon as possible and she wrapped her arms around the vampire, whose slightly-shaking frame steadied in the embrace. "Well, then would you like to spend some time with me? Perhaps you can sing me your favourite song and I can feed you bright red strawberries. I don't have plans for this afternoon, so we can enjoy it together. Does that sound good to you, Marcy?"
She smiled and placed a kiss on Bonnie's cheek.
And spending a few good hours singing to her princess was surely relishing.
Marceline circled an arm around Bonnibel's shoulder while the latter gently placed her face onto the vampire's chest. They had been gazing at the starry light, pointing at the little beams and joked about silly things; like how Bonnie had once fallen asleep in the middle of an experiment due to her sever lack of sleep and it was Marceline who turned the burner off plus saved the entire laboratory which was stacked with hundreds of chemicals. Flammable and oxidizing and toxic chemicals. Ever since then the vampire decided to keep an eye on the princess's schedule and assured the younger (forced when necessary) to have a rest with high quality. They could hardly stop laughing and clear these stinging moments that had brought embarrassment were already turned into a source of humour.
Being cozy and settled, the queen decided to tell the truth; she imagined that sooner or later she would have to do so anyway. With a gentle tug of pink hair, she whispered, "Sugar?"
"Hmm?"
"Remember the conversation we had in the afternoon? Now I am going to spit it out. About that camera and all the junk behind it. Are you comfortable with it?"
A pink hand reaching up and caressing her cheek served as a silent response.
"So…" She rolled over with Bonnie in her arms, finding a more comfortable position, "I have told you about Simon."
"The Ice King, right?"
She closed her eyes and nodded. There came another reply, "Marcy, I am sorry about referring him with that name. I know you are not comfortable with it but I had to make a confirmation. " She squeezed her arm lightly.
Being encouraged, the vampire continued, "When we were wandering around, he took a few pictures of me with that kind of camera; I don't think it's the one which you have. To be honest I have absolutely no idea how he managed to get one from the ruins, let along the films. Oh, and it is called an instant camera because you can acquire the photo almost instantly after having taken it. We can also look at the photos instantly now but it is different." Her free hand wavered in mid-air, making motions whilst describing the item, "With the instant camera you can actually hold the picture in your hands. And it is unique because you cannot get another photo with the same effect, same image and same feelings. So you need film to take photos with that camera."
"How fascinating." The princess murmured.
"Okay, back to the topic – Simon had taken a few photos of me, then still a child, and one day he just left. Left without me, leaving me along in the ruins pathetically."
Since then I lost a true friend of mine. But we only had one choice or both of us would have got hurt.
Bonnibel held the older girl's chin firmly. "Marceline, that's no way pathetic."
"Bon, I felt pathetic. A while back I accidentally discovered that when he still had his sanity in his hands he scribbled down a few sentences on the back of the photos. Junk about losing himself to the flippin' crown. About he had no other choice. About asking for my forgiveness because he already knew that sooner or later he would lose control and forget about every thing and leave me, a tiny seven-year-old behind." Her voice started to crack despite her desperate attempts to stay unmoved. "It was ridiculous because now he cannot remember anything of it. Not even a scrap. He sang along the lines which he freakin' composed himself as if he wasn't even involved."
The warm pink hand started to wipe away the tears which streamed all the way down.
The queen led out a shaky breath. "It is ridiculous coz now he doesn't even know what all these words meant. It is ridiculous coz now he doesn't even know how much he once meant to me. How much he still means to me. It is ridiculous coz I miss the old Simon so much. Do you know how much it hurts when he asked what my name was upon our first encounter afterwards? It's like you have gulped a mouthful of poison but you still have to pretend nothing has happened. And seeing the pictures only make your heart ached even more."
Bonnibel rested her hand on her lover's chin. A few moments passed with no words exchanged and for awhile Marceline thought that the rosy girl was aslept.
But finally she spoke. "Marceline, want to hear my own story about cameras and photos?"
"Of course, sugar." In fact, the vampire hadn't heard the girl talking much about her stories. Sure she had a lot of them but she chose to hide them away.
The girl shifted slightly. "Remember the period when we broke up and you just disappeared for a few good glob years? Every day my heart was stabbed over and over again and I thought that someday it would stop bleeding and stop making me a hollow and mushy being; but I was wrong. It still hurt. And that black rock shirt plus the photo of us has been the only things I had from you. I wore the shirt as pajama and placed the photo in my closet."
Marceline tightened her embrace around Bonnie.
"I knew that I should get rid of these things because they only made me feel even worse. I couldn't stop missing you and they only unstoppably reminded me how happy we once had been. But I couldn't bring myself to do it – to dump the stuffs or burn them down into ashes or threw them into the river or whatsoever - because I had already lost you due to some stupid reasons. They were the only scraps of you remained and I didn't want to lose them because of some other reasons that were even more stupid."
"But you had given the shirt to Maja in exchange of Hambo." The vampire added silently, almost in a hoarse whisper.
"Because your happiness worth much, much, much more than that. It's the same to you – you sacrificed Hambo because Simon's happiness is much, much, much more important than it, isn't it?"
She pressed a kiss on Bubblegum's crown.
"And then you came back. And I somehow figured out that we take photos because we want to remind ourselves beautiful things do exist. No matter how fragile they might be – no matter how soon they will disappear – for at least a moment they do exist. Like blossoming flowers that will wilt in less than a day. Like fireworks that won't even leave a trace behind after merely a few seconds. And the photos are proofs, while the camera is the witness. They are treasured memories."
She teased, "I have never ever heard you speaking in such a hopelessly romantic and dreamy way, brainlord."
The said girl responded by giving her cheek a pinch. "I am glad of your willingness to share the past with me, rock-and-roll-girl. Do you feel lighter now?"
"Yeah, princess; in both ways."
Gradually they drifted to sleep, and they curled around each other perfectly. Yes, there are flaws; but that won't stop the beautiful moments from being treasured, and more than certain that won't stop their relationship to be absolutely breathtaking. The world was still amazing after every errors and mistakes and falses.
"And," Bonnibel said, partially awake, "remember that the people who take sincere photos of yours – the photos which genuine emotions can be seen dancing within the images – are the ones who truly love you. Always remember that."
"Love you, unusually-sentimental Bon-Bon. Good night."
"Love you too, Marshmallow. And sweet dreams."
And she wasn't surprised when Marceline decided to take a terrifyingly lot of photos with her, or just shot pictures of her randomly after that night.
Fin.
This idea has been swirling in my brain for quite awhile, coz I am (really) into film cameras. [blush]
Also the title is called "Lights and Shadows" because all visions and photos are constructed of deflection of light. And with shadows they are the basic principles of forming images.
Hope you enjoy this little fic! 3