Marceline knew before she even lifted her feet off of the ground that her efforts would be futile. Marceline knew that she would be leaving this place alone. But somehow leaving with out trying was worse than the rejection she knew she faced high above in the tower.
The vampire looked up to the window, a blaze of pink spilling from the opening in the castle walls. The light made it that much harder for Marceline to lift her feet from the ground.
The air around Marceline was still. The vampire took a breath she didn't need and sighed. This was why she had to leave and soon. She was suffocating. With this last thought she kicked herself off of the ground and drifted up and into the pink bedchamber.
The room was decidedly empty. But the candle burning low in it's stand told Marceline that the Princess could not be far. She pulled her bass and bag from her shoulder leaving them by the window. Her feet dropped down to the plush pink carpet, her hip cocked to the side. Marceline looked about the familiar room, then dropping down onto the bed. Her head bent as she anticipated the reappearance of the pink monarch.
Bubblegum stepped into the room merely seconds later. Her bubblegum hair hung around her face, and her arms by her side. But Marceline's eyes did not miss that the younger woman wore the black shirt she'd given her so many years ago.
"Marceline." She greeted. Marceline's gaze fell back to her hands. "What are you doing here?" She asked wanting to ask if the vampire was alright but knowing that except via song, Marceline was not likely to answer the question honestly.
The dark haired woman looked up at Bubblegum. She had practiced the lines enough times. She knew what to say. And yet as she stared at her friend she couldn't remember why she'd chosen those words precisely. "You are a monarch right?" The practiced words tumbled from her lips.
The look that Bubblegum shot her almost made her second guess asking Bubblegum at all. "Of course, Marceline." Bubblegum answered her tone telling Marceline that it was a stupid question.
"So you could be entitled to a short leave. Couldn't you?" Marceline continued. Her eyes shifted around the room looking any place but Bubblegum.
It took Bubblegum a minuet to answer. But finally she composed herself and answered Marceline. "I couldn't. My responsibilities here are…" She trailed off not sure why she suddenly felt so guilty.
"Yeah I figured. Sorry I asked." Marceline rose in the air and drifted back towards the window.
"Don't go." Bubblegum requested, through she knew it wasn't fair of her to ask that from the taller woman. "Where are you going?" She asked instead.
The vampire shrugged and then tried to think of how exactly to explain herself. "I don't have any plans. I just need to get away for a while." She took a deep breath. "My past surrounds me here. I just need a break from it all." That was the best Marceline could muster. She couldn't bare to explain herself further so she just left it at that.
"Then I shouldn't be going anyways." Bubblegum said logically. Marceline looked up at the pink haired girl.
"I'm not running from you Boni." Marceline couldn't bare to tell her what she really meant to say. She couldn't tell her that she wasn't the past, that she was the future, that she was light and hope and everything the Vampire queen was lacking.
There was a silence that neither girl knew how to break. It was mostly a comfortable silence but there was just that twinge of awkward. Finally Bubblegum found the words to say.
"I want to go with you Marceline, but I can't."
"I know. I just thought-" She stopped searching for the right words. "I thought it'd be prettier with you." She finally finished, her cheeks burning red. She stood turning from the Princess. "I should be going."
Bubblegum didn't know what to do or what to say, but she couldn't let Marceline leave like this. There was a small irrational fear wheedling its way into her mind, what if Marceline didn't come back? What reason did she have to return to this place where the past haunted her?
Marceline had shouldered her bag, and Bubblegum couldn't just stand there. She grabbed her arm pulling her back and pressed her lips against the other woman's.
The kiss was short and sweet. Marceline observed the deliciously red flush on Bubblegum's cheeks. They both stood frozen for a moment, neither sure what the other was thinking. Then like a blessing to Bubblegum's panicking mind Marceline dropped her bag back to the floor, and smashed her lips against the monarchs.
This wasn't so much one kiss as it was many crammed into the span of a single moment. A moment in which Bubblegum and Marceline were not Vampire Queen and Princess of the Candy Kingdom, they were simply Boni and Marcy. In love, clinging desperately, and totally lost in each other. But just as abruptly as it started it was over.
Bubblegum pulled back and gave Marceline a demand. "Come home soon." She ordered. A smile bloomed on the vampires face. She gave Bubblegum a salute and then slipped from her arms. She picked up her things and then lifted herself out of the window.
"Sure you don't want to come?" Marceline asked on last time resting her hands on the window ledge. The shorter girl shook her head and Marceline shrugged good-naturedly. "Whatever." She allowed. "You'll miss me when I'm gone."
Bubblegum watched her fly away. Knowing that her words were true. Bubblegum missed her already.