Chapter 6: A Monster

Princess Bubblegum had been kidnapped.

Now, the young girl was no fool, as much as the strange, bluish-whitish old man told her that he was simply taking her to meet some new friends, she knew she was being kidnapped. What's more, she knew far better than to fight it. He was much bigger than she and seemed to have a magic crown that allowed him super powers. But Princess Bubblegum was not completely helpless.

I am royalty and I will not allow him to treat me in such a way! I'm going to kick this…butt and get the glob out of here! She thought to herself as the Ice King locked her in a cell. She felt rather proud of herself for using such foul language to describe the man, even if it was only in her thoughts. The bad words made her feel like a big kid, and like she had some control in this situation.

Okay. Analyze the situation. This man is clearly disturbed and there must be a way out of here. What's more, Peppermint Butler would be so mad if he knew I was dressed in one of my best outfits when tromping around Ooo and freezing in this cell. She crossed her arms as a chill ran through her and let out a 'humph'. She half listened as the man went on and on about waiting until she was older and then marrying her and how she'd lead a great life in the cell.

But Bonni was quickly losing patience, and when five-year-olds lose patience, tantrums ensue. I must present myself royally at all times! She tried to convince herself. But as much as she tried, she was five, cold, tired, slightly afraid, and very stubborn. She stomped her foot and began to yell over the rambling old man. "Listen here, you…jerk! I am a Princess and my people are going to be so mad when they find out you took me! So you let me go right now or I'll scream!"

This got the Ice King's attention and he walked over to the cell. "Now, now, Princess…do you want a toy? Or a Dolly?" He asked, not really knowing how to handle a child.

"A dolly is a toy! I wanna go home!" she began to yell, and repeated it over and over. The Ice King, scrambling for some sort of solution, opened the cell door in hopes to comfort the screaming child. The door's open! This is my chance! Bubblegum thought, noticing the man's foolishness. He walked over to her, and she stomped down fiercely on his foot, making him hop around, and then kicked him hard in the other shin, sending him toppling. She grabbed the crown off his head and threw it across the room, closing the cell door behind her.

She ran out of the palace and started off through the Ice Kingdom, her little feet and arms freezing off. She began to cry as the place seemed to go on forever and ever. Compose yourself! You'll make it home! But no amount of thinking could make the tears stop flowing down her face and the sniffles from her sadness go away.

She finally reached the end of the Ice Kingdom, and all but collapsed from sadness: she could not see her home from here, and had no idea which way to turn, so she just began to walk. Miserably, she continued on, in hopes that she would run into someone and they would tell her the way back to her lovely, happy, colorful, warm Candy Kingdom.

But she didn't. And as darkness fell over Ooo, she realized she needed a place to stay. I am lost forever! No one will find me! And I'll die! And decompose! And there will be no ruler for my people! And I just wanna go home! She thought, wandering into a cave and curling up in a corner. And my favorite dress is all ruined! And I'm so cold! And it's dark and scary in here.

She continued to sob and wretch for several minutes until her tears had completely run dry. Sniffling her last couple sniffles, Bubblegum glanced around her lodging for the night. There was nothing remarkable about the cave, though an 'm' was carved into a flat rock against the far wall. This is no place for a princess! She thought to herself, but she didn't really have much choice. It was either stay safe in the cave or go out and have to face all the creatures and evil things that come out at night to eat little candy girls.

She got up and walked around the space a little, not tired at all. As she walked up to inspect the M rock, she heard a voice say, "Hey. What are you doing in my cave?"

Petrified beyond measure, the little girl turned around slowly, shaking in her skin. She eventually faced a girl, and she took stock of her appearance. Blue skin, pointy ears, floating, sharp teeth…She let out an ear splitting scream. "A monster! A monster! Don't eat me! Help! Help!"

All the while, Marceline was trying to calm the little girl down. Reaching her wit's end, she shape-shifted back into a five-year-old and let out a stern "Hey!"

The sharpness of Marceline's voice paused Bubblegum's screeching frenzy. She looked around, confused. "Did you see the monster? She's going to eat me! Where'd she go?" At least there's another kid here instead of that…that…thing!

The other little girl shook her head. "Silly…it's me. And I'll have you know that I am the Vampire Queen. And I just wanted to ask you why you were here! You look like a candy person to me, and the candy kingdom is quite a ways a way from here."

Bubblegum took a couple of frightened steps back. "Y-y-you're the monster? But-but…you were big a second ago!"

Marceline laughed. "I'm a super powerful vampire. I can shape-shift. Look, don't be afraid…I just want to help you get home."

She…wants to help me? Bubblegum was very confused. "But if you are a vampire…you don't want to eat me?"

"Eat you? No! You look scared enough as it is without me adding that factor into the mix. I don't need to eat people anyway…I only do what's fun. No I won't eat you."

Bubblegum found herself strangely offended. "What, am I not tasty-looking enough for you?"

The vampire girl gave a bout of huge laughter. "You're upset that I don't want to eat you?" She laughed even harder. "Oh come on, Pinkie, you have to be joking!"

Bubblegum puffed up at the silly nickname, infuriated. "Is that any way to treat a Princess? Just who do you think you are?" She put her hands fiercely on her hips, wishing to intimidate the other girl.

"Oh-ho-ho!" Marceline said in fake fright, shifting slowly back into her normal body. "Is this any way to treat a Queen, little one? Besides…" She vanished and reappeared behind Bubbegum. "What if I just ate?" She hissed in the little girl's ear, flicking her tongue out, and listened as she gave a scream, chuckling a little to herself. When the girl calmed down, she walked over and held out a hand, "Come on, and let's get you home, Pinkie."

Bubblegum crossed her arms in defiance. "It's Princess. Princess Bonnibel Bubblegum and I most certainly will not be going home with a monster vampire! What would Peppermint think?"

The older girl hummed. "Well…my name is Marceline, not 'monster vampire' and I think your Peppermint would be happy to have you home, wouldn't he? Either that or you can, under my courtesy, stay in my cave tonight; though I don't think it would be very comfortable for you…" Bubblegum humphed again. "Come on now, Princess, don't be like that. I'm sorry for scaring you. Let's be friends, okay?" Marceline said, crouching down and extending her hand.

Bubblegum turned to face the girl, studying her, who was smiling kindly at her. Now that I look at her, she doesn't seem so scary at all. Look, she isn't even wearing scary clothes or anything. She's just floating there, and she wants to be by friend. Bubblegum didn't have any friends back at the palace, and Lumpy Space Princess was only allowed over on rare occasions, and she found herself kind-of liking the mysterious girl before her. "Okay, we'll be friends. But you must promise to visit at least every week and tell me everything I want to know!" she commanded, in her most princess-y comanding voice.

Marceline laughed, and Bubble gum was confused as to why. Nothing she had said was funny at all. Still, she was pleased when she heard the vampire say, "Yes your royal highness, I'll stop by and be your friend. Now let me take you home?" Marceline smirked a little at the audacity of the child before her.

Bubblegum nodded her head in consent, and Marceline crouched in front of her, back turned, in indication for a piggy back ride. Bubblegum, being a young child after all, scrambled onto the Vampire Queen's back, giggling. "Hold on tight!" She heard Marceline say, and soon, the pair was flying.

As the wandered at a slow and steady pace over Ooo, Bubblegum couldn't help but think that it was the best piggy-back she ever got. "Are you going to apologize for yelling and screaming and calling me a monster?" Marceline questioned playfully.

"Of course not! You frightened me very much! Besides, I did nothing wrong!" Marceline simply shook her head, chuckling. They landed in front of the castle gates, but still Bubblegum stayed on Marceline's back, and the vampire simply smiled to herself, not minding at all.

Bubblegum found it very strange, however, that there were no guards hanging about, so as Marceline walked in, she began calling out to her butler. "Peppermint! Peppermint I'm home!" But still no one answered. Both sets of eyebrows furrowed, and Bubblegum felt the body below her tense up. Marceline was prepared for some sort of attack, though that was completely lost on the young girl currently clinging to her shoulders. "Peppermint?" She called again, and a shuffling was heard from behind them.

Marceline turned around quickly, eyes turning to flame and hissing madly, startling the poor butler back with a small scream. Bubblegum simply shouted, "Peppermint!" and hopped off of Marceline, who had immediately calmed at the young girl's familiarity to the man.

"Princess, thank heavens! We have every guard out looking for you! Are you uninjured? What happened?" He turned to Marceline, shoving Bubblegum behind himself and putting up his fists as though to attack the Vampire. "Did you take the Princess? Why you filth! Did your conscious get the better of you, you monster?" He danced around a little, and Marceline simply put her hands up in defense.

"No way, dude! I just brought her back home! She was crying in my cave!"

"Of course she was, because you kidnapped her, you trash!" He took a couple of swings in the air, as if to intimidate the much bigger, stronger, shape-shifting, vampiric girl.

"Peppermint!" Bubblegum interrupted sternly, more than a little annoyed and upset at his rudeness to her new friend, "She saved me! And she is not trash or filth, she is my friend! She is Merce…Marcil…" She could not pronounce the hard name.

"It's okay, just call me Marci." The vampire assisted, and Bubblegum nodded.

"Right! She is Marci the Vampire Queen and she is my friend and will be visiting every week!"

The butler was shocked at this, and turned to the girl and said, "But Princess! To associate with such…such riff-raff!"

"She is not riff-raff and I will associate with whomever I wish! I am a Princess, after all, and I can do as I please!" she said, eying the butler square on challengingly.

The little man floundered. "But-but…! But she is much older than you! You should have friends your own age, Princess!"

Bubblegum scoffed a little. "She can shape-shift into my age. There is no problem. Now go on and say sorry, Peppermint."

He turned back to Marceline and quietly mumbled a begrudged apology. "Now off you go Peppermint, and fetch all the guards back. Hopefully they will have learned their lesson and do a better job next time." The little man bowed to the Princess and glared at the Queen, then quickly walked off.

Bubblegum walked up to Marceline, who crouched down. "Now we will be very best friends and have lots of fun and talk about science and history and experiments!" She attacked the older girl's neck in a hug, which was quickly returned with a laugh. "Thank you very much Marci…and the very first thing I want to do as friends is learn to say your whole name because it's so pretty!" She exclaimed, and Marceline laughed again, noticing how the little girl in her arms could go from stern royal to child-like in a few seconds.

As the hug ended, Marceline remained crouched. Confidently and playfully, she said, "All right, Bonni. You and me, we'll do all those things, starting with my name. But tonight, I have to go home. I'll see you in a few days, okay?"

Bubblegum deflated a little. She really liked the vampire girl. "Aw…do you have to go Marci? Best friends do sleep-overs! We'll do a sleep-over!" She hopped up and down a little.

"We'll do lots of sleep-overs. But not on the night when the whole kingdom is worried about their little Princess, okay? You let everyone fuss over you for a few days and then I'll come back and we'll do the best sleep-over ever, I promise."

Bubblegum nodded furiously and hugged Marceline again. Laughing a little, she let the young princess go. "All right, I'm off, Bonni. I'll see you in a few days." She began to fly off, and Bubblegum waved just as furiously as she nodded, saying goodbye upon goodbye before she realized something.

"Oh and Marci?" she yelled up at the girl.

"Yeah?"

"You have to be my age for our sleep-over, okay?"

Marceline laughed. "Anything you want, Princess! Anything you want!"

A/N

Yay! Another chapter up and running! This one comes from both Shadowfox and Rosswellmorgana who wanted to know 'How Marceline and PB first met' I think it's pretty good, and I find myself really enjoying writing this fic! Thanks to you both!

***************NOW, I DON'T WANT THE STEM OF SUGGESTIONS TO END, SO KEEP EM COMING! IT'S REALLY FUN FOR ME!**************

I'm actually really liking not only writing but re-reading this! Which is something I usually hate. (My own writing...ugh) I think it'll turn M soon...I have this line in my head where Marceline says "Y'know, Bonni...Pink is a shade of red, too..." And of course, Marceline eats shades of red(scandalous!). So dirty,. Tell me what you think! Thanks all!

-JD