When Bubblegum woke up she wasn't surprised to see Marceline's prone form had floated toward the ceiling sometime during the night. Bleary-eyed, she glanced out into the darkness beyond the bedroom window only to remember that they were in a cave and it would always be dark. Her watch read 9:00 a.m.
She groaned, then stretched fully from her fingers to her toes. She didn't usually sleep this long but it was a welcome change to her typical early mornings at the castle. Generally she rose with the sun, but the meager amount of sunlight making its way into the cave apparently hadn't been enough to wake her. She decided not to complain; it had been a much-needed rest.
She looked at Marceline, smiling unabashedly while the vampire couldn't see her. This fool never got up early. Come to think of it, Marceline just kind of slept whenever she wanted to. It was sort of… endearing, even though it was wildly annoying.
Bubblegum slipped out of bed, careful to make as little noise as possible, although Marcy probably could have slept through a plane crash. The thought brought another smile to Bubblegum's lips and she padded downstairs to make herself breakfast, finding herself in a better mood than she'd been in ages.
Pulling the fridge door open, her mood soured just a bit as she remembered that Marcy didn't have any real food here. But there was an easy fix for that.
From her backpack in the living room she pulled her phone, made a quick phone call, and twenty minutes later there was a knock at the door.
"Sorry it took so long Princess." Finn said as soon as she opened the door. He handed her a plastic sack full of eggs, bacon, flour, cheese—the works. "Jake just had to eat his pre-breakfast breakfast." He rolled his eyes as he crossed the threshold into the house.
"Hey!" Jake barked, following his brother through the door with a stern expression. "It's not my fault, Finn. You know I'm hypoglycemic."
Bubblegum didn't appear to have heard a word the two of them were saying, she just clutched the bag of groceries to her chest. "Thank Glob!" She ran to the kitchen and began getting breakfast ready. Well, at this point it was more like brunch.
The eggs were large and brown and had probably come from Finn and Jake's own chicken. The bacon was clearly cheap, and the cheese was a bit old, but Bubblegum was so hungry she could have eaten one of her own candy people. Stomach growling, she turned on the heat and laid some strips of bacon down to sizzle.
"Where's Marcy?" Finn asked, glancing around while Jake stretched himself into a more comfortable couch.
"She's still asleep." Bubblegum cracked the eggs into a bowl, added cheese and red food coloring, began to whisk. Her voice was not without humor, and Finn perked up when he noticed.
He had just sat down on the Jake-couch, content to rest leisurely until breakfast was ready, but now he sat up straight. "You're in a good mood"—he sounded almost… suspicious. Bubblegum bit her lip and dismissed the thought while she stirred. Finn wasn't implying anything, it was just her imagination.—"How is Marceline? Have you learned anything?"
Bubblegum made a show of pouring the beaten eggs into the pan, which she had washed out earlier while she waited for the boys to bring the ingredients. Marceline's house was full of cooking supplies, but the vampire had stopped using most of them when she and Bubblegum had stopped seeing each other, and as a result everything that wasn't regularly used had acquired a coating of several years' worth of dust.
"Sort of," Bubblegum said at last, pulling out the flour and milk. She began mixing pancake batter, sure to add plenty of red food coloring. "She's remembered some things."
"That's great!" Finn said, lifting his arms. "Things like what?"
"Um." Bubblegum turned toward the counter so neither of the boys would see the slight reddening of her cheeks. "You know, just. Little things. Nothing major."
"Isn't the fact that Marceline remembered anything at all kind of major?" Jake rumbled from the floor. "I mean. Isn't this sort of a big deal?"
Bubblegum gently pulled a spatula across the pan of eggs, forming large soft scrambles. "Look guys, I should probably tell you something." Leaving the eggs to cook just a bit longer, she poured some pancake batter into yet another skillet. "Marceline… she's not sure if she wants to continue with the experiments. She's been… confused, I think."
"What do you mean she doesn't want to continue?" Jake said with a giant, couch-like frown.
Finn frowned as well. "She doesn't want her memories back?"
Bubblegum sighed and flipped the bacon onto a plate. "She's not sure. She's been remembering things little by little on her own"—Bubblegum did not mention how much she had 'helped' Marcy remember. She didn't think it was important.—"and I think eventually she might regain a lot of herself back but—" She spooned the eggs onto four plates along with the bacon, then flipped her pancakes once. "from what I can tell, she doesn't seem to want any help." Bubblegum hoped neither of them caught the annoyance in her voice.
"But, why?" Jake shifted his couch-feet so he was facing the kitchen more fully. "I don't get it."
"I don't really get it either," Bubblegum lied. "But it's her choice."
Okay, maybe Bubblegum was bitter. And maybe she was just a little bit offended that Marceline didn't want to remember her old life, especially since so much of it revolved around Bubblegum. Maybe she should just leave Marceline alone, let her live out this new life in peace. But placing the filled breakfast plates on the bar-style counter, Bubblegum knew she wouldn't listen to her own advice.
"Something smells like actual heaven," Marceline's yawning voice drifted down from the staircase before the vampire appeared, still in her pajamas. "Oh, hey!" She blinked, noticing Finn and Jake in her living room. "Bear Kid and Stretchy Dog!" She darted over to hug Finn and sit on Jake.
"Marceline." Finn's expression was strained, as if she was trying to squeeze the mortality out of him. "Um. Hi."
"Did you really forget our names?" Jake sounded miffed, and Marceline laughed. "Of course not!" She leaped off of Jake and into the air. "You're Finn," she said to the couch, "and you're Jake," she pointed at the human child.
The two boys adopted wary expressions and glanced at each other. From Marceline's cackle of joy, neither of them could tell whether or not she was actually kidding.
"Anyway, I'm starved." She flew through the kitchen window and landed gracefully on the floor next to Bubblegum, who had been trying to ignore everyone. Marceline stuck her nose in the air and sniffed. "It smells really good Bons."
"I know," Bubblegum said with a grin. Marceline seemed closer to her old self today. Perhaps because of all of the memories she recovered yesterday. At that thought, Bubblegum's grin wilted a bit. A lot of those memories had to do with the two of them fighting. That wasn't reassuring. But it did explain Marceline's shift from Confused Cutie to Sass Princess.
Maybe when Marceline remembered a bit more, she would level up all the way back to Sass Queen.
Bubblegum kept a straight face long enough to yell to the boys that breakfast was ready, then began scarfing down her own food. Marceline chuckled and sucked the color from her plate, sighing in satisfaction.
"Dang, Peebs." Finn licked the very last drop of syrup off his plate like a champ. "I didn't know you could cook like this. You should make breakfast every day."
Bubblegum rolled her eyes and collected everyone's plates. "You can do the dishes," she said to Marceline, who looked appalled. She ignored the vampire and instead looked at the boys, who were sitting in food-filled stupors on the bar stools. "How's my kingdom?"
She had been avoiding the question, worried that the two of them had screwed up somehow and just hadn't had the heart to tell her, but to her relief Finn just waved away the question. "Fine, fine. Everything's fine."
"Really? Everyone's getting along? The banana guards are doing their jobs? No risk of explosion?"
"Everything's fiiiiine," Jake said smoothly, rubbing his bulging tummy. "The banana guards are… well they're doing their jobs like usual anyway. No explosions. We've got this under control so good, nobody even knows you're gone."
"Because the kingdom runs so efficiently thanks to your leadership!" Finn cut in quickly after seeing a crease form between Bubblegum's brows.
"Right! Of course, they would know you were gone if anything went wrong, which it hasn't! Because you're such a good leader!" Jake laughed too loud. "It's not like we've been parading the robot around town and nobody's asked any questions because they all think it's you or anyth—ouch."
"What Jake means," Finn ground out, elbowing his brother in the gut, "is that nothing has gone wrong so far. Everything is fine. Peppermint Butler has control of the robot now and he's really good at it."
"Yeah PB, he's scary good at it," Jake piped in. "Like, you-might-want-to-keep-an-eye-on-him kind of good at it."
Bubblegum rubbed her temples with her fingers. She knew it had only been a couple of days, but she should get back to her people sooner rather than later. Even if nothing had gone bad so far there was always a chance for misfortune. With a sinking feeling, Bubblegum realized that there was no longer any reason for her to stay in Marceline's house. If she didn't want her memories back, Bubblegum might as well pack up her makeshift lab and go home.
She glanced at Marceline, who was dutifully trying to do the dishes. Perhaps if she mentioned that—the fact that she would have to go home really soon—maybe Marceline would change her mind about the whole thing.
Bubblegum decided to leave it for later. This would be an interesting camping trip, if nothing else.
Speaking of the camping trip… "Did you boys remember the marshmallows?"
"Of course!" Finn slung off his backpack. "I always have marshmallows on me. In case of emergencies."
Jake nodded approvingly. "Always good to be safe, bro."
Finn rifled through his pack. "Marshmallows, graham crackers, chocolate. We're all set."
"Oh, don't forget!" Bubblegum grabbed the red food coloring off the kitchen counter and tossed it at Finn, who caught it expertly. "For Marcy."
"Whew." Marceline floated through the kitchen window, looking fatigued. "I am never doing another dish again, that was exhausting."
Bubblegum crossed her arms. "Marcy, there were four plates."
"Four plates too many, am I right?" Marceline slumped down on the couch before wincing in pain and sliding all the way to the carpet.
Bubblegum opened her mouth to chide but Finn jumped out of the bar chair and punched the air. "What do you girls wanna do before we go? We have about—" he glanced slyly at Bubblegum's watch—"eight hours until dark."
"We could explore Marceline's cave," Jake suggested. "See if there's anything lurking in the dark that's a threat to our Marcy."
Finn tapped his chin. "Maybe, but we explored it pretty thoroughly when we first found it, didn't we? There aren't any other tunnels, right Marcy?"
They all looked to Marceline, who just raised her eyebrows and shrugged.
"Right, my bad." Finn scratched his neck in embarrassment. "You've been acting so much like yourself that I forgot."
Marceline huffed. "I am myself," she said. But then her harsh look wavered and she looked down at her feet. "I think," she amended.
"Of course you are." Finn blew off the encounter like it wasn't a big deal, and Marceline visibly relaxed. "Now, hows about some BBall? I'M ON MARCELINE'S TEAM."
"What? No fair." Jake jumped off the stool and put his fists on his hips. He glanced at Bubblegum, then very slyly whispered to Finn, "the princess is terrible at bball, man."
Bubblegum stared at him, straight-faced. "Jake, I can hear you." It was no secret that she wasn't incredible at sports, but come on.
"Oh, uh, I just said 'the princess is fairer than us all."
Bubblegum pursed her lips. It wasn't her fault she didn't get to practice as much as the rest of them. She crossed her arms and said as much. "If I could practice mundane stuff like sports all day like you guys, I would be able to take you all down."
"Um, guys?" Marceline interrupted what could have been a terrible argument judging by the fire in Jake's eyes and the fear in Finns. Everyone looked at her. "What is bball?"
Jake and Bubblegum lost, bigtime. Jake wasn't allowed to use his stretchy powers and Marceline wasn't allowed to fly, but once the rules were explained to her she and Finn dominated. Afterward, they explored the cave a little at Bubblegum's insistence—Jake looked like he was about to combust. What a sore loser.
There really wasn't much in the cave aside from bats and rocks. They did find a single tunnel that was just big enough for them to squeeze through to explore, but the only thing at the end of that tunnel was more bats and rocks, so they retreated to the house to eat a late lunch.
Eventually, finally, the sun began to go down, and the group donned their backpacks and boots.
Jake stretched himself big enough for everyone to climb on his back, and off they went in the direction of the woods. "Hey, stay away from Lumpy Space Princess's campsite," Finn yelled to Jake over the roar of the wind. "She's not self-aware enough to be around Marcy yet."
Bubblegum sure didn't protest on that count.
Jake stopped in a clearing pretty much directly in the center of the forest, a place soft with grass and bathed in moonlight.
"Jeez," Bubblegum sighed as her feet touched the ground. "I can't remember the last time I went camping."
"Hey, me neither," Marceline said, earning laughter from Finn and Jake. Even Bubblegum smiled as she set about pitching the filthy tent. The two boys pitched a tent of their own, and pretty soon the area was beginning to feel sufficiently cozy.
Before long they had a small fire going, and everyone clustered around it in anticipation of smores.
"So it's chocolate and marshmallow inside of crackers?" Marceline made a face. "Weird."
"Don't worry, we can dye your mallows red so you can join." Finn pulled the red food coloring out of his pack along with the bag of marshmallows.
While Marceline was staring cautiously at the reddening marshmallow, Bubblegum took the time to study her. You know, for science. The cool glow of the moonlight boosted by the warm glow of the fire complimented all of her best features, and it added a luminous shine to her night-black hair. It was strikingly lovely, and Bubblegum had to look away.
An interesting camping trip, indeed.
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Lookit, my chapters are starting to get longer. Hopefully they'll get even longer with a little more practice. Thanks to everyone who reviewed and followed and whatnot! I'm glad people are actually enjoying this c:
I know this chapter was a little slow, but lots of junk is set to happen in the next chapter and I'm really excited to write it.
Thank you so much for reading!
ps, I'm finally starting to figure out how to format stuff on this site. I even used one of those horizontal page break things hehe. Thank you for bearing with me through my ignorance.