Marceline jumped up from the floor to put her hands on Bubblegum's shoulders. "Bonnie, I remembered something!"
Bubblegum was still trying to get over the shock of Marceline's kiss, and then the shock of her sudden drawback, but she tried her best to process the vampire's words. She looked excited to be sure, but there was a troubled aura about her, as if she didn't really know how to feel about whatever it was she had remembered.
She relayed a few memories that had to do with her and Bubblegum together, doing mundane things that Bubblegum didn't really remember to be significant, but then it hit her.
"Oh!" Bubblegum scrambled to grab her notebook from where she had left it on the table, she began to scribble quick notes that would probably be illegible to the average person. "I'd bet you my left arm that you're having flashbacks that are parallel to the elevated levels of emotion you're feeling at that given time." Bubblegum tapped her chin with her pencil. "You kissed me, so that means you most likely remembered things that corresponded to the way you felt doing so, yes?"
"Uh, maybe…?" Marceline rubbed at her temples with her fingers. "I guess that makes sense."
Bubblegum was fired up now. She began pacing back and forth, mumbling to herself about the possibilities of inducing feelings and emotions in Marceline's brain artificially using some sort of neurological transmission, but then paused when she remembered what Marcy had said earlier. About not being sure if she wanted to remember.
With that sobering thought, Bubblegum deflated a bit.
"I'm still not sure," Marceline said, as if she had read Bubblegum's mind. "I'm not sure if I want to remember."
Bubblegum raised an eyebrow.
"Okay, I wanted to!" Marceline admitted, throwing up her arms. "In the moment I wanted to. But now?" She shook her head. "I don't know."
Bubblegum sighed and ran a hand through her great blob of hair. "We'll take it slow." She promised. "You don't have to do anything you aren't comfortable with." Marceline smiled, looking immensely relieved. Which made what Bubblegum was about to do all the more guilt-inducing.
It wasn't that Bubblegum didn't want to respect Marceline's wishes—because she did! But Bubblegum was exactly 94.7% positive that the old Marceline would have wanted to remember. Scientifically speaking, those odds were more than favorable, even in a situation as delicate as this one. But anyway, Bubblegum was pretty sure Marceline would be thankful that she wasn't going to stop trying, once her memories were back. She would understand. Besides, this version of Marceline didn't have to know what Bubblegum was up to. She could conduct her experiments in secret, hidden out in the open where experiments such as these were rarely noticed.
Even if she couldn't artificially induce strong emotional reactions, there were plenty of other, less direct ways for her to persuade Marceline to feel certain things… Bubblegum stored her notebook in her pack, then stretched her limbs and cracked her knuckles. She would have to be subtle.
"So, what do I do all day?" Marceline asked, interrupting Bubblegum's internal scheming. "Aside from watching movies and making music?"
"Oh, uh…" Bubblegum frowned. "I guess I'm not totally sure. I know you have friends other than me and Finn and Jake, although I'm not really sure what you guys do together." Bubblegum trailed off, wondering when she had lost track of Marceline's interests.
"Huh." Was all she said in reply.
Bubblegum clapped, struck with a sudden rush of motivation, eager to get her plans moving. "Let's go camping."
Marceline, who hadn't been expecting such a loud sound just now and had jumped into the air in surprise, put a hand on her chest as she floated near the ceiling, annoyed at the beeping coming from the box in her pocket. "Camping?"
Bubblegum nodded enthusiastically. "I can only stay away from the kingdom for so long, and if you want to put the experiments on hold we might as well have fun, right?"
Marceline looked mildly suspicious but nodded anyway. "Right."
Bubblegum smiled somewhat triumphantly and pulled her phone out of her pack. She pushed the button to turn it back on. "Great. I'll call Finn and Jake."
"They're coming?"
"If they want to." Bubblegum paused halfway through dialing the castle's main number. "Would you rather not invite them?"
"No!" Marceline was quick to wipe the indecision off her face, shaking her head hastily. She smiled a full-fanged smile. "That sounds perfect."
Bubblegum bit her lip as she finished dialing and put the phone to her ear, wondering exactly what Marceline was thinking. It was almost impossible to tell these days, for obvious reasons.
Nobody answered, so Bubblegum left a message. She explained that Marceline wanted to get out of the house for a while, did tomorrow night work for them? "Peppermint Butler can take control of the robot for a while." She said. "Please call me back when you get this."
She hung up, but stared at the phone for a long moment, indecisiveness rattling her brain, then she turned to Marceline, who had floated back down to the floor and was picking dirt from under her nails. Bubblegum squared her shoulders, bunched her hands into fists of bravery, having finally made a decision on her next move. She swallowed, startled to find that her mouth had gone dry. She cleared her throat, and Marceline looked up in askance at the sound.
"I'd rather not sleep on the floor tonight," Bubblegum said, turning a fierce shade of magenta.
.
.
.
.
.
I just wanted to clarify that this story takes place sometime before Stakes when Bubblegum and Marceline are still more 'frenemies' than they are friends.
Thank you so much for reading!
