Princess Bubblegum spent most of her night getting ready for the next day; assembling weapons, mapping out what she remembered of the layout of the Abyss, picking up the phone to call Marceline, putting the phone back down.

When she finally did allow herself to go to bed, it was nearly 3am and it was a fitful sleep full of tossing and turning. She woke up periodically throughout the night and stared at her ceiling, more frustrated than she had been in a long time.

It felt weird being in her own room again, she decided, fluffing up her pillow in an attempt to add comfort. She had been sleeping elsewhere for a while and it was only natural that she would feel slightly out of place now. Not to mention the looming threat of this whole memory loss fiasco, and the worry that a solution would not be found, or worse: someone would get seriously hurt in the process.

Thunder boomed outside her window and Bubblegum jumped at the sound before pulling her blankets up over her eyes, embarrassed by her fear.

How long had it even been raining? She hoped to Glob that the rain would end sometime before morning. She was going into this whole thing blind, and she did not need anything else standing in her way, least of all the weather.

Another sound came from her window, but it wasn't thunder. It was an insistent tap tap tap, almost like the sound of someone trying to get in…

Bubblegum nearly tripped over herself as she flung the blankets off the bed and rushed to her window. Marceline must need something, if she was here in the middle of the night. Maybe she was in trouble, or she was lonely, or the thunder had scared her, or—

A heavy gust of wind shoved its way into Princess Bubblegum's room as the window slammed open, and she was knocked over by the force.

Rattled, she sat up only to be weighted with dissappointment as she found that it wasn't Marceline at her window, but Lumpy Space Princess. The purple blob of a person was dripping wet, and she shook herself out like a dog after she passed through Bubblegum's window without asking, showering her room in rain water.

"LSP?" Bubblegum didn't even try to hide the annoyance in her voice. "What the dump are you doing?"

"It's raining like crazy out there," LSP said, as if Bubblegum didn't already know. "I was getting lumping wet. What do you expect me to do, let my beautiful lumps get all covered in rain? I can't believe you're that heartless."

"You didn't have anywhere else to go?" Bubblegum snapped as LSP settled herself down on the princess's bed, folding her arms beneath her head and sighing in obvious bliss.

"Nah," LSP said.

Bubblegum let out a sharp huff of air. "Fine," she said, standing. "You can sleep in one of the guest rooms."

"Like some sort of common rat?" LSP scoffed, turning onto her side to face away from Bubblegum. "I'm a princess, Bonnie. I deserve the height of luxury."

"LSP, you can't sleep in my room."

"Why not?" LSP asked, sitting up suddenly and glaring at Bubblegum. "Is it because of Marceline? Were you guys planning on canoodling?" LSP slammed her fists down on the bed. "Why can't you guys get a lumping guest room?"

"LSP." Bubblegum rubbed her temples. She was far too tired to deal with this, especially with so much riding on the results of tomorrow. "What are you talking about?"

"I'm talking about Marceline, obviously," LSP said with a roll of her eyes. "She's right outside the window."

"What?" Bubblegum rushed to the window she hadn't yet bothered to close, leaning out as far as she could, scanning the skies for the vampire. She found nothing but clouds and rain.

LSP snorted from the bed, where she had pulled Bubblegum's covers over herself and was nestling deep within her pillows. "Looks like she was intimidated by these lumps," she said.

"For Glob's sake-" Bubblegum muttered as she stalked out of her own room, having decided it was probably easier to let LSP have her way, at least for tonight.

She chose one of the guest rooms far down the hall, wanting to be as far from Lumpy Space Princess as possible. Too late, she realized that it was the same guest room Marceline had stayed in that very first night, the night when this whole stupid mess began.

Bubblegum sighed, turned on the light, and screamed.

"I was wondering if you'd ever show up," Marceline said from where she stood, dripping wet and leaning against the wall on the opposite side of the room. Her arms were crossed, her expression wary, body angled toward the open window as if she might leap out at any second.

"Marcy!" Bubblegum removed her hand from where she had clutched her chest in fear moment before. "Why were you at my window? How did you know I would choose this room?"

"I guessed," the vampire replied, eyes darting toward the open window, as if she couldn't decide whether to stay or go.

"Please, stay," Bubblegum said, holding up both hands in a show of docility and taking a tentative step forward. "Just for a minute. I want to apologize."

Marceline's stiff posture relaxed, but only slightly. "That's not why I'm here," the vampire said coldly. "But okay. I'm listening."

Princess Bubblegum took a deep breath. She hadn't actually prepared an apology; and there wasn't anything she hated more than not being prepared.

"I-what I said-" Bubbleugm fumbled with her words, worried that Marceline would leave before she was able to scramble out a decent apology. "I didn't mean for it to sound like-like you weren't-aren't-enough. Because you are." Bubblegum huffed out a breath of air. "Oh my Glob, what I mean is, you're more than enough. And I had no right-no reason-to say anything I said. And it wasn't really what I meant anyway-"

Bubblegum cut herself off at the look in Marceline's eyes-confusion and sadness and something else, something akin to acceptance or maybe understanding. Dear Glob, she was just making this worse, wasn't she?

Then Marceline sighed, and her whole posture seemed to deflate, like the anger was all that had been holding her up. "I guess I understand," she said. "Sort of." She looked Bubblegum in the eyes, steady for the first time, and the princess almost cried out in relief. "I mean, I guess it must be hard for you to come to terms with all of this, too, but-" the vampire looked down at her hands. The droplets of water in her hair caught the light from a flash of thunder, which made them look like stars spread across the night sky.

"I deserve better," Marceline said, so softly Bubblegum might have missed it if she hadn't been holding her breath.

"You do!" The princess was quick to agree, even though it pained her to admit it. "You deserve to be happy, Marcy. I shouldn't have messed with that."

"It's okay," Marceline said, rubbing her arms even though Bubblegum knew she didn't get cold. "I mean it's not. But it's fine. It's not like you did it on purpose."

Bubblegum went still.

The way she had so readily resolved to keep experimenting on Marcy without her consent; the things she had said, the way Bubblegum had teased and tested and provoked Marceline with the full intent of releasing more memories; it all hit the princess like a blow, and she took a step back.

Marceline's eyes met hers in the silence, and a small crease formed between her brows. "You didn't," she said, "did you?"

Princess Bubblegum opened her mouth to reply, closed it again. Swallowed and braced herself. "I didn't mean for any of this to happen," she said, knowing the words sounded hollow, knowing they weren't enough. "Not the way it did."

"You did that on purpose?" Marceline reeled back, shock written all over her face. "You did all of that to me on purpose?" Her hand clutched the fabric of her shirt over her chest, and her mouth was open.

Bubblegum shrank back, letting the full force of Marceline's expression hit her. She might have deserved this, but it wasn't fun.

"You're not even going to say you're sorry," Marceline said, lowering her arm slowly. The look on Marceline's face-that flash of incredulity and betrayal and heartache-burned deep into Bubblegum's mind and into her heart. "Because you aren't, are you?"

Bubblegum swallowed. "Look, Marcy, I wasn't trying to- I just thought-"

"That I would thank you afterward?" Marceline guessed, voice steely. Bubblgum nodded, averting her eyes, and the vampire made a sound somewhere between a cry of grief and a snarl. She leaped into the air, floating fractionally closer to Bubblegum. "You think you're so smart," she said softly. "You think you know so much more than everyone else with your superiority and your stupid lab equipment and your science." Her voice rose to a shout. "But you're not. You're a mess. You sit up here and you judge people for what they aren't instead of appreciating that anyone would actually want to be with you. And when that doesn't work you just turn around and make more candy people to judge, to control. You can't get anybody to love you, so you force them to."

Bubblegum's breath hitched. "I don't-"

Marceline thrust her pointer finger in the direction of the window. "You created an entire Glob damned kingdom of people to love you because it has to be on your terms, doesn't it?"

Bubblegum shook her head, tears threatening to spill from her eyes, but Marceline kept going. "You have to be in control, all the time. And you can't function when you're not, and that's why you'll never have anyone."

Marceline's crimson stare was piercing, and she was breathing hard. With a jolt, Bubblegum realized that they had had this fight before-or at least, something close to it. Marceline was repeating things from arguments they'd had years and years ago, uttered time and time again, and Bubblegum suddenly felt like she couldn't get enough air into her lungs, like she was drowning. All of this must have seemed so raw, so fresh in Marceline's head, and Bubblegum was already over it.

The princess had spent so much time learning to live with herself after their breakup that these old fights, these old battles-she had worked through them a long time ago. Marceline was having to experience it all again, and it broke Bubblegum's heart.

It was a few moments before Princess Bubblegum was able to reply. She swallowed the lump of guilt and grief that was threatening to tear her apart from the inside, unsure what to say. She supposed it hardly mattered at this point. "Why are you here, Marceline? Did you come here to fight?"

Hurt flashed on Marceline's face before she steeled her expression, floated backward a step and crossed her arms.

"No," Marceline said. "I came to help."

Bubblegum's shock had her straightening. "You what?"

"I heard about the candy people, and I'm here to help."

"You-how did you-?"

The vampire queen suddenly looked uncomfortable. "I was trying to prank Finn and Jake earlier, but then you showed up. I overheard everything."

Bubblegum closed her eyes, rubbed her temples. "You were invisible."

Marceline nodded. "Do you want my help or not?"

"Yes," Bubblegum answered without hesitation, opening her eyes. "Of course I do. But it doesn't matter. You can't help me, not without your memories."

Marceline's gaze did not waver. "I know."

The princess's eyes widened. "But that means-"

"I know." Marceline sat down on the guest bed, hunched over and looking utterly drained. "I understand what I'm consenting to." She stared at the wall. "But this time it's my choice. And I have a condition."

"Of course," Bubblegum said, taking the few steps it took to reach Marceline, to stand in front of her. "Anything."

The vampire met her eyes again, and they weren't angry like she thought they would be. They were sad, and they might have been sadder than Bubblegum had ever seen them.

"When this is all over, I want you to erase my memories again, and then I want you to leave me alone."

Ice shot through Princess Bubblegum's heart.

"I know you know how," Marceline continued. "And even if you don't, I know you can figure it out."

Bubblegum maintained her composure, but inside she felt like she might shatter. It was crazy, too. She had barely had Marceline in her life at all before this happened-they had fought and ignored each other and they certainly hadn't spent much time together. But what Marceline was asking for...

"Those are my conditions," Marceline said. "And then I'll let you do whatever you need to me."

What Marceline was asking for was permanent. It wasn't like losing a few memories or seeing each other sparingly for a couple of years. If Bubblegum agreed to this, she would never see Marceline again.

She could always do it anyway, visit her after her memories were wiped again and she wouldn't be able to remember who she was. But Bubblegum wouldn't do that, she couldn't do that. Not after all this, not after everything she had done.

Princess Bubblegum pursed her lips.

Her candy people needed her.

And if this was truly what Marceline wanted...

"Deal," Bubblegum said, and held her hand out for Marceline to shake.

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I'm two months late and this time I have no excuse. I lost passion for the story, but it came back around the same time I got a new laptop lol.

I've posted this story to A03 as well because I finally made an account over there, if anybody is interested in that.

Anyway, thanks so much for reading!