Hey guess what? It's Sunday.

Sorry DonutDemon30, I totally forgot about that. My bad. But seriously. This is me we're talking about. Of course it's Marceline and Bubblegum here. What else even is there? And a little bit of Jake + Lady and also Finn + FP. But no really. All I write is Sugarfree. Do you need to even ask? :P

She was late. Marceline swore and hurriedly changed out of the clothes she'd slept in, grabbed an apple from the fridge and burst out her door. She had the apple clenched between her teeth and was still shrugging into her coat as she zoomed across the mountains towards her destination. The moon was high, higher than usual because she'd slept in. She wanted to be angry at Finn and Jake for distracting her earlier, but just couldn't make it happen.

Draining the apple, she unclenched her jaw and let it fall to the ground far below. She slowed as the sugary smells assaulted her nose, telling her she was approaching the Candy Kingdom. Marceline was always careful near the palace; a number of the staff didn't really trust her. Peppermint Butler was particularly pointed in his dislike, regardless of his… relationship with her father.

As she zipped up her jacket and breezed through the shadows of the city, she kept an eye open for anything amiss. Or any guards who might throw a spear before they recognised her. They could be jumpy at night. She thrust her hands into the pockets of her jeans and soared over the wall, up towards the tower's balcony.

Just as it always was, a light glowed inside the room and Marceline paused on the balcony to peer inside. It was always best to be sure Peppermint wasn't in there when she visited. The little candy fellow could be so touchy. And he was over protective of the princess, which didn't help even one bit.

Satisfied that the butler wasn't present, she eased open the upper window and slipped inside, careful not to let the hinges creak as she closed it behind her. One evening, she'd remember to bring oil with so she could stop worrying about the squeal it sometimes made. Bubblegum was bent over her desk, pen clutched in a death grip and her eyes had rings beneath them. The silly woman didn't know when to call it a day and go to sleep.

Bubblegum sighed softly and took her glasses off, checking the clock on the wall. She rubbed her eyes and stood, stretching. Pacing to her wardrobe, she rummaged around inside for a moment before re-emerging with a jumper that she slipped on over her night gown. She tottered back over to her desk and flopped down, resting her elbows on the wood and propping her chin up in her hands. Her eyelids drooped, but she forced them open and checked the clock again.

After a few minutes, in which she yawned half a dozen times, she stood and went out onto the balcony. She was muttering to herself, but Marceline, perched invisibly in the rafters couldn't quite make out what she was saying. She wondered why Bubblegum didn't just go to bed.

She drifted down from the ceiling and hovered next to the princess, who was now leaning tiredly on the railing.

"You look tired," she said. Bubblegum gasped and spun around. Seeing Marceline hanging in front of her grinning, she frowned. Suddenly the little monarch didn't look so sleepy.

"Oh," she said in a higher pitch than usual. "Marceline you startled me." Bubblegum stepped around her and went back inside, knowing Marceline would follow. "I am tired."

"So go to sleep."

"I can't." Bubblegum sounded immeasurably sad and Marceline's heart went out to her. "Too much to do."

"Sleep is easily as important as work, Bonnie," she said, pulling the door to, keeping the cold out. "Besides, you haven't done anything really productive in half an hour. Just get some rest."

Bubblegum's eyes widened. "You've been here that long?" she very nearly shrieked. Then she clamped a hand over her mouth and stood perfectly still as though that would prevent people from hearing her yell.

Marceline shrugged. "I was late, so I figured you'd go to bed. I didn't want to keep you up so I just waited." She didn't mention the part where Bubblegum didn't go to bed; she herself had sat around waiting.

"Oh," Bonnie replied, deflating. "Why were you late?" Her tired green eyes were suddenly penetrating and Marceline shifted uncomfortably. She always felt that Bonnie knew more than she ever let on. Not such a difficult thing to believe really, she was awfully smart.

"I went out with Jake and Finn today," she said softly. "They kept me up and I slept in."

"Hum," Bonnie mused softly, her eyes closing again.

"Come on," Marceline said gently. "It's way past your bed time."

"But…" Bubblegum protested weakly. "My research."

Marceline laughed. "There's always tomorrow." She helped her friend to bed and made sure all the lights were out before leaving. "Sleep well," she said from the balcony. A muffled sound was all the reply she got before she left.

It took her a while to think of something to do for the rest of the night. Normally she and Bubblegum would spend enough hours out doing her research that she didn't need to come up with something. But tonight… nothing. Then she remembered the broken door and figured she might as well fix it now while she had the time.

Marceline tried to prolong the task for as much as she could, but having had to fix the door on multiple other occasions, her hands were practiced at the task. She finished too soon and ended up playing music for a while. Marceline couldn't find words to go with the tune and that worried her, all she could do was strum the chords.

In the end she gave up and went to bed a full three hours before dawn.

*...|...*

The sun was just tickling the horizon when she woke to more banging downstairs. Almost none of that dying sunlight entered the cave of course, the entrance facing south as it was, but it was enough to see by. She yawned, stretching and didn't bother changing out of her pyjamas before dropping down the ladder hole and heading for the door. If it was Finn again there was going to be hell to pay. It was evening and she had a promise to keep, not even his jubilance would keep her from it today.

She wrenched the door open with a fierce growl and her eyes widened when she saw Lady at the door. Thankfully she was wearing her translator. Old Marceline might be, but her Korean was a bit rusty.

"Sup Lady?" Marceline said groggily, floating to one side in a silent invitation. Lady slithered through the door and curled up on the floor. "You alright or what?" The Rainicorn didn't usually number among Marceline's regular visitors, so she counted this a somewhat bizarre visit.

"I… yes, I'm alright, thank you," Lady said slowly, her corn coloured eyebrows drawing down into a slight frown. Marceline sighed. She'd played this game with Bonnibel plenty of times, but usually she was the difficult one hedging around questions. Never the interrogator.

"Would you like something to eat?" she queried. "I only have apples at the moment. Been a while since I went shopping…" Marceline trailed off, rubbing her chin thinking that she should do that tonight.

"No thank you," she said, finally fixing her strange eyes on Marceline. "I want you to help me convince Bubblegum that it's a bad idea to be cooped up all the time." Lady shook her head. "She won't listen to me or Peppermint and… let's be honest, LSP isn't exactly forceful in conversations revolving around anything except herself." Lady's sparkling; ever changing eyes stared intently at Marceline as though they alone could persuade her to help. "I just worry that she's going to shrivel up in that office of hers."

Marceline smiled. "You have no idea what you're asking do you?" She brought her legs up and crossed them, hovering at eye level. "Bonnie doesn't just leave her work, you know. But," she continued waving a hand, "you must be pretty desperate to try and enlist me in this. I thought Peppermint still hated me for…" she didn't finish that sentence and Lady knew better than to probe further.

Lady pursed her lips. "I'm well aware of her tenacity, Marceline. But when all else fails, it – while not necessarily advisable – can be worthwhile asking someone equally stubborn for assistance." Her eyes shifted in their head spinning way from a light violet to a deep red. "You are just as frustrating as she is and while I have my reservations… she might just listen to you where others have failed so spectacularly."

Silence fell between them, but Lady's eyes never wavered. Well, they did waver, from that deep red to a mauve colour, right through the spectrum – blues, indigoes, ocean green, the sun in the morning, the sky during winter – all the way back to the intense violet from whence they'd started. But she didn't seem about to falter in her pursuit of Marceline's help.

She looked sort of shocked when Marceline burst out smiling. "What do you think I do when I visit, Lady?" she asked. It was only mostly rhetorical. "I've been trying to get her out of that stuffy room for weeks. I might even have succeeded a few times." Her smile turned into a grin that made Lady frown again. "I do have one question though, if I may?" She didn't wait for Lady to nod before asking, "Why didn't you ask Finn? That kid can get anything he wants."

Lady bristled. "I… I did think of that. But with Flame Princess involved and her temperamental nature it seemed ill advised to bring up such a sensitive subject. She and Princess Bubblegum don't get on."

Marceline's smile thinned. "Yeah. I did notice that. Well." She glided upright and headed to the kitchen. "Once I've grabbed breakfast I'll be on my way then," she said, burying her face in the cool air of the fridge. "You coming with me or what?"

"No," Lady replied simply. She uncurled from the floor and made for the door.

"What?" Marceline asked startled, turning to face the Rainicorn. "You don't want to make sure I behave myself?" She asked the question cheekily and impaled an apple on one fang. She knew that her drinking colour made Lady uncomfortable, but they both preferred it over the alternative.

Lady sighed. "I think… in this instance… my involvement would only be a giveaway of my intentions. If she finds out we're… conspiring – and that's precisely what it will be to her mind, don't argue – she'll just dig her heels in. Then we'll be back to square one."

Marceline had to admit that Lady had a point. "So what? You want me to do this by myself? Wow, tough gig." She shrugged, tossing the now grey apple in the trash can. "I can do that. Just don't let Peppermint find out I'm helping you alright? He'll bust a seam… crack in two…? I dunno, but he won't be happy."

"Thank you," Lady said softly before swirling – yeah, she swirled – out the door.

"No worries," Marceline whispered. What did I just agree to?

*...|...*

After changing into something that wasn't her pyjamas, Marceline headed off to the palace. It was still early; the sun's light peeking above the mountains, so she didn't hurry. Even so, when she arrived the last of the purple wasn't quite done draining from the sky. Bubblegum wouldn't be finished with her afternoon meetings yet and she'd stop on her way to her room to get food, so Marceline would have to wait.

Not that it bothered her. She sat on the balcony, swinging her legs over the drop and watched the little candy people hustling about their business. She should have brought her guitar with. Oh well.

It was a surprisingly short time later that her sensitive ears picked up a soft patter-ptt on the carpet outside the tower room. Marceline twisted silently and let herself in, as usual, and sat on a beam spanning the ceiling. She leaned back into the wood and waited in the dark room for Bubblegum.

"… Peppermint, I'm sure," came her muffled voice as the door creaked softly. "No don't bother." Her foot appeared at the bottom of the door and she wiggled through, her tongue between her teeth. Carefully she elbowed the door open wider and staggered a little off balance into the room. Her arms were full of papers, tubes, strange metal devices and other probably scientific doodads that Marceline couldn't fathom a use for. No food though. A pencil was stuck in the gum behind her ear. She hipped the door closed, almost tipping headfirst into the carpet and scattering papers everywhere.

"Gumshanks," she cursed softly, turning away to deposit the rest of her load on her desk. Marceline dropped quietly from the ceiling and picked up the sheets, bundling them into the neatest piles she could manage. "Butter-brittle," Bubblegum swore again, ripping her pencil from her hair and scratching furiously across one paper. "How did that come out so wrong?"

Invisible, Marceline hovered closer and stealthily placed the pile of paper on the desk at Bubblegum's elbow. The other woman didn't even notice, so engrossed she was in her work. Marceline floated at her shoulder, reading bits and nonsensical pieces of what was scrawled across the pages. It was mostly gibberish to her, but she got the impression that Bubblegum was working on a formula for making lights that didn't involve fire. She frowned, wondering why she'd be bothered doing that.

Marceline slipped closer, trying to decipher the more recent and hastily written notations made in a tight spider-scrawl down the margins of one sheet. It looked like a formula of some kind, but Bubblegum was scribbling so fast that Marceline couldn't keep up. Plus she had trouble wrapping her head around the stuff Bubblegum wrote most of the time anyway.

Bubblegum paused, her pencil hanging slightly above the page, her pink brows knotted into a slight frown. When she placed the tip back on the paper she did it so slowly Marceline wondered if the space had been there to begin with. She wrote sluggishly now, deliberate and careful. One word appeared in a much neater hand as her pencil moved across the top of the paper: lightning?

Marceline snorted, stirring Bubblegum's hair, causing her to sit up straight and smack the back of her head into Marceline's cheek. She dropped her invisibility and snatched the pencil out of the air as it rolled off the table. Bubblegum very nearly punched her in the face too before Marceline stopped the fist with her other hand.

"Calm down, Bonnie, it's just me," she said, smiling.

The other woman glared fiercely at her. "How long have you been there?" she demanded in a shrill tone. She snatched her pencil from Marceline and slammed it to the table.

Marceline tilted her head. "Oh… a while." Her smile never slipped. "Come on, I have something to show you." She stuck her hand out.

Bubblegum didn't even look at it. "What's so funny about this?" she asked with a sharp gesture at the notes on the table.

She shrugged. "I just don't think you can use lightning to make a torch, Bon. Too unpredictable."

"I'm practiced at dealing with the unpredictable," Bonnie muttered under her breath. Her eyes glanced to the floor and widened slightly. "Where did my papers go?"

Marceline pointed one slender finger at the pile on the corner of her desk. "You mean those?"

Bubblegum sifted through them, still murmuring nonsense to herself. "Yeah these," she finally said more audibly. "Did you pick them up?"

She nodded, flipping onto her back and crossing her ankles. "So what? You'd completely forgotten they were even there."

"I… thank you," Bonnibel said gently, standing.

Marceline hunched her shoulders. "Ease up. It's just a stack of paper."

"You're here early tonight," the little woman noted, eyes on the clock. "Did you remember to set your alarm this evening?" Her tone was teasing but Marceline frowned at her anyway.

"Are we gonna go or what?" she asked, waving her hand at Bubblegum. "Do you wanna just stand here all night?" Bubblegum looked from her hand to her face a few times, green eyes piercing and making Marceline feel all uncomfortable again. Finally she sighed and took the hand she was offered.

"Fine," she grumped. "Where are we going then?"

Marceline flashed her a cheeky smile. "You'll have to hold on tight and find out."