Bubblegum woke slowly to the caress of a soft thumb on her cheek. It was dark in her room, everything was grey. Except for a pair of deep crimson irises, almost glowing in the low light. She felt a weight on the bed next to her and reached up to touch the wrist that the thumb belonged to.
"Marcy." The princess spoke with slumber drenched over her.
Marceline slid closer to her side and used the hand already on her jawline to pull her forehead into her lips. She placed a light kiss just above her brow. "My princess," she mumbled against her skin. The older girl moved away and dipped her mouth to her nose, then to her lips, placing delicate kisses that Bubblegum gladly leaned into. "Wanna see something cool?"
The pink haired monarch nodded. She let Marceline pull her from under her sheets and locked her arms around the vampire's neck, ready to be lifted into the air. She felt Marceline hold her tight around the waist as they glided out of the bedroom window. They flew up high into the night sky. Once they were hovering, the queen shifted her legs so that Bubblegum could wrap her's around her torso and sit on her lap.
"Look up." Marceline pointed upward.
Above them, hundreds of meteors were streaking through the atmosphere. All of them leaving bright trails behind them. They all flowed in the same direction, covering the sky in flashing lines.
Bubblegum let her jaw slack into an open-mouthed smile. "Marcy..." she trailed off, and leaned her head back farther to get the best view. "It's beautiful," she said as cool, lingering kisses trailed up from the base of her neck. Absentmindedly, she tangled a hand within Marceline's hair.
"Not as beautiful as you," the other girl murmured and sucked lightly on her pulse point. "My princess," she moved up, placing a kiss on her jaw, "my love."
Bubblegum leaned forward to connect their foreheads and brushed her lips against Marceline's. "My queen," she whispered and wrapped both arms around the back of her neck to kiss her deeply. "My love."
Bubblegum's eyes snapped open. She looked around her dark room confused for a moment, then felt heat creep into her face. The monarch closed her eyes and could still see crimson irises looking back at her. My love. It echoed through her mind, her chest continued to flutter. The level of intimacy in the dream left her head euphoric with affection for a few moments longer. After taking a breath she was awake enough to think clearly. What was that? She wondered, running a hand through her messy hair. Looking to her alarm clock, Bubblegum realized it was still late. There was a couple more hours before the sun came up. It was too much time to stay awake until first light so she laid back down. Wrapping her blankets around her shoulders, she closed her eyes until the image of meteors showering over Earth were washed over by lethargy.
xXx
It was around noon when Bubblegum knocked on the door to Marceline's room. She rasped her knuckles three times against the candy wood before calling her name. "Marceline? Are you awake?" There was silence for a moment then the door opened. The vampire squinted at her, trying to keep the light out of her eyes.
"Come in," she said and back stepped out of the hall's shine.
Bubblegum moved into the dimly lit room and cut the rays behind her by closing the door. The only light left was the midday sun threatening to shine throw the window's dark shades. Now Marceline was no longer squinting. The princess stared into a crimson gaze, identical to the one in her dream.
"What's going on, Bonnie?" Marceline pressed the heal of her palm into her right eye and rubbed the drowse out.
"I uh..." she cleared her throat, "wanted to see if you'd like to accompany me to the market today." She broke their eye contact and looked at the backlit window shades. The princess was thankful for Marceline's shyness to light, it hid the burn in her cheeks. Her neck tingled, she remembered how the vampire's lips had felt there. The way she had spoken to her. My love. My love. Bubblegum pushed the thoughts aside.
"Yeah, sure." Marceline smiled, "But I'll get burnt if I go out like this," she looked down at herself the short sleeves of her shirt wouldn't protect the skin on her arms.
"I can lend you a cloak if that would help," Bubblegum offered.
"Okay," Marceline ran a hand through her bedhead, "that could probably work."
Bubblegum felt herself smile.
After they had found proper skin protection and fought worried looks from Peppermint Butler, Marceline strapped her ax to her back and they headed out into the light of day. The queen offered to fly them to the market but Bubblegum declined, claiming she was afraid of heights, even though her heart had jumped with excitement. She took a breath to shake it off.
The two walked to the neighboring kingdom and held idle conversation. "I'm just saying, Marceline lifted two gloved hands, palms forward, "if a tomato is a fruit, then ketchup is a smoothie."
Bubblegum looked at the ground and laughed, "Okay, okay. By that logic," she paused to think, "Lobsters are like ocean scorpions."
Marceline laughed from underneath her hood, "That's exactly what they are, Bonnie."
The princess smiled at the other girl as they neared the rows of merchant stands.
"So what are we here for?" the queen asked, looking around at the Grass Land people and their goods.
"I wanted to buy some fresh strawberries. I come here a lot for them actually." Bubblegum lead them toward the hand drawn sign: Fresh Berries! Best strawberries in the Kingdom!
"Nice, I love that shade of red." Marceline landed next to the princess as she exchanged a few pieces of gold for a carton of the plump fruit. She handed one to Marceline, who sucked it dry under the safety of her cloak's shade. Bubblegum bit into her own berry as they walked near a large oak tree standing near the fruit stand.
"These are really good, Bonnibel. Let me have another one."
The monarch took a step forward to offer more berries, but found herself tripped up by the tree's large roots, and on the ground with one hand and a knee. Thuck. Bubblegum looked up and saw an arrow lodge into the bark where her heart had approximately been a second ago. Her eyes widened and she looked up at Marceline.
Fear and rage mixed in the vampire's eyes as she lifted the ax off her back. Bubblegum followed her fierce glare and saw a man, no more than thirty feet away, ready his bow at them again. At a speed to fast for the eye to catch, Marceline swung her ax low as he released, sending the arrow away at a different angle with a distinct chink of metal on metal.
Bubblegum stood and watched Marceline sprint forward in a flash, her hood flying back from the speed, her ax raised. She went to bring it down onto the man but he tucked and rolled under it. He popped back up and drew an arrow back for a pointblank shot. Marceline backhanded the man's weapon from his grip, and dropped her ax into the man's left clavicle at a forty-five, forcing it down to the middle of his sternum.
People were screaming at this point. Marceline kept her blade sunk deep into the man's flesh until red liquid had frothed over his bottom lip. After she was sure he could no longer do any harm, she used the bottom of her boot to push his drooping body off the edge of her blade. He fell limp to the ground.
Bubblegum's breath caught in her throat. Her heart pounded in her ears as she tried to walk toward Marceline. The queen's chest rose and fell heavily as she stood over the attacker.
"M-Marceline?" she managed some how, the urge to vomit growing steadily.
Marceline turned, her expression now worry. The princess winced, blood had splashed a good portion of pale girl's face. Quickly, Marceline shouldered her ax and placed her hands along the princess's jawline, under her ears. The dark haired girl's eyes darted back and forth, "Are you alright?"
Bubblegum's realized that places on Marceline's face and neck were starting to sizzle. Dark spots of burnt flesh started to form. With weak hands she pulled her hood up to stop the smoke from rising off the vampire's skin. "Marceline."
"Did you get hit?" the queen spoke again, clearly more concerned with Bubblegum's safety over her own.
The pink monarch placed both hands on top of Marceline's and closed her eyes. "No," she swallowed thickly, trying to keep her adrenaline at bay.
Marceline spoke sternly, "Bonnie, I need to get you out of here."
She nodded with her eyes still closed and let Marceline lift her into the sky.
xXx
They had been flying for a while. Bubblegum sat bridal style in Marceline's arms, her hands balled into fists in the vampire's cloak. The image of ax blades cut at her mind's eye. She shivered. "Marceline?"
"Yeah, Bonnie?"
"Can we—can we stop for a second?"
Marceline slowed to a stop and pulled her knees forward so she could sit Bubblegum in her lap. The princess timidly wrapped her arms around the older girl's neck for stability. She forced away a blush from spreading over her nose. Their proximity was almost identical to her dream, she kept her eyes in her lap.
"Are you alright?" she forced herself to look up but she was not met by crimson irises. Marceline's head hung low.
"I—" she spoke and tried to meet the pink girl's eyes but could not, "I'm so sorry. This, this is all my fault."
"Marceline, what are you even talking about." Bubblegum used a hand to lift her gaze. The blood on her face had started to dry, maroon splotches that had begun to coagulate splattered her rightmost side.
Marceline breathed out heavily and turned into the princess's hand somewhat, "I'm the reason that guy attacked us. I saw his tattoos when I stood over him. He was a Dark Wizard. He was apart of the reason why I was in the ground. Now that I'm out I'm—" she choked a bit, "I'm putting you in danger."
"But you protected me. You kept me from getting hurt." Bubblegum saw the guilt that shrouded her eyes. "That's all that matters. At the very least I should be thanking you. Glob, Marceline, I could even knight you for this."
Marceline chuckled despite herself, "Maybe in another life time, Princess."
Bubblegum smiled weakly and was silent for a moment. "We should get back to the palace. I need to inform Grass Land royalty of what happened."
Marceline nodded in agreement and resumed her flight.
xXx
As soon as they touched ground, Peppermint was white in the face, his red stripes almost pink. "What happened?" He ran up to them in a panic.
"I need to report this right away." Bubblegum's stated as she walked away from the other two.
"Don't worry Peppermint, this blood doesn't belong to either of us. I had to—" Marceline paused, not wanting to say it out loud, "I uh, stopped, this guy from hurting us. He was an archer, a Dark Wizard."
"I told you this would happen, Marceline." Peppermint's fear had been replaced with rising anger. "I told you going outside of the walls wasn't safe. You're putting both of your lives at risk!"
Marceline growled, "It's not like I asked for this, Peppermint. I didn't paint a bulls-eye on my chest and jump around at him!"
Peppermint groaned in frustration. "Being the Vampire Queen already puts a target on your back!"
She scuffed. "Bonnie is in just as much danger as I am," she jabbed a finger at him, "if not, more so. That arrow was aimed at her chest. Not mine. If I hadn't been there..." Marceline trailed off, not wanting to think about what would have happened. She sighed heavily and they were quiet for a moment.
"Marceline, I—I'm sorry." The butler looked to the ground when he spoke, "It's just—she's my princess."
"She's my princess too," Marceline mumbled and walked past him, trailing Bubblegum.