Author's Note: I'm so sorry for the missed Chapter last week. I'll make it up to you guys, within the next two or three weeks I'll do a double update week, where I'll update on Wednesday and Friday. My life got really hectic for about two weeks, and I was putting in about 10 hours days everyday, and I just couldn't find the time to write. Thanks to my Beta-Reader who put in extra time to make sure that I would have the story prepped and ready to go. (This has been one heck of a week and I totally forgot to edit my breaks out and change them to the little-line things, so I've done that now.)
Thanks for everyone who has supported me in this, and reviewed and enjoyed the story!
The Princess and Lady walked into the house, and the sweet smell of Treetrunks's pies wafted in Jake's nose. His stomach began to growl, and in this case it was nearly literal. His stomach distended into a face, and began reaching for the food before Jake could slap it.
Lady and Finn looked at him, both amused. "Look. When a dude's hungry, a dude's gotta eat." He suited his words to actions and reached over to grab a slice of pie.
Bubblegum slapped his hand away. "Not yet. Wait until we get it set up," she frowned at him, shaking her head slightly.
The girls vanished into the kitchen, leaving Jake behind where he stood rubbing his hand. Flame Princess giggled, then excused herself and walked into the kitchen to join the other two. Marceline eyed the two boys, then grinned wickedly and floated away to join the others.
Jake knew she was up to no good, but simply hoped she wouldn't ruin the pies. He smiled suddenly and looked at Finn. "So, double-date night tonight, and the first real movie date. This is serious bro, like triple ice-cream serious." He leaned in closer to Finn and whispered, "I remember me and Lady's first movie date. It was special, so I wanted to make this one special for you. I've got you a gift man." He reached around behind his back and pulled out some kind of crystal looking thing.
"What's that man?" asked Finn, reaching over for it.
"It's a super-rare magic crystal device. It protects you from fire, so you can hold her hand." Jake winked. "I know you wanna kiss her again, but don't do that, it would mess up the world and stuff."
Finn blushed and tucked the little crystal away. "How does it work?"
A serious of loud screams came from the kitchen, and Marceline came whizzing out, trailing smoke and patting her jacket to smother flames. "I dunno. I got it off some dude, just break it when you wanna hold her hands. It only works for like 10 minutes or something." His stomach growled again. "Anyway. I'm hungry, and it looks like they are all ready for us!" He walked towards the kitchen, eagerly rubbing his hands together.
"Dude! Get back!" Jake's face twisted horribly, turning in a continuous circle, but his eyes always managed to stay level. "Bro! Bro!"
The movie had just gotten to the scariest part, and even though he had seen it, Jake still felt the same terror he did the first time. Lady was staring at the screen in horror, and Flame Princess was hiding her eyes, but Marceline seemed to be grinning and enjoying this.
She caught Jake's eyes, and then a look of terror passed over her face as Jake felt some kind of slimy thing slither onto him from behind the couch. Letting out a scream, Jake leapt from the couch and spun to face whatever it was. To his shock and despair, it was one of the tendrils of the monster from the movie. Screeching, he melted into a puddle on the ground.
Marceline let out a loud laugh, and revealed that the tentacle was actually just her transformed arm. Everyone else in the room burst out laughing, and Flame Princess seemed to glow brighter as she shook with humor.
"I got you so good!" Marceline nearly fell on the ground, she was laughing so hard. "You thought that there was an actual monster in here!"
Jake picked himself up and began to swell himself, until his head brushed the ceiling. "Oh yeah? Well, you smell like dookie!" He smiled proudly, and puffed out his chest, obviously very pleased with his retort.
Lady twisted around Jake until her face was level with his, and began to talk rapidly at him, her voice stern. Within short order, Jake stopped looking pleased and began to look very abashed. After a minute, he shrunk back down to normal size and slunk back to the couch. Still, Lady wasn't through, and turned her attention to the vampire.
Despite Marceline not knowing what was being said, the intent was quite clear. This was not proper behavior, and since having her pups, Lady Rainicorn had obviously picked up some motherly traits. Even though she didn't understand the exact words, the Vampire Queen too shrunk back into her chair, her face flushed slightly. Settling back down by Jake, Lady returned her attention to the movie.
Princess Bubblegum and understood everything that had been said, and she found the reprimands just as humorous as the prank. The movie was over halfway over now, and to her great surprise, Bonnie found the night to be both relaxing and fun. Flame Princess didn't seem to bear a grudge, and Finn was acting his normal self.
However, Marceline was not. It wasn't obvious, but PB had known the other girl for too many years to not pick up on her subtle body language. She sat too stiffly, and seemed to drift off into thought during the film.
The Princess resolved to watch Marceline more closely as the film went on.
As the movie ended, with one last great scream from the Monster, and a triumphant kiss from the Captain and his girlfriend, Finn caught Flame Princess's eye. She smiled at him, and he felt a surge of giddiness crash over him.
FP had styled her hair different today, it was shorter. She looked great tonight, and with Jake's crystal… But still, there was always that barrier that she couldn't kiss or be kissed. And while Finn was very happy with FP, it bugged him that there didn't seem to be any way to go forward.
The credits started to roll while Marceline and Bubblegum both moved towards the bathroom, and Jake and Lady were curled around each other sleeping. The lights were still dark, and it seemed like as good a time as any, so Finn broke the crystal.
He reached over and gently picked up the elemental's hand. She turned suddenly, a look of concern taking over her face. Finn smiled to show it that it was alright, and laced his fingers in hers.
"How?" she whispered blissfully.
"Jake got some sort of magic crystal." It was wonderful, just holding her hand. Letting the feeling of her roll over him, he sighed and leaned back.
They sat that way for a few minutes, just feeling each other. Both of them relished this, FP face's was so happy that Finn's chest felt like it would burst. "How… how long does it last?"
Finn could already feel the heat in his, and it was building. "Not much longer," he said sadly.
"Well, let's enjoy what we have." They both smiled and relished the feeling of touch each other, skin to skin.
Bubblegum waited for Marceline to finish. Generally, the two of them had a certain distance between them, but with the awkwardness between Bubblegum and everyone else, she had resolved to try to fix all of her friendships… even the one with Marceline, no matter the cost. The princess waited for the vampire to finish, so she could find out what had been bothering Marceline.
Marceline floated out of the bathroom and saw Bonnie reclining against the wall, deep in thought about something. The princess noticed her floating there and walked over to her.
"Marceline, I have something to ask you."
The vampire's stomach did a few flips, as she thought to herself. 'No-no-no-no. Not today, not today, this can't be happening today.' She carefully kept her face neutral, but without meaning to she had floated back a few inches.
"Uh, yeah. Go for it." Marceline turned slightly and began to idly fuss with her shoes.
"Is there… something bothering you?" Surprisingly, the princess sounded like she actually care, and even more shockingly, she looked worried too.
This caught Marceline off guard, and she nearly stuttered. "Why would you ask that? Everything is just like it always is." The queen tried to float by Bubblegum, but the other girl pressed herself to the wall and wouldn't let Marceline by.
"That is not true. You have been exhibiting strange behavior, and that is certainly not normal." She bit down on her lower lip. "And while normally I wouldn't ask, I have… made certain promises to myself that I would like to keep."
Eyeing Bonnie strangely, Marceline that something was going on. "I think you are the one acting funny. You've been strange since I saw you earlier today. Why don't you tell me what's wrong?"
"What? Me? No, what is bothering me is of no importance, but what is wrong with you?"
Marceline could feel herself becoming angry. This was always how it went. The perfect little princess couldn't admit that she had some problem with herself, and so she always tried to force the issue off onto someone else. "Look, if you don't wanna tell me what's the matter, fine, but don't expect me to tell you then!" She shoved Bonnie out of the way, and started down the hallway back towards the living room when she stopped.
"The problem with me is that I can't fix Flame Princess," said Princess Bubblegum, her voice nearly breaking. She was looking at the ground and small tears ran down her face. "I've been trying to stabilize her matrix for so long, and I just can't figure out how to do it." She looked back up at the dumbfounded Marceline.
"I can't make Finn happy, I don't know why… I just… don't like him that way. So I want to give him happiness, make it to where he and Flame Princess can work out, but I just can't figure out how to do it!" Despite her tears, at the end the little princess seemed so angry at herself.
Without thinking about what she was doing, Marceline enveloped PB in a hug. "It's alright Bonnie. You don't always have to be perfect. You don't always have to have the right answer." Bubblegum reached around and returned the hug, still sobbing into Marceline's shirt.
After a few minutes, she stopped and took a step back. "Do you mean that?" she said, dabbing at her eyes.
"I do, Bonnie."
By the time that Marceline had finished talking to Bubblegum, Finn and Flame Princess were ready to go. They said their goodbyes to everyone, and left together. Marceline suspected that something had happened while she was away, but she didn't know what it could be. Jake and Lady were fast asleep, and so Bonnie woke them up and escorted them home.
The vampire floated into the kitchen, were a mess of dishes and half-eaten food lay everywhere. Tonight had been much more interesting than she had thought it would be.