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Eight years had passed since the Princess of the Candy Kingdom first met and befriended the shy girl known as Marceline. Despite everything her father did to try and stop her, with the assistance of Peppermint Butler, she maintained her strong bond with Marceline. She was her best friend in the whole world. They had a connection that could not be broken, nor denied.
They saw each other on a regular basis, at least once a week, if not more. Sometimes Marceline would be snuck into the castle to share a sleepover and a night of ghost stories with Bonnibel, and sometimes Marceline would join Bonni on walks through the town as the Princess spoke with locals, brushing up on her royal skills as she assured business owners that her father would not leave them high and dry during hard times.
Marceline had left the orphanage at the tender age of ten, and had sought out a place to stay, finding a kind stranger who worked at the local Blacksmith. He was short, but well built with strong arms, and a cupcake for a body. His long handlebar moustache graced his upper lip, and twitched whenever he laughed or smiled.
He had noticed Marceline watch him as he shaped and moulded new sets of armour for the King's army, to replace those that were worn or damaged in battle and training. When he motioned for her to come over and watch him work more closely, the tall girl had been fascinated by his line of work.
He told her stories of how some of the mightiest blows were dealt to enemies with a sword that he had finely crafted himself, and how his meticulously designed chest plates had protected the King himself from an onslaught of arrows and flying projectiles in the last boundary disagreement the Candy Kingdom had with its neighbour.
He had agreed to take Marceline into his home, and under his wing as a young apprentice, teaching her the ways of crafting and also the ways of wielding sword and board. The taller girl had loved learning to fight, and despite her hatred for Bonnibel's father, she resolved herself to someday join the army and fight to protect her best friend's Kingdom.
Lately, in present days, there had been unrest in the Kingdom. Citizen's were unhappy with the King's latest tax rise, and a nightfall curfew had been introduced, which made it nearly impossible to travel in the darkness without being caught by a guard and fined heavily.
There was word of an underground uprising, Marceline had heard whispers of it among her local candy family. They would sit around Cupcake man's crackling fireplace, sipping on sugar ale, discussing their days work, then later on as they thought the younger girl had fallen asleep in her room, low voices of their thoughts on the Kingdom's ruler and what was to be done about it.
The dark-haired girl would lay still, barely breathing as she strained her ears to listen.
"I heard from a guy I know that words been sent to the Night-O-Sphere, they reckon they're tryin' to pay off demons to off the King! Now wouldn't that be somethin'?" a thick, husky voice rumbled, his voice trailing off with a laugh, followed by snickers from several others.
"Ey', but who'd take over this place then if the King was killed?" another voice, not as husky, but twice as deep. There were mumbles around the room.
"Well... what about his daughter? What's her name, Princess Bubblegum? I seen her around town, socialising with the citizens. Seems like a nice young lady." another voice joined in, a smile drifting off his lips.
Marceline's eyes widened, and she sat up in bed quickly, leaning towards the doorway where a warm orange glow spilled into her room.
Bonnibel? No, she doesn't want to take over the kingdom!
"I think she would be a right good fill in, she seems like the complete opposite of her father." another higher pitched voice agreed with the last.
Cupcake cleared his throat before piping in.
"But she's too young to take over leadership. She's but a mere fourteen years old, same age as my little Marceline. For all we know someone else could take over that's worse than the King."
More mumbles of agreement. Marceline lay down again, worrying her bottom lip as she stared at her ceiling. It was cracked in places, and occasionally bits of it would fall down on her in her sleep and wake her up, thinking she was under attack.
She thought about everything the men had been speaking about, unable to control a sudden urge she had to pull herself out of bed and get dressed. She knew it was cold and the weather outside was harsh, so she made sure to rug up in a thick black sweater and jeans, pulling her socks up high before pulling on her sneakers.
After dressing, she got back into bed and lay there waiting for Cupcake's friends to leave. It wasn't long, and shortly after that, Cupcake shuffled past her doorway and made his way to his own bed. For good measure, Marceline waited another fifteen minutes before slowly creeping her way out of her room. She looked to his room to make sure he was still in bed, and whispered quietly her apology for leaving, even though it fell on deaf ears.
She snuck out carefully through a side door and slipped out past the blacksmith forge and tool benches. The walk to the castle was not a long one, but she had to take detours to avoid the guard's as they patrolled the streets. Watching as a pair of guard's strolled past the last street before the castle, Marceline smiled then made her move. The dark-haired girl knew of a tunnel on the other side of the castle's garden that led up winding stairs and into a tower that was connected to Bonnibel's room by just a short hallway.
It wasn't a secret tunnel, but an unfrequented one that was mostly there as an emergency escape in case of a fire or an attack on the castle. Marceline made her way through it quickly, navigating her way by touch and by memory. She grunted as she ran into a spider web, the sticky material clinging to her face and hair.
"Gross." she uttered, pulling it off her face bit by bit and wiping it on her jeans.
She removed the rest of it, before continuing upstairs. Carefully pushing open the heavy wooden door at the top so as not to make it creak, she slipped past it and into the hallway, making her way down to the room she knew belonged to her best friend.
With a slight smile, she turned the handle and then cautiously made her way in. She made sure to close the bedroom door silently behind her, then continued to creep over to where the sleeping Bonnibel lay in her bed, rugged up underneath thick pink and white blankets.
Shivering a little from a brisk breeze that was coming in through the open bedroom window, Marceline knelt onto the bed and shuffled closer until she was kneeling over Bonnibel. She frowned and started to lightly shake her friend.
"Bonni! Bonni, wake up!" she whispered, laughing a little as her friend grunted and mumbled something under her breath about apple sandwiches.
"Bonni, it's me, Marcy." Marceline whispered again, her voice only slightly louder. The Princess hummed quietly and rolled over, pushing herself up onto her left forearm to face her friend.
"Huh, Marce... what are you doing here?" Bonnibel gave her a quizzical look, her eyes heavy lidded and her voice still groggy from being woken from her deep sleep. Bonnibel looked over at the clock on her bedside table, squinting to read the time.
"Marce! It's almost midnight, Glob you're going to get in so much trouble!" Bonnibel scorned her lightly, waking up a little more. Marceline shrugged, looking at her friend with a smile. The dark-haired girl lay down beside the Princess, sighing heavily.
"It'll be fine. I just had to tell you what I heard tonight!" Marceline told her, her voice laced with both excitement and anger. Bubblegum flinched a bit as Marceline grabbed her forearm, squeezing it for emphasis that what she had to tell her was incredibly important.
"Marce! You're so cold! Geez, get under the blankets would you?" Bubblegum scorned her friend yet again, throwing back the covers and watching as Marceline complied, pushing her shoes off with her feet before scooting underneath the warm blankets. She hummed happily and shuffled closer to her friend, the warmth radiating off her a wonderful change from the freezing cold outside.
Marceline chuckled as Bonnibel snaked one of her slender teenage legs over her own, helping to assist in warming her friend up faster.
"Now what's so important that you had to break into my bedroom in the middle of the night, in the freezing cold, with the possibility of being thrown in the dungeon by my father, just to tell me?" Bonnibel asked her sternly, but her eyes were warm and friendly as they shared a fluffy pink pillow together.
"Mmm, I heard Cupcake talking to his friends tonight. They um... they said some stuff about your Dad, Bon. Some bad stuff. I-I probably shouldn't be talking about it, I don't know what kind of trouble it could get me into..." Marceline began, but her voice started to get nervous as she trailed off towards the end, pressing her face a little bit into the pillow. Bonnibel grabbed a thick strand of Marceline's raven black hair and started twirling it between her fingers. She loved to play with the beautiful locks, they were so smooth and silky, although Marcy always made fun of her for her obsession with it.
"You won't get into trouble if no one knows you told. Now tell me, what did they say?" Bubblegum pressed further, watching her friend intently.
"I heard someone say that they're going to get demons from the Night-O-Sphere to kill your dad!" Marceline blurted, her cheeks suddenly turning a deep red. She knew the thought of something like losing her dad, no matter how awful he was, would be hurtful to her best friend. She watched cautiously to gauge Bonni's reaction, but to her surprise, the girl was just smiling at her.
"Marce, do you have any idea how many times people have tried to kill my father?" Bonnibel quizzed her, continuing her ministrations with her hair. Marceline knitted her brow together and bit her lower lip as she concentrated.
"Umm... twice?" she guessed, but shrugged her shoulders anyway. Bubblegum laughed quietly and shuffled down a bit into the bed. She pressed her face against her taller friend's collarbone, wrapping her arms around her small waist and hugging her tightly.
"My father has lived through many attempts on his life, and yet he still stands undefeated. He has an entire army at his disposal, willing to lay down their life for him, and for my people." Bubblegum's words were soft, and they quietened the rapid beating of Marceline's heart.
Marceline huffed stubbornly, still worried about the thought of her friend losing her father. Worried even more about the thought of losing her best friend to running a Kingdom. Marceline was sure when that day come, Bonni would simply become too busy for her, or Marceline would become unimportant to the Princess compared to other royal duties. She pressed her face into Bonnibel's soft, gummy hair. It always amused her when the other kids at the orphanage had asked her about those locks of bright pink hair.
Is it sticky? Doesn't it get stuck to your hair?
Despite what people thought of bubblegum, Bonnibel's hair was actually very similar to regular hair, the only real difference was that the strands were much thicker than regular hair. They were also kind of squishy, but not sticky. Kind of like the texture of marshmallow rolled in icing sugar.
Marceline looked down and noticed that Bonni's breathing had become much more shallow now. Her eyes were closed, and the raven-haired girl could feel her warm breath on her chest, tickling her skin ever so slightly. It was late and her friend was starting to drift back to sleep, despite the fact that she still had something else to tell her.
"B?" Marcy whispered, her voice slightly muffled by the pink hair.
"Mmm?" the dozy reply came. Marceline held Bonnibel a little closer.
"I think I'm going to join your dad's army."
Bonnibel groaned and batted at Marceline's shoulder, which only served to make the dark-haired girl laugh gleefully.
"Marcy! I'll never get to see you if you do that! Please, just stay..." Bonni's voice started to drift off again as sleep began to take her again. Marceline hushed her, knowing she must have been exhausted.
"You're my best friend Bon, I want to be able to protect you. If I join the army, I could even become a royal guard!" She explained to her enthusiastically, however keeping her voice down. Bonni hummed in reply, her hand this time squeezing her friend's shoulder, before slipping down and back around her waist.
Marceline yawned, stretching her free arm up into the air, twirling her hand around a bit before bringing it back down to drape over Bonnibel's shoulders. She suddenly felt incredibly tired herself, and the reins of sleep began tugging at her mind.
"I'll always protect you, Bonnibel." she whispered, before she too slipped into a deep slumber.