Review Responses:

Desperado558: Thank you! It's weird, I never had any interest in AU's until this fic, but something about taking the pre-existing stuff and just spinning it differently is really fun.

Messiah-Emperor: Gah, I am such a patoot. A terrible-at-updating patoot.

Zeta's Slumber: That's actually the logic that led to the fic. I was brainstorming and randomly thought, "What if Ice Prince-Finn somehow met up with Flame Princess?"

Guest: Finn is fun to write as the Ice Prince, I'm glad you're enjoying his character.

10do: I was actually on the fence about the Bubbeline at first, partially for your reasoning; shipping for shipping's sake in a plot focused on other things can be meh. So I tried to decide if I could fit it in the fic logically and if it felt natural, and while that comes up a bit later, I think I have and that it does (I love me some Bubbeline though, so yeah).

Alice'sLover: Thank you very much! Sorry about the delay, I hope you enjoy it!

nightmaster000: Thank you!

Chapter 5: My Personal Antifreeze

The temperature drop in the northern region of the province had been too much for the Princess of the Candy Kingdom to ignore for long. Where people had once lived snow down dropped from the sky without end, and the murmurings of a decrepit blue creature scaling the newborn icy summits only escalated matters.

Armed with her snow-gear, Bubblegum set forth into the icy waste determined to find answers.

It took her little scientific examination to realize the constant spiral of white chill had an obvious epicenter, and after tightening her clothing and lamenting her dropping body temperature, she continued onward.

After a half hour of partial blind stumbling, she suddenly pushed through a particularly thick wall of winter, and nearly fell flat on her face when she found the other-side was tranquil and free of harsh winds.

"The eye of the storm," She whispered, her eyes immediately narrowing and falling on a small blue figure that shivered as sunlight reflected from its mirror-like back. "Greetings! Are you injured?" She called forth, frowning as no answer came. In fact it showed no sign of hearing her at all. "Well, I'll come to you, I guess!"

The Princess gracefully jogged over the flat landscape, moving with care as it was coated with ice. Her eyes drifted upward as she gained ground, and as such she could make out the pale streaks of frosty power emitting from the figure and spinning the entire world into white.

"…Do you need help?" She panted, leaning over as she came to his side; it was definitely a male, garbed in a ripped and stained blue shirt and pants of an indescribable mix of colors from what she realized with disgust were also stains.

"Leave. Me. ALONE." His voice was metal scraping against ice, making her wince hard. She had adjusted to the blinding light, and the view of his pale, thin body laced with scars and wrinkles despite his obvious weaning youth was getting to her, twisting her stomach in pity. The white hair that streaked down his back, however, was utterly pure and unsoiled.

"You need help. Please, it's alright," Bubblegum whispered, trying to convince both him and herself of that statement.

His head slowly rotated until it was parallel to her own, and they examined each other's facial profiles intensely.

Your face is so withered, so hard. I can see your frozen tears. How did you come to be here, and like this? Were her heart-wrenching thoughts.

An angel, Ice Prince thought, his mouth slowly gaping at what had cut through his cold rage and now dazzled him. A… a pink angel!

"You would help me?" He asked incredulously, turning fully so that she loomed over him as if she was some sort of God that had come to strike down a sinner.

The Princess froze for a moment before reluctance and visible fear were replaced with her loving and caring nature, and she slowly removed one of her gloves before offering her now bare hand to his touch.

He grasped it with reverence, his fingers shaking as they lightly pressed against her pink palm and fingers. After a moment he careful pulled it closer to him, pressing it against his deathly face.

Bubblegum somehow restrained any wincing, and even found the sensation pleasant in the oddest way. "Of course I will help you," She whispered, feeling more sympathy by the second. His eyes blinked, and where frozen orbs had reigned there were now spheres glazed as if from melting. In them, she could just make out the warmest thanks amongst a blizzard of pain.

Bonnibel Bubblegum's cheery pink face broke into a smile as she pulled her hand back slightly, her pinky expanding from it. Their lives changed beyond repair when she uttered the words:

"Pinky promise," Princess Bubblegum said slowly, Ice Prince rolling his eyes in response. "And don't cross your toes." Being escorted up to the castle entrance by the Banana Guards had been insulting enough, and now his beloved was acting as if he had come to deliberately rouse rabble; and just when he had thought her heart was cooling towards him completely. The bitter look she had sent him when his actions had been relayed still stung.

"I promise I will act cordially and present myself well during the ball. No kidnapping or freezing. No shenanigans," He replied flatly, caught between feeling affronted and awe at the Princess's gown. "I swear on my love for—"

"On your pinky," Bubblegum concluded for him, knowing very well what he had been about to say, and in no mood to hear it. Her delicate, yet perfectly thick (Ice Prince had a slight obsession with hands) pink finger extended into the air, waiting to bear witness to yet another vow between them.

He quickly realized her mistake, and their eyes met as he held up his bad arm. She knew better than anyone he used it as little as he possibly could (as she was also well aware of its limitations and his almost indescribable hatred toward it), and as she had put forth her left hand, it would have been the one she had shaken. The metal arm that she knew also had non-bendable fingers.

To his surprise, the Princess blushed, embarrassed that she had missed such an obvious deet, and quickly switched hands. Then, to her obvious astonishment, he smiled wide and flexed his latest additions to his metal arm; fingers. Fully functioning fingers. Nearly perfect… just needed feeling.

She had offered long ago to craft him a construct of her own design, or even work out some bio-junk he didn't understand, but he had insisted in proving himself to her by making the scientific leap. For the first time in a long while, he looked at the sleek, metal limb, and as he curled it in and out of a fist, he felt pride.

"I'm… proud of you, Ice Prince," Bonnibel whispered after her shock faded, years of patiently reading engineering theory to him coming to a new apex she had never imagined, let alone considered due to his… eccentricities. "Maybe sometime I could give it a look-over?" She stretched her free hand forth, nearly making contact with the metal appendage before thinking better of it and letting her arm fall to her side.

"It would be my honor, Princess," He replied, taking her other, extended finger with his good hand's pinky before dropping to one knee and pressing his lips fleetingly upon her pink skin. Without another word, he rose and walked into the ballroom, a serene wonder of whether or not grasping her digit or tasting her flavor had been more pleasing filling his mind.

Bubblegum watched him dimly, holding up her now chilled hand. She had no time to contemplate her fluctuating feelings, and pulled together a straight face as Spearmint Butler announced the next names upon the guest list.

Jake and Marceline had to wait a good while before they came to the entrance, and the fact that they had seen Ice Prince along the way made the wait drag on substantially; at several points Marceline had suggested he might be causing trouble, and that they should move up to the front to check… and then maybe not get back in line afterwards.

But eventually they did come to the door, Jake motioning for Marceline to go in front and the Vampire giving him a tepid thumbs up.

"And now we welcome Marceline the Vampire Queen and Jake the Dog, renowned heroes from far away who have recently taken residence in the Grasslands," Spearmint proclaimed, the pair moving through the great doors and waving at the immediate fanfare they received.

Marceline and Jake quickly discerned the Princess out of the crowd from her height and color (it also helped that she was actively trying to greet everyone who walked in), and made their way toward her.

"Hello, Princess," Marceline greeted, her fingers fluttering in a gentle wave, finding Bubblegum's dress an exceptionately good thing to stare at.

"Sup," Jake greeted in a decidedly less formal manner, his limits for such things already being filled, considering he was wearing a suit.

"Greetings friends," Bubblegum replied after likewise looking over the Vampire Queen. "You both look quite wonderful for the occasion. That's a beautiful dress, Marceline," She added, the lightest tinge of red appearing on her cheeks. It was dark enough for the undead girl to notice, and she quickly matched it.

Jake looked between them, and then chuckled. "I love me a tricycle, but I ain't in the mood to be a third wheel, so I'm going to find my own dame and serenade her with— AWW GLOB I FORGOT MY VIOLA!" He slapped his head and walked off grumbling as his words deepened the blushes of both girls.

"…Come find me later, okay?" Bubblegum whispered into Marceline's pointed ear after a few moments of awkward silence, her voice dangerously supple and her hand dragging the undead girl slightly lower to the ground. With a nod the Vampire floated off, hoping later was in the next five minutes and determined to find something in that time frame to loosen herself up. She was feeling more wound than a coil of beef jerky (and just about as tasty).

After drinking some punch and trying out a few delectable strawberry tarts, she felt much more satisfied and less shaky. Unfortunately, the next step in the process, talking with other people, did not go as smoothly.

The Candy People, despite being a little goofy, were friendly folk, but obviously unused to Vampires and not in any way shape or form looking to expand their knowledge (especially those of them that featured any shade of red). That more or less left her the various royalty that was visiting as potential targets for conversations, but while she was indeed royalty, it was more so in title than in actuality, and she quickly faded in and out of any conversation she tried to start or join to her dismay.

The low point had been asking if anyone else played bass amongst the Duke of Nut's party, and subsequently being asked herself if that was some kind of brass instrument.

The only person who had deemed her worthy to talk to was Lumpy Space Princess, and while Marceline appreciated the fact she had been willing to strike up conversation… yikes. Invisibility had its perks, and when LSP finally averted her gaze elsewhere, the Vampire poofed into thin air and made a beeline for cover.

Still, as she floated away, the last words of the lumpy girl (directed apparently at her, indicating LSP wasn't even aware Marceline had vanished) caught her by surprise: "I just hope that Ice Prince doesn't start hitting on PB again. Ugh. He's such a little leach."

Marceline reverted to visibility from behind a pillar and then floated out, running these words through her mind. It was just her luck that she had not only run into Finn this night, but that he was apparently also taken with Bubblegum.

She frowned, her patience for the ball suddenly running thin. Maybe she would just go… it's not like anyone else here was enjoying her company, and continuously failing to make any positive contact with the people around her, the people whom the Princess herself spent most of her time with, was slowly overshadowing her dreams of romance and making them seem like silly, girlish fantasies.

Marceline was a Vampire, for Glob's sake. Sure, a very well-to-do Vampire that in many other parts of Ooo was considered a hero and revered, but here, she felt like she had so long ago, when her father had popped her down back into Ooo ten minutes after having her forcibly turned into a Vampire ("for her own safety") and with no memory of her past; utterly alien and alone. Of course, she had not stayed that way for long…

"It's not you, it's them," Came a dulled voice from behind her. Her spine straightened as she recognized who owned it. "I spend much of my time trying to help people, and what? Here I am, outside the circle." The words halted, almost as if the speaker's throat had frozen on the spot, before he finished in a harsh tone, "I think it's the arm."

Marceline turned to face Ice Prince, whose eyes were now glued to his metal limb. "I guess with you they would be turned off by the… what? Floating?" His eyes narrowed, and his lips began to move without direction, as if something incredibly important was just on the tip of them.

She studied him with a blank face, thought she couldn't help but believe some sorrow shown through. Still, the Vampire almost felt some joy; Glob, he had recovered to a great degree. The last time she had seen him, he had been a complete mess, so desperate for any source of affection and yet so traumatized by his own self-hatred that every sentence he had uttered had been any exercise in schizophrenia.

"…Do I know you?" He asked eventually, taking a hesitant step forward.

"You did, once," She answered honestly, rubbing her shoulder as it dawned on her how uncomfortable she felt in his presence. Marceline still couldn't imagine how much terrible her past could have been compared to the life she had lived afterwards; roaming through the wastes of the world, trying to save a dog infested with the most dire evil she had ever known, and now centuries after the fact staring into the eyes of his lost master, for whom she had eventually realized there was no cure.

"You look so hurt," Ice Prince whispered, desperate for this strange, gray girl to meet his eyes and divulge her secrets. "…Have I hurt you?"

He asked as she pulled another piece-of-shit cross out of her arm. Finn had fallen out of one of his fits, which to her relief had not involved him attacking her with stakes. Marceline had relied on whatever chicken-brained survivors they happened across for that, the latest batch having just retreated back into a small town from the plains the trio of Dog, Vampire and Human occupied. The undead girl hoped they would stay there, having to retaliate against the poor terrified lunatics being the only thing she hated more than being attacked by them. And to think, her dad had claimed she would be welcomed with open arms: "Yeah, Vampires are all the rage now!"

"No, Finn," She whispered, sighing bitterly as her muscles, veins and skin healed themselves. "It wasn't you. You were just… out cold." The Vampire smiled bitterly, facing away from him and turning her eyes to Jake, whom was bridging the definition between alive and dead a little bit more with every passing day.

"Hehehe," The boy whispered, pulling his arms tightly around himself, and wishing desperately in his mind that he could be warm again. His words, in inverse, were, "I love being out cold." He quickly flipped from giddy amusement to sullen reflection once more, and he murmured, "Maybe if… you gave me the Crown for just a few minutes, I'd feel better."

Marceline's back tensed, her thoughts automatically turning to prayers that he wasn't going to threaten to set himself on fire or jump off a cliff again if she refused it from him. "You know it wouldn't, Finn. You're so far gone already, dude. We need… we need to find…"

"FIND WHAT?" He screamed, throwing his arms wide and seemingly following his echo with his eyes as he stood and turned in a full circle. "…I just want… to hold someone… to be warm…"

"I just want to hold it, and freeze," He hissed a moment later, crouching into a squat and burying his head into his chest.

"What happened to us, Finn?" The Vampire tried after stroking Jake's ears pensively. "Please… I have to know."

"It's ICE PR—" He began to shout before catching himself and flinging his entire body into the ground beneath him, a nasty crack emitting as his head kissed the dried dirt. Marceline flew toward him, but he slowly rose without her help, spitting out purplish blood. "You don't want to know. I'm already hurting you enough. I never… I should have listened to you, Marceline. I'm sorry you couldn't escape this hell when you had the chance."

"Don't talk like that," She whispered despite no understanding of his words, slowly reaching out and gingerly parting the hair from his face, and examining his injury. Barely a dent was to be found; even without it upon his head, the Crown had already culled such a hold upon him that he was nearly beyond needing her protection. Sadly, it also seemed to be eroding the plain truth out of how desperately he needed her sanity (a true testament to his lack thereof, considering how quickly her own was failing).

"I don't want Jake to die," Finn whispered, scraping a crude drawing of himself running with his dog in the ground using his metal arm. "I already lost him once to that… that…" He couldn't continue, his teeth falling into a clatter reminiscent of machine guns for several moments before he could right himself. "If you have to choose, choose him."

The words rang out as sharp as the sound of his cold pincer digging through the chilled earth, yet they still felt hollow.

Marceline swallowed, her eyes glancing over the crown hung to her side before burying the boy's cold frame into her own, giving him whatever warmth her dead body held.

She didn't have the heart to answer that she already had.

"You never meant to," Marceline forced out, turning from him and floating away, desperate to find Jake or the Princess. When she was far enough away from him, she concluded in a tiny, defeated voice, "I should have saved you."

Ice Prince feebly raised an arm after her in protest, utterly confused as to why the cold he savored now felt hard and crippling and why he felt a strong urge to run to her and apologize.

"Princess Bubblegum!" Flame Princess shouted upon viewing the pink girl, excitement flaring her hair upward. Without another word she ran up her fellow royalty, curtseying.

"Ember! It's been much too long," Bonnibel replied with a smile, leaning in for a quick hug (more of a touch, really; bubblegum smelled horrible when burnt).

"I'm just glad I'm out of the lantern," Ember said with a bright grin, her eyes losing focus and taking in the bright world around her. "Thank you so much for inviting me. I can't even remember the last time I left the kingdom. Everyone here is so kind!"

"I'm glad you find my people and kingdom as such," Bubblegum responded, her eyes immediately catching the behemoth of flame that was her father making his way over as well. "Why don't you run off and meet some people, while I talk with your father?"

"…Alright, hopefully he doesn't bore you," Flame Princess whispered, looking back to make sure he wasn't too near. "He's also kinda grumpy. Thanks again!" She ran off quickly, Flame King soon taking her former place and regarding her with a shaking head.

"I'm pleased you've done enough work to let her into the outside world again… but I'm still nervous as all hell," He murmured, skipping the pleasantries and he was oft to do.

"I know… you and I haven't always agreed in the past, Flame King, but I'm glad you're attending, and that my efforts to stabilize her have worked," Bubblegum replied, her words clearly deliberate and considered.

"Do you think she could handle courting?" He asked after nodding, getting directly to the point (and the only reason he was here in the first place). "My kingdom could really use more diplomacy besides the coal trade."

The Princess considered his words with unease as the monarch sighed, shaking his head. "I just want to let her live a happy life; you know, set a lot of things on fire, marry, fire, maybe pick up a sport. Instead, it's the same blasted illness her mother had… Glob damned instability."

"…I know. I still feel… terrible she had to spend so much time in that lantern, away from the world," Bonnibel whispered, though her mind had begun to drift away from the girl of fire to her polar opposite. "It's hard. To see someone filled with mirth so… broken." The last word fell from her mouth before she could stop it, and with a grunt of distaste, the Flame King left her alone. She barely noticed him move.

He had been working on it for over an hour ; every other second he would curse his lack of another arm, and his functional one's immense shaking (in cold or excitement, he knew not). He sat in the corner of her lab, wagering a look at her now and again to compare (like he had not memorized her features in the several months they had known each other), if not simply stare at the Candy Princess as she clinked test tubes together and scribbled on her note pad.

Finally, he deemed his creation complete.

"It's you! Don't you like it?" Ice Prince asked excitedly, pressing the small statue into her hands after finally getting her attention away from her experiment. Bubblegum took it gingerly, smiling at the amateur craftsmanship before her as he twisted awkwardly, fear of rejection written all over his face.

He had done quite a good job with the body, and though the face lacked finesse she could not help but match her imitation's wide smile. "I love it," The Princess whispered, cupping it in her hands and holding it close to her.

"…Is it perfect?" He asked hesitantly, and after weathering her frown, he gulped.

"Ice Prince…" Bonnibel whispered, still feeling the slightish bit foolish for calling him such a name, but lacking another to use in its stead. "Nothing is perfect, but that doesn't mean I don't love it."

"…You're perfect," He replied as if her words were ridiculous, beaming brightly until his smile fell and his lips began to quiver. She had no time to fight off her blush and question him, as he whispered, "It's melting."

Bubblegum flinched at the dejection in his voice, quickly looking downward to confirm his statement: the petite figurine was indeed beginning to drip. "It's made out of ice… ice melts," She replied soothingly, kneeling down and touching his shoulder.

"Not… not if I hold it," Ice Prince whispered, slowly covering her hands with his own, though his were too small to fully eclipse them. He looked up at her and smiled once more, and for the first time in his life, despite that more than half of it was hidden to him, Finn Mertens felt purpose.

"…You're so sweet," The Princess replied, the cold seeming even duller and less painful than usual, though suddenly she felt a slight tinge of fear; a premonition of coming sorrow. She shook it off and asked, "Would you like me to find a way to save it? I could keep it in a cooled climate, where it wouldn't melt."

He nodded excitedly, and sat in silence as she left the room. After she came back, she kneeled down again and informed him she had placed the statue into her fridge.

"You might need more space than that," Ice Prince replied, already deciding what improvements he could make, already vowing to work fiendishly every-night to increase his mastery in this craft. "I'm going to keep making them until… until one's perfect."

Bubblegum smiled in return, ruffling his hair and turning back to her lab equipment. As he scampered off to the other side of the room to no doubt begin anew, however, she sighed, her fingers plucking through her locks of hair in worry.

She had seen the look he had given her, and could only prepare her heart for the eventual pain she knew she would bring him, no matter how much she wished she could give this confused soul the happiness and warmth he yearned for.

He was just… too broken.

By far the biggest chapter yet, because I wanted to get cohesion with the flashback sequences (so next one will be a bit smaller). Quick question on those: do you guys prefer to have dates included? I try to mark the time best I can within the writing, but… yeah.

My only concern now is the lack of Flame Princess; since she's one of the few characters who haven't seen much of a shift, I tend to underwrite her. Next chapter is mostly her, as a result. Thank you for reading!