Chapter 41: Permission

The candy princess gulped thickly, her own fear clogging the passage to her stomach. It's fine, everything is just dandy and will be totally cool and all that bunk. Well, at least that's what she tried to convince herself. She remembered that she once read a book on handling stress, but of course couldn't remember what the book said about relieving it right at the moment. She was very, very unused to stress. She was in control. Calm, cool and collected. Always.

Well, almost always. Because right now, staring at the face she had drawn on the wall, incantation on the tip of her tongue, bug juice in her right hand, she felt neither cool nor calm, and collected was not a word she'd use to describe herself. Marceline is going to kill me when she finds out...if I'm not already dead by then…

But, being of a singular mind and with a purpose in her heart, she tossed the bug juice and said the incantation. As the wall split open and the heat from the demon flames of the Night-O-Sphere permeated the air of her room, she steeled herself for the maelstrom that was sure to come. After all, Hunson Abadeer hadn't been exactly friendly during her last visit...and Marceline wasn't there to protect her this time.

She stepped through, and the stench of whatevers and shouldn't-bes burning and waiting in line and doing glob knows what immediately filled her nostrils. The stench wasn't this bad last time...what in Ooo is going on...Taking a glance around, she realized exactly what was going on. She wasn't in the Lord of Evil's house. She was somewhere else, entirely. There were craggy mountains in the distance, and the cliff she stood upon had cracks that steamed with something she couldn't even begin to describe. How does anything live here? The cries of some poor souls emanated from below her, and she dared not look down for fear of what she would see if she did. A monster walked past with half of a body missing. She felt like vomiting, and her skin paled considerably.

She turned around, expecting the portal to still be there and open; she could pop back through and pretend like she never even had the notion of visiting the Night-O-Sphere without Marceline, or visiting at all for that matter. But, as these things usually go, the portal had closed up behind her, leaving her stranded in one of the worst places to be stranded. After all, she wasn't an adventurer or a hero; she was a princess for Grod's sake!

Well...I'm stuck...okay...that's nice. Just as the panic set in, a rather small demon passed by. Thinking it best to ask someone who wasn't as imposing as the other things that flew around and walked in the peripheral vision she was actively avoiding for directions, she swallowed her fear of the tiny red man with the horns twice as big as his body, and approached. "H-hello um….sir? I'm a...foreign dignitary from a far distant land and I seek audience with his Lordship of Evil, Hunson Abadeer." She smiled at herself, pleased with how that had sounded. At least she had managed to get a full sentence out.

The demon looked at her, opened its mouth far too wide, and screeched. If his own howl hadn't drowned out all other noise, the shriek of the Candy Princess would have been heard as well. After all, it isn't like you see into a demon in the Night-O-Sphere every day. But, before she even had time to turn and run in fear of her very sweet life, a blood-mist cloud descended upon her and swallowed her into its essence.

She tried not to breath. Her eyes burned. It tasted like copper. It smelled like death. Was it death? Had she died? Was she on her way to death? How long had passed? Had time passed at all? Then, without warning, she was dropped onto a hard surface and gasped for the slightly cleaner air. The blood mist cloud moved to the center of the room and reformed itself into the ever-poised Lord of Evil himself.

"So...Princess...what brings you to my humble realm?" His voice was smooth, with a distinct tone of danger edging it. He was just as terrifying as last time, if not more so. Marceline wasn't there. She was on her own, and his joints clicked in and out of unnatural positions as he busied himself with pouring a drink.

She coughed out what was left of her rather unfortunate trip and stood on wobbly, fear-ridden legs. "I-I-I'd l-like to a-ask you a question, your Lordship." She curtsied, and realized after she had done so that that was probably the most ridiculous thing she could have done in that moment.

He affirmed this by laughing at the gesture. "Oh? And do tell me, what would a sugar cube like you want from a guy like me? You already have my daughter...and unless you're willing to join her in her eternal curse, I don't see how I could be of assistance."

Bubblegum straightened up, smoothed out the wrinkles in her dress the best that she could, and cleared her throat. As she opened her mouth to speak, the ready-made speech she had flew out the window. A strange croaking sound bubbled up from the back of her throat and she stood frozen. The demon before her laughed that slick laugh again and walked towards her. "If you can't speak, I'll just nibble on your soul until you scream."

"I'd like to marry your daughter!" she yelled, eyes closed and fists clenched. Hearing no response, she continued unscripted. "I'd like to marry your daughter and traditionally speaking, in all of the texts I've read, the suitor first asks permission of the father for the hand, which of course is an archaic ritual representing the passing of ownership and if anyone owns Marceline, it's Marceline but I didn't know if you still stood by those norms or if you knew those norms at all but I figured I'd cover my bases just in case because I love her and I don't want any surprises if word got back around to you from someone else and I'd just really like to marry your daughter!"

She opened her eyes, and noticed the barely-contained smile slowly forcing its way onto Hunson's face. When he bellowed out a laugh, the whole Night-O-Sphere seemed to quake, and she let out a quiet eep. It was a belly-aching laugh that might have put her at ease if it had come from, say, Starchy; but coming from the Lord of Evil, it was nothing but fear-and-panic inducing. He wiped a stray tear from his eye.

"Well, can't say I was expecting that one. Can two girls even get married?"

Bubblegum nodded mutely, and prayed her life wouldn't end right then and there as Marceline's dad studied her for a long moment, as though deciding her fate like a flip of a coin: to eat, or not to eat? "If you hurt her, you will wish you were never born." he mentioned casually, earning another nod from the frightened-to-the-bone Princess.

"I would never again." Bubblegum managed, in such a high-pitched tone that she didn't know she could make.

Hunson leveled one final gaze at her. "You know, if she found out you had asked for permission from me, she'd flay you alive. But I can keep a secret if you can." he stated, looking at her pointedly.

Bubblegum stared at him. "Is that a...a yes?"

He laughed again. "I hope you got all the paperwork to return home Princess, usually people don't just walk in and out of the Night-O-Sphere." he said, and waved his hand at a nearby wall, a fissure opening revealing her sweet, sorely missed, wonderfully pink bedroom. She took a step towards it, having filed the paperwork months ago in preparation. As she stepped through, right before the portal closed, she heard a yell of "See you on the wedding day!"

She took a deep breath of clean air, and the rush of elation she felt filled her entire being. She could marry Marceline. "Well...that could have gone much worse…" she said to herself, and as she walked over to her desk, the anticipation of what was to come mounted. She pulled open the top right drawer and pulled out the little box, opening it and looking at the ring she had selected. It was perfect-simple and sharp and not too feminine. Marceline had asked her out tonight, and she'd be damned if she didn't end the evening with a fiancé.

A/N

BlueLarva, Monochrome Masquerade, and Guest wanted Hunson and fatherly urges and his reaction to their wedding.

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-JD