I'm posting this at midnight, yeah I am. It is ten minutes into Saturday and I'm impatient. So here you go. c:

It was hard. The words wouldn't come. They were there, she could feel them, but she didn't know how to say them. With the bass in her hands, strings pliable between her fingers, everything was simple. She just couldn't say it. Not when Bubblegum was awake, but why was it hard when she was asleep?

She blinked, fighting with herself, hands plucking the strings absently. Come on, really, it's not that difficult. Just a few words. Just say goodbye. That's all there is. And this time, don't come back.

A lump made it hard to speak, let alone sing. She swallowed around it, trying to force it to go away, but it sat there, as adamant and pig-headed as the little pink woman lying on her equally pink bed sheets. Come on. Just say it. But saying things is hard, oh so hard, and singing them is easy. Easier. And there was music in her fingers and words on her lips and rhymes in her heart, so why not do it the only way she knew how?

"You're beautiful, perfect

More than this broken project

Too good for me

Oh far too sweet

And you're still a piece of me

That I wish I didn't need

Please don't speak

Just let me leave

There's better things for you

Things that you should choose

I can hide this ache

Behind a smile somewhat fake

But I wish it were untrue

When I say that…"

The chord faltered, died, with an extended blrrrm-shpk. The words caught in her throat. The lump that wouldn't budge, just sat there made her freeze. How she wished those words were easier to say. How she wished they'd just come out. The wan light shone in through the balcony window and lit her face, her green eyes, now wide open and staring.

Bubblegum opened her mouth and Marceline felt panic rising. She realised what she'd been singing. Bonnie had heard it all. Before the other woman could speak, she fled. The curtains stirred in the breeze of her passing.

Bonnibel was smart; she knew where that had been going. She knew and it killed her. Maybe the words hadn't been said aloud, but they hung in the air behind her just the same.

Something snagged her hair and panic filled her. What was it? What was stopping her from leaving? She spun, hands already moving to untangle her. It was Bonnie. Wow she must have moved fast. The dark bags beneath her eyes belied the alertness in her green gaze. One hand was fisted in Marceline's hair, holding her above the balcony.

For a long moment they were unmoving there, a tableau of terrified stares and terminated words. Marceline floating over the drop to the pavement in the courtyard, Bubblegum standing on the threshold between inside and out. She stepped onto the balcony, still holding tight to the midnight tresses. The spell broke.

"Let me go, Bonnie," Marceline croaked, her throat rasped and her eyes stung. "Just let me leave. This time I won't come back. I promise. You'll never have to see me again."

Bubblegum ignored her. "You have a nasty habit of not finishing your songs, Marcy," she whispered.

"Please," Marceline almost begged. She would've got down and pleaded but she didn't want to stay, she wanted to fly away. To hide. Anywhere but here.

"Why should I?"

The question startled her, but she just shook her head. "I'm sorry, ok. I didn't mean to. Just let me go. Please?"

Bubblegum had collected most of the hair on the balcony and was standing as close as she could get, hands wrapped up tight in the dark locks. Her eyes were on Marceline's face and her expression was carefully blank. She tried to pull Marceline down to eye level, but the vampire wasn't having it.

"You didn't mean what? You never finished the song."

Her eyes were still stinging, blurred slightly from tears she refused to shed. "I'm sorry. Let me go."

Bubblegum pursed her lips. "Tell me. What didn't you mean, Marceline Abadeer? Don't ask me to let you go again. I won't until you tell me."

Marceline glanced around; hoping a way out would present itself. It didn't. And she wouldn't hurt Bubblegum just to get away. She could never do that. She'd promised not to hurt her.

"I'm sorry," she whispered. "I'm sorry I kissed you. I shouldn't have."

Bonnie tilted her head and did the one thing Marceline wasn't expecting. She smiled. "Why not?"

Marceline's jaw dropped. "Excuse me?" her voice sounded unnaturally shrill. But that was the dumbest question she'd ever been asked. And it was asked by the smartest person she knew. The world must be ending again.

"Why shouldn't you have kissed me, Marceline?"

She floundered for an answer. "Well… you're the princess… and it's… it's… thoroughly ridiculous. I mean, c'mon, Bonnie. It's stupid to love you, you're… well… you're you." So insanely surprised she'd been that she'd lost several feet of height and not even noticed. What the Grod was happening here?

Bubblegum was still smiling. A little knowing smile that Marceline didn't like. Sure, Bonnie knew lots of stuff, but whatever this thing was she knew, Marceline wasn't sure she'd like it. It was probably something awful. More awful than a fancy dress party to which she'd been required to wear a dress. If that was possible.

It wasn't worse.

Hands still knotted tightly in Marceline's hair, Bubblegum pulled her head down until they were at eye level. "You're forgetting one very important detail, Marceline Abadeer," she whispered. It sounded funny and Marceline's undead heart skipped a beat. Something she'd previously assumed impossible. She tried to ask what that something might be, but all she managed was a hoarse rasp. Nonetheless, Bonnie seemed to understand. "I kissed you back."

Then Bubblegum's lips were feathering hers and she dropped out of the air. Her knees wobbled and she almost collapsed. It was warm and gentle and she was shaking, trembling, crying. She tasted like strawberries.

Bonnie leaned back and smiled again. "Is the big bad Vampire Queen crying right now?" she asked and it was tender. Marceline couldn't respond so she buried her face in Bubblegum's shoulder. Her knees provided one last shake and finally gave way beneath her. She fell to the tiles, taking Bonnie with her. The hands in her hair weren't knotted anymore, warm on the back of her neck, gentle; she shivered.

She lifted her eyes, more red now than usual thanks to those stupid tears, and studied Bonnie's face. The curve of her nose, the funny slant to her lips, those big green eyes (and the dark beneath them), glittering in the moonlight, watching her right back. Her arms were slack at her side, she felt… electric. Like lightning had shot her down and turned everything to jelly. Her mouth wouldn't work to ask the one question that really mattered.

Bubblegum's hand touched her cheek, thumb pushing the tears away. Marceline sighed. Control returning. "I'm so sorry," she mumbled. "I'm so, so sorry."

"What are you sorry for this time?"

She barked a laugh. "Thinking I could get away from you."

The smile had a roguish cast to it now and Marceline's chest tightened, heart fluttering. "I didn't know vampires could blush you know," Bubblegum said, still running her fingers over Marceline's cheek. "It's fascinating."

Marceline staggered to her feet, refusing to look weak for one more second. "You should get out of the cold," she told the princess. "You just got over a… whatever that was."

"That was weeks ago, Marceline." But she went inside just the same and waited for Marceline to follow before closing the door. "You said you loved me," she whispered once the vampire had been safely locked in. Well, she'd walked into that one.

"No I didn't," she denied, trying to remember if she actually had said that. Grod, she had. She stared at the carpet, still not really sure what was going on. A small pink hand took hers and she looked up again. Bubblegum just smiled and leaned in.

"If you try and leave again, I'll lock you in my dungeon," she murmured against Marceline's ear. That… probably sounded worse than what she meant. But that didn't stop Marceline's face from going the most embarrassing shade of purple to ever grace a vampire's features. She pressed her face into Marceline's neck and wrapped her arms around her waist. "Never try that again."

"I…" Marceline began, but she had no words. Her brain wasn't working; this had to be a dream. She didn't know what to do with her hands, but Bubblegum's face was warm on her skin and her hands made her shiver. "Bonnie… what…?"

"My, you are thick sometimes," Bubblegum whispered. Her lips brushed Marceline's jaw and she closed her eyes, something warm lanced up her spine and bubbled in her stomach. "What do you think?"

Not a dream. Her mind swirled, and everything that had just happened suddenly crashed down on her. She turned her head, meeting Bubblegum's lips with hers and snatched her off the floor, wrapping her up tight. Maybe a little too tight, but all she could feel was warmth. Bonnie seemed surprised, but it didn't last long, hands on her neck, she just pulled herself closer. For that short moment, Marceline could almost pretend her heart was beating. Pounding more like.

Bubblegum sighed against her cheek, breathless. "See? Not hard."

Marceline growled. "You just… ugh…" Strawberries. She kissed Bubblegum's jaw, down her neck to the hollow of her collarbone. Bonnie only clutched her fingers tighter in Marceline's shirt. "You're so… mercurial. One minute you want me gone, the next…"

Bonnie pulled away. "Who said I wanted you gone?"

"You pushed me away," Marceline grumbled. "If you wanted… whatever this is… why would you do that?"

She shrugged, it was an awkward movement because Marceline's arms were still tight around her, but she managed. "Moment of stupidity," she smiled. "Even I have them now and then." Her hands cupped Marceline's cheeks and she leaned in until their noses were touching. Marceline almost went cross-eyed trying to hold her gaze. "Did you mean it?"

"Mean what?" she asked quietly, lost in an emerald stare.

"You said it was silly to love me," the princess murmured into the corner of Marceline's mouth. "Did you mean that?"

"Yeah. It is. I mean… how could I ever expect anything from you?"

"How could you expect anything less than everything?" Bubblegum fired back. "How long have we been friends, Marceline? A really long time."

"Yeah but-" Marceline didn't have a reply for that. They had been friends a while. "Are we still friends then?"

Her warm fingers traced the line of her jaw and along her ears to their pointed tips. It tingled. "I think… maybe a bit more than friends, Marcy," she murmured against Marceline's lips. "You alright with that?"

For answer, she crushed her mouth against Bonnie's eliciting a satisfying squeak.

The end. Watch me laugh as I walk away. Mwahahaha!