"Hey! Hey Bonnie wait for me!" The spring air was warm tonight, and the scent of flowers was on the breeze, growing relentlessly on top of the wreckage of the world. One pair of footprints was all that touched them, yet two girls were walking through the field of tiny flowers, two shadows in the moonlight. One floated above, feet never touching the ground.
"Keep up Marceline. If you insist on not walking like a normal person, at least float faster." Grumbled the one on the ground. Her tumbling locks of bright pink hair were tied back into a messy ponytail and a pencil rested above her ear.
"Boooonnnniiieeee some of us are tiiiiired."
"It's not my fault you didn't get enough sleep today."
"Yes it is! You were up all day making so much noise. The noise Bonnie!" Bonnibel said nothing in response, just sighed. Marceline grinned. It had been a while since she'd started living with Bonnie, if she had to guess almost half a year. She hadn't planned on staying this long, and her debt to Bonnibel was sure as hell repayed, yet something kept her there. Bonnie. Though the pink girl was still an insufferable smart ass, Marceline had grown to like her. She thought that maybe Bonnie liked her being there too. She'd picked up the nickname to annoy her at first, but it had stuck and now she was fond of it. Life with Bonnie was tolerable to her surprise. Of course, she still had nightmares but she pushed them away. Living with Bonnie kept her busy, and she had very little time to think. There was also the fact that Bonnie had solved her eating problem, which Marceline could never thank her enough for. It had happened the second time Marceline had been days away from starving herself into a wild rampage again. Bonnie had made a suggestion, as Marceline remembered.
"Why don't you try eating the color red?" Marceline blinked at her, then gave her a glare.
"I've never seen you joke before Bonnibel but now's not the time to be funny." She'd gnashed out through her teeth, hunger pains shooting up her throat, getting harder and harder to ignore. The girl gave her a dry stare.
"I wasn't joking. Listen, I know it sounds stupid, but try drinking the color red as if it were blood. I've been doing some tests on vampires-"
'You've been doing WHAT?"
"Tests on you. Anyways, what I've found is you absorb no nutrients from blood. No salt, no protein, nothing chemical that it's made of. So maybe what you're absorbing is the color red." Marceline glared at her, incredulous.
"Look just try it okay! On the couch. That's red."
Marceline smiled at the memory. It had worked, surprisingly enough. The color red tasted nowhere near as good as blood, and Bonnibel concluded that vampires taste buds were coded to enjoy the liquid, but red kept her, as well as poor warm blooded creatures, alive. That's when she'd decided she liked Bonnie, and that they were friends. Marceline had lived many places, had many homes, all of them temporary, and this one was okay. Nobody was trying to kill her at the very least. Tonight, they were going on a walk to see something, though Bonnie wouldn't tell her what it was. Marceline wondered about it as they made their way through the starlit feild. They'd been walking about a half hour already, so it must be something important. Why was she showing it to Marceline, usually she didn't talk about her work. So maybe it wasn't work related-
"We're here." Bonnie stopped suddenly and Marceline ran into her, the smell of bubblegum filling her nose. She gave Bonnie a sheepish smile as she landed then surveyed what was in front of her.
"Oh uh...Bonnie it's...a meadow?" In front of Marceline was a circular clearing, large, with flowers sprinkling the grass and a lone tree laying in the middle. It was surrounded completely by thick, pink trees, the color of Bonnies hair.Bonnibel put her hands on her hips, grinning. Marceline tilted her head, confused.
"Marcy, this is where I'm going to build my kingdom." The realization hit as Marceline looked over the land again, this time with more critical eyes. So this was were Bonnie would build the precious kingdom they'd been working towards. "I've been planting these trees here for a while, and well, they spread like I wanted them too. I think here will be a perfect place to start my new kingdom, don't you?"
"Bonnie, why are you building a kingdom?" The question surprised Marceline even as her lips formed the words. It startled Bonnibel too, and it seemed like for once she didn't have an instant answer.
"I...well..." For some reason, she sounded...uncomfortable?
"It's okay Bonnie forget I said anything-"
"I tried to have a family before." Bonnibels voice sounded the same as always, clear and flat, yet she wouldn't look at Marceline. "It...it went wrong. I messed up my calculations and they were...wrong. I had to dispose of them." Marceline felt a pang in her chest.
"Yeah. Families are hard." Bonnibel nodded then sighed, sitting down in the tall grass. After a second, Marceline landed besides her too. For a moment it was silent, just the soft sound of the field rustling against itself, the light shuffle of leaves stirred by the light whisper of night wind, then Marceline spoke.
"Are you lonely?" the words were out of her mouth before she could think, and they surprised her. Bonnibel looked startled for a second, then she shook her head.
"No. I've always lived alone and I always will. There's no reason to be lonely, I don't need people."
"Then why are you making a kingdom?" Bonnibel frowned at her.
"It's a scientific experiment."
"Is that why you made your family?"
"Yes-"
"Come on you have to be at least a little lonely-"
"Marceline!" Marceline blinked as Bonnibel stood, hands clenched in fists. Her eyes were...were those tears?
"Maybe I am lonely but what good does that do? I don't have anyone and I can't make anyone right either, so I'll always be alone!" Marceline silently stood up as Bonnibel looked down at the ground. Those were tears, and they were spilling down over her nose, rolling off her chin. Hesitantly, she reached out and caught one as it fell, cold and tinted pink, it smelled like fresh budding flowers. Silently, she moved her hand up and placed it on the side of the other girls face, pale cold and stark white against warm bubblegum pink. Bonnibel's whole body went tense at her touch, yet Marceline's thumb gently stroked her cheek, brushing the tears.
"Is that all I am to you? An experiment?" Bonnibel said nothing, refusing to look at her. "Bonnie, I'm real. I'm not one of your inventions, and I'm not going to leave." Finally, the girl looked up into her eyes, and Marceline felt a flicker of warmth in her stomach. Wet with tears and shining in the soft glow of the moon, her eyes looked so wide and beautiful. Marceline swallowed, confused by the feelings that had just struck her.
"Everybody's always left me." Bonnibel said, her tone flat and tired, yet a slight hint of a emotion entered a voice as she reached up and held Marceline's hand, clutching it to her face.
"Yeah. Me too." The two girls stayed like that for what felt like eternity, a few minutes that their souls had craved for years, and slowly, the cracks started to smooth over.
