A/N: I've been wanting to write something for this pairing for so long and I just now got around to it. I hope you enjoy it!

Also, I don't own Adventure Time. If I did, there'd be a lot less adventure and a lot more sex.

Piano Lessons

;;

"Seriously, Bonn? Not even 'Mary Had a Little Lamb'? Everyone knows how to play 'Mary Had a Little Lamb'."

Because she's pink already, Bubblegum's blushes always come out a very dark shade of maroon. She huffs, rose-colored irises whirling on the vampire hovering above the piano bench beside her. The piano itself ismade out of the finest sugarcane and has been sitting unused in the palace's foyer for as long as Bubblegum can remember.

Puffing her cheeks, Bubblegum snaps, "I have a kingdom to run, Marceline! I don't have time for this kind of silly puddy."

Marceline, lifting one side of her lips so the tip of a pointed canine could be seen, gives a shake of her head. "Jeez, Bubbles, breathe. I know you're under enormous stress as a monarch. You forget I am one."

Bubblegum's expression is not in the least amused. "Yeah, yeah, your Majesty." She's clearly embarrassed, staring quizzically down at the piano keys. Princess Bubblegum is a young woman of science. She likes numbers and the way they're always definitive, always true. She likes how firm they look on paper. Music was never something she dabbled in. It's nothing like science or math. It's all whimsical and ... feelings, which even she, a great scientist, can't explain very well. Music wasn't something her tutors ever considered truly important. They were educating the future ruler of the Candy Kingdom, not the next Candy Idol. (Speaking of which, she had totally voted for the girl with black licorice hair last season who lost to the musceled Too Stie. She's still mad about that.)

But Marceline loves music more than anything - more than red, more than being a vampire, anything. Sometimes - no, Bubblegum gives herself a mental slap. No negative nugget thoughts today. Only popcorn positive. Anyway, Marceline loves music and Bubblegum wants to learn, at least a little. For Marceline. She doubts that even if she had a thousand plus years to practice like the vampire, she'd still suck, but it's worth a shot.

"Here." Marceline floats behind her. Bubblegum watches as one gray-toned, thin arm slips atop her own, creating a noose about the princess' wrist and shifting it above the appropriate keys. Despite the vampire not having a heartbeat and thus not giving off any natural body heat, Bubblegum still feels like a small fire has been lit behind her back. By the time Marceline has positioned the other girl's fingers, Bubblegum's blood pressure is dangerously high.

"Bubbs?"

"I hate it when you call me that."

"Okay. Darling?"

"What?"

"If you don't give that drum in there a break, you might pass out. Again. Your candy-cane-wannabe butler already hates me enough. Having him think I am a threat to your health would not improve our relationship."

Bubblegum's face looks more like an apple than any kind of chewing substance. "For one thing, I passed out last time because you went to altitudes that I could not breathe in. Second, he is a peppermint."

"He is a small, circular candy-cane. A poser."

Bubblegum makes an exasperated sound in her throat. "Anyway."

"Anyway."

"...Marceline."

"Hm?"

"You're supposed to be teaching me how to play the piano."

"Mm, but you smell good."

"Marce-" Bubblegum's breath catches in her throat as she feels the vampire's chilly lips glide up the slope of her neck. Her mouth ends up somewhere behind the princess' ear, a cool tongue flicking against the shell.

"What's that, Bonnibell?" Marceline's voice is husky, low. It really isn't fair how quickly she can turn like that but, unlike Bubblegum, she's had a lot of time to practice. The idea makes Bubblegum's throat tighten a little, but her insecurities are quickly wiped away when she feels the cold pads of Marceline's palms gliding down the curves of her sides.

"We-We're in the foyer!" she hushes, but her voice has little conviction in it. "Someone could see-"

Marceline's sharp teeth glide down on Bubblegum's sensitive flesh - enough to leave white streaks but not enough to puncture - which effectively shuts the princess up. "You are going to go stale with all the worrying you do," Marceline mumbles between nibbles, as her hands work their way to the front of Bubblegum's frantically crashing chest.

Bubblegum can't muffle the soft squeak of pleasure that stutters from her lungs as Marceline's hands come into contact with her breasts. "You're supposed to be ... giving me ..." Bubblegum can't remember the tracks on her train of thought, head lolling back until it collides with the vampire's shoulder. "Piano lessons," she finishes, somehow, brain slowly detaching itself from the rest of her body.

She can feel the curve of Marceline's smile buried in her neck. "This is better than music."

Bubblegum stiffens. She spins around, slamming Marceline right in the cheek with the very edge of her shoulder.

"Ow!" The vampire floats backward, her hand resting against the side of her face. "Cheese, Bonn, stab me with your dagger shoulder why don't you?"

"Sorry." Usually, she'd be all kinds of torn up about injuring Marceline even when it wasn't serious, but her mind is still stuck a few minutes prior. "What did you just say?"

Marceline's expression twists between pain and confusion. "What, about your seriously jagged bone structure?"

"No. The part about music. And me. And what we were just doing."

The queen blinks blankly for a few moments before her eyebrows struggle to meet over her nose. "You mean, that it was better than music?"

"Yeah." Bubblegum swallows. Her heart is off again, hurling itself against her ribs like battle drums. "That part."

Marceline doesn't get it. She lowers her legs until her feet are on the floor, the lines of her expression clearly fuzzed with confusion. "Okay? Can we get back to where we left off before you shanked me in the face?"

"Did you -" Bubblegum blinks, stares at her hands suddenly bunched in her lap, knuckles a dark red. "Did you mean it?"

It starts off slow and soft but steadily rises from a good-natured chuckle to a full blown spout of laughter. Bubblegum glares hard at the still untouched piano keys until she feels the weight of a hand on her shoulder. Keeping her expression as angry as possible, she turns, words already prepared to shoot right into the vampire's face, only to find said face about a breath's width from her own. The words scatter. The anger floods away, because Marceline looks serious for once.

"You are far better than any song I've ever heard," she says, a smirk sneaking up on the vampire's lips. Her head cocks itself closer, threads of black hair leaking across Marceline's forehead. "And yes, I mean it." Her expression slips altogether then, leveling a finger in front of the princess' face. "Don't you dare cry, Bonn, I swear to glob -"

"That was the sweetest -"

"Don't."

"- thing anyone has ever -"

"I mean it - "

"- said to me - "

"Don't even let that lip quiver, I am seriously not kidding -"

It's Bubblegum's turn to shut the vampire up, her coral tinted hands cupping Marceline's cheeks and drawing their lips together. To the princess' credit, she does manage to hold back her tears, but just barely. Bubblegum's heart whams inside of her, keeping beat, making music.

"Ahem!"

Bubblegum pulls back with a start, nearly falling off of the piano bench and right into the large instrument. Her eyes fall on her small butler standing in the threshold of the foyer. "Oh! I'm, I'm, Marceline -!"

The vampire chuckles into the princess' neck once more before floating backward. She lays on her side in the air, one hand behind her back while the other wiggles its fingers in the direction of the peppermint butler. "So nice to see you again, bite-sized candy-cane."

The butler slams a tiny foot against the ground. "For the last time -"

"Yeah, yeah." Marceline twists her attention back to Bubblegum, much to the butler's frustration. Smirking, she winks, making her way toward the front doors. "How about we continue those ... piano lessons," her tongue darts out for a moment at the corner before retreating, "when it's less crowded in here, hm?"

Bubblegum stands. She ignores the unstable state of her knees. She smiles through her blush, one hand resting over her sternum as if to soothe her crashing heart. She nods and Marceline disappears around the corner with another chuckle.

Her butler mumbles under his breath as he leads Bubblegum through the palace. She's too busy humming a tune that doesn't have a name but already has a great drum solo reverberating in her chest.