#at bmo

“A few years is a long time,” she mumbled. Bonnie stepped forward and enwrapped her in a hug.

“A few years is nothing in the face of eternity,” Bonnie said gently. She cupped her cheeks and kissed her forehead, then her lips. She pressed their foreheads together. “I’ll be back before you know it. I promise.” She kissed her on the lips again, soft and long.

“Before I know it,” she repeated. Bonnie nodded.

“I love you. I’ll think about you every day,” she kissed her again then stepped back. She took her hand and squeezed it.

“Please be careful, I won’t be there to protect you,” she said quietly. Bonnie laughed.

“I can protect myself, love. I’ll see you soon.”

Bonnibel walked off into the dawn and for the first time in nearly a millennia, she was alone.

                                                              ---

It was foggy, very foggy. She couldn’t remember faces, she couldn’t remember names. Everything was gone. Only two old friends from almost a thousand years ago and her father lingered in her mind. Her three kept her occupied, distracted her from grieving over forgetting her entire life.

One day she saw them take something off the throne next to hers. She couldn’t remember what it said, but it wasn’t important if they took it.

She felt empty. Like half of a whole that needed its missing piece

                                                             ---

Her head hurt, a lot. It felt like a swarm of buzzing wasps that kept getting angrier and angrier. She had seriously debated trying to crack her skull to relieve the pressure. Her attention was diverted from her half-baked plan by Bonnie, who was already on the case of organizing repairs on the castle. Candy citizens she didn’t recognize shuffled around under rapid orders from the queen.

They didn’t question Bonnie once she introduced her. Any word from their Empress was a word they trusted, so telling them all the story their great-grandparents had passed down was true. The Empress did have a partner, and the Candy Kingdom had a queen once upon a time. Now she was back.

She sighed and sat down on her throne. She was tempted to retreat to her quarters, out of sight. However, it was her first time seeing her wife in over a century, so even if she was just watching her from a distance it was nice to know she was back.

Bonnie herself seemed exhausted, presumably for more reasons than one. She was mumbling under her breath, occasionally raising her voice to shout commands or corrections to the workers mulling around. She eventually stopped, taking a seat next to her in her partially-restored throne, her name being reattached.

“Still not the worse state I’ve come back to see the kingdom in. There was the time I left Jake in charge. Also when I came back after the whole King of Ooo situation,” Bonnibel said casually. She took her hand and laced their fingers together. “It’s nice to finally be back.”

“It’s nice to finally have you back,” she smiled back weakly. “I’d say I missed you, but you know.” Bonnie leaned over the armrest separating them and kissed her cheek.

“After the repairs for tonight are done, and we find Peppermint Butler or whatever happened to him, you and I will spend some time alone together,” Bubblegum promised.

“I’ll go find BMO, maybe they’ll know about Minty.” She stood and left before Bonnibel could reply.

                                                                 ~

“Peppermint Butler? I have not seen him in at least a hundred years. But I have seen bits of him!” BMO offered. She frowned.

“What happened to him?” She questioned.

“When he was last whole, it was just after Bubblegum had left and I was in the vents. Peppermint Butler was arguing with those three big metal costumes, he said he could “see right through them.” Then they all went into another room and I glitched. When I woke up again I was in the vault, and under all the gold and artefacts I saw pieces of your missing man.”

“Is he alive?”

“I do not know. He was not speaking if he was.” She sighed and picked BMO up carefully.

“Want to go on an adventure with me little dude? We’re going to find that prick.” BMO smiled happily.

“Yay! Detective BMO and lady Marceline are going to solve the case!” She put them on her shoulders

                                                                ~

“The room was dark, dust covering the possessions that may have meant something before. The perfect place to hide a body where it would never be found. Unfortunately for the perpetrators, Detective BMO never lets a lead goal without investigating first.” She knelt down and pushed some of the collected riches around.

“I need to return all this stuff,” she mumbled. BMO turned and looked at her.

“Now is not the time for realizations,” BMO declared. She didn’t respond, instead pushing things around more. She stopped and picked up a piece of white, holding it between her nails. One of the edges had a bit of red on it.

“Detective, I think we’ve found a clue,” she called.

                                                             ~

“Queen Bubblegum, we have found the missing butler.” Bonnie looked down at both her and BMO’s cupped hands with the shattered pieces of peppermint. She pursed her lips as she picked up a piece from BMO, inspecting it closely.

“I can put him back together. He’s fine,” Bonnie shrugged. “It’ll take a while, though. I’m sorry Marceline, you can go to bed. I know it’s late. I’ll be up as soon as I finish. I think he’ll be a bit mad if he wakes up and sees you.”

“I’ll be waiting for ya, Bon,” she said quietly.

                                                               ~

She was sitting on their bed, her legs idly dangling over the side. She was thinking way too much. It hurt, really. She had looked through everything in their room. The hair dye she had used was shoved in a corner, the clothes she had started wearing were also shoved in the same corner. Her old clothes, the things she wore before Bonnie left were still sitting in the closet. Bonnie's belongings were in the other closet, covered in dust.

Things that had faded from her memory and she had brushed off as a phase of hers now coming back at her like a train. She hated it, she hated herself for not realizing what was happening before it was too late. She had just ignored the feeling that something was wrong instead of investigating the source of the feeling. She wanted to get rid of her belongings. She wanted to shave her head, tear her clothes and never look at anything that reminded her of the past century.

That wasn't an option though. She had to face everything she didn't want to.

Plus she was pretty sure the clothes she had been wearing were Bonnie's and she would not like that.

The door behind her opened.

"Oh, Marceline, I thought you'd be asleep," she commented.

"I needed to think," she mumbled. Bonnie walked over to her closet and started rummaging through it.

"Did you get all your thinking done?" Bonnie asked. She shook her head.

"No, but I don't think I ever will." Bonnie nodded.

"Thoughts never stop." Bonnie grabbed a few things and shut the doors. "I'm going to change." Marceline didn't look at her, instead continuing to stare at the floor beneath her feet.

Her thoughts never slowed down. If she had gone instead, nothing would have gone wrong. Peppermint Butler wouldn't have been shattered, the candy people would not have been robbed of their belongings and happiness, the kingdom wouldn't be a shadow of its former self. How long had she locked herself away? How many decades did the kingdom have a distant ruler? She knew she hadn't left the castle for at least half a century.

She looked up at Bonnie, who was now standing in her undergarments facing away from her and trying to undo her tangled braid.

Bonnie looked older like she was in her forties compared to a thousand years earlier when she had looked eighteen. She supposed she must look older herself, although because of stress and not because she wanted to. Bonnie had explained the whole candy-mass-being-how-she-aged thing the second time they meet after Marceline had been reluctant to interact with her. At the time she was nearly fifty, while Marceline had been turning two-hundred-twenty-eight. They wouldn't start dating for another sixty-one years, but after their first meeting Bonnie had changed her appearance to look eighteen.

Before they got married, nine-hundred-sixty years earlier, she had decided she'd like to look in her late twenties. After Finn had died, she went for late thirties. Not long before she had gone searching for BMO's patch, she went to mid-forties.

They found a way for Marceline to look older if she wanted, and every time Bonnie decided to age her appearance Marceline did too.

They'd never truly grow old together, but they could always look the same age.

Things she'd never forget that she had forgotten. No wonder she had thought nothing stayed, she looked like she was older without explanation.

She started crying.

"Marcy, could you help me- Woah wait what's wrong?" Bonnie rushed to her and cupped her cheeks, wiping the tears away with her thumb. Marceline shook her head and put her hands over Bonnie's.

"What isn't?" she whispered. "Everything's wrong. It's been for so long and I didn't notice."

"Are you talking about everything that happened while I was gone? Because that is not your fault," Bonnie reassured. She shook her head more.

"It is my fault. I didn't catch on sooner, I didn't cut my dad out, I put your entire kingdom through so much because I was lost. Look at Pep-butt, I didn't even notice he was gone! I forgot you, I forgot Simon, I forgot Mom, I forgot all our friends. I forgot everyone I love or have loved." She closed her eyes. "I can't believe I forgot you."

"It's not your fault. This was magic, dark magic at work. Those demons fed off your memories at a rate that made it unnoticeable until you relied on them. It's not like you called them here or invited them, Hunson sent them. And you did eventually notice, and even if you hadn't and I had come home to these rust buckets wandering through the halls you know I would have dealt with them myself."

"I don't understand how you aren't bothered by this," she sobbed. "I forgot you. I forgot you! We've been married since Simon was still alive but I still somehow forgot you! How does this not upset you?" Bonnie smiled sadly.

"It does upset me, and it hurts. But I do not blame you, and my feelings of frustration aren't things I'm going to direct towards you. My ire is going towards the perpetrators, not the victim. Marcy, the reason I'm not angry with you is because I am seeing this after the fact and after the situation has been remedied. It's like when Simon started forgetting you. You weren't mad at him, you understood it wasn't his fault. You still loved him despite that."

"That's different," Marceline insisted. Bonnie sat beside her and took her hand.

"True, but what I'm saying doesn't change. Marceline, even if you forgot me and never remembered me again, I'd still love you. That's what this ring means." She displayed her other hand. Their wedding ring.

"That just means we're married."

"It means a lot more than that. Would you have married me if you didn't love me?" Bonnie asked.

"No."

"Exactly. We had been together for centuries before our break, decades before we got married, and ever since. I think this is unconditional love. If our roles had been reversed, you wouldn't be mad at me either because you love me and you understand."

"I still feel bad," Marceline said quietly.

"It's okay to feel bad, but I don't want you beating yourself up over this." Bonnie squeezed her hand. "You're an amazing woman, Marce. Anyone else would have snapped from all this, not you."

"Learned from the best." Bonnie kissed her forehead.

"Now, could you please help me take this hair-tie out?"

After five minutes of struggling with a stuck hair-tie, and a while of words of comfort being whispered in her ear, for the first time in a long time Marceline fell asleep with her wife's arms around her.