Short little vignette set in the early days as Bubblegum and Marceline's friendship begins to become something more. I just love having these two talk with each other.

Bubblegum drifted slowly out of sleep with the awareness of a chill against her ribs and forearm. Resisting the call of morning, she tried to reach down and pull her comforter up further, but realized the cool sensation was being caused by something resting lightly across her. She opened her eyes and was surprised to see not just an arm draped over her side, but Marceline curled against her on the bed, deep in sleep.

It wasn't that Marceline's presence was unexpected. The girls had been talking late into the night and Bubblegum had suggested Marceline stay over rather than make the flight back home tired. Granted she was unsure whether vampires even truly got tired, but Marceline had taken her up on it anyway. However, when they had initially gone to bed, Marceline had been floating a foot or so above the other side of the mattress with a notable distance between them. Bubblegum couldn't control her smile at the discovery that apparently, in the uncensored honesty of sleep, Marceline was a cuddler.

She decided to take advantage of this rare opportunity to see Marceline when the vampire didn't know she was being observed. In sleep, her face was relaxed, no cocky smirk angling her lips or eyebrows. Bubblegum realized the calm expression gave her an even more youthful look. There was an innocence to her demeanor that bordered on neediness, accentuated by the possessive arm wrapped around Bubblegum's ribs. It reassured her that even someone as independent as Marceline could feel the need for physical contact in the night.

Bubblegum settled her head back comfortably on her pillow, enjoying this quiet moment. She took in the strange thrill of Marceline's lukewarm skin touching her arm, absorbed the details of her relaxed face, listened to the steady rhythm of her breathing…

Bubblegum froze, her peaceful haze abruptly draining away as a dark sensation trickled down her spine. There was no breath making Marceline's chest rise and fall; no motion to her body at all, in fact. Her face wasn't just still; it was slack.

Bubblegum became intensely and undeniably aware that she was sharing her bed with a corpse.

The coolness of Marceline's arm was suddenly disturbing and Bubblegum pushed it off of herself desperately, trying to cope with the horror of the situation. "Marceline?" She grabbed the girl's shoulder and shook hard, leaning closer to her face to search for any sign of life. "Marceline!"

The vampire jerked awake with a suddenness that startled them both. Bubblegum let out a cry that was half scream, half gasp of relief as Marceline blinked at her in bleary confusion.

"What? What's wrong?"

Bubblegum put a hand to her mouth, trying to calm her racing heart and bleed away the adrenaline charging her system. "You scared me! You weren't breathing!"

"I wasn't?" Marceline rubbed her eyes, returning more fully to consciousness. "Huh, probably not. I don't really need to anyway. It's just habit." She laughed briefly. "I didn't know I stopped when I go to sleep. Sorry, didn't mean to freak you out."

'Freaking out' was a milder description than Bubblegum would have used to describe what she had just experienced. The incredible terror of seeing Marceline dead had been overwhelming, even as she now realized how ridiculous it was.

"It's all right." She willed herself to shake off the moment. "I just forget that you're not technically alive. I mean, you seem so…vital when you're awake."

An amused smile quirked Marceline's lips. "Man, most girls get complimented on looking pretty. I hear, 'You actually look alive.'"

"Given the circumstances, you have to admit that's notable," Bubblegum said, rolling her eyes teasingly. Now that her fear was passing, her analytical mind returned to the forefront. "So you really make a conscious effort to breathe? Why bother if you don't need to?"

"It's just something I never let go of, I guess," Marceline said with a shrug. "I mean, I still have to so I can talk or sing, but I guess I wouldn't need to the rest of the time. After a thousand years, I just kind of do it, you know?"

It intrigued her that the vagaries of the living body could hold such a sentimental pull over an immortal being. Clinging to such a mundane biological function after a millennium? She supposed, though, you never truly appreciated things until they were gone. "But your heart doesn't beat, right? You've said so before."

Marceline's lazy smile took on a slightly bittersweet edge. "No, only the living get heartbeats. I can't just concentrate and make it go again. Some kind of magic rules or something." She shrugged, putting on a casual air again. "But you learn to live without it. Or not live, or whatever."

Bubblegum frowned slightly. "Does it feel different, not having a heartbeat?"

"I guess." Marceline shifted, tucking her arm under her head, hand buried in her hair. "I was only really alive for less than twenty years. I barely remember what it felt like, so I don't really miss it much. Sometimes I think it'd be cool to feel my heart racing again, but I've got other ways to feel my blood pump."

If some part of Bubblegum's brain understood the mischievous slant in Marceline's voice and expression, it filed it away unnoticed as she was already pondering the bigger ramifications of this discovery.

"I suppose so," she replied a bit absently. "But…what if something happens to you and I wouldn't know anything's wrong because you don't have any vital signs to check? I mean, I know you can't really die, but can't you become…less un-dead?"

Marceline chuckled a bit, propping herself up on one elbow. "Well, there are only three main ways to kill a vampire. One, you chop of their head, which a brainlord like you would probably notice. Or I can get stuck out in the sun and fry, but if that happened you'd see me go all melty and it kind of takes a while so I'd probably be yelling and swearing or something until I was just a pile of ashes."

Bubblegum wrinkled her nose at the thought of seeing either one of those eventualities happen.

"And, of course," Marceline said, sitting up so she was leaning over Bubblegum, one hand raised as if holding a weapon, "the surest way to kill a vampire is a stake through the heart!" Her voice rose as she brought her hand down, drawing a little shriek from Bubblegum in spite of herself.

Marceline laughed as she ended the down-sweep with a pat to Bubblegum's cheek and settled back down on the mattress. "If you want to make sure a vampire stays down, you've gotta go for the heart. So it shouldn't be too hard to tell if I'm just sleeping or if I've croaked. However it happens, we tend to go out with a bang."

Bubblegum got her composure back, giving the other girl a serious look. "Well, I hope I'll never have to see any of those."

"I don't want to do any of them either." Marceline gave her a teasingly wary glance. "I'm not going to regret telling you all my secret vampire weaknesses, am I? Like, you won't start keeping a stake around for when I tick you off?"

Bubblegum smiled and held up her hand as if taking an oath. "I promise, your heart is safe with me."

Her eyes widened. She had intended to say "secret" or at least meant that phrase in a simple, literal way, but she knew instantly that both of them heard the deeper meaning she had expressed.

And to Bubblegum's amazement, she was rewarded with a look of shock from Marceline and a distinct blush. Somehow, in a woman whose heart hadn't circulated her blood in eons, Bubblegum had drawn color to her cheeks.

To save them both from having to respond to her slip of the tongue, Bubblegum simply lay back down as if nothing had happened and snuggled up again, curling against Marceline's side in a reverse of the position she had woken up in. As the other woman's body tensed in even greater surprise, it dawned on her with growing mortification that in the distraction of Bubblegum's terrified outburst earlier, neither of them had acknowledged the fact of the position they had woken up in.

Before this sleepover, they had never engaged in any more physical contact than was natural between friends. Certainly the desire to had been in the air, at least as far as Bubblegum could tell, but neither had acted upon it until Marceline had found her way to Bubblegum's side in her sleep. She realized that the other woman might retreat in embarrassment now that she was awake. Or worse, she might not actually reciprocate Bubblegum's attraction at all and this would be an awkward misunderstanding that could ruin the easy nature of their friendship.

This all flashed through Bubblegum's mind in a few nervous heartbeats before Marceline relaxed and her arms slid around Bubblegum, one settling around her ribs again, the other toying with her hair. Relief flowing through her, Bubblegum took this as permission to nestle closer, wrapping her arm around Marceline in return and tucking her head into the other girl's neck.

They settled into a comfortable silence, accepting this transition in their relationship without a word needing to be expressed. Bubblegum found herself taking in this new sensation as she had observed Marceline sleeping earlier, processing every bit of information she could in case the moment didn't last. Marceline's skin was cool, but not unpleasantly cold where their bodies met. The contact was at once exhilarating and comforting, a fascinating dichotomy, and the fingers playing idly through her hair soothed her into a drowsy state once again. With her head resting against Marceline's chest, she could feel her ribcage move up and down with her habitual breathing, which she found herself coordinating with her own, but it was true: no heartbeat sounded from within.

As they lay there, Bubblegum felt the fingers' movements get softer, then still and settle gently twined in her locks. The other girl's breathing slowed to a peaceful rhythm as well. Bubblegum braced herself as it became shallower, and then, sure enough, gradually, it stopped. She had to fight a shudder of instinctive fear at hearing all sound leave a body, but she reassured herself that Marceline was whole and secure and would wake up just as surely as she would, likely as soon as the castle staff began their rounds and they had to scramble so as not to be seen in such an inappropriate position.

In time, Bubblegum got used to having Marceline die in her arms every night and come back to life, bleary-eyed but smiling, every morning before her servants came in to disrupt their rest. She simply took peace in the fact that as long as Marceline was at her side, Bubblegum could know with certainty that her heart was safely in one piece. And every now and then, sentimental as it was, she liked to imagine that she could hear it flutter, just a bit.