Disclaimer: I do not own Adventure Time.

A/N: Another little one shot set a few hundred years in the future of Ooo.

Queen Bonnibel Bubblegum was hosting a masked ball this night.

Why?

Well, why not? What better way to ease her citizen's daily worries and also keep herself hidden from any unpleasant royal duties.

The only down side to such an impersonal event was that others outside the Candy Kingdom's walls often slipped in uninvited. The Queen was sure she had already shared a dance with candy persons, humanoids and monsters alike.

And so as the song changed and she was offered a dance from a humanoid female there was not a moment's hesitation.

The woman was dressed in a fine suit. Its fabric seemed to glisten perfectly as though it had never seen the light of day… or even light in general. Not a faded thread cursed it's vivid midnight color. She was covered from her veil-like mask to gloved fingers. The only sure detail the pink clad royal could make out were emerald green eyes.

"You have taken this theme of 'masked' ball very seriously." Bonnibel tried to make small talk as they danced through the motions of a time tested dance.

The voice that responded matched those wild eyes well, "And you not enough, your highness."

It was not surprising that the Queen of Candy would be recognized. If it wasn't her crown that gave her away it was surely the elaborate gown she now wore to replace the simple ones she used to sport as a princess.

That had been many hundreds of years ago.

"I suppose that's why my dance partners have been so numerous." A smile play on pink lips as she decided to also reveal all she knew, "And from such different lands."

Knowing she was caught, expecting to be caught, the masked partner did not hesitate to comment further, "Many must have heard of a lovely Queen from far away who has endured much hardship all on her own. Though rumor has it she was at one time not alone in her struggles."

"You must be speaking of Sir Finn and Lord Jake, perhaps even his wife Lady." Bonnibel nodded, remembering each with a fondness, "They never let me take on too much or left me without reason." Her sweet voice rotting as she finished her musing.

"Ah, but that's not what the stories say. They speak of a love. Perhaps a prince or king at one time stole your heart?" This chatty dancer was so intent to gossip, it should have irked the Queen.

But it didn't.

It had been centuries since she had heard a tone as honest and yet teasing as this one.

Perhaps it was that tonic that loosened her lips, to speak in ways she thought she had forgotten, "Pft" Came a very unmannered reply, "Hardly."The Queen instantly realized how comfortable she felt around this person.

Seeming to be satisfied with just this, the masked individual remained silent. Until, that is, Bonnibel could not, "It was a Queen."

"Oh?" She could almost feel the dancer's interest peek yet again. But instead of asking more of her the dancer smoothly remarked, "I didn't ask for clarification."

Bonnibel felt her mouth open slightly, wondering why she had the sudden desire to be so social with a dance partner who would surly also change with the turn of the next song.

"She must have been important to you." A calming voice broke into her thoughts and Bonnibel received her answer. Or a faint glisten of an answer, a hint that would hopefully bringer her positive results.

Bonnibel continued, "She was, but that is in the past. She fled her own haphazard rule to Glob knows where. Yet I stubbornly stay here to rule, for always and forever, as Queen."

"Stay Queen?" The question did not seem to hold surprise, only a dull curiosity of pleasant conversation, "You are a Queen and so why would you question to stay what you already are?"

The Queens heart, that had only just begun to flutter so splendidly, fell, "Now I am certain you are not from the Candy Kingdom."

"I am from the candy Kingdom, I assure you!" The woman confirmed in haste- "I simple must brush up on my knowledge of history and what better way than from the source." -speaking obvious lies without hesitation.

She always was the poorest of liars.

With one more look at green eyes, Bonnibel detached her hand that had once coupled with a gloved one, reaching to remove the hindering veiled mask.

But her trembling hand was swiftly and expertly caught again.

Speaking aloud, as a reminder that removing a person's mask at a masked ball was considered very rude- "Right, of course." -Bonnibel quickly pushed aside hopeless hope and began to tell her story. It was the kingdoms already long since history, "My kingdom was week, and another kingdom's protection was the only solution. So I asked the queen of vampires to marry me and we were."

"So simply?" The dancer joked, as though she already knew. She already knew.

"I will not tire you with details on such a festive night."

The melodic song they had been moving to stopped and so did they, though they remained still in the position the music had left them. Everything was just as it been when it was left.

No one seemed to dare break in between the two.

"I would actually love to know." Came the one.

"Simple enough, well as simple as such matters go." Replied the other.

And the music continued a new, finding the two in a different dance entirely.

Bonnibel couldn't continue being in this one sided questioning, "And you? Are you one of the many to learn of my apparent loneliness?" Bonnibel pressed.

"Perhaps." Came a curt reply, and then the masked woman simply continued, "Does she live still, your Queen?"

If there was one thing she had never feared, it had been that. "She must, she cannot die." Bonnibel smiled despite herself. "If you are indeed a suitor, are you not afraid of her wrath if she returns?" It was a joke to be sure.

"I can imagine how jealous she would be if she came back to find someone pursuing you so. Or that you had given up in anger and lost hope enough to forget her." These had always been concerns and the words were privy to firsthand accounts of this 'disappeared Vampire Queen', "Do you believe she will return?"

"I believe ever more as of late she will." Bonnibel indirectly doused those relentless fears.

With a new resolve, her partner spoke, "And what would you do if she did come back, let's say in a way you were not expecting, maybe even bringing you good news as a gift to easy your rage?"

"I would yell at the top of my lungs at her, kiss her and possibly punish her a bit for not telling me why she would be gone in the first place."

"Really." The Vampire reflected on the words, "I suppose that's fair. Must it be in that order?" She added as an afterthought.

"I suppose it doesn't have to be."

There would be plenty of time for scolding and talking later.

The lifting of a veil and a kiss would be the start once again.