BREATHE | bubbline ✓

" ready "

"NO," BONNIBEL SAYS certainly. Her voice quivers. "No."

Marceline has her head in her hands, seated at the edge of Bonnibel's bed. Goliard is looking up at her with glassy brown eyes, swaying his tail elegantly, as if he were concerned with their predicament.

"What if something happens to your family?" Marceline lifts her head slowly. She wasn't aware that Bonnibel would react this...aggressively, not when she had been way agreeable to the idea a couple of months ago. She herself was at a loss...sitting on the fence between her freedom — and her love for Bonnibel.

Bonnibel hesitates, falters by her tall bookshelf. She's actually—She's really thinking about it. Marceline can't believe it. Did she—

"Oh, that's another story." Bonnibel shakes her head. She's silent, gripping the edge of her desk, her fingers digging into the wood. Her lips are drawn thin, like they wanted to say more but couldn't.

"I'll go back, alright?" Marceline says softly. Though she'd absolutely hate to, she simply can't keep having her father killing all the reincarnations of Phoebe the rest of her life. The pain of waiting, the torture of knowing...she can't do it again. "I'm going back. I can't risk anything happening to you. Or your family."

Bonnibel turns, and there is a fire in her eyes, burning in them as she stares Marceline down. "Then how about you?"

"I'll be fine. Everything will be," Marceline replies, trying to provide a light-hearted smile. "Except for the fact that I might die of boredom."

Wasn't this the optimal outcome? To Bonnibel, at least?

"I...I still have things to test on you," Bonnibel says indignantly, a small blush on her face. She takes a deep breath and continues determinedly. "I don't want you to leave. Just yet."

"Bonnie." Marceline cannot believe that she has to be the one to guide Bonnibel to reason. "Your family. You. I can't allow that."

She sees the fire; feels it surrounding her. Its wavering arms are towering over her, teasing. Mocking.

"Well, then, best him." Bonnibel says it like it's the easiest thing in the world. "Protect me then."

Marceline was weak. She still was, she's sure. She isn't ready for anything to change; isn't ready for what she knows she has to do. She isn't ready for anything.

Bonnibel must have noticed her doubt. "You can never truly be ready for anything." She leans against her desk, and in the soft shadow of her face cast by the lamp, she looks more solemn and brooding than ever. So, Marceline is taken aback when the smile that dances across Bonnibel's lips is slightly playful. "I wasn't ready for you."

Marceline can't help but smile in tandem. It reminded her of the first time she met Phoebe. How she had hesitated to trust a human, but it had turned into a relationship she cherished the most. But she...she really can't risk this. So she fakes another smile this time, a mask for her intentions.

"You're right."

_________________________

It's odd. Where is Marceline? Bonnibel is very used to seeing her cat form waiting in her room, at her open window, staring out at the trees that rustled in the breeze. She should be here by now — and Marceline hadn't mentioned anything about a late shift at the swimming complex.

But...should she head there to check? Just in case—but would she come off as too desperate? Maybe not, then.

A bat lands clumsily on the tree branch closest to her windowsill.

Marceline? Bonnibel wants to slap herself at how she instantly springs to open the window to let it in. But, to her disappointment, the bat that flew through awkwardly and crashed onto her bedroom floor was an off-grey colour instead of Marceline's typical black.

"Is this Ash." Bonnibel looks down at the bat, which fluttered around on the carpet attempting to regain its balance, barely bothering to hide her displeasure.

"Well, yes," it squeaks. Ash finally gains some footing and faces her, twitching a single, large ear. "Sorry, not hsed to this form—Where's Marceline? She didn't come for her shift today."

"She didn't?" He has Bonnibel's attention now. Where else could she be? But, perhaps, Bonnibel herself already knew the answer. It had been a reality she had been attempting to put off. But, of course, Marceline wouldn't have taken it standing down.

"Yeah, so I came here." Ash eyes Goliard suspiciously when the cat takes a step forward from the foot of Bonnibel's bed. "You look like you know something I don't."

Bonnibel tells him everything, and Ash sits there, dumbfounded, on the carpet as he absorbs what she spills to him.

He's quiet, evaluating their options, probably. Bonnibel herself is at a loss. Ash was the only one between the two of them who could take them to the Nightosphere, so surely he'd do something about it, right? Marceline was his...best friend—closest thing to one, at least. Surely—

"I should have seen this coming," he says, finally. "Hunson was indeed taking his time to make his move, and we can't keep evading him forever." He angles his tiny head upwards to glance at Bonnibel. "She wouldn't want me to get you involved with this."

"You've got to be kidding me," Bonnibel raises her voice, straightening from where she had been leaning against her bookshelf. "She's going to die, Ash. You know that probably better than anyone."

Ash bristles. "Which is why I'm going, not you."

"What if that's not enough?"

"What are you going to do?" Ash deadpans. "Hold Hunson in a chokehold for us to beat him up? No, you'd never get close."

She has to swallow the bitterness over the fact that Ash was right — he was a great sorcerer, while she was just a regular human. He'd be a better support than her, who'd be deadweight.

"Please, bring her back," Bonnibel begs softly, sinking to the floor and putting her head between her knees. Her heart aches with worry, stress—oh, what if Marceline didn't return? What if she was triumphant, and stayed in the Nightosphere as its queen? What if she wasn't, and died without having said goodbye to Bonnibel, or hearing...hearing...that Bonnibel really did care for her from the bottom of her heart.

When she had first met her, Bonnibel had already smelled the trouble she'd bring, but somehow, her foolish heart still wanted all the new things that Marceline brought into her grey life. She had given Bonnibel something to lose. And that terrified her.

Ash says, "I can't guarantee that."