Fionna shifted her weight between her legs, tapping her fingernails on the counter. The sterile lab environment was starting to make her bored, and she was about ready to make a quiet escape. Maybe she could check out that dudgeon she discovered yesterday. She wasn't doing anything to help, and didn't have any plans for today, anyway…
A voice saying, "Now, just one more drop of the bondage serum…" snapped her back to reality.
She took a step back, distancing herself from the bubbling vial. It aggressively cracked, with electric pulses popping over the top. On impulse, she reached for the blade in her backpack, before remembering that whatever was in there wasn't supposed to be a threat. It wasn't going to jump out and attack her, unless some freak accident happened. It did, however, keep fizzing over before turning a violent shade of purple and settling down.
"Perfect!" Prince Gumball grinned down at the chemical, then lifting it up and examining it from the bottom. "The reaction was a success."
"So, uh, what is that stuff, anyway?" Fionna asked. Not that she was expecting an answer that she could understand or anything.
"It's an instant aging formula," he explained. "I'm hoping that it can make the candy crops grow quicker, so we'll have more food stored up this coming year."
"Okay, that's pretty cool-" Fionna elaborated, before being cut off by Gumball added,
"Thanks for helping me out today, Fi. That's all I had planned. I should probably go check on some of the citizens out in the village."
"Oh, yeah, alright." Fionna pulled her backpack onto her shoulders, starting to walk out of the room. "Uh, see you tomorrow, I guess."
Gumball simply nodded and started cleaning up the various beakers and test tubes that littered the lab table.
"Bye…" She mumbled, trekking up the long spiral staircase that led up to the entrance of the castle. She squinted a little bit at the actual sunlight once the exited the large door; the fluorescent lighting in the underground lab had hurt her eyes a bit.
Fionna was surprised to see the sun drifting down, a decent section of the way down from its peak over Ooo. It must have been somewhere around five or six in the afternoon, which she figured meant it was time to head back to the treehouse.
She couldn't quite figure out why, but this visit had made her sort of sad on the inside. Like, nothing was happening right around then. It was starting to get her worried; the lack of surprise kidnapping attempts by the Ice Queen or ambushes in the forest was not only making her suspicious, but extremely bored.
Walking slowly, she began the long walk back to the grasslands. It was so much faster when Cake could just size up and take two steps to get home, but she had something to do with Monochromicorn that day. Well, whatever, maybe something interesting would happen to her on her way there.
She was about halfway done with the walk when she heard a few footsteps behind her, followed by a quiet whooshing noise. She reached for her knife out of her backpack, not scared, but excited by the sudden activity.
"Who's there?" She turned in a full circle, grasping the blade, while trying to wipe the smile from her face.
An almost inaudible laugh came from one of the nearby treetops, which she swiveled around to face.
"I know there's someone up there," She demanded. "Come down." Please?
After a second pause of silence, Marshall Lee floated down from the perch, leaning on his back until he reached the ground.
"Oh, it's just you," Fionna said, slightly disappointed.
"'Just me?'" Marshall asked humorously. "You must've just been with Gumball."
"Yeah, yeah," she responded, walking away. "Whatever, bye Marshall."
"Hey, where you going?" He trailed after her, catching up only after a second. "Ready to stab something with that knife?"
She didn't respond. Fionna just crossed her arms and kept walking.
Marshall noticed this; she usually played along when someone else was joking around. "What's got you down?"
"Nothing, it's just…" Fionna sighed. "Everything's been so boring lately. Like, nothing fun has happened in weeks, not even any Ice Queen plans to foil…not even one of her crazy fanfictions."
"It'll get better," Marshall promised. "It's almost time for Movie Day again. Watching dumb secret tapes will bring some excitement back."
"Sure, I guess," She shrugged. "I was just hoping something interesting would happen today. All I did was help out with an experiment today, and I thought…you know…"
"Yeah," he nodded.
"Well, I could go on a dungeon crawl tomorrow. Maybe Cake will want to come, but she's been so busy lately, and I've been doing-"
Fionna was suddenly interrupted by a quick and brash movement. Only a moment later, she felt something warm and soft on her mouth preventing her from talking. It took a second for her brain to register that she was being kissed.
By Marshall.
She was surprised, to say the least- this was the thing she least expected. Not that she didn't want something- anything- to happen. But this wasn't really what she meant…
Fionna could feel her face getting hot. Oh, glob, she couldn't be doing this…she wouldn't be doing this. She had a crush on Prince Gumball, and had to stay there. Besides, she didn't have any feelings for Marshall, right?
Right?
Marshall stayed in his position, not moving his face away from hers, at least not for a few moments. After another second, he pulled away and grinned at Fionna's shocked expression.
"You're cute when you blush," he remarked. He then waved and flew away.
Fionna stayed standing, fixated in her spot until the vampire became nothing but a small spot on the horizon.
She could have sworn that she saw him turn around one last time and grin.
Fionna had asked for something to happen that night. And it wasn't even close to her expectations, but something did.