In the dark, quiet pre-dawn, there isn't much for her to entertain herself with. Elsewhere in Ooo, this wouldn't be the case— even within the Candy Kingdom, the fruit bats would be flying around now, clustering to and fro and no doubt causing a headache for the gardeners who maintained the orchards. She would have gleefully aided in their destruction if she could, one flat-nosed carnivorous outsider among the fox-faced masses. Many, many orphaned baby bats owed their survival to her presence on some of the flights, her menacing aura a deterrent to any predator looking for a quick snack. Most of the time she bring them back to their parents, but every so often on her visits she would spot a few she had fostered until they were ready to fly.

Right now, though, boredom set her to pacing the room, the tips of her toes trailing along the rich carpeted floor. She ran her hand along the pool table Bonni had commissioned for her private chambers, biting back a grin as she passed it. To play a solo practice game to pass the time was out of the question. Too much noise. Same with any hand exercises on the guitar. Briefly toying with the idea of going out somewhere to stretch her wings, Marceline discarded it out of hand, returning instead to the fevered, rasping form resting on the bed. Trying to be unobtrusive, she checked Bonni's temperature again. It still hadn't gone down.

If Marceline from merely 50 years ago could see who she was today, she would have burned alive with shame, certain her reputation forever tarnished. Even if she had always been a little soft, she never showed it. She certainly didn't foster baby bats and play nurse to spoiled princesses. She also didn't have any friends. No real friends, anyway. No one who was brave enough to acknowledge softness as… Well, maybe not a great thing, but also not the worst thing a person could be, either. That expressing your feelings wasn't always something to be ashamed of.

As if sensing her thoughts about him, Finn stirred on the couch, letting out a little snore.

Though she'd rather chew her foot off than admit Finn's genuine affection had been the first she had received in centuries, she was certain he knew it, on some instinctual level. Maybe when they were all a little older, she's be less scared to tell him.

Till then, there he was, doing his best to help his friends. Though he'd tried to stay awake with Marceline, it was hard for him without any adrenaline speeding him up or monsters to slay. Standing vigil at a sick person's bed was a lot of worrying and boredom, and he'd passed out a few hours ago. It was around four in the morning, now, just a bit longer before she'd have to secure the windows shut to keep out the light. Deciding that pacing wasn't doing much to pass the time, either, Marceline finally settled down to kneel in front of the window, settling down into an almost dead state, eyes locked on the horizon. She had hibernated whole years like this, buried deep underground— a few hours would be nothing.

The hands in the clock inched along.

It began a gentle chiming at six thirty in the morning, rousing her from her meditative thoughts. Finn and Bonni both were trying to get up, Finn struggling against the blankets wrapped around him and Bonni coping with her illness.

"Am I still sick?" she asked, bleakly peering around the room. "I think I feel lucid today. That's good." As though functioning specifically to prove her wrong, she seized up with a renewed fit of wracking coughs, spitting hazy white phlegm into the waste basket next to her bed. "Ohhh."

She rang for Peppermint Butler, who came up within minutes carrying a steaming mug of strong tea and a bowl of soup. Bonni blanched at the sight, turning her head away. "Ugh. Just the tea, please."

"You haven't eaten anything in almost two days," Marceline noted, keeping her distance. She didn't want Bonni to start complaining about her hovering. "And you should probably try to sleep some more. You were up half the night."

Puffing his chest out with pride, Finn chimed in, "And I haven't left your side once, princess!"

Marceline tossed her hair over her shoulder with a flick of her head. "Yeah, and that. Anyway, good to know you're alive."

Heedless of anything they were saying, Bonni kept on with her orders for Peppermint Butler. "Fetch me some lab clothing, something with long sleeves. I'm off to formulate a cure for this illness now that my basic faculties have returned to me."

Eyebrows bunching together, Marceline looked from P Butts to Bonni and back again, biting her lip to keep quiet. It was Finn who said it, thank gob. "But princess! Isn't it better to rest until you're better? What if you get even sicker from lab germs?"

Glad that there was no need to be quiet any longer, Marceline let out a loud sigh. "Let her be, Finn. This whole being sick business is cutting into Princess Duties. Am I right?" That last part was directed to Bonni, who was carefully limping over to the bathroom.

"Mm," she said before closing the door. A short hiss; the shower ran, and steam began coiling beneath the doorway. Stressed to the point of pulling off his hat and chewing on it, Finn turned his pleading gaze onto Marceline.

"C'mon, Marcy!" he said, flapping the hat at her. "You know she's working herself too hard! Isn't that what the doctor said? That she needs bed rest?"

Floating parallel to the floor, Marceline shrugged, frowning deeply. Her fangs were visible, jutting out in a pouting grimace. "What do you want me to do? She's an adult, I can't lock her up in her room."

"You could back me up a little! If anyone can convince Peebs to take a break its you, right?"

This was curious. Twitching her head slightly, she turned to face him fully, waiting for him to explain himself. "What do you mean?" she asked, genuinely curious.

It was a little hard for him to get past. Twisting his poor, abused hat some more, his eyes alighted on every corner of the room, searching for an escape. "You… You know. You two. You're her girlfriend. Right?"

Marceline just grinned.

Blood rushed to his face. "Oh, come on," he fumbled. "I'm not dumb, I mean, I know I crushed on her, but I'm over it, it's totally cool, I mean it's just a little weird because we're all friends and I don't know how to deal with that… But that's not the point!" His scarred fingers flared out, hands waving as though his words were a chalk board and he could wipe it clean. "Just do your girlfriend thing! Right?"

Even then, she might not have done anything until Peppermint Butler spoke up. "Finn has a point, you know," he said, eyeing her, expression unreadable. "You could at least try."

Twisting her lips, Marceline thought it over. "No promises. Bonni's headstrong."

No sooner had she finished speaking than the water cut off. The three of them waited for

Bonni to emerge, scrubbed clean but still looking as though someone had scraped her off the bottom of a trash bin. "Marceline, could you carry me down to the lab?" she said as she molded her hair into something like a bun, the ends of her words scratched as sandpaper.

Setting her feet down on the floor, Marceline leveled with her before speaking. A calm, clear, "No."

It took a moment to process. "What… Why?" she probably thought her fever was clouding her hearing. "Are you just being deliberately willful or do you have some reason you won't help me with this very simple task?"

"You're sick and you need rest. Some things can't be whisked away by magic or science— trust me, I know. I've tried." Lifting herself into the air, she put a hand on Bonni's upper arm, squeezing gently. "Hey, P-Butts. Could you change her majesty's sheets and boil em till they're whiter than fangs again? Gotta get to disinfecting this joint."

The butler gave a short bow and got to work as Bonni and Marceline started having a tense, but quiet, argument.

"Let go of me," Bonni hissed, yanking herself free. Marceline gladly let her go, but it still caused her to dizzily sit down on one of the chairs, head in her hands, groaning low and painful.

Marceline used this as her proof. "See? Look! You can't even stand."

"I won't be standing, most of the time."

"Peebs, every year you say you're going to cure the flu, and you never do." She ignored the way this sting at her pride darkened Bonni's face, even if she was only telling the truth. "How is this time gonna be any different, except for the fact that you're more likely to pass out this year?"

"This year I have incentive. If you're not going to— Finn!" She abruptly changed tactics. "Please escort me to the lab?"

Turning white as his hat, Finn looked to Marceline for salvation. She understood, then, why he was so bent on her being the one to convince Bonni to stay. Even now, as her champion, he found it almost impossible to say no to her. Maybe it was the last vestige of his crush on her, maybe it was just his inability to say no to someone asking for help. It made no difference. Marceline knew he would be know help here. But once Bonni was set on something, it was like trying to divert the course of a flooded river.

So when all else fails, resort to the absurd.

"You can't," Marceline said, blocking the doorway as Bonni tried to leave without Finn, seeing that he was frozen with indecision. "Because I order you not to."

That triggered a pure reaction out of her, bright enough to burn right through her fever. Nostrils flared, Bonni stood up straighter. "And what gives you the right to order me around?" she demanded. "Do I need to remind you whose kingdom this is?"

Marceline asked a question in turn. "I might be some punk queen or whatever, but you know what else I am?" she pointed to the pool table, grinning now. "The winner of last summer's pool tournament."

It clicked at once.

"No."

"And you were the loser," Marceline reminded her anyway. "And the loser had to give 24 hours of service to the winner, the date chosen at their discretion. Am I right?"

Bonni didn't say anything.

"Well?"

"That was just a— a game, you can't seriously—"

Marceline's eyebrow pricked up. "Are you going back on our deal, nerd? I thought Candy monarchs are made of nobler stuff."

"Look, you can't just—"

Swooning a bit, Bonni was forced to sit down again, her angry rant cut short by another coughing fit. Peppermint had refitted the bed, the pillow fluffed and ready for her. One could almost see the calculations running through her head, weighing potential risk against potential gain. Finally she glared at Marceline, cheeks puffing out as she said… "No take backs. You want 24 hours, you get 24 hours. You don't get to paused half way through and save them for another date. Got it?"

Finn let out a breath none of them knew he had held, falling back onto his couch. Chuckling, Marceline swept up the princess in her arms, setting her back down on the bed and planting a kiss on her forehead. "You really don't know how to appreciate it when someone's doing something nice for you, do you?"

The princess grumbled, but didn't fully argue. The tea had cooled enough for her to drink it now, and at the behest of Marceline ("MISSTRESS Marceline.") she gulped down half her soup as well, even if it didn't sit quite right. When she finished, Peppermint Butler took it away, glancing down at the empty mug to make sure she had downed all of it.

"Want to know your fortune?" he asked before he left, waving the empty mug at her. Marceline and Finn glanced at each other in confusion, but Bonni knew what he meant, because she just fluttered her hand at him. Yes, yes.

Peering into the cup, he hemmed and hawed over it for a bit before declaring the fortune he had read in the tea leaves. "You're all due for quite a bit of excitement," he said, bowing as he exited.

"What else is new?" they all wondered aloud. Startled at their unconscious synchronization, they all fell silent for a beat before laughing, suddenly more glad than they had been just moments before at the fact that they were all friends.