1
Their friendship hadn't had the best start. It started off rocky and Bonnibel had the faintest idea that Marceline hated her (mainly because the moment Bonnibel sat next to her for one of their lectures the other girl had turned around and told her 'I don't like you' before finding another seat). There was also the sheer amount of scowling that Marceline did whenever Bonnibel wandered by her in the corridors of the university, the glares thrown at her that made Bonnibel feel as though there was something on her face.
So, Bonnibel didn't speak to Marceline for a good month after the lecture incident. It was only natural; the other woman wouldn't see reason and Bonnibel had no plans to try to be friendly with someone who clearly didn't want a friend.
It was awkward when Finn sat down to eat with her and their friends, Marceline the Grouch in tow. (That's what Bonnibel called her in her head, whenever she crossed paths with the dark haired woman).
"She's in my music class," Finn had told her when she'd asked how he knew Marceline of all people. "Helps me with the theory."
After that little snippet of conversation Marceline wasn't brought up again, nor was she particularly involved in any of their conversations. It seemed that she was only there to scoff at the jokes they made and glower alone at the end of the bench. Bonnibel's brain ached to know more about this woman and why she hated her so much, but chose to keep her mouth closed and keep herself to herself.
So Finn continued to bring Marceline to eat with their friends and Bonnibel just kind of sat there under her scrutinizing gaze every time, uncomfortably talking about what she'd done the previous weekend knowing full well that Marceline could hear her.
"Can you help me with this equation?" The murmur over her shoulder was unexpected to say the very least. Bonnibel was in physics of all things. Why was Marceline in a physics lecture? She seemed too cool, too rebellious, too used to crumpling her face up whenever Bonnibel talked science to Finn and Jake to even like the damn subject.
Every fibre in Bonnibel's being was telling her to ignore the other woman, to keep steadfast and continue writing notes, but Marceline's pencil was tapping against her shoulder and there was a soft 'please' that made her brain stop protesting.
She turned to face Marceline, tucking her hair behind her ear as she peered at the notebook in Marceline's lap. She also took note of the way Marceline's legs were propped up on the seat beside her, and how her jacket was slipping off her shoulders in a way that screamed 'I don't care'. Yes, very Marceline-esque indeed.
"It's fine, there's nothing for me to help you with," She sighed after looking over the equations that Marceline had jotted down in her scribbled handwriting. "However, if you want help understanding them then I'd need more time to do that."
Marceline's eyebrows shot up into her fringe, muttering something or other that Bonnibel didn't really care about. Then she drew her lip in between her teeth and tapped her once more. "How much time exactly?"
"An hour, depending if you can cooperate and listen."
"I have a spare after this lecture," It was a statement, but Bonnibel knew an offer when she heard one. There was a shift of cloth as Marceline sat up properly, only for her to prop her elbows on her legs. "I could really do with understanding this science jargon and you're the only person in here that's not asleep or texting." Another statement. Marceline still hadn't asked anything yet and Bonnibel still knew what the offer was. "What do you say?"
Bonnibel exhaled slowly, eyes going back to the professor and then back to the lanky woman behind her. "Okay, yeah,"
After that, Marceline showed up during her spares and asked her to explain something or other to her. Bonnibel never really understood why she didn't just listen to the lecturer or search it up on that phone of hers that she was so eager to use during her lectures.
It was kind of an unspoken rule, really, that Marceline would sit with her behind the building (or in one of the empty rooms if it was chilly) to study or do extra assignments. Bonnibel would help her in ways that made her understand, made her learn instead of have to rely on her for the rest of the year. It was also unspoken that Marceline would mutter 'I still don't like you' after every spare, that she'd then stand and leave, and go back to glaring at her whenever she saw her at dinner or in the corridors.
It kind of drove Bonnibel insane.
"What is up with you?" She finally snapped, at the end of one of their study sessions. She'd been wiry all morning; the coffee machine in her dorm had broken and Marceline's cagey behaviour was beginning to piss her off thoroughly. "One minute you're fine with being chatty, fine with sitting near me so you can understand a subject you clearly don't want to be in, and then the next you're pretending as if I don't exist? Or, if by some ungodly chance you choose to acknowledge me, you glare as if I've kicked your dog. Why do you hate me so much?"
Bonnibel took a deep breath after that, watching as Marceline blinked and stood there on the grass. She was a whole whopping six months older and two inches taller than her, and yet Bonnibel felt like she acted like a kid.
"I didn't…" The other woman hesitated, eyes doing that thing where they narrowed and judged Bonnibel for existing, and then she sighed. "I don't hate you," She murmured and Bonnibel felt some weird feeling of relief come over her. "I'm just not too fond of the bubbly charismatic type. Too positive for me," She then crumpled her face and made a sound that oddly resembled a 'blech' before her expression softened.
Bonnibel scoffed. "You're judging a book by its cover, I'd have thought even you were smart enough not to do that." Marceline's expression was hard to read, more so than usual because Bonnibel was trying to understand how and why she looked surprised, confused and snarky at the same time.
"You think I'm smart?" The whisper took Bonnibel by surprise, and made her heart break a little but she wouldn't tell anyone that ever. Not even if they put a gun to her head.
Self pity? Is that why Marceline was so cagey? "Of course I do. I have an A grade average, I wouldn't have offered to help you if I didn't think you'd understand, Marceline." The confusion had left Marceline's face now, all that was left was the surprised arch of her brows. Bonnibel assumed that the snarkiness was something that had permanently been ingrained into her features.
After that encounter Marceline stopped glaring at her whenever they got into a five feet radius of one another. She also kind of smiled a little when Finn forced her to sit at their table. It was a pleasant surprise when, one day, Marceline knocked on the door to her dorm room.
The first thought Bonnibel had was 'Oh wow Marceline really pulls off plaid shirts' but she shook that off immediately when Marceline raised her arm to wave a mysterious plastic bag in her face.
"Foodstuffs," She muttered, slinking past Bonnibel into her room. "Also a movie." The other woman stretched out across her sofa, patting the seat next to her as she pulled out take out boxes from within the carrier. Bonnibel's stunned silence prompted a softer confession from her. "Your friends are worried about you, said you've been studying all week."
The door clicked shut and Bonnibel seated herself beside Marceline, taking in the rice and the noodles before watching as she pulled out 'The Princess Bride' and wafted it around for a quick two seconds.
"Does your dvd player work?" She asked, equally as soft as the sentence before.
Bonnibel nodded. "The remote is in the top drawer," Marceline went to retrieve it and Bonnibel finished off getting the food ready in their little boxes, putting the leftovers on the coffee table just in case she wanted more.
As the opening credits rolled they sat in silence, barely making any noise other than the faint sounds of breathing and eating. Surprisingly, it was Marceline who broke the stillness of the room as she twisted in her seat. "D'you do this often? Isolate yourself, I mean,"
And with those green eyes staring at Bonnibel, her jaw began to work. What could she say other than the truth? Her parent's would've wanted her to get good grades, isolating herself was as good as it got to getting proper study time. Everyone else simply acted as a distraction to her. It wasn't as unhealthy as her friends made it out to be, anyway; Bonnibel made sure she showered once a week, made sure she ate at least once a day, and made sure she slept once every three days. Her brain and body could function on that, scientifically speaking, and Bonnibel wanted to keep her average of A's like her life depended on it. "I… yes, I do." Was her final reply. And Marceline didn't pry, just ate her noodles and continued to watch the movie.
By the end of the hour and a half Marceline was quick to begin packing things away, putting the movie back into its case and putting her jacket back on. Bonnibel hadn't even seen her take it off.
She found herself asking a stupid question before Marceline left. "Can I have your number?" It sort of toppled out before her brain could do anything about it and Bonnibel blamed lack of sleep.
Marceline arched a brow, already halfway through the doorway. It made Bonnibel shift in her seat the way Marceline's eyes scanned her face. "What for?" She asked suspiciously, sliding hands into pockets. When Bonnibel shrugged, Marceline smiled gently. "'Course you can, I'll get Finn to give you it; haven't memorised my new number and he's one of the only people who has it." And with that she was gone, her jacket already slipping off her shoulders as she waved over her shoulder and said 'bye' in a sing song sort of way that hurt a little.
Bonnibel didn't really understand why Marceline of all people had gone to her dorm room to get her to relax and eat, nor did she know how she'd gotten it to work.
2
Being friends with Marceline meant that she'd stop by whenever she wanted. Bonnibel had learnt that two weeks after Marceline had unconsciously called her a friend during one of their lunches. The only other friend who went to her room without invitation was Finn, and that's because he's had a crush on her since he was tiny.
It was incredibly odd at first, having Marceline turn up at sometimes two in the morning to watch a morning and order a pizza, but Bonnibel very quickly warmed up to the situation of Marceline coming in and out of her room at odd hours of the night.
The first midnight call, however, was terrifying.
"Hey, sorry to call you this late but Keila's with her boyfriend and I've not really got anyone else," Was the croaky greeting that Bonnibel was offered. Her brain worked to remember who Keila was - a friend? Cousin? Part of her band, she thinks. Her main focus was working out why Marceline sounded so sad.
"It's fine," She began. "Are you okay? You sound-,"
"Like I've been crying for two hours?" Marceline's laugh filtered through the phone, then, and Bonnibel's ears were greeted with a shifting of cloth. "Yeah, that'd be accurate. Have you watched the movies on the memory stick I gave you yet?"
Bonnibel wanted to ask her what was wrong, if she wanted to come over so that Bonnibel could hug her and make her a hot chocolate and make her feel better. "I've watched most of them," She decided against it. "I've never been a horror fan, so I probably won't watch the others." She confessed. On the other end, Marceline hummed and sniffled. "Do you want it back tomorrow?"
"I don't mind, I have them all on dvd anyway. Keep it."
The silence that followed was comfortable. Bonnibel closed the textbook she had been scanning, folding the corner of the page she was on so she could keep her place. Then she laid back on her bed.
"How's Keila and her boyfriend? Do you like him?"
A terrible sigh ripped through the silence. "I guess? She wants him to play guitar in our band, which would be fine if I wasn't the lead guitarist. He can piss off." Bonnibel giggled at Marceline's grouchiness. "Has Finn asked you out yet?"
The question was so outlandish that it made Bonnibel frown. "No. Why, has he said something to you?"
"Not really, but anyone within two metres of you two can see he has a crush on you." Oh. "Plus I thought he'd have done it by now. I've known him for two months and he won't shut up about you."
"He's had a crush on me ever since he could walk, Marceline," Bonnibel explained, smiling wildly at the snort she got in reply. "It's true. I only see him as a brother to me, I've told him that much before."
"Ouch, Bonnie, way to kill his dreams."
The smile turned into an almost grin. "Bonnie?"
"Oh-I, yeah. Bonnibel is pretty but it's a mouthful, you don't mind do you?" There was so much in that sentence that Bonnibel's face threatened to split in two. Marceline thought her name was pretty? And she asked for her consent about a nickname? To top it off, the other girl had just accepted that she'd been caught, something that Marceline two months ago would've denied instantly.
"No I don't mind." Bonnibel sighed wistfully. "Your name is pretty too."
Marceline spluttered on the other end, but she sounded much happier than when she'd first called. "My name is an ass, thank you."
"It's pretty," Bonnibel insisted, deciding not to add on the 'like you' that was on the tip of her tongue. "Eye of the beholder, Marceline," She sang instead.
She could practically feel Marceline roll her eyes. "Yeah, well, I'm going to bed. I… Thank you for not prying and things, it means a lot to me." Bonnibel's heart softened. "And for picking up at midnight."
"Of course, you can call me whenever you want." She meant it, too.
The day after that Bonnibel found Marceline sulking about near the philosophy rooms, pouting down at her phone while she tapped hurriedly on the screen. Bonnibel wanted to do something but she didn't quite know what. It was somewhere in between squeezing the other woman's cheeks and giving her a hug.
"Bonnibel!" Apparently Marceline could wait. Finn was bounding towards Bonnibel with his boyish grin and blonde hair plastered to his red forehead. Bonnibel gave him a smile in return. "Are you sitting with us at lunch?"
"I always do, why change my habit now?" Bonnibel replied, soft lilt to her voice as she glanced over Finn's shoulder to see Marceline pouting still.
"Marceline has a job now," Finn said as if it explained why Bonnibel wouldn't sit with her friends. It clicked a little too late as Finn began to explain. "Just thought you'd want to spend lunch with her instead."
"On campus?" She asked.
Finn nodded and brushed his overgrown fringe from his eyes. "At the café. We were going to go visit her but Jake and Phoebe have a thing to go to so they can't."
Bonnibel hummed and opened her mouth to tell him that yes she'd go see Marceline during lunch, but then (speak of the devil) Marceline's cheeky grin was a good four inches next to Finn's face.
"'Sup. Loser, Bonnie," She greeted, flashing her teeth once more. Finn's brow furrowed at the nickname. "I need to borrow the nerd for the rest of her spare, got some philosophy shit to sort out before Lennon gets on my dick."
"You have professor Gibbs for philosophy?" Bonnibel asked gently, not really minding when Marceline tugged on her sleeve to pull her away from Finn.
"Unfortunately," Marceline muttered sourly, stopping for a second to open a door to one of the lesser used study rooms. "He keeps asking me what true love is as if I have a clue."
Bonnibel laughed when she realised that Marceline was in a very pouty mood. She stopped when Marceline whined her name and slumped to the floor beside the window. "The good thing about philosophy is there is no real answer, so therefore you can say whatever you want and it'd be a good enough answer for him." Honestly, Bonnibel didn't know why Marceline thought she could help with this.
"But Bonnibel, what happens after we die?" She asked dramatically, eyes wide and somehow still tired looking. "What's the reason to living if we just die after?"
"True love is when someone loves you unconditionally, without strings, and when they'd be happy to spend eternity with you. What happens after you die is for the dead to know and the living to find out. I think… I think the reason to living is to experience things. Like snowfall and being kissed for the first time by someone you really, really like. If life had no experiences like these, both good and bad, what is the point, really?"
Marceline blinked. "Oh," And then, "Tell us how you really feel, Bonnie."
"I would if I took philosophy," Bonnibel confessed. "But I like the core sciences, and I want to be a doctor."
Marceline snorted. "Why not both? Ask your patients if they believe in life after death, that'd really fuck them up." Bonnibel just shoved her playfully. "Hey, the real reason I brought you in here," Marceline began fumbling about in her bag and Bonnibel found her head cocked to the side, staring inquisitively at her friend.
"You didn't drag me in here to help you with your philosophy work?"
"Nope," Marceline sang, popping the 'p'. She withdrew something from her bag, and it was only when she stuck her hand out between them that Bonnibel realised what it was. "I found it in one of the lecture halls. It's yours, yeah?"
The ring that her mother had given her. Yes. Of course it was Marceline who had found it and politely brought it back to her. "Thanks," Her voice shook, staring down at the silver item in Marceline's palm. She didn't make a move to take it.
"It's real pretty, looks expensive too," Marceline said lightly, taking Bonnibel's hand so she could slip the ring onto her finger. For some reason, Bonnibel was blushing. (She realised later that, the reason for her embarrassment, was because Marceline had slipped it intentionally onto her ring finger. For some strange unknown reason that only Marceline knew).
"It was my mothers," Bonnibel whispered around the red. "Engagement ring and all that, I assumed she wanted me to use it for the same reason." She gave a watery laugh, why was it watery? "I can't see myself getting married any time soon, though, and it looks beautiful."
"You're crying," Marceline mumbled, face as soft as the hand that came up to thumb away a tear. "You don't have to talk about it, I just wanted to give it you back."
That was also an unwritten rule. Neither of them pried. It was nice in ways that Bonnibel couldn't express, couldn't express because Marceline didn't ask. It was rather lovely, anyhow.
Bonnibel found herself going to the café rather than the normal lunch place more often. Seeing Marceline cleaning the tables and ask people if they'd like more coffee was cute and Bonnibel couldn't even deny that she'd gone during the other woman's morning shifts. Sometimes, embarrassingly, she wouldn't even order; she'd just sit and stare at Marceline with a blank document open on her laptop for an hour at a time. She knew that Marceline knew, it was impossible not to notice that no words had been typed in the span of an hour, but she was grateful that she wasn't asked about it.
3
"We make a good team,"
Bonnibel hummed gently from her place on the grass. From beside them, Phoebe was sketching the tree line. "That we do," She said gently in reply, bumping her shoulder against Marceline's with a smile. "Though, I'm one hundred percent sure that you're intelligent enough to have done that yourself."
"I need a little confidence, sue me," Marceline grinned. God it was blinding, too, the sun in her eyes was making her do the little squinty eyed thing that Bonnie loved and she just looked positively gorgeous. Bonnibel felt as though the world was against when it came to Marceline, felt like no one else ever had felt their stomach fizz the way hers did when Marceline directed her smile toward her. "Plus, I wasn't talking about the physics work. I just meant that in general… you and me, we make a really good team."
Finn made an appearance, then, trotting up from his two hour exam. "Hey guys, what're we up to?" He flopped down next to Marceline, grinning ear to ear when he noticed Phoebe's sketch. "That's really good,"
"They were being gay again." Phoebe muttered around a sly smirk. "So, nothing unusual. Thank you, by the way." All three of them blinked and Marceline mouthed the words back to herself as if it would help her understand.
"Oh," Finn said dejectedly. "Okay, that's cool." He crossed his legs and cleared his throat, trying desperately to change the topic. Neither Bonnibel or Marceline knew exactly what had just happened. "Are you two doing anything tomorrow?"
"Asking us on a date, Finn?" Marceline teased, prodding her pen into his shoulder. He flushed an incredible shade of red. "But no, not that I know of," She looked over to Bonnibel of all people. "I usually avoid valentines day."
"I was planning on writing up my thesis for chemistry, actually." Bonnibel gave them her wonkiest smile. "Sorry,"
"No, it's cool. Just wondering. Jake and Lacy are going out to dinner and I've got that one," He pointed to Phoebe with a proud smile. "To agree to go on a date with me. Picnics are freaking awesome."
"Huh," Marceline muttered, eyes rolling upwards in thought. "Yeah, Keila and her boyfriend are going to meet his parents."
Bonnibel smiled. "It's going well, then?"
"Yeah, as far as pianists go he's okay. Don't understand why he wanted to play guitar for us when he's so good at playing piano but," She shrugged. "Wanna go see that new Under The Knife movie with me, I promise if you get scared I won't laugh."
A valentines day date with Marceline? Watching a scary movie? Where more than likely she'd end up on Marceline's lap? "Yes, of course. What time?"
Marceline gave her another blinding smile. "I'll show up spontaneously as usual, just make sure you put something pretty on so I can compliment your socks off, yeah?"
Bonnibel's stomach collapsed in on itself. "I'll try,"
She did try. Tried her darnedest to find her white sun dress and those flats she thought were cute and hadn't worn once. She threw on a cardigan too, in case it was chilly out, and looked at herself in the mirror for a good twenty minutes before she decided that no that wasn't good enough for Marceline.
The knock on her door told her it'd have to be.
"Hey, the screening starts at quarter past, you ready?" There was a slight falter in Marceline's greeting when she scanned Bonnibel's person, and Bonnibel's thought train of 'this isn't good enough' turned into 'this is perfect'. "You look good, I didn't think you'd actually put something pretty on. I was- it was a joke."
"And what you're wearing isn't pretty?" Bonnibel teased, jabbing her finger into Marceline's deep red shirt. She noticed that the sleeves had been rolled up, too, and that made her heart flutter because a particular conversation they'd had the week prior Bonnibel had mentioned that she was a sucker for the sleeves up to the elbows. Marceline's face matched her shirt when Bonnibel was done staring at her skinny jeans and black sneakers. She'd kept her demonic spike in her earlobe, though, and the other piercings that littered her ears.
"Yeah, good." Marceline murmured, nodding as she pulled Bonnibel from her dorm room. "C'mon, nerd alert, movie starts soon."
The fantasy in Bonnibel's head didn't quite play out as she liked. As the movie theatre darkened, Bonnibel found herself with an obstacle in her path towards Marceline's lap. 'I'll be hungry if we don't buy it' Marceline had whined when she saw the large popcorn, and Bonnibel had a feeling that Marceline knew how much her whining affected Bonnibel.
When the first jumpscare happened, Bonnibel gripped the edge of her seat harder than she liked to admit. Marceline didn't even flinch. It made her feel a little bit of a coward when the second one made her yelp, but Marceline's reassuring smile made everything a little better until the third one.
"Marceline," She hissed, ducking her head a little closer to Marceline's shoulder in case there was another one. "Why did you make me see this movie?"
"It's good," Marceline pouted, grinning when Bonnibel jumped once more. "We can leave if you want, I'm sure Keila will come down and see it with me tomorrow."
Bonnibel shook her head no and the conversation stopped there. Marceline wrapped an arm around her shoulders though, after a particularly scary scene resulted Bonnibel into a ball in her seat. Then Bonnibel found it very hard to concentrate on something that wasn't the oddly soothing circles that Marceline was drawing onto her arm.
"Are you sure?" Marceline asked for the upteenth time as they left the movie theatre. Bonnibel huffed a little bit. "Come on, you were practically cowering in there. I just don't want to be called up at four in the morning because you had a nasty dream."
"You know, you show your concern in odd ways," Bonnibel muttered back. "Teasing me isn't going to help."
Marceline rolled her eyes and threw the empty popcorn bucket into the bin, along with both their empty drinks. "I wouldn't mind crashing at your place. Come on, Bonnie, it'll be just like a sleepover."
"My sofa is too small," Bonnibel sighed, watching as Marceline pouted. "Your lanky body wouldn't fit."
"So? You have a double bed, Bonnie, I've seen it." Bonnibel wanted to die. Marceline was suggesting that they sleep together? Right next to one another? Gosh. "I'm just looking out for you,"
Bonnibel sighed and let her heart make the decision. "Fine, but only because that movie was seriously messed up and you're a jerk for making me watch it."
Marceline just stuck her tongue out.
The morning after, when Bonnibel awoke to a sleepy Marceline smiling at her through her mane of hair, she was grateful that she'd agreed. The nightmares she'd had were small, yet Marceline fretted over them anyway and made Bonnibel laugh at least once before allowing her to go back to sleep.
It was odd how easy it was to go to sleep and wake up next to her.
"Mornin', Bon," Marceline spoke, her voice thick with sleep. Bonnibel decided she quite liked the sound of her voice, and the countless nicknames she had been given. "When do your classes start?"
"I have spares all morning," Bonnibel managed to get out through a yawn. "You?"
"We have our spares together, dumbass,"
"Not on Wednesday we don't." Bonnibel shot back. "You have music theory during my spares in the morning."
Marceline frowned and brushed her hair out of her face. "Oh, yeah. How'd you know that?"
"Finn has music theory with you, also I've spent enough time with you to know your timetable." A small smile presented itself on Marceline's face then, sly and too tempting for Bonnibel not to ask. "What's that look for?"
"I didn't tell Keila anything yesterday, she probably thinks I got laid." Her smirk grew as Bonnibel's face went pink. "Valentines day boning is gross and usually planned," Marceline stuck her tongue out in disgust.
"What about the day after valentines?" It was meant to be a teasing remark, but then she remembered where she was and that Marceline wasn't wearing jeans because she'd made her take them off for comfort.
It was probably the first time Bonnibel had seen Marceline's entire face go red. "I-Uh, I guess? I don't think- I'm not, uh-," And then her face went into the pillow. "I just think it's gross if it's planned." She hoarsely mumbled.
There was a question that Bonnibel had meant to ask the day prior, too, on the very tip of her tongue that it came out almost accidentally. Her brain rarely had a filter with Marceline around.
"Was yesterday a date?" She asked, after Marceline composed herself and lifted her head back up. She watched the way her friends eyes stared at her for a second, before her mouth opened to answer.
"It was only a date if you wanted it to be," Marceline replied. "But I asked you to go to the movies with me on valentines day, Bonnie, please read into that." Bonnibel felt her face get warmer again and Marceline smiled. "I'm making us pancakes for breakfast. No arguments, or I'll come over one night and sleep in your bed again." She threatened as if it was such an awful thing.
"I don't mind you sleeping over again, Marcy, but pancakes do sound really good right now."
Marceline paused, midway through clambering out of bed, and arched a brow at her. "Marcy?" At Bonnibel's hum, Marceline continued to get up and pull her jeans back on. Bonnibel would be lying if she said she didn't watch the whole ordeal.
"Bon and Marcy," Bonnibel cooed gently to herself. "Sounds cute, right?"
"Adorable," Marceline replied from over her shoulder. "You want bacon, too?"
"Duh, what else would you suggest I have with my pancakes?"
Marceline just muttered something to herself under her breath and continued to mess around in the kitchen. Bonnibel watched with the same intent she had when she went to the café.
"Breakfast in bed, m'lady," Marceline returned with two plates.
"Are you saying I'm the queen?" Bonnibel teased her, taking one with a soft 'thank you'. And not shuffling up when Marceline sat beside her on the bed.
Marceline shook her head. "You're a princess, idiot." She mumbled softly, prodding her pancakes with an even softer pout. "Smart, pretty and really god damn mean when you want to be,"
Bonnibel had a feeling she was talking about the time she said something behind Jake's back about one of his other not so nice friends, but her brain short circuited. "Pretty?"
Marceline smiled. "'Course, you're gorgeous. Shut up and eat your pancakes."
"Gorgeous?"
"Oh my god, Bonnie," Marceline groaned. "Yes. You're… Really pretty. Stop floundering and eat your breakfast."
Bonnibel tried her hardest not to let all that go to her head.
4
Flowers reminded Bonnibel of her parents. Usually her father would go out to the garden and bring back bundles of them for her mother, not really caring when Bonnibel told him that the meanings of said flowers weren't at all romantic.
A bouquet of them ended up outside her dorm room, wrapped and with a little scribbled note of 'Thanks' from whoever her secret admirer was. At first she'd assumed it had been Finn who had brought her the varying array of flowers; it just seemed like him to not really look at them or bother to colour coordinate.
"Not me," He'd said when Bonnibel questioned him about them, glancing at the rather lovely bouquet. "I only give flowers to Phoebe." Finn puffed his chest out and smiled as if it solved all the questions in Bonnibel's head.
It was at lunch when she got a proper look at them. A yellow daffodil, that usually meant new beginnings right? A blue violet had somehow made its way into the mix, there were some yellow acacias, too, bundled up in the middle. Jasmine, gardenia's, a sprig of forget-me-nots, tulips and exactly twelve red roses.
Bonnibel assumed that whoever had given them to her knew about meanings, it was too deliberate, too much of a coincidence if it weren't.
"Secret admirer, Bonnibel?" Jake teased. He'd been staring at the flowers too, then. "Awfully romantic, whoever it was."
Marceline didn't sit with them until after her shift, usually a good thirty minutes into their lunch, but Bonnibel's next period crept up on her and Marceline was still nowhere to be seen. Odd.
"Knock, knock?" The door was already opening, Marceline stepping through with a cheeky smile and a wave. "Heard you got a declaration of love through flowers," She chortled, noticing the bouquet that Bonnibel had found a vase for. "Seems a little… messy."
"It's awful and sappy," Bonnibel complained as she looked at the arrangement. "The meanings of flowers are complicated, but those are too easy not to mean what I know they mean."
Marceline arched a brow and thumbed one of the roses. "Expensive, too."
"All I have is a thank you note and-," And then Marceline was giving her a crooked smile. "What?"
"You've read it, then?" She asked softly. "C'mon, Bon, you're smart. Correlation and all that jazz," She threw herself down on the sofa, not taking her eyes off the pop of colour in the room. "Who's handwriting is it?"
Oh. "Truth be told I thought it was Finn's at first," Bonnibel confessed, earning a snort from Marceline. "But now… now I'm not so sure."
"You deserve pretty things, Bonnie,"
Bonnibel just hummed and gave Marceline a long hard look. "Where'd you get them from?"
A sigh. Then Marceline turned her head to look at Bonnibel, mouth twisting as she thought. "There's a flower shop, not too far away from the café. Ivy's. Got them when you had that essay to write," And then came the strangest sentence Marceline had ever said. "I didn't- You never said you were gay. Finn brought it up one day when I was with them and- I guess I just never asked?"
"You never said that you were gay either, so I'd say we're even." Bonnibel shot back lightly. "Are you saying you're attracted to me, Abadeer?"
Those green eyes had never been brighter. "Only if you're okay with me telling the world how amazing you are every day."
"I've never been more okay with anything in my life," Bonnibel said truthfully. "Does this mean you're my girlfriend now?" She leaned forwards, stopping when she could feel the heat radiating off of Marceline's cheeks.
She swallowed. "I'll be anything you want me to," Neither of them knew who it was that closed the remaining gap between them, but Bonnibel was sure that it was Marceline that had caused a bruise to form near her hip.
5
Dating Marceline had its perks. Bonnibel got to listen to her practice with her band, got to kiss her when no one was looking, got to hold her hand and cuddle during movie nights. It was such a smooth transition, too; her heart had yearned for Marceline's tender mouth on hers for far so long that not one week into their relationship it was as if they'd been dating for years.
She was quick to pick up on some more of Marceline's habitual quirks, like the way she liked to organise her vinyl's, or how whenever she had a shower she'd always sing at the top of her lungs.
"It's funny," Jake started when Bonnibel pulled Marceline down to the grass by their conjoint hands. "Everyone thought you hated her,"
Marceline just scoffed and began to fiddle with the hem of her shirt, mouth opening and closing to try to form words. "I could never," Was the first thing that came out of her mouth, turning all of Bonnibel's insides into mush. "She was too persistent."
"I'm persistent?" Bonnibel shrieked. "You were the one who glared at me whenever I was in the same room as you."
"I thought-," Marceline cut herself off, cleared her throat, then started again in a low growl. "In my defence, I thought you were pretty. Sue me for being scared of women."
"No need to be so grumpy," Bonnibel soothed. "I thought you were pretty too, but you were also mean and it sent me mixed messages."
Finn slumped down into a space beside Jake and huffed. "I got a D in mathematics," He grumbled under his breath, eyes then noticing Marceline and Bonnibel's joined hands. "Oh, I forgot you two grew a pair."
"If only the same could be said about you when you had the chance," Jake said before he began fiddling with his earlobe. "Actually, wait, she's always been gay. You never had a chance." It still earned him an elbow to the side.
Marceline just continued looking at Bonnibel with that funny little smile she usually wore when she wanted something she couldn't have. Then she leaned forwards. "Can we leave so I can kiss you?"
Bonnibel began to pack her textbooks away almost immediately, giving apologies to Jake as she shouldered her bag. 'Marceline has band stuff,' was her excuse, before Marceline tugged her away. They bumped into a confused Phoebe and Lacy but Marceline was impatient and all Bonnibel could do was shrug in their direction.
The moment Marceline slipped them both into her dorm room Bonnibel's back was pressed to the door. And then the wall. And then they somehow managed to stumble to the couch, laughing into each others mouths when Marceline dug around beneath her to get rid of the remote.
"Band stuff, huh?" Marceline sighed, lips pressing against Bonnibel's neck when they settled. "Pretty cool band if you ask me."
"Oh, shut up." Bonnibel scoffed. "You didn't give me much time to come up with anything better." Impatient whiny baby came to mind when Marceline gave her a pout. She smiled and kissed her temple anyways.
"Go out with me," Marceline's lips ghosted against the skin on Bonnibel's throat.
Bonnibel really couldn't help herself. The way Marceline had phrased it made Bonnibel's face split in two. "You've already asked me out, idiot. We've been dating for a few weeks."
"I mean, like, on a date." She felt her pout. "There's a beach a few hours drive from here, has a pier and I've wanted to go since I was a baby. Only, I don't have a car."
"Neither do I," Bonnibel reminded her. "Still haven't passed."
A sigh was all she felt against her collarbone, and then Marceline shuffled so that she was on her elbows. "I could get my brother to take me, he's going up anyway with his girlfriend to meet her family. It'll only be for a day, I promise."
"Of course I'll go on a date with you, Marcy," Bonnibel soothed the worrying furrow from her girlfriends brow with a tender kiss, enjoying the warmth that barrelled into her chest when Marceline's hands came to tangle in her hair.
Yes, dating Marceline was proving to be the best thing that she'd ever agreed to do. Her habits were adorable (if a little dorky at times) and Bonnibel was sure that whenever Marceline kissed her she gained a few extra years on her lifespan.
On the morning of the day they were to wake up for the date to the beach, however, Marceline was in a particularly uncooperative mood. The alarm on Bonnibel's bedside table was screeching at them, telling them they only had half an hour to get ready and head down to Marshall's apartment, but Marceline would not for the life of her release Bonnibel so that they could get out of bed (not that Bonnibel minded).
She finally managed to coerce Marceline out from her cocoon of blankets, providing her with a slew of reasons why that made her shoot up from bed and get changed in a heartbeat. If only it were that easy to get her out of bed for her lectures.
The pier was awfully romantic, to steal Jake's words about the flower fiasco, and Marceline didn't leave any trope untouched; the big bear she won at one of the stalls was handed immediately to Bonnibel, and she kissed her soundly at the top of the ferris wheel.
"Marshall says he'll be done in thirty minutes," Marceline sighed, pocketing her phone as they trudged along the beach away from the pier. Bonnibel's hand felt safe in hers and the soft circles that her girlfriend was drawing against her knuckles made her face split in two. "What are you doing after you graduate?"
Bonnibel hummed in thought, finding it very distracting that Marceline had chosen then to ghost her lips across her cheekbone. "Postgraduate at the fancy medical school in Walden," She sighed. "Then I'll become a junior doctor, why?"
"So… I'm not in that life?" Marceline asked, voice a little too calm for such a loaded question.
Bonnibel sucked in a breath. "You can be," That surprised her girlfriend. "I'd like it if you moved in with me, in an apartment that's not on campus, but I was under the impression that you'd like to go to that fancy music school and really excel with what you're doing."
"I'd miss you too much," Was Marceline's reply. "Plus, I'm nowhere near as good as everyone else who goes there-,"
Bonnibel was quick to cut her off. "Bullshit. You're amazing, Marcy, they'd accept you right away."
6
Marceline moved in with her at the end of their college year. Bonnibel had chosen a nice little one bedroom apartment a little bit away from both their chosen universities. That was their little agreement; suggested by Marceline after a date night.
It was cozy and domestic to an extent that Bonnibel thought it would make her punk girlfriend uncomfortable. Marceline just softened down a little more to what she was accustomed to, reading with Bonnibel at night and singing while she prepared dinner and cleaned up afterwards.
Their commute to the universities usually meant waking up early and forgetting to eat breakfast, sleepy farewell kisses and mutterings of love.
Bonnibel passing her driving test egged Marceline on to getting a motorcycle, motivated by jealousy of her girlfriend getting to sleep in longer than she could.
It became a lot easier when they both graduated; the hospital wasn't nearly as far for Bonnibel and Marceline went to teach music at the local school.
The decision to buy a house together was stressful, and Bonnibel almost lost Marceline to a stupid fight over the budget. They got a decent two bedroom house, though, and Bonnibel found herself with a silver band around one of her fingers four months later.