Fionna grumpily unhooked the red and white stripped scarf from yet another tree branch, wincing at the many holes and ladders the fabric was acquiring.
' See, I told you that scarf was a stupid idea.' Marshall-lee commented, earning himself the stink eye from the annoyed and cold girl.
' You're wearing a scarf too!' Marshall-lee rolled his eyes in an over-exaggerated fashion, putting a hand on his hip and grandly unfurling the other palm, which made Fionna wince again.
' Yes, but baby I was smart enough to tuck the ends of my scarf into my rather excellent jumper.' Marshall explained condescendingly, while Fionna childishly wrinkled her nose and made 'meh-meh' movements with her frozen lips. Why the hell Marshall had asked her to come, alone, to the forest when it was so cold- she had no idea. Winter time, at the end of the year, was a time for hot cocoa and staying inside, not walking around in the snow. If she wanted snow she'd go see Ice Queen, then at least only the ground was cold and she wasn't getting snowflakes stuck on her eyelashes.
' Don't call me baby, and what makes your jumper so great? it's just a reindeer piggybacking another one.' Fionna snarked at him, blinking in confusion when instead of becoming defensive, Marshall-lee instead sniggered slightly.
' Yeah, piggybacking. You shoud give me a piggy back sometime, Fionna.' He chortled, Fionna looking at him like he was the stupidest person that ever existed.
' Do I even want to ask? You're so freakin' weird, Marshall.' She brushed aside a tree branch impatiently and spluttered when bits of snow and loose leaves rebounded into her face.
' Besides,' She sighed, picking a leaf off her lower lip, ' You can float. What's the point?'
Fionna waited with a growing sense of discomfort as Marshall just looked at her for maybe five seconds, a small, dumb smile on his face before he shook his head and pushed a hand through his mess of ebony curls, which had been strewn liberally over his eyes.
' Not uh, not everything needs to have a point, bunny. Now, believe it or not, we are actually goin' somewhere but before we get there, I've got a story I wanna tell you.' Fionna looked at him with a mixture of skepticism and curiosity which Marshall took as his cue to begin. He pointed in the direction they were going and Fionna began to walk, ducking under a branch Marshall held out of her way.
' So back when I was really, really little, before I met Simone even, at the end of the year there was this holiday we had called Christmas. It was about celebrating this kid's birthday because he was the son of Glob, blah blah blah, but no-one except the religious nuts really got into that side of it. Basically what you did was eat a ton of food and give each other presents and y'know, take some time to tell the important people in your life " Hey, guess what? I actually appreciate you." Fionna thought about this for a second then shrugged as she walked along a log, arms stuck out to the side. Marshall took her hand as she stepped off, then awkwardly let go as Fionna sent him a look that clearly said she didn't need him to do that for her.
' That sounds fun.'
' Yeah, and you'd basically go around and tell people ' Have a merry Christmas' and be nice and wear stupid hats and have fun. It was like this kid decided for one day, it was everyone in the world's birthday as well as his.'
' Okay, but why're you telling me this? I mean, it sounds cool and all but why?' Fionna questioned, big blue eyes wide and clear, circles of snow blotched with stubborn patches of grass reflected in the pools of colour. Marshall caught himself staring at her again before he began to answer, and he quickly looked back in the direction they were going.
' Well, yeah like you said, it was fun. So, you wanna do it with me this year?'
' What, celebrate Christmas?' Marshall knew he was blushing slightly and hoped like hell that the lack of a working pump for the darkish blood meant Fionna couldn't see.
' Yeah. Why not?' He said casually, flashing her a smile. Fionna pursed her lips for a second, then impulsively reached out and whacked a tree trunk. A large pile of snow dumped onto the ground in front of her and she giggled, and she was still smiling like so when she looked back towards the vampire. It gave him an uncomfortable feeling in his chest, like something was about to convulse although it really couldn't.
' Why not indeed. Alright, sure. Merry Christmas, Marshall-lee!' She said, her breath turning into white puffs as she talked. Marshall smiled at her and tugged on one of her bunny ears, making her squeak in protest
' Merry Christmas, Bunny-blue.'
They walked and floated respectively in silence for a few minutes, until Fionna thought of a question to ask about their agreement.
' So what exactly do we have to do? for Christmas, I mean?' Marshall had been deep in his thoughts and it took him a second to register her words.
' Hm? uh, well we give each other a present, eat a ton of food, probably watch some movie about the joys of friendship or something stupid like that... Just like hanging out normally I guess, only with silly hats and gifts.' Fionna raised an eyebrow.
' Is there really nothing else?'
' Well... hold on a minute. I'll show you what else there is, that's where we're going. But you have to let me cover your eyes.' Marshall told her playfully, recognising where they were. Fionna looked vaguely suspicious.
' Why?'
' Just embrace it Fionna, trust me.'
' I don't.'
'Ouch.' Fionna sighed and let her hands fall to her sides defeatedly.
' Awright, go ahead.' She said in a bored tone, though Marshall could tell she was really just impatient. He floated around behind her and gently covered her eyes with his hands, feeling a strange sense of gratification when Fionna shivered at how cold they were.
' Okay, keep walking forward.' Fionna did so tentatively, Marshall offering several slightly obnoxious reassurances until she snapped at him to shut up. They kept going for a short distance until Marshall brought them to a halt.
' You ready?' He asked, Fionna detecting a hint of excitement in her voice which only made her more curious.'
' Yes, hurry up!' Marshall smiled briefly to himself then took his hands off her face, resisting the urge to bursh her cheek as he backed away a little and let her take in what she was seeing.
Fionna gazed up in wonder at the tall, proud evergreen pine tree decorated with what seemed like hundreds of ornaments and candles. There were shiny lengths of red satin ribbon draped across the boughs, red and white candy canes hung on the lower branches with burgundy candy crystal dripping off the upper like surreal geometric red dew. A large red and gold bow was tied at the top of the tree and millions of tiny red candles were somehow attached with golden stands. It rose up above her like a glittering display to- to something she couldn't even understand, she just knew it had her mesmerised.
Underneath all this panache and spectacle, sitting coyly in the snow was a red wrapped box with a currently illegible tag hanging off it.
' Wow, Marshall.'
' Uhuh.'
' I've been around for sixteen years and shoot me if that isn't the prettiest thing I've ever seen.' Fionna said in awe, tentatively stepping forward and pulling a candy cane off of one of the branches above her head.
' What about my gorgeous face though?' Marshall-lee quipped, and Fionna didn't even grace him with an eye roll, only raising an eyebrow good naturedly as she twirled the candy in her hands.
' Christmas tradition is that everyone would buy the presents for their family and wrap them and place them under the Christmas tree, where they'd leave 'em until the actual Christmas day and then they'd all unwrap them all together. One big happy family.' Fionna thought that Marshall looked a little wistful when he said this, but the feeling faded as quickly as it had appeared.
' Anyway, since it's just you an' me in on this, it's not likely Cake will let you drag a tree into the house but I wanted you to see what they looked like anyways.' Fionna looked up at it again, taking in the soft glow from all those tiny candles.
' It's beautiful.' Marshall smiled at her back and then floated over next to her, picking up the red-wrapped box from underneath the tree. He thrust his other hand deep into his pocket as he proffered it to Fionna.
' Merry Christmas, fi.' He said, losing his nerve slightly and looking away when they made eye contact. Fionna took the box off of him and looked up at him, seeming slightly distraught.
' But I-I haven't gotten you anything!'
' Relax, baby. You can get me something whenever, I don't even remember the exact date of Christmas anymore. I just know it happened a little bit before New Year's. Open it.' He said, gesturing to the box in her hands. Fionna still looked a little unhappy, but her fingers still curled under the edges of the paper and started to release the tape.
' A leather Jacket?' Fionna said with a little surprise, lifting the garment out of the box. It had a fabric hood with a fluffy fur lining.
' Not just a leather jacket, a leather jacket from the Nightosphere. Up here, that thing is water-proof, lava-proof, bullet-proof... everything proof. Plus,' he grinned at her as she put it on,' It'll keep you warm.' Fionna flinched slightly when Marshall reached out and did up the zip for her, causing her already cold-flushed cheeks to glow even brighter. However, the jacket was comfortable and fit her well, and when she pulled up the hood she felt two discreet slits on the top of it where she could thread her rabbit ears through to stop it from blowing off. Marshall would've added that himself, customising it for her.
This was actually really, really sweet of him. Huh. Who knew?
' Thank you... Marshall. Really, thanks, this is so cool.' Fionna stammered after a moment, slightly surprised by how thoughtful the gift was. This had not been what she had expected when Marshall had asked her to come out tonight. She had been kind of iffy about coming, expecially without Cake, because whenever she wasn't around somehow the situation always seemed to end up romantic, whether Marshall did it deliberately (which annoyed her very much) or not. It was a cosmic rule or something and it creeped her out how much the universe was like ' Hey, you guys should kiss!"
Not that she didn't want to. But not that she did either. Her love life was something she was trying her best to stop from becoming a priority after two failed romances. Friends was much less messy and painful, or so it seemed.
' You're welcome. But y'know, I have one more christmas tradition I forgot to tell you about.' Marshall told her, a sly grin edging its way onto his features.
' What's that?' Marshall pointed up above them, into the branches of the tree and when Fionna looked up, he took the opportunity to float in closer to her. Fionna jumped and blushed again when he started speaking, surprised by his proximity. Oh no.
' You see that pretty looking bouquet up there of leaves and white berries?' He said, reaching down and winding his fingers between hers. Fionna, who was beginning to have a massive internal panic attack, failed to reply. Marshall continued to explain anyways.
' That's called mistletoe. And y'know what you gotta do if you end up under the mistletoe with someone?' He whispered, his face now so close to hers that Fionna could feel his oddly cool breath on her cheek, and it sent her into full on romantic fight or flight mode.
Unfortunately, she also came to a sudden realisation that maybe this was what Marshall had been leading up to all along. He had set up this tree, he knew full well that the mistletoe was there. Maybe this was just him playing another stupid prank on her to try and make her kiss him and 'prove' she liked him, and this one was just a little more elaborate than all the other ones before it. Maybe Christmas and all of this were just a big joke and she was the punchline for believing it.
Gob. She felt like a fool.
' Oh my glob, you're doing it again!' Fionna screamed angrily, pushing Marshall-lee away from her forcefully. The vampire seemed hugely surprised, blinking at her in shock.
' What?'
' I can't believe you'd do all of this just to get me to say that I like you or to kiss you! This is messed up, Marshall-lee! Why do you keep playing with my head like this? Do you think it's funny to make me... to make me cry?' Fionna sobbed, shaking her head and swallowing hard as tears began to well up in her eyes. She had totally believed it, every single word. She was so guilible and naive. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice...
' Fionna, wait, I'm not-' Marshall swore colourfully as Fionna turned and sprinted out of the forest away from him, leaving him surrounded by snow and the faint, suddenly chilling light of a hundred dying candles.
Fionna curled up tightly into her secret hollow in the base of the treehouse's trunk, snuffling pitifully. Why did he always have to deceive her and trick her, just when she felt like she was finally getting close to meeting the real guy behind all the posturing? Even if she wasn't attracted to him (which she was, as hard as she tried not to be), being made a fool of by someone she wanted to call her friend would hurt a lot. Considering who he was, the way he did it and how it made her feel, right now it hurt a lot worse.
Fionna tried to wipe her eyes on the sleeve of the leather jacket, but the water-proofing meant that all it did was smudge the tears around her face. However, after completing the action, Fionna found herself looking at the jacket with no idea why she was contemplating it as hard as she was.
If it was really waterproof and everything then that must mean it was really from the Nightosphere. And that means it must've either belonged to Marshall or he had gotten it specially for her down there.
Plus those little slits in the hood, perfectly placed for the ears of her hat. Fionna found her fingers seeking the fabric as she considered it. He had definitely done that deliberately, and along with all the time and effort he had put into the Christmas tree... even for Marshall, that was way too much for the sake of a prank. He was far too impulsive to carry through with something like that. And although he had done his level best to convince her otherwise, she didn't believe he was that cruel either.
But if it wasn't a prank, and everything, even the mistletoe, was true- Did that meant he had only put it up as an excuse so that... he could kiss her?
Fionna crawled out of her hole, feeling the tears on her face freeze before they could dry off. It was very dark, heading towards the late hours of the night. So she would just do one more thing today, and then there were a couple people she needed to talk to tomorrow.
Marshall drifted morosely out of his room at the sound of knocking on his door. After it became clear that Fionna would have nothing to do with him for the rest of forever probably, he had first gone to the candy kingdom and messed with things for a bit to make himself feel better, then gone home and not slept as he tried to understand what had made Fionna think he was lying. He had tried to make her kiss him before, but never with something as complicated as this. It made him equally angry at Fionna and himself that she would think him capable of being that callous towards her. Was he really that much of a jerk to her?
'What?' He snapped bluntly as he tugged open the door then stopped in surprise when he saw a certain adventuress standing shyly on his porch, wearing the same scarf as yesterday which had managed to get a small number of tiny sticks speared though it, as well as the leather jacket. She was holding a small package tied up with blue ribbon and her clothing and hair were crusted with snowflakes.
They stared at each other in silence for a few moments until Fionna jerkily thrust the paper package in her arms at Marshall.
' Merry Christmas, Marshall-lee.' She stammered sheepishly, unable to look him in the eye. Marshall blinked at her in surprise then frowned, opening his mouth to yell at her but he stopped himself, eyeing the package with a mixure of curiosity and confusion. Obviously she'd figured out he wasn't conning her (not this time) and she was embarrassed by how she had treated him. So then what was she pushing towards him tied up in ribbon that was supposed to make up for it?
Marshall slowly took the package off her, staring pointedly at her the entire time, only looking away when he was satisfied by the depth of the dramatic colour on her cheeks. The bow she had tied was perfectly even, and it made him wonder how long it had taken her to make that happen as he released it and pulled off the ribbon, digging into the fragile paper.
'... What is this?' He said after a few moments of staring uncomprehendingly at at the contents of the paper. Fionna sighed and rolled her eyes, her cheeks staying embarrassingly bright then looked down at the ground. Marshall raised an eyebrow at her, experiencing a complicated mixture of amusement, confusion, anger, and hurt. It was most discombobulating.
Fionna stuck her hand into the paper and pulled out a medium-sized hunk of wood that was vaguely, tentatively heart-shaped. It had four gouges in the shape of an M in the center, though they were clearly much older than the scooped marks shaping the block.
' That's from the trunk of the treehouse where you carved your intial, remember? You showed me where it was once, on the night I first met you. When you kicked me out.' Marshall grinned at the memory then quickly returned his face to neutral, a quiet, slightly icky sense of happiness beginning in his gut. It was totally unfamiliar and also totally unexpected. He was mad at her, and this was just sentimental nostalgic bullshit, so how come all he wanted right now was to-
' And this?' Marshall asked, holding up the small sprig of mistletoe that sat in his palm. Fionna's face screwed up slightly, like it did when she was embarrassed or upset, and Marshall waited in silence with a growing amount of interest.
' T-that's some of the mistletoe that you put in the christmas tree.' She trailed off then huffed out a short sigh, nervously tugging on a piece of her hair as her eyebrows creased together.
' I-I went and talked to Ice Queen and asked her if it was true and she said that everything, even this was true. And then she wanted to party with her penguins but a-anyway, I'm sorry Marshall-lee. I misjudged you and that was mean and I'm sorry. Even though you do stupid stuff sometimes I know you'd never try to hurt me like that.' She said earnestly, her eyes so big and so blue. Looking into them was like falling into a pool and watching as the sun rippled through the surface above you. You weren't quite sure if you wanted to come up again because sinking was just so damn beautiful.
When Marshall realised he was staring again, he looked down at his hands, where Fionna had replaced the heart and a brief grin cracked across his face, that he couldn't quite manage to shoo away afterwards.
' No, I wouldn't, so good for you for figuring that out.' He laughed once, then looked at her and gave her a smile, a real one, and he swore he could almost see the relief flood into her.
' You wanna come in? You've got snow all through your hair.' Marshall reached out and brushed some of it off with his fingertips, Fionna staying frozen where she stood.
' Uh-uhm...' She swallowed nervously, Marshall-lee watching her curiously as she tentatively pointed upwards at the doorway between them, dropping eye contact at the same time. Marshall failed to realise what she was gesturing to at first, but then noticed the characteristic teardrop leaves and white berries hastily stuffed into a notch between the frame and the wall.
The silence that hung in the air for just a beat too long nearly made Fionna faint.
' So that's where the rest of it is.' Marshall stated mildly after a moment, smiling genially at the shocked and mortified adventuress and being very grateful that his physiology didn't allow for a thumping heart or a short sharp flush of the cheeks.
Fionna opened her lips to reply, she wasn't quite sure with what, and the space was immediately filled when Marshall closed his mouth over hers a moment later.
Fionna was sort of aware of Marshall's long figure bending over her, pressing them together as she arched her back around one of his hands. The other cupped the side of her face, his fingers exactly as cold as the fridgid air around them. Hers were tightly wound in his hair when he broke away, stiff from cold and how firmly she had clung to him.
The only thing she managed to observe as she was staring back at the vampire was that his breath had become hot enough that she could see the white puffs curling over his dark red lips, which contrasted sharply with his white fangs.
Marshall let her go slightly awkwardly after a moment, a little embarrassed by how theatrical he had been. However, as far as a kiss went, that was definitely memorable enough. Points to him and his lack of self control.
Fionna bit her lip and giggled at his expression. He had tasted slightly minty, and it left a tingly feeling in her mouth.
' I think I like that Christmas tradition.'
' Hey, you were the one who put it there that time.' Fionna conceeded with a slightly sheepish nod, Marshall unable to resist reaching out to brush the backs of his fingers over the constantly fluctuating circles of colour on either side of her nose. She was always blushing around him, but never continuously.
' Merry christmas, Marshall-lee.'
' Merry christmas, Bunny-blue.'
Fionna closed her eyes in anticipation as Marshall held her face in both hands and leaned down towards her, then blinked them open in confusion when his lips only went to her ear.
' So... Want some cocoa?' He whispered, then sniggered unrepentantly when Fionna glared at him and whacked him in the arm, brushing off his touch and stalking into his house, shaking snow off as she went. Marshall smiled after her, reaching up and nestling her crude wooden heart among the mistletoe before following her inside and closing the door behind himself.
Author's note: Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!
-WRA