Fionna was lying in bed, late one rainy night when it happened. Her eyes popped open in shock, and she almost cried out, but Cake was just across the room in her drawer. All the same, she bolted upright in bed, sliding out of her sleeping bag and climbing down the ladder into the living room to sit on the couch.

She'd had an epiphany. An epiphany, which she begrudgingly admitted, she should have had a long, long time ago.

See, Fionna and Cake had been hanging out with Marshall Lee Abadeer more and more lately, going on quests and doing things from both their schedule and his. More often than not, though, Cake would claim to some illness or that there was some errand that desperetly needed running.

"Oh, okay, Cake. Let's go!" Fionna replied usually, looking rather put out. "Grocery Kingdom, here we come…"

"Nah, babycakes, you go have fun with Marshy. I'll handle it." Cake would say quickly. "I'll might meet up with you later, but don't wait up for me?" She winkled.

"Well, alright…" Fionna said uncertainly.

In retrospect, Cake was, most likely, just trying to leave her alone with Marshall. She'd probably had Fionna's epiphany before Fionna did. It was probably her idea of a 'gentle push'. (Read; shove)

There was a knock at the door, shaking Fionna from her reverie. She looked up to the window, peering out to see Prince Gumball standing there, wearing his coat, buttoned up against the midnight cold, and a pair of furry boots. She padded over to the door, opening it with a hugely exaggerated yawn. "Hey, dude. One, why aren't you asleep right now, two, why are you here, and three, what's up?"

"You do realize that they're all pretty much the same question, right?" He raised an eyebrow as he stepped inside, shaking rain droplets off of his hair.

"Whatever. What's up, P.G.?" She flopped onto the couch.

He joined her, casually kicking the door closed behind him. "So… I noticed you and Marshall Lee are hanging out a lot lately." He said, echoing her earlier thoughts.

She narrowed her eyes. "Listen, if you came over her in the middle of the night, while it's raining, risking getting me in huge trouble with Cake, just to gossip, you can turn around, walk out that door, and go on up to Lumpy Space and talk to LSPrince and LSPrincess, clear?"

He laughed and held up his hands in joking defense. "Hey, I was just commenting! I actually wanted to ask you about him, though."

"Oh, what?" Fionna fidgeted a little. If even P.G. had figured it out before her, she would literally die of embarrassment.

"Well, he's acting a little funny. Kinda… not mopey, but… really quiet." Gumball shrugged. "It's probably nothing, but I'm a little worried about the shade-sucker." He absentmindedly drummed his fingers on the couch arm. "And you're not really being your usual bouncy bunny self, either, Fi."

She looked at her footie-pajama-ed feet, biting her lip. "Well… Gumball..." She glanced at him and chickened out. "I don't know why Marshall's acting like that. And I'm just kinda tired lately. Um, I wanted to ask you something." She said.

"Yeah, what?" He cocked his head.

"Well… it's about you and Marceline…"

"What is it? May as well get it off your chest."

"Um… when you realized that you liked Marcy as more than a buddy, what'd… what did it feel like? How did you know?" She tapped her index fingers together meekly.

"Well…" He stopped drumming his fingers. "It's… kind of hard to explain. It just occurred to me that, if you don't mind the example, with you I want to hang out with, and fight alongside, and help do stuff. With Marcy, I more want to hang out with and protect and do stuff for, if that makes sense. You follow?"

"Yeah…" Fionna murmured, nodding.

"And I wanted to be near her, all the time. When she smiled, it was like the whole world just… lit up. It was an absolutely amazing feeling. Of course, me thinking that Marceline, Queen of the Vampires, could never throw me a second glance as anything more than a friend didn't exactly help my confidence." He got a very distant look in his eyes, then recovered, shaking his head. He looked at Fionna. "Why do you ask?"

Fionna looked like a rabbit caught in headlights. "Oh, no reason!" She replied quickly in a strained voice, her pitch going up an octave.

He simply raised a pink eyebrow. "Fionna…"

"W-well… you have to promise not to tell him!" She flung out.

"I promise." He said dryly.

"You're a prince, royal promise!" She insisted.

"Okay. I, Prince Gumball, of the Candy Kingdom of Aaa, royal promise not to tell 'him'." He said solemnly. "Whoever that may be."

"Okay… you know what you said about Marceline? About how when she smiled, everything was all bright and happy? That's how I feel about-" She mumbled something unintelligible.

"Who?" Gumball cupped a hand to his ear.

"I said-" She mumbled again, slightly louder.

"Fionna," He said, "I can't understand you."

"W-whatever! I'll tell you in a minute! Anyway, it feels like I can't breathe when I'm near him. It's really scary. I remember a little while ago, me and him and Cake were going down to the woods for a picnic, and he found this berry thing, and he gave it to Cake, and he sang this little song, and it was really funny." She smiled wistfully.

"I seem to have been demoted to psychologist. Do I get to charge you for this?" He joked.

"No, you play the part of the ever-caring, tolerant friend. Cake left after a while because she was uncomfortable, and it was just me and him… I was really scared for a bit, but then he was all nice and stuff. Oh! And Marcy flew past sucking on some flowers, and she dropped one, and it was kinda half-grey and half-red, and it was really pretty, so I said so. And he tucked it behind my hair, and he was smiling…" Fionna trailed off, flustered.

"But?" He prompted.

"But I got really scared, and when he turned around, I blurted out that Finn needed to talk to me, and I ran off." She explained quickly, hanging her head.

"I know who it is. Cake was uncomfortable, and there wasn't any fire in your story, and he was brave enough to go down in the woods, and silly enough to give Cake a 'berry thing'"- he made quotation marks in the air with his fingers- "and he was singing. I know the dude like the back of my hand, right?"

She nodded silently, looking very sheepish, her bunny ears bouncing.

Gumball smiled at her, then looked out into the room, over near the fire place. "You can come out now, shade-sucker." He smirked.

Fionna blinked, shocked, as Marshall turned visible, launching across the room. "Traitor!" He bellowed as he crashed into P.G. "Bubba, I'm gonna kill you! First you risk me getting killed by Cake, sneak me into Fionna's house in the middle of the night, get her to pour out anything and everything, like she's wrapped around your squishy, pink little finger, and then you point me out to her?!" He howled. "What is wrong with you?!"

Gumball leapt over the back of the couch. "Were you listening to what she was saying at all?" He grabbed Marshall's shoulders and propelled him at Fionna. "Now, I'm going home. Goodnight." He walked over to the front door, opened it and left.

Fionna was still frozen, but the click of the door closing woke her from her trance. She blinked and turned as pink as Gumball's shirt. "Uh... s-so, you... you heard all of th-that, M-m... Marshall?" She stammered.

"Yeah." He floated in front of her, scratching the back of his head. There was an awkward silence for a few seconds before he spoke again. "So... did you mean it?"

"Huh?"

"What you said, about how you feel."

She blinked again and bowed her head. "Every word." She managed to choke out.

He sat next to her. "Fionna..."

She took a deep breath. "Listen, before you say anything else, hear me out. I know that you're over a thousand years old, and I'm just a kid. You've seen the world, and I'm just a wannabe herione. I can't really give you anything, except for myself and a heart full of caring. I know I probably sound really stupid, but it's the truth. It only really occured to me about five minutes before Gumball knocked on the door, and it's a new idea to me- a mad, bad, crazy, wonderful, excellent idea- but, Marshall Lee Abadeer, King of the Vampires, undead rockstar, I love you." She winced. There was no going back, no taking it back, now that she'd said it. She gritted her teeth, staring at the ground, wait ing for her heart to shatter at the bland, laughing rejection that was surely coming.

"F...Fionna, I never realised... I'm sorry." He said softly. "Sorry I didn't do this so much sooner." He gently cupped her cheeks, tilting her face up, and kissed her.

It took Fionna's brain about four seconds to realise what he'd just done, and what it meant. She pulled away, looking at him incredulously. "Y-y-y-you..." She stuttered.

He smiled, a very contented expression on his face. "I never thought I'd say this, have the guts to say it, but I love you, too, Fionna. Why else would I have been so close to ripping off Bubba's head just before?"

"Uh..." She looked like someone had plugged her into an electrical socket, her eyes popped open, and mouth hanging open slightly.

Marshall laughed lightly and kissed her again. Outside the window, there was the distinct sound of a high-five. He turned his head away from Fionna slightly and called out, "Bubba, Cake, this isn't a show, y'know! Go back to bed!"

Fionna's surprised face finally cracked a smile. "I lover you, Marshall." His arms enveloped her, and she buried her face in his chest, grinning.

"I love you, too, Fi." He smiled, kissing the top of her head.

XXX

Mwah-ha-ha! Hey, I'm doing a series of pairings. If you want to see a particular pairing, ask me in your reviews! I'm open to any and all Adventure Time pairings, even love triangles- ANYTHING.