Fionna frowned at her reflection in the bathroom mirror, contorting her face. She didn't usually care too much about the way she looked, but while she was brushing her teeth after her shower, she had noticed a spattering of freckles across her nose and cheeks. She hated having freckles. They made her look like such a baby.
'Fionna, what the hell are you doing?' Fionna jumped, and whipped around, only to trip backwards in fright when she was met with Marshall lee's face inches from her own.
' Jeez, Marshall! What the plonk? I-' Suddenly she gaped at him, cheeks flushing deep red as she gripped the top of her yellow bath towel.
' Marshall, I'm only wearing a towel!' Marshall-lee shrugged, leaning back in the air nonchalantly.
' Doesn't bother me. How do you know I haven't already seen you naked, bunny?' At Fionna's horrified look, Marshall-lee snickered and placed a hand under her chin, tilting her head up. The heat in Fionna's face spiked when their skin touched, and she cursed her body for giving her away. She didn't even like Marshall like that, he was just.. good looking, that was all. Her heart belonged to Gumball, because how could he not come around eventually?
' I was kidding, baby.' Fionna batted him away in annoyance. Baby. Please.
' Well it bothers me, so get out!'
' But what were you making all those weird faces in the mirror for?' Marshall-lee said insistently, refusing to budge even when Fionna rammed her shoulder into his side, making the vampire grunt in protest.
' Gob dammit Marshall, I will call Cake!' Marshall-lee raised an eyebrow at her, and Fionna glared back at him coldly. So not an empty threat then.
' Fine, if you call her then I'll take off my clothes and we'll both get in trouble.' He replied, smirking at Fionna when the pink flush returned to her cheeks. She was totally picturing him naked.
Fionna growled at Marshall's expression, realising that he knew what she was thinking. Jerk, he did that on purpose! But he'd do it too, Marshall-lee would have no issue with baring all for the sake of a prank. Gah, he was so lumping stubborn!
' Marshall!' Marshall-lee folded his arm and raised his eyebrows condescendingly, cocking his head slightly to the side. ' Answer my question, Fionna. What's with the creepy faces?' Fionna sighed in frustration, turning away from the vampire and looking back into the mirror. She scowled at her reflection, and Marshall's lack of one.
' I don't like my freckles. They make me look like a little kid.' She mumbled reluctantly after a moment, seeing that Marshall wasn't going anywhere any time soon. Fionna squeaked when Marshall-lee grabbed her chin roughly and tugged her face around, staring straight at her. For a moment, she had thought he was going to kiss her. Why the hell had she thought that? Whenever she thought about kissing Gumball, it was always gentle and sweet, not rough or commanding at all. And she didn't ever think about kissing Marshall. Never. Not once.
Maybe once.
' What's wrong with them? Freckles are cute. Besides, you are a little kid.' Fionna huffed at him indignantly, folding her arms.
' I am not a little kid! I'm sixteen!'
' No you're not, your birthday isn't for another three weeks.'
' Almost sixteen!' Marshall-lee shook his head at her indulgently before glancing at the mirror and freezing, staring at the empty glass. Fionna was somewhat bewildered by his actions, and fell into silence while Marshall gazed, trance-like.
' Do I have freckles?' He wondered aloud, reaching out and touching the space next to Fionna's reflection, where he should've been but there was nothing. Fionna shook her head, still confused.
' Um, no. You don't.' Marshall-lee appeared to remember she was there and looked over at her, an odd expression on his face. Fionna couldn't quite place it.
' Y'know, I haven't seen my reflection since I was... seven.' He said thoughtfully, before turning back to the mirror.
' Um, okay...?'
' Fionna, what do I look like?' Marshall-lee questioned seriously, backing away from the mirror and facing the human girl, who blinked at him in surprise.
' What do you mean?' She said after a few moments, having gotten over the weirdness of the request.
' What do I look like? What does my face look like, what colour are my eyes, blah blah blah. When you see me, what do you see?' His joking facade has disappeared and Fionna could see his intensely curious nature shining through. He had explored the entire world when he was younger, and he still went on the hunt for anything and everything that interested him. He just pretended like he didn't care for his image. Ironic, since he didn't know what he looked like.
' Um, well..' Fionna took the time to scan the vampire who floated patiently in front of her, comfortable with her investigations. He was dressed a little more monochromatically then usual today. Grey singlet, black skinny jeans-always with the skinny jeans- patterned jockeys he couldn't appear to resist leaving slightly on display and faded red hightops. He had also had half his head shaved again, something he apparently did just because he could.
' You.. you have red eyes. Well, most of the time. When you get pissed or you're trying to scare somebody they go completely black with red pupils, it's really creepy. And then, sometimes they're really dark red when you're sad, or like, blood red when you're happy and...' Fionna trailed off, surprised that she had all this information. She hadn't known that she had noticed his eyes changing colours with his mood.
Marshall-lee appeared unfazed, as if he had expected the adventuress to have observed as much.
' Keep going. What does my face look like?' Fionna properly looked at his face for what was probably the first time. She knew it, she had seen it, but she hadn't really looked before.
' You've got quite a long nose. And your eyes are narrow like.. like a cat's eyes. I don't know what to tell you Marshall-lee, I'm no good at this.' Fionna ended weakly, running out of both confidence and steam. If she was being totally honest, she would've said something like, 'You're hot.' But if she admitted that he'd be teasing her until she was an old granny.
' What about my mouth?' He replied quietly, and Fionna was unable to prevent herself from flushing slightly at the invitation to stare at his lips. They were quite full for a guy's, now that she was actually thinking about it. His fangs curved down over the lower lip, pressing slightly into the pale brownish skin. Would his fangs get in the way if he was kissing her? Wait, someone. Not her.
' Um.. it's.. normal, I guess? Apart from the fangs, obviously.' She said reluctantly. She could tell that he knew there were things she wasn't saying, and that he also knew that she knew that.
' Am I sexy?' He said bluntly, looking Fionna dead in the eye as he did so. Fionna was completely taken aback for a moment, and tried to collect her thoughts. Marshall-lee watched her as she floundered and a flash of humour passed through his eyes.
' Wait, let me try that again... Fionna, am I sexy?' He purred in a low voice, drawing out the last word. Fionna immediately felt heat creeping up her neck and she glared at the vampire, who snickered at her unrepentantly.
'Don't answer that, your face says it all. I knew you had a thing for me, baby.' Fionna was becoming deeply confused by the reactions he managed to illicit from her - She liked Gumball, so why was she thinking about kissing gob-damned Marshall?- and it didn't help that she was still only wearing a towel.
' Marshall, get out, I want to get dressed.' She said flatly, making it clear that she was done with this conversation. Marshall-lee however, wasn't, so he steadfastly ignored her tone, instead drifting closer to her again and passing behind her.
' I'd rather you got undressed.' He murmured, failing to disguise the laughter in his voice as he ran his index finger lightly along the hem of her towel, brushing against her spine. Fionna stiffened. What the hell was he doing? One, Cake was upstairs ( True) Two, she was in love with Gumball (True...?) and three they were just friends and she didn't want him to (Debatable).
So she fixed the problem the only way she knew how.
Marshall-lee cried out in pain as Fionna whipped around and punched him. She had been aiming for his stomach, but he was still floating aound her when she had turned so had accidentally hit rather lower. Marshall-lee immediately stopped levitating and landed with a thump on the floor, rolling onto his knees and curling up tightly, his hands going to his crotch.
' F-far out, Fionna...' He groaned through gritted teeth, shaking slightly.' Now we can never have babies.'
' W-what?' Fionna shrieked, before clapping her hand to her mouth. Cake was asleep upstairs! If she woke up and found Marshall on the floor and Fionna practically naked, she would definitely assume the worst. Even if that wasn't true and never would be.
Never.
' Um, I'm sorry. I was aiming for your tummy.' Fionna apologised after she had gotten over his previous comment. Marshall-lee grunted noncommittally, apparently still in too much pain to move. Fionna took the opportunity to pick up her pajamas from where she had left them and take the over to the shower, stepping into the wooden bathtub and drawing the curtain around.
After she had pulled on the red pajamas, she hesitantly stuck her head around the corner of the curtain to see if Marshall-lee was where she had left him. However, the vampire was nowhere in sight.
' Marshall-lee?' She called uncertainly. She knew he was here, so trying to scare her was pointless.
' Right here.' She heard his voice clearly, sounding like he was right in front of her. Fionna stepped out of the shower and waved her arms about, but didn't come into contact with anything.
' Ha, that feels weird.' Marshall-lee said happily, Fionna still failing to detect him.
' Marshall, where the lump are you?' Fionna said, glancing curiously around the room.
' Yoo hoo. Down here, bunny.' Fionna looked towards the ground, expecting to see him fade into view, but being disappointed again.
' Undo your PJ's Fi, I can't breathe.' Fionna's jaw dropped in mute outrage and she quickly undid the top buttons of her pajamas. Nestled in her cleavage, was a highly content Marshall-lee in his small demon-bat form. Fionna gaped at him for a few seconds, as he looked up at her smugly and patted her chest with one of his little bat paws.
' Nice upholstery you've got, baby.'
Fionna tried to grab him but Marshall-lee took flight before she could, morphing back into his human form as he began to laugh at Fionna. Fionna glared at him, failing to find words to express how completely and utterly furious she was with him at that moment.
' What the hey-hey, Marshall-lee!' She settled for after a minute, no longer caring whether Cake woke up or not. She could help Fionna dig his grave after she had killed him for doing that to her.
' Simple. Rule of guy-girl "friendships" where both parties wanna bang and everyone knows it, but for some reason it's not happening; You break my balls, I get to touch your boobs.' It took Fionna a little while to process that sentence, as it contained a lot of things she needed to protest against and then worry about later on to see whether they were actually true or not.
' Both wanna- I don't! and even if that were true, there aren't rules! You don't get to touch my boobs unless I say so!' Marshall-lee raised an eyebrow, grinning at her in an infuriating manner.
' You never said I couldn't.' He suddenly blurred out of sight, making use of his incredible speed, and Fionna felt his hands ghost across her breasts and give the slightest squeeze, before he was back where he was before, looking at her through suggestive, half-lidded eyes. She glanced from her chest up to the vampire a few times, shocked, then folded her arms protectively over her boobs, storming out of the room.
' I can't believe you! Jerk!' she fumed, intending to go up to her room and wake up Cake so that she could beat him up. Marshall-lee followed her, grinning in self satisfaction that only made her want to punch him more.
' Hey c'mon, don't be like that. I was just messing. Seriously, I don't want anymore damage done to my manhood then you've already inflicted.'
' Too bad.' Fionna replied curtly, starting to climb up the ladder, but was stopped when she felt Marshall's long fingers wrap around her wrist.
' I was serious before you punched me in the dick though. I actually wanna know how I look to you. 'Cause I have no clue.' Fionna turned, opening her mouth to tell him where he could stick his question, but stopped when she saw his expression. He was curious, yes, but there was something else there. Fionna thought for a moment about what it would be like to never know how she looked, to still picture a baby in her head whenever she thought of herself. It would actually be kind of gutting, not knowing whether your outside reflected your inside.
Fionna climbed off of the ladder and considered the vampire in front of her, weighing her emotions. She wanted to help him, it was an automatic thing. But she was still highly annoyed at him having taken advantage of her, and punching him again still seemed like a legitimate response.
' Fine, if I tell you how you look will you leave?' Marshall-lee appeared wounded.
' You really want me gone that bad? Ouch. Fine, I promise I'll get out of your gorgeous blonde hair if you tell me.' Fionna ignored the compliment, reasoning that he was just trying to trip her up again.
Realising there probably wasn't anyway to answer his question and retain her dignity, she just started talking.
' You've got black curly hair that sticks up all over the place, like you've just woken up all the 've got a dimple in your left cheek when you smile, and your fangs catch on your lip when you say the letters F and V. You've got really long eyelashes and I feel really weird when you look up at me through them, like you're thinking something that I should probably know about. And your face is pretty, but it's manlier than Gumball's, I don't know why. I used to find it really hard to tell what you were thinking, because you don't really show your actual emotions, only fake ones to piss me off, but now I know you I can kinda guess. Because you get mad at me whenever I can tell how you actually feel, and you always try to play it off, but you get this weird little frowny thing going on with your mouth that gives you away. Plus you bite your lip when you get worried.'
Marshall's eyebrows had steadily climbed up his forehead as he listened to this monolgue, but Fionna was on a roll now, and she didn't notice. She was too busy checking off the enormous list that had suddenly compiled in her head.
'You're not that much taller than me and a lot skinnier, but it's muscly-skinny, not boney-skinny. Your fingers are really long, actually you're just long in general, and really agile like you just flow, but somehow you always manage to get in my way at the same time. You always wear your jeans too low and I can see the waistband of your jockey shorts, and you've got a happy trail running from your belly button that I can see when your shirt's undone or too small. You look happiest when you're playing your guitar, you never lie to me when you sing, but normally I can never tell whether you're serious or not because you always smile like you aren't, but then your eyes look like you are-' Fionna was about to say more, but then she glanced at Marshall's face and stopped. He had his head cocked to the side and was staring at Fionna with the strangest expression, like he had never seen her before and she was the most unusual thing he had ever laid eyes on.
' So Um.. Yeah.' she said uncertainly, feeling uncomfortable under the intensity of his gaze. Marshall-lee watched the colour rising in her cheeks as she fidgeted, avoiding his eyes.
' You wanna know how I think you look?' Marshall-lee blurted after a moment. Fionna frowned for a moment then shrugged. As long as he still left, she was okay with that. Besides, his manner had piqued her interest.
' I guess...?'
' You've got blonde hair that's so long, I always wonder how you don't get it tangled and how long it takes you to wash it. It's yellower then the sun, so I never feel like I miss sunshine when you're with me. Your eyes are big and pretty and blue like the sky. Hell, having you around is like my own personal summer. Your lips are small and heart shaped, and you've got cute little buck teeth which stick out when you smile. I can always tell what you're thinking, which is why I like teasing you 'cause I know when I'm getting to you, and I want to get to you and make you think about me. You're not much smaller than me, and you're probably stronger, but you alway feel small to me because you're so gentle. And then I see you beating up some troll or you hit me and I remind myself why it's a bad idea to piss you off, even though I do it all the time.'
Fionna started to frown slightly as Marshall continued his description. She had never thought he had noticed anything much about her, that to him she was an occasional friend and the general butt of a practical joke. She didn't mean anything to someone like him, right?
Marshall-lee raised his hands and made a gesture in the shape of an hourglass, closing one eye as he fitted the shape around Fionna. ' You've got a curvy figure, no edges on you anywhere, and I like that even though you look so soft you can kick the ass of a guy twice your size. I always catch myself staring at your butt, and when I carry you places all I want to do is run my hands up your thighs. When I get close to you, you blush and I can smell the blood and I want to taste it so bad, but I won't and it drives me crazy because you smell like sex and food at the same time and I don't know which one distracts me more. When you're sad but trying to pretend you're not, your bottom lip shakes and you get this little v shape between your eyebrows. You've got a birthmark shaped like a clover on the back of your right leg. Your clothes make you look younger than you actually are, I think your socks are hot and I don't know why, and I get angry when I catch you making cow eyes at Gumball because you let him walk all over you, and you could do so much better, Fionna!' Marshall's eyes blazed for a second, turning black and Fionna took an involuntary step backwards. The vampire immediately regained control of himself at her reaction and eyed her for a few seconds, trying to read her face.
Crap. He had said too much.
' Uh... Bye.' Marshall-lee quickly sped out of the window, leaving Fionna frozen at the base of the ladder.
' W-wait..' She managed after a few moments, but was met only with the wind and the sound of Cake purring in her sleep drifting down the ladder. He was long gone. Fionna hesitated, then slowly climbed up the ladder and silently got into her bed, turning onto her side and staring into the darkness. She definitely wasn't going to sleep tonight.