'Hey uhm, Marshall?' Marshall-lee looked up from his bass guitar, grimacing as the faint notions of a new tune slipped from his grasp. Fionna looked up at him uncomprehendingly, before realising he was annoyed about something and looking down at her fingers, a faint reddish colour blooming in her cheeks. She was twisting a daisy around her pinky, an unfinished chain sitting on her skirt.
They were sitting out on a hillside in the twilight, the sky still faintly orange with the last rays of the sun. It didn't bother him when it was like this, only direct sunlight actually damaged him. Even a sunshower sometimes provided enough distortion for him to deal.
' What, Fi?' He replied somewhat bluntly, going back to his guitar and trying to recapture the notes. Fionna opened her mouth, looking up at him, then hesitated and looked back at the flower around her finger.
' Nothing, never mind.' She muttered, the colour in her face leaching away. Marshall glanced at her and sighed. She was guilt-tripping him without even trying. How did she do that? He didn't even know guilt was an emotion he still had, considering all of the stuff he'd done that should've warranted massive amounts of it but was lucky to get a 'Meh.' She just made him feel... stuff. Not necessarily good stuff, but it was something. And even just 'something' was kinda weird.
' What, Fionna?' She started slightly, surprised by the tone of his voice. Then she wordlessly reached into her backpack and pulled out two sheets of yellowing, crinkled paper.

' Cake made me help clean out the treehouse today and I found these papers behind some loose boards in the wall. I was wondering if you wrote it, and like, left it there because the treehouse used to be yours and stuff.' Marshall raised an eyebrow at her and took the papers, quickly glancing over them. These were song lyrics, but definitely not ones he could take credit for creating, no way. He just wrote them down. And even if he had written these, as if he'd ever take credit for something as disgustingly puerile as this. Eck.
Fionna waited impatiently, picking at the green blades of grass in front of her until he spoke.
' I wrote the words, but they're not my words. This song is so, so old Bunny. Older than me.' Marshall handed the pages back to her when she reached for them, and went back to picking at his guitar while she looked them over. Only now he was picking the half-remembered melody of this tune rather than his own.
' How does it go?'
' Well, uh... It repeats a lot. Most of it goes like this:

Somewhere over the rainbow
Way up high
There's a land that I heard of
Once in a lullaby.'

Fionna's eyes were shining, big and blue and empty of anything bad. So naive and trusting and faithful. The opposite of the vampire's. No wonder he always had his hair in his eyes, it hid all of the demons and ugliness within them. It wasn't surprising really, but it wasn't something you showed off either, unless you were a totally self-obsessed ass. Oh, look how jaded and cynical life has made me! Look how little I believe in! Let me tell you my problems then pretend I never said anything!
Please.
' That's such a pretty song!'
' Yeah, I guess. It's kinda... Yeah.'
' Kinda what?'
' Nothing.'
Both of them were silent again, thinking their own thoughts as the sky around them faded to a light purple touched with indigo at the corners.
Marshall hadn't heard this song in a long time. He had always thought he understood what it meant, that it was about getting away from the mediocrity of life and finding a better place somewhere you could never reach it (He realised most people didn't get that last part, which was the part that made the song sad to him.)(And it was also the part that made it so stupid). Now he realised the song was depressing for a different reason. The metaphors all made sense.
From as shallow as his sense of moral code to deeper than the fucking ocean. This was what always kept him coming back to music as the years dripped past.

' Have you ever been there?' Marshall-lee looked over at Fionna, his eyebrows pulling together in confusion.
' Been where?'
' Over the rainbow. To this place. I'm guessing it's kinda like the Dead worlds, and rainbows are the portal or a road to it. Something like that.' Marshall-lee laughed to himself once. He wasn't quite sure whether he was laughing at her or himself.
That was so like Fionna. To miss how heart-breaking this song was, even on a base level, and to take it as a literal guide to some bullshit happy zone where nothing bad ever happened. She didn't understand the nature of good and evil yet. They depended on one another, dammit they needed each other. How could you define good if you didn't have the opposite to compare it against?
' No Fi, it's not-' He stopped mid-sentence. Fionna appeared mildly confused.
Was that really such a bad thing though? That she didn't immediately look for a light that would only hurt her eyes and make her cry. If you showed her a broken window, she would notice how the glass sparkled in the light like diamonds. She'd appreciate the tiniest silver lining on the biggest, darkest fuckin' storm cloud you've ever seen. In spite of how many times she'd been cut to pieces, to her red was the colour of love, not of blood.

'... I-I can't. I can't get in.' Fionna looked at him worriedly.
' Why not?'
' Baby, I'm the son of a demon, and the Vampire king. Not to mention undead, and kinda unpleasant occasionally too. You really think they'd let someone like me into a place where 'troubles melt?' I am trouble.' He told her, without a hint of irony.
Well, it was true.
Fionna's hand curled into a fist, brusing the delicate petals of the little orange flowers she still held in a chain, and she frowned.
' But that's not fair! You've been alive for a thousand years, you should be allowed to go someplace where you don't have to worry about anything! I can't even imagine all the stuff you've seen that I don't know about, and the stuff I do know about is horrible! Being involved in that doesn't make you bad, it just means you've had a hard life. You should have the chance to forget that, even if it's only for a while.' Marshall-lee simply looked at her for a few moments, surprised by this evaluation. Maybe she was better at reading him then he gave her credit for.

' Uh Fionna, did you not hear that last part? I am trouble. I cause it, it's just a part of who I am. I couldn't make that go away, and I don't want to even if I could.'
' But you at least deserve the option to go somewhere like that. It's not your fault your mother was a demon, and you're not a bad guy. They shouldn't shut you out because of things you can't control.' Marshall snorted derogatorily. Fionna didn't pick up on it, continuing to watch him with misplaced anger towards a 'they' who didn't exist.
' You only think I'm not bad because I'm nice to you.'
' And if you were actually bad, you wouldn't be.' This shut Marshall up for a second, and he looked back down at his bass. Fionna watched him for a couple more second, then looked down at her flowers, scowling when she noticed the damage she had inflicted with her concern. But instead of dropping the broken bits, she simply took the chain apart and began adding fresh flowers in between, alternating between the daises and yellow buttercups to cover up the problems and make them seem less significant as part of the whole. The chain slowly became much longer.

Marshall gave up on the bass and watched her for a while, until suddenly she looked up at him, startling him.
' Will you teach me how to play it?' She asked earnestly. Marshall froze for a second, trying to catch up with her thought process.
'... The song?'
' Yeah. I like it, I wanna play it.'
' Bunny,you can't even play guitar. Though-' He stopped and thought about it for a second, stroking the well-worn strings of his old axe bass. '... I mean, I guess this isn't a hard song. It's only what, five chords? Six?' He quickly shaped each chord with his left hand as he sounded out the song in his head, his fingers darting so quickly between the strings on the neck that it almost seemed they were dancing.
' Six. Yeah alright, I'll teach you.' Fionna swallowed apprehensively, having been somewhat intimidated through watching Marshall discover the chords. She hoped she wouldn't have to play that fast. That'd be near impossible for a beginner.

Marshall-lee smiled at her nervous expression and floated down next to her, placing the bass guitar on her lap.
' Hold it like how I hold it.' Fionna tentatively moved into a cross-legged position and put her hands roughly where she believed his normally rested. Surprisingly, the guitar felt warm, like it had some sort of inner heat.
Marshall felt her start when he sat behind her on the slightly damp green grass and leaned against her back, his legs splayed so that she fitted into the space. He wrapped his rather long, slim fingers around her hands and shifted them slightly, guiding her and the guitar to where they needed to be. Admittedly, she hadn't done a bad job considering she'd never played before and the bass had a vaguely unnatural shape.
He could feel the sudden flash of heat radiating off of her when he put his chin on her shoulder so that they were cheek to cheek. It made him register a mix of hunger, shame and 'Oh look, how cute.' She was so innocent. Too innocent. It was almost repulsive how pure and good she was, and the comparison was made even clearer when they were this close.

' Okay, so start off with a C. I know it feels weird, but you'll get used to it.' He stretched her fingers into the correct position, and laughed when she made a face.
' Told you it'd feel weird.'
' That doesn't help the fact it feels weird.'
' But now you know the fact it feels weird isn't weird.'
'... You've lost me.' Marshall smiled again and took hold of her other hand.
' Try strumming it, listen to what it sounds like.' He showed her how to do it then moved away so that he was holding the blade, inviting her to try it for herself.
Fionna's strumming was clumsy, but not bad considering this was the first time she'd picked up the guitar. Yes, the guitar. His guitar would not be referred to with a dismissive 'A'. No way. Respect the guitar or prepare to lose the contents of your hemoglobin.
' Okay, next's a B minor. Your hands aren't strong enough to do bar chords, so play just these strings instead...'

' My fingers are sore.' Fionna whined and pouted, lying back against Marshall's chest. She had slipped down as the moon rose in the sky and they kept playing. Marshall flicked his chin in annoyance to keep her bunny ear away from his face.
' No pain, no gain, Bunny-blue.'
' But then how do you play for so long if my fingers hurt after like, fifteen minutes?' Marshall moved one of his hands off the bass, which were steadying it now that Fionna had given up, and picked up one of her hands. Fionna watched, apparently mesmerised as he brushed his fingertips along her palm.
' You feel how rough they are? I have like, no nerves in my fingers anymore. Same way you probably don't have any in your knees.' Fionna moved her hand away from his and cupped her both knees, rubbing the scar tissue as comprehension dawned.
' Oh... So if I keep playing, eventually that'll happen to me too?'
' Mhm. But you gotta stick at it.'
' Okay. I will, I promise.' Marshall-lee leaned his chin on the top of her head, wishing she would take her hat off so he could see how long her hair was at the moment. It was subject to change quite a bit. It was like his personal tab on how time passed since she had appeared. The years didn't seem as long, somehow.
' I'll find you a guitar for your birthday.' Fionna was silent for a moment.
' Now see, would a bad guy have said that?' Marshall was momentarily off-balanced by this sudden throwback to their previous conversation. She was hella stubborn. Not like he didn't know that already, it's that he only appreciated the breadth of her tenacity in rare moments such as this.

' You still thinking about that? Forget it Fi, it's no big deal.' Fionna shifted off of him (which annoyed him more than he cared to admit) and turned around, grabbing his face.
' But it is! It is a big deal! It's not fair that they won't let you in. With everything you've had to do, had to see and fix and break and feel... It's not fair.' She ended with a quaver, almost in tears. Marshall had never seen her react so strongly to something.
Actually, that was a lie. He'd seen her do it once before: when she had thought he was dying.
' No, see- Look, I... I don't know if I want to get in anyways. Because of all the stuff you just said. That level of happiness and good-feeling would probably kill me after what I'm used to. I'm a night-creature by nature, I don't do so well in sunshine land.' Fionna studied his face for a moment, her bottom lip trembling and her eyes worryingly shiny in the moonlight below her knitted brow.
Then she turned around and leaned back against him again. Marshall could tell she still wasn't happy, but he'd explained himself as best he could without telling her exactly what the song meant to him; how his interpretation of the words had changed. He didn't want to tell her. She'd take it on board and try to help.
And she, of all people, definitely couldn't be allowed to try.

'Can you play the song for me?' Fionna asked a while later, moments before Marshall was about to tell her he ought to take her home. With Cake busy mothering her kittens, there was no problem with her staying out late, but honestly he didn't know how much longer he could be around her when he was... thinking like this. The strain was testing his nerves, and even though it made him feel guilty (There it was again. Twice, in one day. Jeez.) he wanted her to go. Leave him alone. Like he was used to.
' Fi, I... Sure.' he started strumming the chords, half-heartedly preparing himself to sing but being surprised when Fionna started before he could. Her tone was strong but slightly raspy, characterizing how it wasn't fully matured. He'd heard her sing before, but not like this. Perhaps she was self-consious in front of big crowds.

'Somewhere over the rainbow
Way up high,
There's a land that I heard of
Once in a lullaby

Somewhere over the rainbow
Skies are blue,
And the dreams that you dare to dream
Really do come true.'

That was what scared him. If he managed make it over that gob-damned rainbow with all its frustrating colours, did he even want his dreams to come true? Did he even have dreams that could come true, or was he just entertaining the vague notion he had the capacity to dream?
He was the stuff of nightmares. Nightmares don't dream.
Stupid, puerile trash. He had that 'something' again.

'Someday I'll wish upon a star
And wake up where the clouds are far
Behind me.'

He lived in a starless night, because the sky was filled with clouds. When you can't complete step one, you can never move on to step two. He wasn't going anywhere, which is why he stopped wishing for change a long time ago. But to have your faith in a belief that bleak twinge and waver- it was a very hard thing to acknowledge.
Marshall swallowed against the lump that was building in his throat. The strain. His control was snapping.

'Where troubles melt like lemon drops
Away above the chimney tops
That's where you'll find me.

Somewhere over the rainbow
Bluebirds fly.
Birds fly over the rainbow.
Why then, oh why can't I?'

Marshall changed the chord progression at the end of the verse, ending on a minor and picking a melancholic little trill. Fionna didn't seem to have noticed that he was on the edge (The edge. period.) of tears thankfully, but he saw her turn her head slightly at the change in pace. Marshall resumed the correct sequence after a few moments though, so she didn't look back all the way, instead staring up into the darkening purple of the night.

'If happy little bluebirds fly
Beyond the rainbow
Why, oh why can't I?'

Marshall gritted his teeth and blinked rapidly, embarrassed as a tear spilled down his cheek. Gob, he was such a wuss. Brought to tears by a stupid song. Music may have been his mistress, but she rarely made him cry. She was good to him like that, but tonight apparently she had decided to give him a good old-fashioned kick up the ass.
' Marshall?' He heard the alarm in Fionna's voice as she shifted off of him and struggled to focus on her face through a glaze of liquid. He surrendered his pride as he blinked again and more tears cascaded so that he could see her properly. The level of shock on her face was almost comical.
' A-are... Are you... crying?' She whispered, reaching up to touch the gleaming, wet snail trails. Vampire tears. She absent-mindedly wondered if they were magical. The colour of his irises came through even more strongly with the layer of excess liquid, making it look as if two polished red crystals had been set into his eyes.
' I uh... I got something in my eye.' He replied weakly, letting go of the bass with one hand and rubbing at his eyes with the other. The uncomfortable flooding sensation that came with crying had disappeared, so he knew the worst was over. But he hadn't been so emotional in a long, long time. Gobdammit, Fionna. Stop showing him how to see that bloody rainbow.
When he looked up again, the discontentment on Fionna's face clearly showed her disbelief of his excuse, and he sighed, trying to think of a valid explanation that wouldn't result in more girly crying.
There wasn't one.

' That song... I wrote it down for a reason. And it just makes me a little sad, alright?' He said finally, coming up with the most plausible pile of bullshit he could think of. Fionna was pretty impressive on many levels, but she wasn't the brightest. She was smart(ish) most of the time, but she couldn't tell when he wasn't lying.
' Well, then... Why did you teach it to me if it makes you sad?'
' Because you asked me to.' He sighed and smiled at her. She was pretty much the only person who could get him to do anything by the simple virtue of asking. Everyone else would have to beg and plead and sign away their life, but nah. Not Fionna.
She squeaked in annoyance when he yanked off her hat and ruffled her hair.
' Even if I can't get in, I'll be damned if they keep you out too, Bunny.' She titled her head to the side, and Marshall could tell she still didn't get it. Good. Hopefully she would never need to.
' C'mon, you should go home. Last time I checked, rabbits weren't noctournal.'
' Oh look, another rabbit pun. How original.' Fionna sighed, getting up and putting back on her hat.

' Y'know, you really did used to be unexpected, but now you're really predictable. It's kinda lame.' Fionna told him as she climbed onto his back and he flew up into the starry indigo night.
' Sure am, Bunny. You got me all figured out, don't cha?' Marshall kinda hoped she wouldn't pick up on the level of sarcasm in what he'd just said, as it was kind of cruel, but also felt slightly disappointed when she nodded and layed the side of her head on the back of his shirt. She really thought she understood him. That was adorable.
And... sad.
Not a good colour to start with, but nevertheless-
It was something.

Somewhere over the rainbow
Way up high,
There's a land that I heard of
Once in a lullaby.

Author's note. * Historys channel guy meme pops up* METAPHORS. Seriously though, this is quite a symbolically heavy little oneshot, and believe it or not I didn't actually intend it to be so. I just kept adding easter eggs through rewrites then decided fuck it, I'm just gonna turn this whole thing into a secretly philosophical piece of angst-fluff. First person to correctly guess what the song actually means to Mar gets a digital cookie and a pat on the head.
Oh, and I'm totally gonna fanart the shit outta this song sometime soon. So if you're one of my deviantart watchers, be on the look out for a piece that -gasp- has an actual background. Shocking, I know, but I promise it'll be there.

-WRA