Plush Toy: By MewLuna
Disclaimer: I don't own AT or its characters, just the plot to this fanmade story.
~X~X~X~
"Fionna, it's cold."
The next thing the adventuress knew, she's jerked off the ground and suddenly encased in long arms and flushed against a strong body. Marshall Lee just scooped her up off the ground, without her permission, and hugged her against himself. The smell of his aftershave tickled her nose, she could feel his flannel shirt material on her bare arms, and she became acutely aware of just how tight he was holding her around her waist.
"Ma-Marshall!" she exclaimed.
"Shushers," he replied.
The girl started to kick her legs. "Listen bub, you can't just pick me up and cuddle me like I'm some stuffed animal or plush toy!"
His laughter filled the air and Marshall leaned back to look at her cross face. But the vampire knew the girl wasn't really cross, just slightly annoyed. For some unknown reason, Fionna wanted everyone to think that she didn't like cuddling or anything personal. Perhaps it was because she viewed it as being weak.
Either way, Marshall Lee figured it was not only fun to tease the girl, but she was actually a great one to cuddle. It's not like by him doing this anyone will challenge his toughness- he was Marshall Lee the Vampire King and no creature of Aaa has ever dared to challenge that.
Tonight it was just the vampire and the human girl alone at her tree house. Cake went to a party with Lord Monochromicorn, something about his parent's anniversary party. Fionna would have gone, but Beemo started getting a cold so she stayed behind to take care of him. Beemo was now asleep in bed. Marshall Lee showed up, simply because he felt like it, and as soon as he saw the adventuress sat by the fireplace, he just says that it's cold and scooped her up. No 'hello'. No 'hey Fi, can I pick you up?'. No sitting by the fireplace. Just an unwelcome scoop up into his arms.
"Do you really want me to put you down?" he asked her, and the sneaky young vampire made sure to make his voice husky, deep, almost irresistible.
"Yes."
If only his husky voice worked on Fionna. "Oh alright," he sighed, setting her back on the rug by the fireplace. "But for the record, I'm a guest in your home, and it's bad manners to let your guests be cold."
Finally the girl cracked a smile. "First of all, you always brag how this is your home. Second of all, I'm sitting right next to a fire. So shut your hole and sit down."
Marshall Lee sat down next to Fionna and the brightly burning fire. Crackles sounded off from the flames. She fixed her black skirt on her, as well as pulling up her cloud blue knee high socks. The color of her socks matched her sweatshirt, that had the hood down because she didn't want to wear the hood over her white bunny hat. He watched her fix herself with interest. Fionna certainly wasn't a little twelve year old anymore, now she was a fifteen-almost sixteen teenager. He remembered when he was her age. Even though Marshall Lee was well over a thousand years old, he stopped aging at nineteen, and it was as if he's been nineteen for all those years.
"Are you warm yet?" her voice then asked.
He blinked a few times. "Describe warm?"
Fionna laughed. "Not cold."
"Oh. Hmm. I suppose. I would be warmer if I-"
"I'm not cuddling you."
"-if I had some hot noodles, thank you very much."
She perked up when he suggested that. "Oh yeah, I've got a whole bunch of instant noodles!" Fionna laughed. For some reason, the mention of noodles brought on a wave of glee in the girl. She stood up on her tip toes and he looked up at her, determined to remain sat down. Fionna leaned over and tugged Marshall Lee's arm. "Come on! Help me make a bowl of hot noodles?"
Her small hands are wrapped around his wrist and her pink lips are curved into a smile. Marshall Lee doesn't answer for a moment. Why? He thinks. Why does this human girl have to be so incredibly cute when she's not even trying? The Vampire King knew that this girl was a chink in his armor. "Why do ya want to make noodles so bad?" he then questioned.
Fionna laughed. "To get you warm, since you won't stop complaining. And because I love hot noodles on a freezing night. You see, growing up Cake and I always had hot noodles. It's kinda like a childhood thing. Now I wanna enjoy it with you."
How honest and pure her words were.
Now who's the sucker? A voice in the vampire's head asked.
Marshall Lee sighed and stood up. Even with Fionna on her tip toes, she was still a good foot shorter than him. But to be fair, he was quite tall, vampire blood or not. "Alright, we'll make noodles," he grumbled.
A grin spread across her face. "To the kitchen then." Her hand never let go of his arm, and Fionna pulled the Vampire King into the tree house's kitchen. Not that Marshall Lee needed to be tugged, he knew very good and well where everything in the house was.
He stood in the middle of the room while Fionna got out a large pot from the cupboard. "How can you still wear a skirt even in this weather?" Marshall Lee then asked out of the blue.
The adventuress shrugged. "I like skirts. And why are you cold? Aren't vampires supposed to be cold? Or adaptable to weather changes, some glob like that." Fionna finished her questions and pulled two instant noodle packages out from the pantry.
"Typically vampires are adaptable to weather shifts, yes," Marshall Lee answered. Now he was floating mid air instead of just standing in the middle of the room. "But I think I'm a defect. It takes my body longer to adapt. Vampires tease that I'm human when it comes to that." There's a slight bitterness in his tone.
She turned to look at him. "What's so wrong with being human?"
He gave her a sly grin. "You really want me to answer that?"
Fionna stuck her tongue out at him. "No." By now the noodle packages were open and the water in the pot was boiling. She dumped the noodles in the water and put the pot lid on top. "Three minutes," she said, referring to the cooking time.
"So Cake and Lord M are getting pretty serious, huh?" the Vampire King asked, starting a new subject.
"Yeah. I'd say so."
Marshall Lee was carefully observing Fionna's body language while she talked about this subject. She could sound and say she's fine with it, but he'll know if she's being honest. "Are they going to get married?" he asked.
Her body language stayed relaxed, never tensed. "I don't know. Why?"
"Well, if they're serious, that'd be the next step."
"I don't know how Cake feels about marriage."
"How do you feel about it?"
"Marriage?"
"No, if Cake married Lord Monochromicorn."
"Oh. I'd be happy for them!"
"What will you do after?"
"After what?"
He lightly conked her head. "If Cake gets married, she'll probably move in with Lord M. What will you do?"
The adventuress's shoulders stiffened at the young man's question. "What will I do?" Fionna repeated, her voice losing an octave of previous confidence. Marshall Lee knew the answer by her reaction; she didn't know what she'd do.
Marshall floated down to Fionna's level, turning her around to face him eye-to-eye. "Hey," he said softly, "I wouldn't mind if you decided to live with me."
"Quit messing around," she muttered.
"I'm not messing around."
"Why, in the name of Aaa, would Marshall Lee the great and powerful Vampire King want me to bunk with him? Wouldn't that cramp your style? Ruin your image? Make peeps think you've gone soft?" Fionna questioned. She pointed at his nose and narrowed her eyes suspiciously. "Just what are you up to?"
He gave her a wide grin, flashing his famous set of sharp fangs. "Why Fi, I'm insulted. It'd be awesome, just you and I. We could rock out late at night, pull pranks, watch horrors, make sammiches..."
Fionna returned his smile, although hers was much smaller and more out of suspicion. "We already do that stuff."
He shrugged. "Well, now that it's winter, you could also be my in-home plush toy. I could snuggle you whenever I get cold."
She scoffed. "I don't like cuddles!"
"Snuggles."
"That too!"
By now the noodles were done cooking. Still in a huff, the adventuress put the noodles in two bowls and walked into the living room. Marshall Lee followed her of course, trailing behind her as if he were her own personal shadow. "I'm just teasing you a bit," he grinned.
"It doesn't make sense. You're supposed to be the one who hates cuddles. You're the vampire from the Night O'sphere, the guy with like, a bazillion enemies, the guy who owns an axe bass. I'm the teenage girl, I'm the one who should love snuggling." Fionna laughed. "This is so messed up."
He shrugged. "I do hate cuddles," Marshall said simply.
"Glob no! You just said you wanted me as your personal plush toy! Which, by the way, is almost insulting."
"Yeah, Fionna? The fact you wear bunny ears doesn't help, you know."
"Don't you comment about my bunny ears!"
He laughed and took a long slurp of noodles. "You'd make a great plush toy. You're all cute and squishy." Marshall Lee figured why not, he's already teased her once, might as well rile the adventuress up some more. "I would cuddle you all day long," he sneered.
She gave him a dirty look. "I am not your plush toy. And you literally said ten seconds ago that you hated cuddling."
"I do hate cuddling."
"What the-? Then why would you cuddle ME?"
Marshall Lee set down his bowl of noodles and the next thing Fionna knew, he was floating over her, forehead brushed against hers and hot breath in her face. She spilled her noodles but didn't pay attention to that at the moment. The Vampire King put both hands on her the crook of her neck, his cold hands sending chills up and down her. "H-hey," Fionna said breathlessly, but articulating words weren't going to happen for her.
He gave her that same devious smile. "I don't hate cuddling you."
Was he just being cruel with her? Was he just teasing her to a new extreme? Was Marshall Lee just being the prankster that he was? And was it stupid of her to actually believe him?
Marshall then hugged Fionna. A tight and embracing hug. She was still against him, but her body molded perfectly against his. A few long seconds passed. Finally, her arms went around him, and the adventuress finally hugged the Vampire King back.
"See now?" he whispered huskily, "I'm warm now. All thanks to you." He made sure to whisper right in her ear, and he knew that by doing this he was causing goosebumps to erupt on her light skin. Marshall slowly eased back until his face was in front of hers. He leaned forward and gave a kiss to her nose.
Fionna was dead silent, she could feel how red her face was. But the loud crackling of the fire seemed to quiet her racing thoughts, and because of that she wasn't thinking about anything other than his embrace. So when he gently kissed her nose, Fionna gently leaned forward and kissed him. However, because this affectionate thing wasn't her forte, she missed his lips and kissed his chin. He chuckled softly. "Whoops," she muttered.
Marshall Lee kissed her on the mouth, a quick but deep kiss. She returned the affection the best she could. When they parted, Fionna didn't look him in the eyes, she was too embarrassed. "Not bad, huh?" he asked.
"You taste like noodles," she replied.
He laughed again. "Yeah. You'll have to make yourself another bowl."
Now Fionna looked at him in the eyes. "You know something, Marshall?"
"What's that?"
"I wouldn't be your plush toy. You'd be my plush toy."
"Oh yeah? How do you figure?"
She grinned. "Because deep down, deep, deep, deep, deep, deeeeeeep down... you're as soft as a... marshmallow." Now Fionna was on her feet, having suddenly jumped up, and she ran into her kitchen laughing teasingly. "Marshmallow, marshmallow! Marshall Lee the marshmallow!" she sang loudly.
The Vampire King growled. "Take that back!"
He wasted no time to run after her, leaving his bowl of noodles on the living room floor by the fire. He was in for a long evening with the adventuress.
Author's Note:
Hey guys! So yeah, this was a drabble-ish little one-shot =D
I was inspired because ASDFGHJKL; it's cold where I live. COLD. As in sweaters and hot chocolate in the morning cold. Cold. XD I hope you enjoyed, thanks for reading, please review.
Happy Holidays,
~Luna