A/N: Finally we get some Fiolee action! Without further ado, let's get the show on the road!


Chapter one: Idle Thoughts

Marshall's POV

It wasn't playing the song that was the difficult thing. No, I've played this song a whole bunch of times – Hell, I was the one who wrote this song to begin with, but… The troubled look that flashed on Fionna's face whenever she thought I wasn't looking was the thing that bothered me. I really wanted to ask what was wrong, but knowing how Fionna was, she'd just brush it off like nothing.

"Always on the lookout for someone to hate"

It's cheesy, but I have to admit, being her best friend was something I really liked. We were on the same page on just about everything, and teasing her was way too fun – especially because the reactions she gave me were priceless, and way too easy to get out of her.

Looking at her now, the way she'd turn to me when it was almost my turn to sing – as if I didn't already know that – I couldn't help but think it was sort of cute. But then again, so was everything about Fionna.

"Picking on me like a dinner plate" I uttered along with her as she continued to sing her verse.

"You hid during classes and in between them,"

"-Dunked me in the toilets, now it's you that cleans them," I finished. "You tried to make me feel bad with the things you do. It ain't so funny when the joke's on you," Giving Fionna a slight nod of my head, I cocked a questioning brow towards her as the corners of her mouth began to lift into a small smile.

"Ooh, the joke's on you, got everyone laughing, got everyone clapping asking-"

There was a particular reason that I'd asked Fionna, specifically, to help me out with the vocals for my homecoming songs. It definitely wasn't just because she was my best friend – that would've been biased, especially if she couldn't sing to save her life (lucky for me that wasn't the case). It could've asked any girl in school, and although some might not have been as willing (because some poor suckers in school are afraid of me), I know finding a female duet partner wouldn't have been that difficult at all.

But that's the thing. I didn't want just anyone. I wanted Fionna.

"'How come you look so cool!?'" I chimed in with her.

You'd have to be there to understand it. But if you saw the way her eyes and face visibly brightened up when she was singing… You'd know instantly why I fell in love with her over and over again, each time we were together, and why I definitely had to have her there with me on stage for my performance.

Scratch that, it wasn't only when she was singing, but it was when she was putting her heart into anything in general. The childish twinkle in her eye was like that of some kid opening up a present on Christmas Eve, and the way she just got so excited over everything, and the way she still believed that anything in the world could be exciting… Things like that were only some of the reasons why I fell in love with her when I first met her.

"Cause that's the only thing that I learned in school, boy"

This was my favorite part. Floating over behind her back, I could tell she didn't see me coming. And that was when I flew out from behind her and lifted my fingers away from the strings of my axe bass; placing my fingers beneath her chin and tilting her head towards me, as I threw her a suggestive smirk.

"Uh-huh," I replied in a husky voice, bringing our faces so close together that I could practically feel her breath against my face.

And just as expected, it drew out an adorable little giggle from Fionna as she retreated from my grip, turning away with a slight blush on her cheeks.

The only thing that really bothered me at times like this was that whenever I got really close to her and saw that adorable little distressed look pop up on her face, I couldn't tell if it was the close proximity that made her blush… Or if it was the idea of me being so close to her in general that made her heart speed up.

"Cause that's the only thing that I learned in school" I sang along with her, mentally willing myself to float backwards and slightly away from her, giving her space to try and focus on the song once again.

And just as she always did, she turned back to look at me; cheeks still slightly pink from my little stunt just now, and began to sing the rest of the song.

"My problem, I never was a model

I never was a scholar,

But you were always popular.

You were singing all the songs I don't know

Now you're in the front row,

'Cause my song is popular."

Luckily I knew this song as well as the back of my hand, so it didn't matter if my mind wandered during the song, since I could still sing and play along perfectly fine.

Good thing, too, because my mind seemed to be doing that a lot today. But I couldn't help it. First seeing Fionna walk in with a faint trace of stress written on her face, and then seeing how easy it was for her to cheer up, without even talking about it… It was just an amazing sight in itself. I didn't know a lot of other girls who could do that, most of them idled on things for a long time. But not Fionna, I guess you could say that's another one of the things I liked so much about her. How considerate she was, and how careful she was not to let other's worry about her. She took care of herself really well by picking herself up and not giving herself enough time to dwindle on things. I admired her for that.

Not like it didn't still worry me, but I was happy she was feeling at least a little better.

"Popular, I know about popular.

It's not about who you are or your fancy car

You're only ever who you were.

Popular, I know about popular

And all that you have to do is be true to you

That's all you ever need to know.

So catch up, 'cause you got an awful long way to go…

So catch up, 'cause you got an awful long way to go…"

Shaking my head free of the idle thoughts, I let myself get lost in the sound of Fionna's voice as we continuously relayed the chorus back to one another for what was left of the song. Why get lost in my own thoughts when I could be focusing on what was happening right in this moment. Which was getting to hear Fionna's voice—No, even better, getting to be physically next to her. And I better enjoy that as much as possible while we're together now.

Because next year we won't be able to spend time like this together anymore.

x x x

"So Fionna, got any plans after?"

"Uh, not really, I was just gonna go home and see if Cake wanted to do something." Fionna replied, shrugging her shoulders as she turned to glance at the clock hanging above the door. "Especially since we finished practice super early today."

"Well, yeah, I mean I think we've pretty much got the whole song down." I replied as I lifted the strap of my bass guitar from around my shoulders and gently rested the instrument against the wall. Turning towards Fionna, I casually let myself float towards her, as she grabbed her forest green backpack and slipped the straps one-by-one up her shoulders. "You know I just make you come to practice cause I'm bored, right?"

"Are you for real, Marshall…" Fionna huffed, a slight hint of disapproval in her voice as she turned to me and eyed me questioningly.

"No, I'm totally kidding, Fi. Practicing is good, cause I mean, we wouldn't want you to embarrass yourself at the homecoming dance in front of Prince Gumball, would w—"

But before I could even finish the rest of my sentence, I felt a sudden, small jolt of pain in my arm which interrupted me midsentence. Obviously Fionna had punched me over that, and as I turned to face the blonde next to me, I was met with an adorable glare plastered all over her face. Folding her arms disapprovingly at me as she turned away abruptly, I couldn't help but let out a small chuckle.

"Joking, joking! I'm kidding, Fi." I managed to choke out while trying to hold back my laughter. "Lighten up. You did a good job today, alright? Thanks again for helping me out."

Nice, the apology did the trick. As Fionna turned to face me once again, I could see the pout on her face from earlier softening as she lowered her arms down at her sides again.

"Yeah, for sure, dude. It's no biggie." Fionna responded, shrugging her shoulders meekly as a small smile began to creep across her lips.

I swear to Glob, she was way too cute for her own good.

Turning away as I lowered my feet on to the ground once more, I motioned over towards the door of the music room before throwing a glance over my shoulder. "Anyway, since you've got no plans, what do you say we hang out for a bit? We haven't really done anything cool together since PG threw the responsibility of playing homecoming at me."

"Yeah, that sounds fun!" Fionna cried, a faint blush creeping onto her cheeks as I mentioned the name of our student body president. You could see it written all over her face, and as much as I knew Fionna didn't care about junk like that, she was as in love as someone like her could be for Prince Gumball.

And it was really annoying to see. But I let it slide, because if that's the dude that my best friend likes, then who was I to say anything about it?

Even though he was a total wad.

At least I could still tease her about it, and believe me, I teased her hard. I wasn't gonna let her get away with a puppy love crush on a guy like that. I never could figure out why, but the more I thought about it, the more and more irritated I got.

"Okay, then let's go." I replied grabbing Fionna's wrist as I pushed open the door to the music room and led her out into the now-empty hallways of Candy Kingdom High School. Right, school was out and by now there probably wasn't anybody around anymore, considering it was about an hour since classes had ended for the day.

"Wait!"

"What is it, Bunnie?"

"I have to go home first!" Fionna cried as she slid her wrist out of my grip. Lame. "I need to tell Cake where I'm going, since I promised her I'd be right home after practice! She'll be worried if I don't."

"Alright, I guess." Letting out a small sigh, I turned to glance down the hallway meekly. Of course she had to run home and tell Cake. That cat always warned Fionna to watch herself when she was around me, and she doubted my intentions since day one. Yeah, right. Like I'd ever do anything wrong to Fionna. "Do you want me to come with you?"

"No, I got it." Fionna replied, turning away from me and starting off towards the opposite direction of the hallway. "I'll meet you at your place, okay?!"

"Yeah, sure."

And with that, she was off, leaving me as the only one standing alone in the hallway. Fionna didn't live too far from me, so it's not like she'd be gone for too long, but I also knew that she couldn't fly when I could, so I had much more of an advantage over her – aka I had a lot of time to kill before I had to go and wait for Fionna at my place.

'Hmm, I got a lot of time but nothing to do.' I thought to myself, lifting my feet off the ground and letting myself float leisurely down the hallway. 'I mean I guess I can just chill here, since no one's around to bother me.'

'Anyway, this whole homecoming thing is blown way out of proportion… I'm surprised there are actually kids at our school who dig this much spirit being shoved in their faces. Ugh. PG is lucky I agreed to do this stupid gig. If it wasn't for Fionna, I wouldn't have even considered doing it in the first place.'

The further I floated down the hall, the more I noticed my vision had become littered with posters advertising the homecoming dance. That was what all the excitement was over. It wasn't about school spirit or whatever, it was more about the idea of a dance. Well, that, and because Prince Gumball himself was going to be hosting the event, and everyone loved Prince Gumball. As it was, he constantly had a crowd of kids surrounding him so everyone barely got a chance to talk to him in the first place, and when he wasn't hanging out with his… minions, he'd be busy doing all this junk for the school. But the homecoming dance gave everyone a chance to meet Mr. I'm-So-Special-Cause-I'm-The-Principal's-Son, and apparently that was something to be excited over. Glob knows where he got the energy and motivation to do all this with such an optimistic and peppy attitude. Giving an exaggerated eye roll, I could feel the corners of my lips fall into a slight frown.

'Just thinking about it really, really creases me. I know Fi would never admit it, but she's definitely one of the kids who had their eyes set on going with PG. I don't wanna say it to her face, but I'm pretty sure she already knows that she wouldn't have a chance going with him. The two of them haven't even spoken! With how busy that pink wad of gum is, and how less time he has to spend talking to students he doesn't already know, there's no way they'll get a chance to go together.'

'I mean, Fionna has all of these other choices, so why PG? She could choose to go with anyone else, or just choose not go in general. It's not like her to wanna get all dolled up and go to a dance anyway. She hates that sort of thing…And if she really wanted to go, why doesn't she just go with me? She isn't into the whole date situation anyway, so going with her best friend's alright. We wouldn't even have to stay at the dance, we could ditch after the performance and go do something else – something way more fun than a lame school dance.

Maybe I'll ask her when I see her later. 'Cause it's not like she has a chance with PG anyway, so… She could just go with me, instead. As a best friend, or as a date. And if she wanted me to be her date, I'll show her that I can be a way better date than Prince Gumwad.

…But, then again, I don't wanna ask her if she's gonna say no. That's the thing. With Fi, it's hard as rocks to read what's going on through her little head.'

Letting out a deep sigh, I slowly began to fold my arms over my chest as I turned towards the direction of the school exit with intentions of heading home. I didn't wanna think about this anymore, and staying in the school only made it worse.

I guess there was only one way to find out how this was gonna go down.


Hope you all enjoyed it! Remember to review, follow and favorite, and keep in mind all feedback is greatly appreciated!

In case you were curious and hadn't searched it up, the song featured during the practice scene is "Popular Song – MIKA ft. Ariana Grande"