(A/N: Not a lot happens here, but it'll all tie together in the end, methinks. Got an exciting Adventure-filled chapter coming up next too. As always, leave a review. 3 )

Horror Movie Interlude

It was afternoon when Fionna stepped into the cave where Marshall Lee lived. The setting sun cast his white, oddly suburban house in a warm orange glow from the cave's entrance. The picket fence gate squeaked in protest as she stepped onto his grassy lawn. For a night-dwelling vampire, he kept the plant life in his front yard neatly cut and healthy. Which was odd, considering she had never seen him tend to the plants.

She knocked on his front door and waited for him to respond. Silence. She tried again, this time pounding louder. "Marshall?" There was a faint echo inside the cave, but besides that, nothing.

Okay then. Stepping around to the side porch, she tried again there and peered hopefully in the door window. The lights were out in his house, but that wasn't anything unusual. He was a vampire, for glob's sake. He liked the dark.

Feeling a bit discouraged, but not really wanting to walk back home, she twisted at the doorknob and was surprised when it gave way. Of course his door was unlocked. Who would have the guts to enter the lair of the vampire king anyway? His name alone would be enough to deter any intruders.

Fionna stepped cautiously into his kitchen, feeling a bit apprehensive. "Marshall? Are you home?" It was still light out. Unless he carried an umbrella or something to shade him from the sun, he had to be home.

She moved silently through the house, resisting the urge to turn on the lights and feeling a bit weird about entering his home without his direct permission. He did invite her over the night before, so that was like an indirect invitation at least. It was this thought that allowed her to shove down feeling of wrongness and climb the ladder into his room.

The windows had been completely blocked out, casting the bedroom into darkness. She squinted as her eyes adjusted, seeing his axe bass propped up against his chair and various music sheets scattered over the desk. At the sight of the body stretched haphazardly over the bed, Fionna strode over to him and smirked fondly at Marshall Lee's sleeping form.

He was still wearing his pants from the previous night, but his plaid shirt had been replaced with a light grey tank top. A pair of headphones covered his pointed ears, attached to a cassette player that rested on his chest. That explained why he didn't hear her enter or call his name. Fionna could honestly say that she had never seen Marshall look so normal and, well… innocent. It just wasn't a word you could use to describe the thousand year old teenager. His dark hair hung over his closed eyes, and his mouth was open slightly. One arm was spread out on the sheets while the other lightly grasped the cassette player.

Fionna found herself wanting to brush the bangs out of his face or, for whatever reason, touch his cheek. So she did the next best thing without compromising any emotions. She reached one finger out and poked his face.

The reaction happened so fast that Fionna didn't have time to register what was going on. A hand was tightly around her throat, and she was carried roughly into the air toward the ceiling, a hissing face near her ear. Her back pressed against the wall, her feet dangling helplessly, she clutched at the hand around her neck to get it to loosen its grip, but it had the opposite effect. She wanted to scream or say his name- something to get him to stop and come to his senses, but she couldn't find her voice. Black spots were dancing in her vision…

Then the grip around her throat loosened, and the voice near her ear muttered, "Fionna?" He backed away to look her in the face, his eyes wide and surprised and his mouth hanging open in shock. Silently, he glided to the floor and let her go. Seeing her cough as she struggled to take deep breaths of glorious air, Marshall closed his mouth and gritted his teeth together, the look of surprise never leaving his face.

Once Fionna could breathe again without falling into a coughing fit, she raised her watery eyes to meet his. "I uh… wanted to see if you wanted to hang out."

If vampires had the ability to blush in embarrassment, Marshall would have been turning all shades of red. Instead, he simply said, "You scared me."

Fionna raised her eyebrows and clutched at the straps of her backpack. "I scared you?"

Not knowing what to say, Marshall dragged his fingers through his hair, turned on heel and walked- not flew - to pick up the cassette player and headphones that were strewn on the floor. He tossed them on the bed, then turned to face the adventuress again. "You okay?" He winced when he spoke the words, as though it was a not a question he asked often.

Fionna waved a hand in the air, shrugging it off for the sake of her friend. "Yeah, I'm all good. The Ice Queen's given me worse. I'm almost disappointed."

He knew she was exaggerating, but he gave her a small grin nonetheless. "Want some breakfast?"

"That sounds great. I'm starving."

His feet left the floor, and he glided backwards down into the living room. Fionna followed and quickly descended down the ladder.

Nearly all the foods in Marshall Lee's refrigerator was red due to his admittedly odd diet. "Whatcha want?" he asked, peering into the lighted insides of his fridge. "I've got strawberries, apples, cherries, cherry soda…"

Fionna scooted under his arm to take a look for herself, not happy with his suggestions.

"I think you left some cereal here last time," he offered.

"Oh, yeah…" And with that, she vanished from her spot next to him.

Marshall tossed a few cherries and strawberries into a bowl for himself as Fionna fixed her cereal, then the two of them sat at the rarely-used dining table.

"So what's the plan today," she asked around a mouthful of cinnamon cereal.

Marshall Lee tilted his chair back until it was standing on its two back legs. Fionna was convinced he was using his levitation powers to keep it from falling back. "I dunno," he answered. "Want to prank some of the Candy people?"

Although that was his specialty, Fionna felt guilty whenever she tagged along. "Nah. I think I need a relaxing day for once."

"A movie then? I've got a killer movie collection."

She thought about it, chewing slowly on her cereal, before nodding in a sudden decision. "Okay then, movie. Something scary with lots of mathematical action scenes."

"Hey, that's my favorite kind."

Fionna couldn't get her mind off of the events of the evening. It was the first time she had seen Marshall lose control like that. It wasn't like him. Usually, he was the laid-back, chill vampire that kept a careful check on an inherited evil nature. Before that day, she didn't even think it was possible to scare him. She thought back to the weird occurrence in the forest and that odd, threatening glare he was sending into the woods.

Deep in thought, she stared as Marshall dropped a cherry in his mouth, then retrieved it with the color drained and the stem tied into a knot. Sensing her gaze, he glanced up, the grey knotted cherry still dangling in his fingers. "What?"

"You okay?"

One eyebrow rose. "Yeah, why?"

"You just seem kinda… I dunno, on edge or something."

The master of dodging anything drama-related, Marshall simply responded, "Oh, Fionna. When will you learn? I'm always more than good."

She snorted a laugh in a very unlady-like manner. "Sure, whatever, dude."

After finishing their afternoon breakfast, the two searched through Marshall's video tapes and dvds in the cabinet of his living room. "Pft, this is hardly what I'd consider a killer movie collection," she complained. "I've already seen all of these."

"I can't help that you haunt my house to watch my movies." But he liked it nonetheless and motioned for her to follow him across the room.

"Wait, where are we going?"

"You think I'm going to let someone by unimpressed with my movie collection?" He grabbed her hands and floated her up into his attic.

Now, in all the times that the two had spent together, Fionna had not once been into his attic. She had once hidden in his closet without him knowing, shattered the window to his bathroom when playing rock baseball with Cake, and accidentally set loose a plague of mud frogs in his basement. But until that point, his attic had been a mystery that she had never really considered until that moment.

Even after he turned on the solitary light bulb in the middle of the room, the area was still dim and shaded in shadow. Dust hung onto the light surrounding the bulb and covered the boxes, abandoned lamps, and desks.

"How long has it been since you were up here?" she asked.

"A while." He blew the dust off of one of the boxes to reveal a label that said, "Vinyl Collection," then pushed it over to the side and moved to the next one. "I never really have much of a reason to."

A flowery, poofy-sleeved granny dress covered in a protective plastic caught her eyes, and she grabbed it from the nail in the wall and held it up to her body. "Evening wear, Marshall Lee?" she asked, posing dramatically.

He laughed, then said, "Nah, that belonged to the old lady that used to live here."

Fionna stopped, a frown curving the edges of her lips. "A lady used to live in this cave?"

The subject was dismissed with a raise of his shoulders. "There wasn't always a cave here."

"Oh." Her bottom lip stuck out thoughtfully as she placed the dress back on the nail, then her attention turned to the many boxes that littered the room. Each was labeled with a black marker- "Blankets," "Blackmail," "Concert Tickets"… "Is all of this yours?" she inquired, eyeing a box labeled with the alien word "Earth."

"Most of it, yeah."

She knelt down next to him to watch as he sorted through his belongings. One particular label caught her attention, and she asked, "Why do you have a box full of bottled souls?"

"Oh, that?" He pulled a rounded glass jar from the box and held it up. Something akin to the fog on a lake of water or warm breath in the middle of the winter sparkled in the jar, twisting its shape around. It could have been her imagination, but at the sight of Marshall Lee on the other side of the glass, the white smoke moved to the other side of the jar. "It's all the people that have angered me in the past. They tried to get to me, I got their souls."

"Marshall!" she exclaimed in shock, adding a rough punch to his arm for emphasis.

Indignantly, he rubbed the spot where she had hit him and responded, "Relax, I was just kidding."

But she wasn't convinced that he was, and she thought to herself that sometimes, Marshall Lee was a bit too much like his mom for comfort. Of course, she would never, ever mention this because she didn't want to become a collected soul in a jar herself.

"A-ha!" Marshall announced proudly, dragging out a partially torn box from underneath a dust-covered piano. "Make your pick, oh, Heroine of Aaa."

Most of the video tapes it contained were ancient- older than she had ever seen. The covers were fading, turning a pale sepia tone, and a few of the plastic cases looked brittle. "Where did these come from?" she asked, a bit in awe.

"Here and there."

"They're old."

"Doesn't mean they're not good."

One video caught her eye, and she removed it from the box gingerly. She stared at the cover, feelings a shock hit her stomach and travel over her limbs. Humans… This movie was about humans. They littered the cover, blondes and brunettes and redheads with all sorts of skin tones. How long ago was this made?

Fionna licked her lips, feeling like her tongue was thick, and stated, "I want to watch this one."

Apparently reading her thoughts, he raised one shoulder, feeling uncomfortable, and answered, "That movie sucks, Fi."

"I don't care. I want this one."

"Are you sure you don't…"

One hand lightly landed on his wrist, interrupting him. He stared down at her wide blue eyes that were threatening oncoming emotions as she said softly, "Please, Marshall?"

Dammit. With a sigh, he dragged his fingers through his hair and floated upwards. "Fine. Come on, adventuress." She took his offered hand, and he pulled her to her feet.

On their way back to the living room, she asked, "What's this movie about?"

Marshall Lee didn't look at her as he replied, "Vampires."

Now, there were a few things Fionna learned immediately from Marshall Lee's movie: 1) Humanity really had no idea what vampires looked or acted like. And 2) Most of the human beings on the film were cowards that had no idea how to defend themselves.

This did not please the heroine.

They were a quarter of the way through the film, curled up on Marshall's couch, and Fionna was full of questions. 'Are vampires really supposed to sleep in coffins?' 'Those vampires really just look like pale humans. That's silly. Could they not hire vampire actors?'

But then things shifted, and the movie started to get darker. People began screaming for their lives. Good characters raised their arms to fight, but were easily defeated. Blood began spilling on screen- red splashes running down wooden floors. It was so different from the horror films of Aaa, which featured corny monsters attacking creatures made of candy. Those were things she faced every day in real life; she could defeat those demons. This film was a different animal, with clever beings that plotted against the heroes and betrayed them. She was watching her extinct people get massacred by bloodthirsty demons. The reds that flashed across the screen were warning signals in her brain that made her queasy.

Nervously, Fionna glanced up at Marshall, who was reclined back in the chair with one hand casually over the back of the couch, seemingly amused by the over-exaggerated vampires on screen. The bunny-eared teen scooted closer to him and wrapped his arm her shoulders. His eyes landed on her in slight surprise, wondering if he had finally found a movie that could give the young girl nightmares, and he asked, "Is the Fearless Adventurer scared of an old horror film?"

"No," she answered, but a vampire attacked someone on screen. She let out a squeak and half-way buried her face in his chest while the other hand clutched his shirt for protection. If she caught onto the irony of the situation, she didn't show it.

"I could stop the film, if you'd like," he offered half teasingly.

"No, I'm not scared."

A hundred pranks to terrify her in her current state ran through his mind, ways to morph or shift or scare because it was one of the most natural things in the world to him. And then, as she placed her bunny-eared head against his shoulder, her warm body and racing heart pressed against his side, he decided that he preferred this better and shifted slightly to get more comfortable in that position.

One of the vampires on screen grabbed a human girl and jerked her into the air. Her screams pierced through Marshall's living room as the victim's friend arrived a moment too late.

The girl's blood splattered across her friend's face…

Such bright shades of red…

Like strawberries or apples or something harder to get and more valuable.

Marshall Lee blinked that thought away. This movie really did suck.

But as his cheek rested against his terrified partner's head, he also thought it was worth it in many ways.
******************************

"Marshall?"

"Hmm?"

"Do other vampires drink blood?"

The end credits had been rolling on the screen for a while, and the two still remained in their position on the couch.

Marshall shrugged. "Some do."

"You don't." She knew he didn't, but for some reason, the statement sounded like a question.

"Nah, the color works just fine for me."

She bit her lip slightly, not sure if she should even ask the next question. "Do you ever want to?"

Eyebrows drawing together slightly, he looked down to see Fionna staring up at him with those large, innocent blue eyes of hers; the eyes of a little lost naïve girl who thought she was a hero. The question threw him off guard. Why in the world would she ask that? Was it the movie that brought it on? Or because of his reaction when she woke him up? At that thought, his stomach dropped and guilt washed over him. Didn't she know not to wake up a vampire suddenly? It was common knowledge.

There were many ways to answer her question; lies and half truths and- his personal favorite- exaggerations. But this was Fionna, and it was somehow different. He forced a smile abruptly on his face and tugged on the ears of her bunny hat. "Only when little lost heroines ask too many questions," he replied simply.

"Hey!" But her exclamation was half hearted, and he poked at her side teasingly.

A half-growl, half laugh escaped her, and she retaliated by smacking his hand away.

The next thing she knew, her hat was jerked off of her head, and her golden hair tumbled down around her shoulders. "You butt!" she exclaimed, diving for the hat that was suspended outside of her reach.

"So I've got this suspicion," the vampire said, stretching to keep the prized bunny ears out of the human's reach, "that this hat is the source of all your heroic human powers."

"Need an excuse for when I kicked your butt last time we fought, Vampire King?"

"Hah, I took it easy on you so I wouldn't break your fragile mortal body!"

Wrestling his arm out of the way, Fionna managed to climb onto his chest, her knee jabbing into his stomach, and stretched out to retrieve the prize. Seeing that she was just about to win, Marshall tossed the hat to the opposite corner of the room.

A comedic sounding growl of frustration escaped the human teen, and she leapt over both him and the back of the couch, focused intently on her goal. Planning for this to occur, Marshall managed to grab her ankle at just the right moment so she faceplanted into the floor. By the time she scrambled to her feet, the vampire king was in front of her, smirking as he blocked her pathway to the hat.

Smiling mischievously in a way that would put Marshall Lee to shame, she eyed her opponent, looking for a sign of weakness. They were at a standoff, both knowing that the first person to move would be at a disadvantage. However, Fionna had never been a subtle person, so she decided the best way to get out of this predicament would be to do a head-on attack full of force. The momentum of her charge knocked both of them back onto the floor, this time with Fionna pinning her partner down. Her eyes lifted to her goal in the corner of the room before dropping down to look at her opponent as if she didn't know what to do with the Vampire King now that she had him.

Her blonde hair formed a veil around his head, and he blew a stray lock out of his face. "Why don't you go get that?" he questioned, a mischievous spark in his eye.

She scrunched up her nose and stuck out her tongue at him, but she was also considering it. It was the only thing she could do.

Then, without warning, she found herself being lifted into the air as Marshall began floating upwards. "No fair!" she whined.

"Just because you can't use your awesome hat powers doesn't mean I can't use mine."

Her bottom lip stuck out in an exaggerated fashion as she contemplated her current predicament. Both of them were hovering about half way in the middle of the room. Then, figuring it was her only chance, she managed to roll off the floating Marshall Lee, land on the floor in a very unladylike fashion, and dove for the white bunny ears in the corner. Her hand curled around the soft fabric, and she held the item up proudly, doing a short, happy victory dance. "In yo' face, Vampire King!"

Marshall was hovering upside down, watching the Adventuress revel in her success. "Only cause I let you win."

Placing the bunny hat back on her head, she replied with a smile, "You're such a sore loser, Marshall."

One corner of his lip curved in a sly almost-smile. "Yeah, whatev."

She giggled as she retrieved her trademark green backpack from beside the couch. "I need to head home. It's getting late."

"The night's just begun."

"I'm not a nocturnal bat like you, Marsh." She walked over to her friend as he floated upright and gave him a quick kiss on his blueish-grey cheek. "I'll see you later, k? Maybe you, me, and Cake can go adventuring soon."

At the mention of Fionna's sister, Marshall snorted a laugh, already planning a variety of vicious pranks for the white and tan cat. Reading his thoughts, she sent a half-hearted glare his way as if it would discourage him.

When she flung open the front door to leave, she hesitated in the doorframe. The darkness outside loomed closer to her, hiding in it all manner of movie monsters that attacked young Heroines. She swallowed nervously.

"You're seriously not freaked out by that movie, are you?" Marshall Lee commented from somewhere behind her.

She turned around to pout at the hovering vampire and let out a petulant, "No."

Crossing his arms over his chest, he leaned back in the air like he was reclining on an invisible chair. "You do realize I'm a vampire, don't you?"

"Yeah, but you're not like a scary, bloodthirsty one."

Marshall Lee, master of the night, son of the ruler of the Nightosphere, the shape shifting, fire breathing, thousand year old Vampire King that once killed a Queen to get his title, raised one eyebrow, feeling the powerful blow to his ego.

The next thing she knew, she was looking at a large, snarling wolf monster with sharp, dripping fangs. The sight didn't even earn a blink from the girl, and she patted its growling, furred cheek in a motherly "You lost the spelling bee, son, but you'll always be first in my heart" sort of way. "Okay, that was a lie," she commented with honesty. "I know lots of people that are terrified of you. But you're my friend, so it kind-of nullifies it, you know?"

Semi-satisfied with the response, he shifted back into his true form, a deadpan, slightly annoyed expression on his face.

"And anyway," Fionna continued, "I'm not scared of the movie, like I said. It's just really dark out there. It's like, new moon, no stars, pitch black dark. And I don't have a flashlight. So." She puffed out her cheeks, hoping he'd buy it. As an adventuress, she had a reputation, and she couldn't let a stupid film tarnish that reputation.

Being what he was, Marshall Lee could recognize fear easily. There was always an increase in heart rate, subtle movements of the body, and of course, the smell of fear, which he could easily pick up on. It all came with the territory of being a night creature. "I have a flashlight," he commented, knowing it was part of her ruse, but playing along nonetheless.

"Nah, I'll be fine. Just gotta get these guys used to the dark," she said, pointing to her eyeballs. "I'll see you later, Marshall." And with that, she swallowed down her wariness, turned on heel, and marched out the door and into the night.

Alone again, Marshall stared at the closed door for a while, wondering about the events of the night. Then he did something typical for him when he couldn't get his mind to rest; he went into his bedroom, picked up his bass, and wrote a song.

Next Chapter: Shades of Red
- Which is much better than Shades of Grey. ;)