Getting To Know You. Getting To Like You.
Fires and troubles
The adventuress had found someone interesting in this Vampire and they were talking for hours about each one's adventures. They got to know one thing or two about one another and they barely noticed as the night finally fall. As she noticed, Fionna stood up abruptly, worried shown on her face.
"Oh glob! It's late!"
"Hey, relax Cinderella, it's not twelve yet." He said with a chuckle.
"I'm serious! Cake must be worried sick by now." She said now taking her stuff.
Marshall closed his umbrella and took his bass.
"Well.. I guess I'll see you around?" She asked casually.
He shrugged and smirked. "If you're lucky enough."
She rolled her eyes, something she had learned to use while sharing her time with the vampire. What first managed to annoy her was making her smile. He wasn't really that egocentric but high-spirited and even… fun. Now, dare she say it, she kinda liked him.
"Bye Marshall." He gave his rock sing and saw as she ran towards her home. Marshall waited until she disappeared into the distance and turned around in direction to his cave. Everyone knew Fionna could take care of herself so she wouldn't have troubles to get home, and Marshall wasn't someone to worry about others, but just as he started floating an angry wolf-like growl took his attention. He glanced back and furrowed his brows. Against his natural instincts, he somehow wanted to make sure she would be fine.
He knew Fionna was too independent to accept his help willingly so he turned invisible and reached her in the woods, just in case. On their way he noticed how she walked so naturally, like she had no fears. She walked hurriedly, of course, but still, there was no fear in her.
'How can a human be so reckless?' He wondered as he saw her walking. Humans were so delicate and fragile, that's why there are no more out there. 'I mean, I could practically kill her right now if I wanted to.'
This girl was different. She was strong and highly capable to deal with any trouble by herself. He smiled to his inside, maybe he didn't have to come after all. He let those thoughts lingering on his mind for a while and he barely noticed as they reached a field and in the middle stood her tree house.
Marshall stopped abruptly at the sight in awe; it brought too much memories. Good and bad ones. 'Out of all places… here?' His thoughts were interrupted by Cake's yell. "Oh Glob! Fionna. You little miss, are in serious trouble!"
He chuckled to himself at this and then took off. His cave was only half an hour from there and as he floated through the woods. He couldn't believe she was actually living in his previous house and kept shaking his head in amusement. He would later tease her about it.
As he moved forward, now or then he would hear noises somewhere. But even his pointy ears were having troubles to find the source. He kept floating, never letting his guard down. When the noise came closer he finally knew what was going on. He smirked and turned into his giant bat form and with no warning charged into…
"Hey Booboo, Georgy, Wendy."
"Marshaaaall, let go. You are so disgusting in that shape." The ghosts groaned on his grip revealing their true forms. The vampire let go of his bat shape laughing and finally releasing the ghosts.
"Now, what gives you the right to follow me?" He asked.
"We were heading to the Wildberry Kingdom. They must be reaaaally easily scared!" The ghost named Wendy started.
"But then we saw you around and we thought maybe you wanted to join us for tonight's plans!" Added Baboo.
It took Marshall's attention then smirked wickedly "What you guys thinking?"
xxxxx
Blah Blah Blah Blah…
That's all Fionna could hear from her older sister who was trying to give her a lesson but Fionna only had her head resting in her hand watching absentmindedly to her fork as she played with her spaghetti. Finally she gave a sigh and turned to the magic cat.
"Cake. I said I was fine! I can take care of myself. How longer will you keep worrying about something that never happened?!"
Cake could tell she was kinda mad by now so she stopped all the yelling and nodded. "You're right. I was just really worried." Fionna smiled at her sister.
"I never really asked you… Are you better now? I mean, 'bout this afternoon?"
Oh right, Gumball… Fionna kept quiet for a second then she smiled and nodded.
"Great!"
"Huh? Just like that?" Her sister didn't buy it.
Now, there was no way she would tell her the whole truth. She wouldn't talk about her finding Marshall earlier knowing how worried she would get only by the mention of the vampire's name. She would tell her, eventually, but not today.
"Well, yes. Just like that. That walk really helped me clear my mind. I'm done trying to be noticed. I know who I am and I'm fine being Gumball's support whenever he's in trouble. I mean, the guy really gets his ass in trouble huh?"
This made them laugh slightly.
The next morning Fionna was woken up by the ringing of her phone and she answered groggily.
"Hello?" "Oh Fionna." It was Gumball. "I'm glad to find you."
"What's up PG?" She asked already expecting all the 'I need help' speech.
"I… wanted to apologize for my behavior last day." He started and it woke Fionna up completely. "I was in the middle of some issues and I haven't had proper sleep lately. Other way you know I wouldn't act like such a jerk with you."
"Uuh…" She didn't know what to say so she let him continue.
"There had been some problems I had to take care of myself."
"W- why didn't you tell me before?"
"Oh, no. Hahaha. I didn't want to bother you, that's all." He said sincerely. "So you forgive me?"
Fionna smiled to her insides. She had misunderstood everything. Gumball was a good guy after all. "Um, yes. I… apology accepted." She said and gave a nervous laugh. "No problem, dude. So, did you solve your trouble?"
"Part of it… Say, may I come over? I'll explain everything properly."
xxxxx
"Are you serious?!" Fionna asked with slight concern.
Gumball nodded sadly. "Everything was lost. The fire reached the storage room."
"So you couldn't fix it?"
He shook his head. "We saved some stuff but everything was basically made of candy so… let's just say, Peppermint Maid is still helping the guardians to get out of the syrup." Fionna blinked not knowing what to say. "That's why I had to change all our medications yesterday."
"Oh…"
"But who did such a thing?" Cake asked getting into the conversation.
The prince sighed and closed his eyes. "The cameras couldn't catch who it was. It was as if the fire walked into the room by itself." The girls nodded. "Anyway, no one got hurt so that's not the real problem. What I'm really worried about though…" He continued with a concern look. "Wildberry Prince called me early this morning and the same happened."
"Oh goodness." Cake said sympathetically.
"We gotta go help them!" Fionna declared standing up.
"That won't be necessary. They just lost some material."
Then he got angry and gave a heavy sigh. "And this year they were organizing the Annual Aaa's Parade. Most of the preparations were lost. Now, that's kind of a serious problem. You know as well as I do that the Parade was organized to unify the land of Aaa. It's more like a diplomatic agreement. But I'm afraid we're not having such Parade."
"Oh PG, I'm sorry. I will find out who's causing these fires!"
"So how did it start?" Cake asked Wildberry Prince. The investigation had started.
"Oh Cake. I wish I knew. All I know is that I was sleeping when some horrifying cries woke me up. I ran to the garden and the fire had started."
The girls nodded intently as he spoke.
"But someone must have seen something." Gumball inquired.
"I do know of someone who heard something weird."
Then he took them to a small house where they found a little girl who seemed to be very nervous. They asked her what she had seen and she explained timidly.
"I- I was giving a nightly walk when I heard some crush around the bushes behind me. I thought my brother was playing a prank on me so I ignored it, but then I heard something similar on the other side of the road."
Again, the girls nodded intently as this little girl continued.
"I asked to no one to stop it. That it wasn't funny, expecting my brother to jump put to scare me."
Then a third bush moved so I ran to my house giving a small yelp on my way. Just as I opened the door, so- someone hissed to her ear and I ran inside screaming.
"I couldn't sleep at all. I was scared of all the noises outside. And I swear I heard a knock on my window." Gumball narrowed his eyes. "Some time later I heard more screams and that's when I noticed the fire about four blocks from my house."
"Huumm…" Gumball put a hand to his chin in thought. "So far we can tell that there was more than one character or someone too fast."
"It is either someone too smart to be seen or someone invisible." Cake added.
"Well, anyhow, they are no challenge for us, right Cake?" Fionna said cheerfully.
"Thanks Wildberry Prince. We'll keep on the research." Prince Gumball waved goodbye and so did the girls. Lord Monochromicorn flew them away.
"I have a slight idea of who could have been, though I can't tell for sure."
"Who is it PG?"
He gave a heavy sigh. "There's one I know who fits to their description. He can turn invisible, he can fly, and he's known for being a troublemaker, Marshall Lee."
Cake gasped a little. "That blood sucker. Why didn't I think about that before?!" Cake said with her tail frizzing out.
Fionna had remained quiet while her friends discuss about their suspicion. Should she believe it?
"B- but we don't know that. You said it was just a possibility, r- right?" It wasn't usual for the adventuress to stutter which took the Prince attention.
"Fionna, you know he can be really annoying, and for what I know he would be capable to do such atrocity."
"Well yeah, he was annoying. I'm just saying, we have to keep our minds open." She said defensibly and gave a nervous laugh.
"I say we go, and face that bat!" Gumball nodded at Cake and ordered Monochromicorn to the Vampire's cave.
She didn't know why, but somehow, Fionna wanted Marshall to be innocent. She had seen another façade of him and wanted it to be true. She even thought she would befriend this new character. Maybe not.
xxxxx
At the back of the Grasslands on a cold dark cave, Marshall Lee was floating above his bed staring at his ceiling and he held an angry frown on his lips.
"Damn it!" He said as he grabbed his arm as if it were hurt. He took some bandages and was about to cover them when he heard a knock on his front door. He groaned and put on a long sleeved shirt and headed downstairs.
When he showed himself he looked tired and pissed off. He saw it was them and raised an eyebrow.
"What do you want? And make it fast, it's already 4 pm and I haven't slept at all." He said crossing his arms.
"Well then, straight to business." Cake spoke with confidence. For the first time Marshall noticed how serious they stood and he gave a look at Fionna who seemed ashamed.
"We just came from the Wildberry Kingdom, anything to say?"
The vampire smirked teasingly. "Best red I've ever tasted."
And though it wasn't the moment Fionna had to cover a laugh. Marshall noticed and winked at her.
Gumball got mad and growled getting closer to him. "It was you at the Wildberry Kingdom yesterday, am I not right, Marshall Lee?"
"Leave me alone, you Gumwad." He groaned turning around.
"It was you, wasn't it?" The Prince stated forcefully pulling him from his arm.
"Aggh! What's your problem!?" The vampire jerked at the pain. Even Gumball was surprised, it's not as if he was actually strong or anything.
Fionna got a closer glimpse and took his arm taking the vampire by surprise, though her touch was way softer that Gumball's. She slid up his sleeve and widened her eyes.
"You… you're burnt!" She said somehow disappointed.
"So we're right… It was you!"
I don't own Adventure Time or any of the characters.
I'm late, I know. Please forgive me, I'll work harder from now on ^^ I just had some stuff and blah blah blah.
So… whaddya think? Opinions, comments, suggestions, reviews? You know what to do! ;)
