A few days before Prince Gumballs Science celebration dance was set to take place, Fionna was called up to the Candy Kingdom. Fionna hadn't seen the Prince for a while, but there wasn't anything unusual about her being summoned, it was probably just some monster terrorizing some poor innocent villagers or something like that, the typical hero-esque jobs usually assigned.

When Fionna arrived to the candy castle, she was greeted by peppermint maid, and made her way up to the tower room, where Prince Gumball was apparently waiting to inform her of her duties or something like that.

"Heya, Fionna!" She was greeted in the usual nice-guy fashion upon her arrival.

"Hullo, Prince Gumball! How can I be of service?" She replied, expecting to receive some sort of job or awesome action-packed quest to complete.

"Well…" he said mischievously, "If you really want to be of service, you'll be my date for the Ball I'm hosting this week!"

Huh. That was mildly unexpected. A few weeks ago, Fionna would have been in heaven! Prince Gumball asking her to go to the dance? As his date? Heck yes! There was no way she would have said no! But now… Well, now she didn't even want to go with him at all! I mean, she wasn't completely against the idea, he was still an alright guy, but she was already going to go with Marshall, and there was no possibility of her cancelling that, especially after that night at the lookout point…

"Uh, actually, I kind of can't" She blurted out, still in shock. "I mean, I'd love to and all, sure, but uh.. Yeah. I can't."

"What do you mean, you can't? Of course you can! It's MY ball, I think you should come with me, so you're going to. Problem solved. Besides, you can always do whatever it was you were planning on doing another time." He said promptly, apparently impressed by his reasoning skills. He hadn't even considered that Fionna had already been asked to the dance. I mean honestly, it's Fionna. Who would ask her?

"Not really!" Fionna half-shouted, catching Prince Gumball off guard. "As a matter of fact, I am going to your silly Science Celebration Dance, but I'm not going with you! Marshall already asked me, thank-you-very-much!"

Prince Gumball looked rather taken aback by Fionna's sudden outburst, and as did she, eyes wide open and nearly out of breath from her verbal attack.

"Are… are you really?" He asked, rather timid. Though, considering it was Prince gumball, that wasn't altogether that remarkable.

"Yeah. I am. Sorry." She wasn't really sorry at all, but he was the Prince and after all, it was also his ball she was going to in the first place. Best to keep on the safe side. "What's so weird about that anyways?"

"Oh sugar! For a minute there I thought you were going as his date, not just pals. I got confused!" He laughed, apparently relieved.

"Well, sorry to disappoint, but we're not just going as pals." She stated matter-of-factly. What the shmau was up with people always assuming she'd never like anyone? Or maybe they just thought nobody would ever like her? Insulting as that thought was, she shook it off. Besides, she had proved them wrong, they could go suck a soggy pickle for all she cared.

That said, Fionna turned and walked out of the room. She found Cake not long after, chatting with Ms. Cupcake.

"Hay girl haaaay!" Cake greeted Fionna, rubbing against her leg. "Whatwassat all about?"

"He wanted me to go to the dance with him as his date!" Fionna answered, with the smallest hint of disgust in her voice.

"Are you going to?" Cake questioned, wide-eyed. This had been the topic of none too few late night-boy talks about the Prince.

"UH, no! First of all, he's sort of rude. And he dresses in pink! Sheesh, I pretty much look like more of a man than him,"

"…Except you've got beewbs." Cake cut in, attempting (without success) to hold back her laughter.

Fionna blushed madly. "Shut up!" She said, before continuing. "And second of all, I already have a date, who, to be honest, I'd much rather be going with."

"I really hope you're talking about me, and not some pink squishy dude," A new voice cut in, and Fionna spun around in surprise.

"Marshall! Hah.. Yes I was talking about you." She blushed again, even more furiously than before and looked away.

"Good," he said, his eyes lighting up. "For goodness sakes, woman, can you please try not to be so damn adorable? You're killing me here."

She blushed again and laughed as he picked her up. "Also, you should know that's actually quite an achievement, seeing as I'm technically already dead!"
He added, laughing.

Fionna giggled, then asked a tad more seriously why he had come to the Candy Kingdom.

"I heard you came here, and I was worried you had forgotten about our movie night, until I remembered I hadn't told you yet.
So here I am, whisking you away, It's all rather romantic, in a sort of random, smallish sort of way."

Fionna giggled. It was pretty romantic… In her opinion, anyway.

"So…" Fionna asked with a smile, "What movie are we gonna watch anyways?"

"Meh," Marshall responded nonchalantly, "I don't really care, I'm just glad you're coming." He said with a wink, carrying her outside

where they disappeared into the darkness.