'Marshall? Are you still there, hello?' Cake said when she had heard nothing after a few moments. She rolled her eyes when she heard stuttering on the other end of the line a few seconds later. She pulled the rest of the phone out of Fionna's backpack while she waited for Marshall-lee to collect himself from whatever shock he had gotten from hearing her voice on the line. That boy was so... Odd. She couldn't figure him at all. Not to mention he could be a complete ass sometimes.
Marshall was desperately trying to figure out his angle as quickly as he could. Because obviously, he couldn't tell Cake the truth. She'd go ballistic. He'd be castrated and possibly hospitalised even with the vampire healing, and that wasn't even the worst part. Cake definitely wouldn't let Fionna even hang out with him again, much less anything beyond that (though if she were to let them hang out, It's pretty clear what they would be doing the whole time. The whole. Time.) And he could not let that happen. He loved her, surprising as that was to probably everyone, including him. Playboy of quite literally the millenia had finally been tied down.
So how could he get her to go away so he could come up with a legitimate excuse for his sleeping beauty, not to mention a new set of clothing? Confusion? No, that would just make her make him help. Fake lead? No, then when she realised he'd stiffed her she'd smell a rat and eventually sniff out the truth. Goodbye manhood, hello eunch-dom.
What about anger? He had sounded pretty annoyed when he first answered. And he did say it was a bad time. Play it like he's busy, then that would at least buy him some time.
' Cake, this really is not the best time. Wherever she is, she'll be fine, this is Fionna we're talking about.'
' So wait, you haven't seen her?' Cake asked, surprised that this reply had taken him such a long time to give. What had all that stammering been about?
' No, I haven't. Why would I have, I've been busy fu- Uh, um... Doing.. stuff. And things. Which I am currently still trying to complete, so if you can just hang up and go annoy Gumbutt, that'd be great.' Cake scoffed at him through the phone, going down the ladder into the living room to find Beemo and see if he knew where Fionna was.
' Don't you talk to me like th-'
' Preoccupied, kitty. I don't have time for your sass. See ya.'
Cake listened to the disconnect tone disbelievingly for a few moments then took the receiver away from her face and stared at it in disgust.
' Ugh. Fluffin' Marshall. Why did I even bothe-' Cake faltered as she looked over to the low reddish-brown coffee table in front of their plushy purple couch. Lying face down, his batteries scattered messily over the cushions of the sofa behind him, was Beemo.
Cake quickly ran over and fumbled with the batteries, trying to put them back in the correct place. Oh Glob. What if someone had come and taken her baby girl while she was sick, and powered down Beemo so that he couldn't tell? What if a demon had her baby girl in his claws right now, and she was unconscious or unable to leave? Then an even worse thought popped unbidden into the terrified cat's mind as Beemo's 'on' tone sounded.
What if Fionna had done it on purpose? Because she had a b- b- Boyfriend? That she was sneaking off to see?
' Oh, hello Cake. I didn't have any dreams.' Beemo said, his LED eyes blinking innocently up at the frozen feline.
' Beemo, did you realise you'd had your batteries popped out?' Beemo wriggled slightly from side to side, his equivalent of a head shake.
' Does that mean I am still not fully charged? Oh, nuggets!' Beemo frowned, plopping himself back down onto the table and grabbing the wire.
' Goodb-'
'Wait, Beemo. Did Fionna come and tell you to look after her? 'Cause she was sick when I skedaddled.' Beemo dropped the wire and scratched his directional pad thoughtfully.
' Well, My camera would have been on. It goes into surveillance mode when I charge. We can see which crook tried to pop my block!' Beemo flicked through some folders until he found his most recent surveillance tape, then fast forwarded until a blurred shape ran across his screen.
' Go back, Bee. And stop! Now forward, normal speed.' Beemo obliged, and Cake watched in mute shock as Fionna appeared on the screen in her pajamas, looking slightly hot and bothered, before a small click sounded then the screen went fuzzy, then going completely black.
' I guess that's when she popped out my batteries. Oh glob, Fionna is an assassin! She's trying to kill me! AAAAHHHH!' Beemo jumped up and slapped his speakers dramatically, before jumping off of the table and running over to the wall. He tripped once on the way, before quickly scrambling back up and diving through a crack between two planks.
Cake rolled her eyes at the small space. Well, she wouldn't be seeing Beemo for a good long time. But back to more immediate matters.
Where the hell was Fionna? She had left her backpack with all of her normal adventure junk behind. She hadn't even taken her purse. So that definitely ruled out both adventuring or going down to the grocery kingdom for food. But she had been sick either way when the cat had left, so where the hell could she have gone if she was puking up her guts?
Unless, as the cat had unwilling considered before, that had all been an act and Fionna was snuggled up in some conniving, seductive incubus's arms. Her baby girl was still only fifteen, much as she liked people to forget that fact, so she was definitely not old enough to go up to that tier.
Oh glob.
What if she was back with Flame Prince? Maybe she had found a way around all their physical issues and she forgave him for the whole biz with that fire girl, and they had secretly gotten back together because Fionna knew that if Cake heard about it, she would want to chaperone. Because, the boy was flippin' made of fire. Considering what had happened when they had gotten to tier two, even like, tier nine was huge risk. Not to mention that there was no way Cake was allowing Fionna to go anywhere past about tier four until she was eighteen.
Cake jumped out of the treehouse window and changed into the shape of a paraglider, starting to soar towards the fire kingdom. If she got there, and she found Fionna, then one particular Neo-Flame King was gonna be sleeping with the fishes tonight.
'Fionna? Fi, wake up. Honey, we got a problem.' Fionna blinked blearily and rolled over, expecting to find herself facing Marshall's chest but being surprised when there was nothing there. She half sat up as she opened her eyes fully, then froze when she saw Marshall-lee drawing away from her and swinging his legs over the side of the bed, still naked. She had seen it before, yes, but that was only a glimpse. Now she had the whole picture, and no reason not to admire what she now considered a work of art, considering what it could do to her.
Yeah, he was a lot skinnier than Muscle prince and he wasn't as tall or physically present as as Steven Strong, but she liked what she was viewing. He had this sense of ease and grace that both of them lacked, and while the musculature wasn't overly developed, it was well defined and slim.
And she much preferred that to a big, heavy, thickset thug.
' Uh, what?' Fionna finally replied, drawing herself out of her reverie. Marshall-lee stood up and walked over to the bathroom, running his fingers through his hair. Fionna watched him go, confused. She got off of the bed and tugged the sheet off, then wrapped it loosely around herself, following him.
'Marshall-lee? What's wrong?' She asked just as he reappeared, having put back on his jockey shorts. Upon seeing her expression, Marshall leaned down and gave her a short kiss, silencing the worries that were brewing over his well being. Fionna knew he had been deeply pissed off with himself earlier, considering what he had told her while she was carrying him back in her body. He probably still felt a little guilty for making her worry like that, not to mention the fact that he had made her cry. She hoped he felt guilty about that, because he should. She hardly ever cried.
' I'm fine, baby. Cake called while you were asleep.' Marshall-lee watched the situation dawn on Fionna's face. Trust her to think there was something wrong with him. Why in hell would he be unhappy in anyway, he had had a beautiful naked girl he'd just fucked in his bed, and one he actually happened to like quite a bit, thank you very much. And she liked him back, as ridiculously circuitous and painful his method for discovering this had been. This would've definitely been the morning of the century after everything if it weren't for bloody Cake coming in and creating more problems after he had only just been forgiven for doing exactly the same thing.
But Fionna probably wouldn't blame him even though he deserved it. And even if she did, she'd just sigh and roll her eyes then get on with it, fix the problem without considering whether she should. Her attitude had gotten her into plenty of dangerous situations before, but it was one of her defining traits. Her lack of an angle was one of the things he loved about her.
' Oh. Oh no. What- What was she asking, and what did you say?' Fionna said a few moments later, clutching at the sheet.
' She wanted to know where you are. I said I didn't know, and that I was busy- Which I was, listening to your heartbeat-' Fionna flushed slightly and smiled shyly at him. ' Then I hung up on her. But she'll definitely be looking by now, so we gotta figure out some way to get you more clothes and come up with a reason you would've left the house at six am.' Fionna cocked her head to the side in a bewildered manner, raising an eyebrow at the same time.
' What do you mean more clothes?' Marshall-lee smirked at her the placed a hand gently on her shoulder, spinning her to face away from him. Fionna yelped when he smacked her butt through the sheet then he walked past her and picked up a scrap of fabric from the floor.
' I believe this used to be part of your panties.' He said, holding up the fragment for Fionna to see. She finally grasped his meaning and blushed as Marshall looked at the material he was holding, his eyebrows raising slightly in surprise.
' Black lace? That's unusually sexy for you, Bunny.' Suddenly his eyes flashed up to hers and a disbelieving half-smile appeared on his face.
' Did you plan this?' He asked incredulously, watching her face intently. Fionna avoided his eyes, turning redder. When she had been quickly getting dressed before chasing after him, she had been considering what might happen if she did in fact kiss him. Because she knew he liked her. So once he knew that she liked him back, what he might want to do with her she wasn't sure. She had known that tier fifteen was something to do with physical togetherness, which is all that Cake had told her, and if she was gonna let him see and maybe even touch her body again she didn't want to be wearing pink underwear with the motif ' Hands off' emblazoned in purple on the back. They were the only other clean pair left. It was laundry day tomorrow.
' Not exactly. I um.. Like I said I didn't really know.. about any of it.' She trailed off, looking at the ground before squeaking in surprise when she was swept off her feet by an invisible set of arms. She was dumped on the bed, the springs groaning slightly before Marshall-lee materialised on all fours on top of her, grinning gleefully.
' You're more conniving then I give you credit for, Bunny.' He whispered conspiratorially before he kissed her, the fact that he was still smiling as he did so giving an interesting new dimension to the shape of his mouth on hers.
He couldn't believe how much she trusted him, if she really hadn't known what the hell had been going on for that entire half-hour. He could've been trying to kill her for all she knew, but she trusted him and loved him enough to just let him do whatever he was gonna do, despite how much he'd proven himself an untrustworthy bastard. She really did care about him, even with all his faults. He had known that the second she had told him so, but now he believed it.
Though, really she shouldn't have had to trust him, she should've been able to march up here knowing what she was getting herself into by admitting that she liked him back. Cake had been very unfair-
' Oh, Cake! Fuck!' Marshall-lee exclaimed, remembering what he was supposed to be doing instead of making out with Fionna. To be fair, he could hardly be blamed for getting distracted. He had wanted her for ages, he wouldn't be able to keep his hands off her for at least a month now. Fionna pouted when he sat back on top of her and grabbed at his neck, preventing him from getting off of her.
' Get back here, I'm not done with you.' She commanded, and Marshall-lee struggled internally for a moment, slightly mollified by the tone of her voice. He hadn't known she could be so in charge.
Fionna rolled her eyes when he froze then sat up, gently sliding her arms up underneath his and flattening her palms on the back of his shoulders. Marshall-lee didn't have the heart or the morality to stop himself as he kissed her again, then yelped in surprise when he felt Fionna tug on him roughly and found himself underneath her a few moments later. Fionna's hair hung down in curly tendrils, some of them brushing the sides of his face as she leaned over the top of him, the sheet she had looped around her dangerously close to falling apart. All he could do in that moment was blink up at her.
' I said, I'm not done with you. You ran away from me, twice. You took advantage of me. You've got me into this situation, where Cake'll probably come running in through the door any second and kill us both. And it's all your fault because I can't help but like you despite the fact you're a jerk. So I am not done with you, and don't you dare try to stop me. Because I'm still pissed with you for being an idiot but more than that I love you, so kiss me and stop trying to be the sensible one. That's my job, and right now I'm off-duty.' With that, Fionna leaned over and kissed him again, taking the initiative and control in a way that now he looked back on it, wasn't really that surprising. But in that moment, Marshall-lee was completely shocked by how hot he found it to be the one on the bottom. He thought he preferred be the one calling the shots, but it was surprisingly sexy to see a girl that was usually fairly submissive to him be so self-assured in what she wanted. He had no real want to resist or be the sensible one- Like Fionna had said, that was usually her job- So when Fionna broke away from his lips and arched her neck, inviting him to take advantage of the smooth milky expanse of skin, he didn't stop himself.
Author's note: This chapter would've been longer if I didn't feel obliged to update and also I didn't want to end this chapter on a cliffie because I have the best one saved up for the next chapter. You're all gonna laugh/cry/hate me so much because it's that kind of thing. Please review and tell me how you like it. Also, thank you very much for all the favourites, this is now my most popular story! Whoop! \(^U^)/
