Author's Note: Guys, I know authors' notes aren't the most terribly exciting thing to read in the world but please read this one, I'd really like you to see it. :)
At the risk of sounding mushy and melodramatic, I want to give a HUGE thank you to everyone who has shown such support and encouragement for this story. I've gotten some brilliant reviews, excellent writing advice and very valuable constructive criticism which I really appreciate. :)
And the praise and kind words I've received over this story has been just phenomenal. It might sound dramatic and overemotional but it really makes me feel delighted to know that people genuinely ENJOY my work.
So thank you so much. :)

"Where are you going again?" Perry narrowed his eyes at his children.

Gumble and Bonni looked up sharply from the TV set, eyes like that of two deers' caught in headlights.

"Uhhh," Gumble said eloquently.

"Out to get pizza and then a movie!" Bonni said quickly, nudging him in the side. "With the whole gang from school!"

Perry raised an eyebrow.

"A little dressed up for pizza and a movie, aren't you?" he questioned and while Bonni fumbled to find a reason, Gumble was the one with the quick answer this time.

"Yeah, we thought so too but all our friends dress fancy when we go out so me and Bon didn't want to be left out this time!" he said, in a quite convincing tone.

Their father nodded, looking like he just about believed them.

"I guess kids really are into the formal look these days," he said thoughtfully. "Actually, an employee of mine is always talking about how her daughter loves to get all dolled up in make-up and a nice dress and – Oh! Is that car for you two?"

A glossy black sportscar rolled up to the house and both twins suddenly leapt up from the couch as if it had turned red hot.

"Yep, that's us!" Bonni said quickly. "Bye Dad!"

Perry bade his children a good evening, hugged them both briefly and then watched through the window by the front door as they made their way down the driveway and into the car.
He chewed his lip pensively, wondering why on earth they were being so secretive. Did they not think their father knew a date when he saw one? Or a double date rather? Did people still do that these days? It seemed so anyway.
As the car revved up again and drove out of sight, Perry whispered four words under his breath.
"Don't hurt them please."

Bonni sat next to driver Marceline in the front seat, Marshall and Gumble in the back.
No one spoke for the first two minutes or so, all four of them suddenly feeling very nervous and very sweaty-palmed.

"So," Marceline broke the tense silence by looking into the rearview mirror back at her brother. "Where am I dropping you two kids off?"

"The main entrance to the park is cool," Marshall said, and smiled at the quizzical look on Gumble's face. "I've got something to show you."

"Cool," Marceline said, and returned her eyes to the road.

Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Bonni looking at her, but didn't trust herself to meet her gaze without blushing or doing something stupid.
So she just kept driving.
Down through Advent Tides main street, taking a left at the police station and towards the park, eventually arriving at the front gates.

"Awesome, thanks Marce," Marshall opened the car door and grinned at Gumble. "You coming?"

Gumble smiled and followed Marshall out the door, catching Bonni's eye in the rearview mirror and exchanging a "good luck!" smile with her on his way out.

"Thank you Marceline," he said, as he slipped past her, and the tall girl replied with a thumbs-up and a smile.

Gumble shut the door after him and Marceline drove away, watching the two young men disappear in her sideview mirror, and then (finally) plucking up the courage to turn her attention to Bonni.

"What are you going to show me?" Gumble asked curiously, but Marshall just smiled at him.

The two entered the front gates of Advent Tides Public Park. Gumble smiled. He had been here a handful of times before, just hanging out with the gang, and it even looked pretty after nightfall.
The whole park was centred around a lake in the middle, not too big but big enough to be the focal point of a considerably large park.

"Come on dude," Marshall said, and led Gumble down a pathway to the left. "This way."

Gumble raised an eyebrow, but then followed.

"Where are we going?" Bonni asked when she suddenly realized they had left the boundary of Advent Tides.

Marceline grinned over at her.

"Somewhere really cool," she said. "Trust me, you'll like it."

Bonni sat back in her seat, oddly calmed by those words. If it was anyone else driving her out of a town she was barely familiar with and not telling her the destination they were heading for, she'd be panicked and annoyed.
But somehow she knew she was safe with Marceline. Out of harm's way. Protected.
Everything was alright.

"OK," she said. "I trust you."
That made Marceline glad it got dark by seven o' clock in November, Bonni couldn't see her big flattered smile at Bonni saying she trusted her.

But then she gripped the steering wheel a little bit tighter, gulped nervously, thought desperately hard of something to say before conversation dwindled out awkwardly.
She needn't have worried.

"Tell me something I don't know about you yet," Bonni said suddenly.

Marceline looked over at her and raised an eyebrow, intrigued by the request.

"Like what?" she asked with an amused smile.

"Like anything," Bonni shrugged.

Marceline looked back to the road, thought about it for a beat.

"Hmm, OK, eh..." she considered telling Bonni several different facts about herself before she settled on one. "I have a dog. Schwable. Dad bought him for me and Marshall when we first moved into the house but Marsh hates him ever since he bit him a while back so he's mostly mine."

"Aww, that's cute! What type of dog is he?"

"A poodle," Marceline told her, and Bonni smiled at how happy Marceline looked talking about her dog. "A little white fluffy dude."

Bonni raised her eyebrows, smirking.

"I didn't think you'd have a fluffy, little anything!" she teased and Marceline laughed.

"Well there you go dude! You asked me to tell you something you didn't know about me yet and I did," she shrugged her shoulders, still smiling. "Now it's your turn. Tell me something I don't know about you yet."

"Hmm," Bonni looked out the window at the dark blue sky turning quickly to black. "Well, I guess one fun fact about me is that I'm fluent in German!"

"Pfft, cheater!"

Bonni smiled, amused.

"Why am I a cheater?"

"You can't do German in school if you're already fluent! That's cheating!"
That statement made Bonni burst out laughing. Marceline savoured the sound.

"How did you get to be fluent anyway?" the black-haired girl asked her. "Is your dad German?"

"No but both sets of my grandparents are from Germany," Bonni told her. "When my dad met my mom, they kind of bonded over it, both being the kids of German people. So they married and had us and they even thought about moving the whole family to Germany a few years ago but then, well, yeah..."

Marceline glanced over at her as she trailed off, the redhead's eyes suddenly losing some of their happy glow.

"Have you talked to your mom at all since moving out here?" she ventured gently.

"No, not really. Well, a bit," Bonni sighed. "She's moved in with this new guy. But apparently the apartment's too small for me and Gumble to come visit. I don't know, I think we remind her too much of our dad for her to want us around."

Marceline felt such a sense of empathy well up inside her chest, it threatened to overwhelm her.

"I get that," she said softly. "My mom hated my dad by the time she up and left us. A part of me thinks that she hated him so much that she ended up hating his children too."

Bonni looked up, shocked at this statement.

"She doesn't hate you," she said, and with such confidence that Marceline could nearly believe her. "No one could ever hate having a daughter like you! She probably just doesn't know what to say."

Marceline shrugged.

"Maybe," she said, secretly touched by Bonni's words. "I don't even know where she is right now though. I guess she just really doesn't want to see me and Marsh."

"That's crazy," Bonni said, shaking her head. "It's such a massive loss for her not to know you."

"Yeah, well it's a massive loss for your mom not to want you and Gumble to visit her," the taller girl replied. "I mean, fuck, this date hasn't lasted twenty minutes yet and I'm already happy to just be talking to you Bonni."

Bonni smiled.

"Thanks Marceline, I'm happy to be talking to you too," she told her. "I'm glad you understand these types of things."

"Yup," Marceline sighed, hesitated, and then decided to risk it and see if Bonni appreciated dark humour. "I understand that the day my mom comes home is the day your mom builds an extension onto her apartment for you and Gumble."

Bonni looked up sharply at the driver. And then she laughed. And laughed. And laughed.

"Where are you taking me?" Gumble laughed, following Marshall through a thicket of trees and into one of the more isolated areas of the park.

"You'll see," Marshall said, and hopped up onto a small embankment, squeezing himself through two birches. "Nearly there, hurry!"

The red-haired boy followed, chasing Marshall through another thick grove and into...

"Wow."

He looked above him and saw they were in a small coppice, entirely enclosed and sheltered by trees.

"It's like we're indoors," Gumble observed, staring into the tall gnarled branches above that formed a type of roof.
He was just noticing how dark it was in the undergrowth when Marshall yanked a battery-operated lantern out of his bag, turned it on and set it down at the side of the large circular enclosure.
He then took out a picnic blanket a laid it carefully on the ground.

"Care to sit monsieur?" he asked Gumble and redhead laughed as he sat cross-legged on the throw.

Marshall then took a cream soda and a cherry soda out of the rucksack and sat down next to Gumble, stretching out his legs.

"Welcome to my office," he winked at the other boy as he handed him the can of cream soda.

Gumble could only smile in amazement.

"We're here!" Marceline announced suddenly, and swerved into a small car park.

"Whoa!" Bonni clutched the dashboard and Marceline laughed.

"Sorry, I kind of forgot where the turn was exactly!" she said. "You OK princess?"

"Yeah, fine," Bonni replied, using her long hair to hide her blush at the use of a nickname.

"Cool, glad I didn't give you whiplash!" Marceline said happily, as she parked the car next to a small, rundown building. "Ready dude?"

"Where are we?" Bonni quizzed.

Marceline undid her seatbelt, opened her door and grinned excitedly over at the red-haired girl.

"Come see!"

"So how did you happen upon this place?" Gumble asked, still looking around in astonishment at the bent trunks and twisted branches.

The black-haired boy took a long sip of his cherry soda.

"I came to the park for a long walk one day after a bad day at school when I was about twelve," Marshall told him. "We had just moved in with Dad, Uncle Simon was developing Alzheimer's quickly, and I was getting bullied at school. So I-"

"You got bullied at school?" Gumble interrupted, wide-eyed. "But you're so-"
But Marshall was already shaking his head.

"It doesn't matter what I'm 'so,'" he told Gumble patiently. "Bullying is the luck of the draw. It can happen to anyone. Anyone can be an easy target as long as they have some-"

"Bullshit reason that isn't actually a reason," Gumble finished for him acidly.

"Exactly," Marshall nodded. "Either you're too loud or too quiet, too big or too small, you know too much or too little. Whatever stands out about you is prime material for bullying dude! Even if it's not a bad thing at all."

"That's true," Gumble considered. "Anyway, sorry, I interrupted your story. You came here after a bad day."

"Yeah, and I just came here to get away from everything," Marshall picked up from where he left off. "But people were staring at the crying twelve-year-old so I made my way as far out of view as I possibly could. I just climbed deeper and deeper into the trees until I found," he smiled in admiration of the coppice, "this place. My place. And ever since then, I always come here when I'm upset. It calms me down, keeps me centred. It's just relaxing here, ya feel me?"

Gumble nodded, smiling around at the enclosed space.

"I do," he replied. "And I feel it. It's just so peaceful here. So cut off from everything else. Really calming."

Marshall beamed, delighted that Gumble could feel the comforting effects of this place too.

"It is," he agreed.

Marshall's hand then casually left its resting space on his knee, slowly moved down towards the ground and found Gumble's.
As their fingers entwined, both young men still looking happily around the grove, Gumble gave Marshall's hand a small, firm squeeze. And Marshall smiled very broadly.

As soon as Marceline and Bonni entered the small ramshackle building, the red-haired girl realized that it was a tavern.
Not a very big one but big enough for a bar, several tables and a small stage at the back.
It was quiet too, inhabited only by about fifteen or sixteen people who all looked about college age.
The atmosphere of the bar was calmness broken up by the occasional laugh or excited remark, nothing too wild but still fun. Something Bonni could really enjoy.

"Want a drink?" Marceline asked. "I'm driving so I'm just getting a cherry soda."

"Yeah, that sounds pretty good, I'll have one too."

Marceline grinned at her.

"Cool, go grab a seat. I'll be over in a minute."

Bonni hesitated for a moment, then scanned the room and saw a table for two by the stage, next to a group of laughing college students.
She made her way over to it and sat down, just as a tall boy from the group turned around to her.

"Excuse me," he said politely.

Bonni looked up, blinked.

"Yes?" she said.

"Sorry to bother, it's just that my friend here," he jabbed his thumb at the girl sitting next to him. "Is saying that she doesn't have the confidence to go up on stage tonight, so I'm trying to prove a point to her. Wouldn't you be disappointed if you didn't get to hear one of her poems tonight?"

The girl rolled her eyes at her friend but then gave Bonni an affable smile.
Bonni smiled back at her, and was about to tell her to do whatever she felt most comfortable doing, when she caught sight of Marceline ordering their cherry sodas at the bar.

"I say take the leap," she advised her, with a small shrug. "Who knows? Try something different and you might end up with something really great!"

The girl considered this, pulling her face in a "sure, why not?" expression.

"Thanks!" the guy said gratefully to Bonni, then he paused and went on. "Can I buy you a drink?"

Bonni had just opened her mouth when Marceline swept in and answered for her.

"No thanks buddy," she said, but it was in a friendly way. "She's already got one."

The guy smiled and held up his hands in a "I-mean-no-harm" kind of way before turning back around to his friends.

"Marceline," Bonni said as the raven-haired girl took the seat next to her. "Did you bring me to a poetry reading?"

Marceline narrowed her eyes in mock offence.

"Of course not Bonni!" she said sarcastically. "What type of sissy do you think I am? I took you to a shady bar in the middle of nowhere where you're currently being hit on by sleazy people!"

"He didn't seem so sleazy," Bonni countered with a smirk, nodding in the direction of the table beside them.

Marceline took a sip of her soda and winked at Bonni over the rim of the tumbler as she did so.

"I wasn't talking about him princess."

Before Bonni could say another word, a small balding man walked out onto the stage and announced the beginning of the poetry slam.

"Did you ever kiss another guy before me?"

The question caught Gumble by surprise, but Marshall had asked it as casually as could be.

The two guys were both lying on their backs on the blanket, looking up through the enclosure of trees and into the inky black sky above.
They were still holding hands.

"Uh, yes actually," Gumble told him. "Both back in Ooo. One was just during a game of truth or dare with this other guy, back when we were fourteen years old. The other was with this guy I actually liked a lot. We were hanging out in my bedroom one day and one thing led to another and we kissed. But it got all awkward after that and he didn't want to talk to me anymore."

"Man, those are some romantic stories you got there Gumble!" Marshall said derisively and the redhead just laughed.

"What about you?" he asked. "Got a record sheet a mile long of boys you've made out with?"

To Gumble's great surprise, Marshall shook his head, no.

"Nope," he reported. "I've had plenty of crushes on guys before and felt comfortable coming out to Marce after she kissed her first girl but personally, I just never got the opportunity. Until last Prismo Day."

Gumble felt his cheeks go red.

"So I was your-?"

"Yup! My very first kiss with a guy."

"Wow."

The taller boy turned his head to face Gumble, grinned.

"Proud?" he asked haughtily.

Gumble turned his own head and looked back at Marshall, at his darkly handsome features and wildly energetic eyes that still held such a lively kindness.
He smiled.

"Very," he said, and leaned in to bring their lips back together after far too long apart.

The poetry reading was great.
Bonni was enthralled by nearly every last poem they heard, ranging in emotion from sadness to joy to anger to love, and back again. The girl at the table next to them ended up reading out a brilliantly written elegy about the "death of summer." Bonni raised her glass to her as she walked offstage and the girl beamed.
After the last poem was read, Marceline and Bonni ordered two more sodas and stayed a while longer, laughing and chatting together until it was closing time.
It was when they were leaving the tavern that Bonni found the courage to reach out and take Marceline's hand. She was glad she did, the taller girl's fingers felt good interlinked with her own.

"This was great Marceline," Bonni said as they walked outside into the open air. "Thank you so much for taking me out here!"

"No problem dude, I thought you might like it. And maybe next time you'll have the guts to get up there and read a poem of your own!"

Bonni smirked over at her, the idea of reading out her poem not the part that caught her attention.

"Next time?"

Marceline stopped walking just as they reached her father's car, frozen in the spot, her cheeks turning red.
Idiot! She mentally snapped at herself. Way to keep cool!

"Uh, only if you want there to be one," she said, and she looked so cute with a blush on her face that Bonni couldn't help but lean in again and press their lips together.

She had one hand on the taller girl's shoulder, the other on her cheek.
Marceline put her hands on Bonni's waist and pulled her slightly closer, making their kiss slightly deeper.
Marceline then pushed the redhead gently down onto the bonnet of the car and kissed her bottom lip, chin and cheek.

"I definitely want there to be a next time," Bonni said quietly, just as Marceline leaned in to kiss her on the mouth again.

"Good, me too," Marceline said as she pulled back, and began a line of kisses down Bonni's face and to her neck.

Bonni closed her eyes and put her head back slightly, enjoying the sweet sensation of Marceline caringly sucking and kissing her neck.
Then her eyes flew open as she gasped, and then laughed.
Maybe LSP was right after all, the Abadeers could be vampires.
Marceline sure could bite like one...

Shortly after that, Marceline and Bonni drove back to the park and picked up Marshall and Gumble.
The car was much more lively on the way back, both sets of twins talking and joking animatedly on the drive to the Boehm house.

"Don't leave me waiting too long to hear from you," Marshall said quietly in Gumble's ear as he made to get out of the car.
Gumble just looked back at him, smiled and gave him a quick kiss on the mouth.

Marceline pressed her lips quickly to Bonni's.

"Goodnight," the black-haired girl smiled. "Rest up for the next time I see you!"

"I will," Bonni winked, sliding out of the car. "Goodnight Marceline."

Marceline honked the horn as she pulled away, and both Bonni and Gumble waved.
Marshall rolled down the window and stuck out the heavy metal horns as the car drove around the corner and out of sight, making both twins laugh.

"Hey!" Gumble cried suddenly, catching sight of something. "Did you get punched in the neck or-?"

He burst out laughing.

"Shut up!" Bonni complained, putting her hand over the hickey defensively. "Is it that noticeable?"

"Yep, you've been marked as somebody's property alright!" Gumble grinned, and his sister rolled her eyes (albeit with a small smile).

Just as they reached the front door, it flew open and Perry Boehm was standing there in his dressing gown and slippers, making both twins jump.

"Thought I heard you out here!" he said with a smile. "Welcome home! How was your night?"

After making up some crap about great-tasting pizza and an action-packed superhero movie, Bonni and Gumble went upstairs to bed.
Perry's gaze followed them, wondering if they really thought he was so out of touch with reality that he couldn't tell they'd both been on dates tonight.
Must have been with those two who picked them up, he reasoned.
And that means that it was the black-haired creature in the car that gave his daughter that thing on her neck.
Perry sighed, then smiled to himself.
Oh to be young again.