The message on her phone made her feel shitty. Just six words of pure venom hidden under a simple request. Marceline glanced back at it once more with a frown just to make sure she hadn't dreamt it up.

Dad (12:02PM): Are you coming home for Christmas?

No, was her immediate thought upon deleting their chat altogether. Bonnibel was staying on campus, and Marceline wasn't going to let her stay in their tiny room alone in the cold. Especially because they rarely slept when they weren't together. Marceline wanted to sleep in comfort, drowning in pillows and the smell of Bonnibel's hair, not in her old teen bedroom that made her back feel sore and achy all the time.

When she looked back up at the rest of her friends with a glare she caught Jake's eye. "What's got you in a mood, sourpuss?" He asked, grin on his face just a bit too teasing for Marceline's liking.

"Nothing," She grumbled. "Where's my coffee?" Looking over her shoulder told her that Bonnibel was frantically trying to get the line down as fast as possible. Coffee would be later than usual, then, Marceline assumed. Her phone buzzed once more and she immediately glared at nothing in particular.

"You sure it's nothing?" Jake continued. "You're acting as if you've only just been told that Bonnibel is your roommate. That's never a good thing."

Marceline snorted despite herself. "Family stuff," She admitted, turning back to the table once more as soon as it looked like Bonnibel was handling the line well. "Doesn't matter."

Jake gave her an odd look, somewhere between confusion and concern, before Finn got his attention with an elbow to the ribcage. Marceline slowly released the breath she never knew she was holding. The rest of the table all busied themselves with different things; Finn and Jake were bickering over something that Finn had showed him on his phone, Phoebe and Lady were writing their respective essays, and Keila was on her phone, probably texting Bongo and Guy. It was nice that Marceline could just sit at the same table and not be at the forefront of the conversation. Whenever Marceline was the topic it made her feel uneasy because of how much she'd been at the centre of high school gossip and drama. Nasty rumours had been spread about not long after Bonnibel had left and Marceline had immediately recoiled from the spotlight.

"Coffee for the grouch," A gentle reminder that she wasn't in high school any more pulled Marceline from her thoughts. Bonnibel's dimpled smile was at her shoulder and a coffee was being placed in front of her. "Sorry for the wait. It's not usually this busy."

Marceline shrugged, glancing back at the queue. "It's cool. Out of your hands, right?" At Bonnibel's hum the pink haired girl turned and walked back to the counter, already smiling at the customers. Marceline was just pouting at her shoes to pay attention to anything else around her. Being the centre of attention was awful, sure, but whenever Bonnibel spared a minute of her day just to direct that smile towards Marceline made her feel extra special. Mainly because she felt like she didn't deserve after what she'd said about her. They both knew that Marceline could be a bitch when she felt like it, but neither of them would have ever thought she'd have directed that meanness towards Bonnibel. Hell, even saying her full first name was difficult for Marceline to adapt to; she'd gotten so very used to shortening it down and coming up with dorky nicknames for the other girl that just thinking about saying 'Bonnibel Bennett' made her mouth dry. Marceline decided not to put too much thought into that train of thought, and instead closed her eyes and enjoyed her coffee.

"Are you cold?" Was muttered into Marceline's pillow. Marceline shrugged her shoulders, pressed her face into Bonnibel's shoulder, and let a terrible sigh rip through her. Almost instinctively, Bonnibel's hand found its way into Marceline's hair. "Tell me what's wrong with you, I've noticed you've been particularly blue today."

"'S nothing," Marceline whispered, eyes readjusting to the laptop screen on Bonnibel's knee. She didn't even know what they were watching, just that it was boring and wasn't even good for background noise. "Can't I just go to bed?"

Bonnibel smiled into the pillow and turned her head to look at Marceline. "It's too early to sleep,"

"Can we put something else on, then? This is… just no, I'm not even sure what's going on any more."

"Can we eat first? You've only eaten breakfast and I'm starving."

"If you order pizza I'll find a good movie that we can sit on the couch and watch."

Their eyes met in a shared agreement, and Bonnibel was the first to shift off the bed to search for her phone. Marceline was suddenly very glad that Bonnibel wasn't as socially inept as she was. If that were the case she was sure their pizza consumption would drop by one hundred percent.

She was also glad that she didn't pry too much into Marceline's life, Marceline decided as she stood up from the bed and stretched. The thought of telling Bonnibel that she was too scared to text her father back terrified her more than Hunson ever could. Vulnerability was not something that Marceline was accustomed to. Especially when as a child she was the tough skinned fighter out of the two of them.

"How does Home Alone sound?" Marceline muttered over her shoulder, smirking when she saw Bonnibel pause in her order to think about it. Her answer was a mouther 'yes please' and Marceline picked the movie out from their shared collection in the last drawer. They had both of the original movies, which were most definitely the best out of all five of the Home Alone franchise.

She slid the DVD into the player and busied herself with pushing every button on the remote that wasn't the one she needed. Thank god Bonnibel finished their order and came over to pluck the remote from her hands.

Marceline grabbed her duvet and their pillows and threw them onto the couch, tossing herself down amongst the makeshift bed. It wouldn't surprise her if they ended up sleeping on it afterwards anyway.

With a graceful fall, Bonnibel sat down beside Marceline with a smile. "Are we going to wait for the pizza or should we just start the movie?"

"Movie," Marceline decided immediately. "It'll help pass the time. Waiting for it always takes too long."

"True. And we eat it before the plot even starts." Bonnibel giggled. Marceline allowed for the younger girl to wrap her arms around her waist, pushing all her weight into her side so that they were both laying down.

"Uhm, you mean you eat it all and blame me when I'm basically half asleep anyway?" Marceline shot back when they were both comfortable, clicking play on the movie and tangling their limbs together.

"Exactly,"

"Dork."

"Grouch."

Marceline had been awake for longer than she'd like to ever admit to anyone. It was almost therapeutic to listen to Bonnibel's soft breaths, almost too relaxing to throw an arm around Bonnibel's waist and bury her face into the back of her head. Bonnibel being taller than her definitely had its advantages. For one, there was just more Bonnibel for Marceline to snuggle up to at night in secret, and despite her reactions she kind of liked it when Bonnibel teased her about being suddenly smaller than her.

She also liked it when Bonnibel was fast asleep. Marceline could whisper the things that would otherwise terrify her so much, she could pull her impossibly closer and not think too much about what she'd think or do in response.

"You're my best friend." Was probably the scariest thing she'd ever whispered into the dark. It took her a few minutes to even decide that what she'd said was even correct; her brain was too busy working overtime to try to figure out if she'd even said it, and why. She nodded anyway, gently so that she wouldn't wake Bonnibel up, and sighed into the darkness. "Yeah, you'll always be my best friend." She decided, this time her voice a little more sure of itself.

Everything felt easier in the dark. Marceline could admit her deepest darkest fears and Bonnibel would sleep through it all and be her unconscious confident. So it made her heart stop when Bonnibel shifted and turned in her 'sleep' to stare wide eyed up at her.

"I am?"

Despite the voice in her head telling her to get off the couch and leap through the window, she managed out a raspy reply. "Of course."

Her brain switched off completely then, her heart doing the work instead as it beat almost too fast to be considered healthy. Marceline had a dreaded feeling that Bonnibel could feel it. "Does this mean we're… friends again?"

"I think-," She cut herself off, buried her face deep into the crook of Bonnibel's neck to avoid her scrutinizing gaze. "I think we've been friends for a while. Just… I want to hold your hand more often and I want to go back to how everything was. Minus the heartbreak at the end."

Bonnibel's smile was blinding even in the pitch black. "So I don't have to earn it back?"

It took both of them too much willpower not to start giggling out of giddiness when Marceline shook her head, but it piked her curiosity when she saw her phone screen lit up for a split second before she went back to sleep.