AMERICA LEGALISED SAME SEX MARRIAGE EVERYWHERE! so happy for any americans out there wanting to get married to their special someone :)

waltz-like-its-1698 - thank you! also your username is awesome (carmilla is one of my fave shows)

necrolurker - your wish is my command. muahahaha.

in other news

- i'm really ahead on writing this so updates will be super regular throughout summer aside from one week in august because i'm going to disneyland

- (shameless self plug) i tweet my thoughts when writing so my twitter username is we4retheincrowd if you want to follow me on there - only if you're interested though

Friday 18th July 2014

"It's nearly been a week and we still haven't heard anything about Finn." Bonnie paced back and forth beside her bed as Marceline softly picked at notes on her Dad's guitar.

"Relax, man. Jake and Lady will call you soon." Marceline assured. "They said they would."

"Yeah, soon." Bonnie emphasised, flopping down on her bed and laying out on Marceline's lap. She looked up at her girlfriend and sighed. "I'd hardly say a week is soon."

Marceline put the guitar to one side and her fingers weaved in and out of Bonnie's pink hair. "They're probably busy with all of the medical stuff. They'll call you when everything is less…hectic, probably."

Bonnie's gaze flicked up to Marceline and she let out a heavy breath. "I just…it's horrible, not knowing. He's my friend. I mean, if it was say…Keila in the hospital, you'd be super nervous waiting for news."

"If it was Keila in the hospital, I'd move into the waiting room." Marceline shot back. "She's practically my sister, Bonnie. Besides, I like Finn too. I know how you're feeling."

"Really? Because you're not acting like it." Bonnie snapped back. At the mixture of hurt and surprise in Marceline's crimson eyes, she relaxed and murmured, "I'm sorry. I didn't mean that."

Marceline just hummed in acknowledgement of the apology and shifted uncomfortably. "Okay."

"Hey," Bonnie shuffled forwards and grabbed Marceline's calloused fingers, fiddling with them, "I'm sorry. I'm just stressed out; all this waiting has got me going crazy. I didn't mean to snap at you."

"Okay."

Bonnie frowned – the repeated answer didn't sit well with her. "You're mad at me."

"I'm not mad." Marceline quietly replied. Bonnie opened her mouth to object, but Marceline continued, "I'm just kind of…annoyed, I guess. I mean," Bonnie watched as Marceline picked at a loose thread on Bonnie's duvet, "I've been trying to stay calm and everything for you, and then you tell me off for it."

"I know that." Bonnie was quick to reply, squeezing Marceline's hand tightly. "Please don't break up with me, I'm sorry for -,"

Bonnie was stunned when Marceline interrupted her with a laugh. The dark haired girl laughed so hard that she ended up doubled over in the bed, laughing into her lap, which was covered in Bonnie's pink duvet.

Bonnibel sat back against the wall, a confused expression on her face, as Marceline had a fit of laughter next to her, wheezing out, "Oh my God!" between breaths.

"What's so funny?" Bonnie's perplexed, innocent tone of voice provoked more laughter.

"You seriously…" Marceline sat up, and upon making eye contact with her girlfriend, fought back another bout of laughter, "You genuinely thought I'd break up with you over something like that? You are so cute."

"Well…I mean, I…" Bonnie couldn't think of a good enough argument to justify her thoughts, "I guess I just jumped to the worst case scenario because you were annoyed with me."

Marceline waved a hand in dismissal, a light chuckle escaping her. "Hey, forgive and forget, right? It's all good. You're stressed out; I shouldn't hold you to things you say."

With that, Marceline held out her arms and Bonnibel fell back so that Marceline was holding her as the dark haired girl traced comforting patterns on her upper arm with her fingers.

Bonnie decided she really liked Marceline's hands.

Of course, she liked the rest of Marceline too, but she loved how her hands fit together perfectly with Bonnie's like a piece of a puzzle. Marceline's calloused fingers never failed to remind Bonnie that these hands were capable of making the most beautiful music imaginable. Bonnie loved Marceline's gentle touch tracing patterns along the skin of her arms as they cuddled, as they were doing now.

Bonnibel adored how Marceline's hands could make such beautiful things, and yet she chose to grace Bonnie with her touch. Of course Bonnibel liked all of Marceline.

But she really liked her hands.

"Thank you." Bonnibel whispered into Marceline's neck, softly pressing her lips to the other girl's pale skin.

Marceline looked down at her with a frown. "For what?"

"For being…I don't know, really chill about things, I guess." Bonnie murmured. "It has helped a lot, and I know I'm not exactly the most relaxed person on the planet, but just…thanks for helping, okay?"

"Don't get all sappy on me, Bonnie." Marceline feigned disgust and shuffled away from her girlfriend on the bed, "I might puke."

"Hey, don't act like you're not a sappy hopeless romantic." Bonnie teased, leaning in close to Marceline and continuing, "Ooh, Bonnie, you're so awesome I've had a huge nerdy crush on you this entire time, mm kiss me!"

At Bonnie's teasing, Marceline crinkled her nose in repugnance and pushed the pink haired girl off her. "Fuck off. I do not sound like that."

"You so do." Bonnie giggled. "And you call me sappy."

Marceline just rolled her eyes and scowled in annoyance. "Remind me again why I like you."

"Because I'm 'rad'." Bonnie teased, kissing Marceline's cheek.

Marceline pursed her lips and shot Bonnie a faux look of irritation. "I will break up with you if you don't shut up. Dork."

Bonnibel sent Marceline an eye roll and cuddled up to Marceline again. "Your threats stopped scaring me a long time ago, Marcy. And before you make some silly remark about how you'll 'bop me one', I need to ask you something."

Marceline smiled, "Shoot."

"Well…you know how my Aunt Susan and Gracie were here last month?" Bonnie paused for Marceline to nod in confirmation. "Well, my Aunt has been engaged for two years and the wedding is in August. She told me I can bring you as a date if I wanted to, so…"

Marceline smirked. Bonnie sighed; she knew that smirk. That was the smirk Marceline wore when she was planning on being difficult. "That wasn't a question, princess."

Bonnie rolled her eyes and let a heavy breath of air out of her nose. "Will you be my date to my Aunt's wedding?"

Marceline's smirk broke into a real smile, then, and Bonnie felt her breath catch in her throat. Marceline found Bonnie's hand and gave it a tight squeeze. She wasn't going to lie; Bonnie's invite had meant a lot. "Sure I will."

"You will?" Bonnie's eyes widened a little in surprise; she'd suspected Marceline would just laugh at her and decline. "I didn't think you'd be the sort to go to weddings."

"Yeah? Well -," Marceline was cut off by the shrill sound of Bonnie's phone ringtone, which the pink haired girl had clearly put on the loudest setting possible.

Bonnie almost launched herself off the bed to grab her phone from her desk, answering the call without even glancing at the caller ID. "Hello?"

"Bubblegum?" It was Jake's voice down the line, "Hey! I'm sorry we haven't called sooner, everything has just been kind of wild and intense since last week."

Bonnie allowed herself to send Marceline a small smile – the dark haired girl had been right. "It's fine, Jake. Any news?"

"Well, Finn has been moved from intensive care to a general ward, and they're allowing visitors that aren't family if you two want to come down and see him. He's awake." Jake explained.

"Uh…you two?" Bonnie questioned his choice of wording.

She could feel his eye roll through the phone. "I know you're with Marceline."

Bonnie let out a guilty laugh and shrugged. "Yeah, I'm with her, but that's not the point of this conversation. How is Finn?"

"He's…better than most kids would be after what happened." Jake let out a lengthy breath of air, "He's pretty devastated because they...they had to amputate his right arm. Aside from that, he's fine."

Bonnie nodded – she'd already known that might've been a possibility, although that didn't stop the little stab of worry in her chest. "Okay. We'll come up when we can, but Marcy is still in her pyjamas so it might take a while to coax her out of bed."

"Alright, Lady and I will be up here all day so we'll see you guys when you come." Jake said.

"Okay, bye." Bonnie hung up the phone and put it down on her desk, turning to Marceline. "We can go up and see Finn."

"How is he?" Marceline asked. She made no move to get out of bed. Typical.

"He's okay. They had to amputate his arm." Bonnie said, "But aside from that he's okay."

Marceline nodded; she figured the kid would be pretty upset when they went up there. "Okay. Well, when do you want to go up and see him?"

"As soon as possible, preferably." Bonnie said. Marceline didn't move an inch. "Which means now."

Marceline arched an eyebrow and looked to Bonnie, a confused expression on her face – which Bonnie found absolutely adorable. "You want me to come with?"

"You were the one who found him. Of course." Bonnie said. "Without you, I don't know what would've happened to him."

Marceline awkwardly scratched the back of her neck and shrugged. "I mean, it's no big deal, but -,"

"Marcy, shut up." Bonnie interrupted, rolling her eyes. "You virtually saved his life. It is a big deal. Don't be all awkward about it."

"I…awkward is like, my middle name." Marceline rolled her eyes and pushed herself out of bed, heading towards her backpack which she'd left on the floor. "Besides, if it wasn't for you I'd never have even talked to the kid."

Bonnie just shrugged and attempted to avert her gaze as Marceline got dressed. "If it wasn't for you being able to drive we wouldn't have been able to go out to look. There are a lot of factors, but when it comes down to it, you found him."

Marceline shrugged her comment off as she pulled her shirt on. "Whatever. Let's go."

"You haven't even brushed your hair." Bonnie pointed out.

Marceline pulled a hair tie from her wrist and tied her hair up. Bonnie pouted a little – she still looked flawless. "There. Let's go."

Bonnibel found Marceline's hand as they made their way into the hospital upon noticing how tense her girlfriend was. "It's going to be okay."

Marceline seemingly snapped out of a trance and nodded. "Yeah. I just don't like hospitals."

"Why not?"

"They give me bad vibes." Marceline shrugged, "I mean, I spent a lot of time in a doctor's office as a kid. It just makes me kind of uncomfortable."

"Why did you spend a lot of time at the doctor's?" Bonnie frowned. She couldn't recall Marceline ever telling her that.

"Therapy for my panic disorder," Marceline admitted, "My Dad wouldn't let me go at first and it made me like, ten times worse."

"What do you mean?" Bonnie questioned.

"Well, when I first got diagnosed with panic disorder he basically refused to let me get any help in any way and just sort of figured it'd work itself out." Marceline explained. "Like, the doctor would offer medication to stop my panic attacks and he'd refuse, and it wasn't until about a year after my Mom died he let me actually get help for it."

"Oh. Okay." Bonnie nodded and squeezed Marceline's hand. "Well, if you get uncomfortable, I'll come outside with you."

"Thanks." Marceline replied, shooting Bonnie an awkward smile.

Lady met them in the main entrance of the hospital, smiling at them both. "Hey, guys. I'll take you to his room if you want to see him straight away. Jake's up there now."

"Okay." Bonnie smiled. "How is he doing with the whole arm thing?"

"He's reacting better than most people would, but he's still pretty upset about it." Lady explained as they made their way up a flight of stairs. "He should be happy to see you guys. How come you didn't bring Marshall?"

Marceline looked up and saw that Lady was staring at her expectantly. "Oh…uh, we were at Bonnie's place. I stayed the night there."

Lady smirked, "Stayed the night. Right."

Bonnie frowned and looked over at Marceline, who was rolling her eyes at Lady's comment. "What's so bad about that?"

Marceline shot her a look of pure adoration. "You are so cute."

"What? I didn't do anything." Bonnie persisted, "What's so bad about Marceline spending the night?"

"Well, when couples usually spend the night together, it's because they're…you know…" Lady trailed off and allowed Bonnie to fill in the gaps.

Bonnibel shot her friend an incredulous look and vigorously shook her head. "Oh, no, we didn't do that!"

Lady couldn't stop herself from laughing – Marceline let out a little snicker before composing herself. "I can't believe it took you that long to get what I implied."

"I…I don't know how to react to that." Bonnie murmured. "I'm asexual, see. We won't be doing that."

Lady seemed a little taken aback, but didn't comment. Instead, Marceline spoke up. "So…how long is the walk to Finn, exactly?"

"He's just through here," Lady said, pushing open the doors to the ward Finn was in and walking them over to a different door.

Through a little glass window, Bonnie could see Finn on his bed and Jake sat in one of the two visitor's chairs on Finn's left. "He got his own room?"

"Yeah." Lady said. She held open the door and allowed Marceline and Bonnibel to pass through, before turning to Jake and motioning outside. "Come on, Jake."

He stood up and shot both girls a smile in greeting, before following Lady out of the room and leaving Bonnie and Marceline with Finn.

Bonnibel was the first to sit down, before she patted the seat next to her and stared up at Marceline. The dark haired girl sat and awkwardly played with her fingers. Bonnie was the one to speak up first. "How are you doing, Finn?"

He shuffled in the bed, shrugging his shoulders. "I could be better. Jake told me about everything you guys did. Thank you."

Bonnie saw his gaze flick over to Marceline, whose gaze was firmly directed to the floor. She decided she'd give Marceline and Finn some alone time. "I'm just going to quickly run and get some water. Do you guys want anything?"

Marceline looked up with wide eyes, "I'll come with you."

"No, I'll be fine on my own. You keep Finn company, alright?" Before Marceline could object, Bonnie shot up in her seat and left the room, closing the door behind her.

"Great," Marceline muttered to herself, glancing up at Finn. Even though they'd talked before, she still didn't really know him. "Uh…hey."

"Thanks for finding me, Marceline." Finn stated. He had been incredibly shocked when Jake had told him it'd been Marceline that had found him; he wasn't sure if she even liked him, or if they were friends. "How did you even know where to look?"

"We got told you went somewhere to clear your head. I usually go up there, so I just…I don't know, got lucky?" She shrugged, before shuffling uncomfortably in her chair. "Why did you go up there in the first place?"

He shook his head, but with a small smile on his face. Marceline frowned a little – it was weird seeing him without his bear hat. "You wouldn't get it."

With an easy smile, Marceline shot back, "Try me."

Finn hesitated a little before explaining. "I…well, you see, my Dad kind of got on my nerves a little. He's always out gambling and he doesn't really seem to care about me at all. I spend enough time sleeping at Jake's that I might as well live there and he doesn't even notice. He just said some things that kind of annoyed me so I took a walk and I fell and…yeah."

He grew nervous at Marceline's silence. She just sat with a shocked, wide eyed expression on her face, her body completely frozen. She didn't even look to be breathing.

Finally, she spoke. "Your Dad ignores you too?"

"You get it?" He sat up in surprise, "I don't mean to like, sound rude or anything, but I didn't even know you like…had a Dad."

"Of course I do. I just don't live with him." Marceline explained. "He ignores me for his work and then when he visits he criticises everything I do."

Finn smiled; finally, someone understood. All of his other friends seemed to have perfect parents and he never really identified with that. "You don't know how awesome it is to have a friend who gets it."

Marceline was stunned at his choice of wording. Friend? "I know, dude."

They sat back in a comfortable silence, and Finn honestly couldn't believe what had just happened. Marceline Abadeer, who had a reputation for violence and swearing and was the most standoffish student their school had ever had the pleasure of teaching, had just comforted him. Weird.

Bonnibel slipped back in the room and leaned down and gave Marceline a quick peck on the lips, passing her a chocolate bar. For a second, Finn was rather shocked, but then remembered they'd started dating and quickly relaxed.

"Did you two have a good talk?" Bonnibel asked as she unscrewed the cap on her water bottle, taking a sip.

"Yeah." Finn replied.

"So, how have you been coping with the horrible hospital food?" Bonnie asked with a comforting smile – she figured the best thing to do would be to get Finn's mind off the things that were upsetting him.

"Some of it actually wasn't too bad." Finn admitted, "Jake snuck me in a McDonald's breakfast the other day and Lady has brought me a load of candy from our other friends."

"When do you get out of here?" Marceline asked.

"Hopefully soon. They want to work on getting me a prosthetic before I leave." He said. Both girls noticed how he trailed off near the end of his sentence.

Marceline was the one to speak first. "Alright, well once you get it and you're used to using it, I'll teach you how to play guitar or something."

Finn's expression brightened. "Really? I didn't know you could play."

"Yeah, been playing since I was seven." Marceline nodded. "If you don't want to learn guitar I could teach you something else."

"What else do you play?" He asked.

Marceline casually shrugged. "Violin, bass, piano, keyboard, banjo, ukulele, harp and I'm teaching myself mandolin."

Bonnibel couldn't help but laugh a little when Finn's jaw dropped. "Uh…bass guitar sounds fun."

"Alright, let me know when you want to get started."

"Cool." He seemed cheered up, which made Bonnie smile – her girlfriend was so sweet. "I want everyone to get together once I get out of here – you know, to celebrate. Do you two want to come?"

Bonnibel nodded. "Yeah, that sounds like fun. Marceline?"

"As much as I like you guys, no." Marceline said. "Your friends make me uncomfortable."

"Why? They're all super nice." Finn questioned, looking to Bonnibel for reinforcement.

"I tell her that a lot, but she doesn't listen." Bonnibel said.

"Why not?" He asked.

Marceline heavily sighed before looking up at Finn. "I'm not promising anything, but I'll think about it. Maybe I'll crash for like ten minutes under the guise of stopping by to see Bonnie or something."

"Radical! You won't regret it, Marceline." Finn promised.

Yeah? We'll see about that, kid, Marceline thought.