Nights continued to be cold as February wore on in Bonnie and Marceline's dorm room. The walls were thin, and she was fairly certain, by the whistling sounds in the night, that many of the windows had not been sufficiently upgraded in a long time, allowing a stiff, chill breeze to pass through the cracks. This all gave Bonnie and Marceline a good excuse to cuddle in close and enjoy each others company and warmth in the night.
On one particular night, Bonnie lay awake, staring out the window and absently twirling a long strand of Marceline's hair between her fingers. The other girl had her head nestled lightly against her chest, and her arm limp across Bonnie's stomach. Bonnie sighed and closed her eyes, nestling into Marceline's hair.
She had so much to worry about, now that they were back in classes. Over their week break, she hadn't had time to get ahead in her work. Or, rather, she had time, but she had mostly spent it pressed against Marceline. She blushed in frustration and groaned a little too loudly. She was a love struck idiot and it was going to tear down her grades.
Marceline stirred against her, "Bonnie, go to sleep, love," she whispered, brushing her lips against Bonnie's neck.
"Sorry," Bonnie mumbled, "just thinking about school."
Marceline chuckled and propped herself up on her elbows so that she could look down at Bonnie. Her green eyes shone, brimming with affection in the dimly lit room. She gently pressed a kiss to Bonnie's head, "C'mon, Bons, you're like, the brainiest brain lord I know. You're gonna do fine."
Bonnie's chest twisted with a mixture of emotion. She appreciated the sentiment, and she wished she could just cuddle up with her beautiful girlfriend and ignore everything. But on the other hand, she knew she couldn't just sit around like she had the past little while. Nothing was ever just fine. You always had to work at it, and she'd spent too much time already not working at it. She knew she'd begun to shake when Marceline lay a cool hand on her arm, "Hey," she whispered, resting a soft kiss on Bonnie's lips, "Bianca invited me to a pokemon event tomorrow, how about you come with me? A little hard competition will help you de-stress."
Bonnie managed a smile at the thought of that. Maybe it would help, at least a little.
Bonnie slipped on ice as she traveled to class the following morning. Frigid rain often fell overnight, leaving a thin layer of ice in the early morning that would either be melted by the rising sun, or cleared out by salt at around nine. For Bonnie's eight o'clock class, however, none of that did her much good.
She shuffled slowly along the frozen campus, happy, for once, that Marceline wasn't with her. She'd never hear the end of it if she saw how cautiously she walked, taking twice as long to get to her class as she normally did. Finally, the building entered her field of view. Just a few more steps, and-
She slipped. With a huff, she landed on her bottom, which was probably the best place to land, all things considered, but still not good. A nearby professor, always there to help, let out a howling laugh, and entered the building ahead of her.
A hand shot out by Bonnie's face, and she took it without thinking, "Thanks, uh-"
Braco.
She knew that he was in her Germanic Studies class- she even suspected that he'd transferred into it to be with her, but she'd been so good at avoiding him until this point.
"Hello, Princess," Braco practically chirped the words in his excitement. Princess. She wasn't sure where he'd gotten the idea for that nickname from. Perhaps he thought it was flattering, but it just pissed her off.
Bonnie sighed, "Hello, and thank you," she said curtly before walking confidently into the heated building. Braco followed close behind, looming over her, not in a threatening way, really, but obnoxiously.
"You know, girls say I'm a real nice guy," Braco said.
Bonnie nodded but didn't offer a verbal response. Sure, Nice Guy. Capital 'N' and capital 'G'. Also known as, she wanted nothing to do with him.
She knew at this point it was best to simply ignore his fawning. Over the summer, he'd forget about her and go after some other girl. Some guys were just like that- creepy, but otherwise harmless. She supposed it could be worse.
About halfway through class she received a text message from Bianca.
The club meeting is at six in room 115 of the Evergreen building it read, accompanied by a small robot icon, which caused a soft smile to spread across her face. She missed hanging out with them on a daily basis. She knew that, reasonably, she didn't have time to hang out daily with really anyone any more, but it still sucked.
The shift from high school to University was more jarring than she'd expected. She'd gone through so many grade changes, she'd assumed it would be more, well, mild.
But University had quickly consumed all her free time, piling responsibility after responsibility on her until she all but forgot about her once close friends. She wondered desperately if they would be friends again- she'd never done well on her own. She didn't much care for her own company.
She needed them.
Bonnie missed a lot of notes as anxiety consumed her, and barely noticed that the professor ended his lecture ten minutes early, only coming to her senses when other students began to rise from their seats.
She rushed out of the room before Braco could return to her side, if he even planned too, and began to walk, now more easily due to the rise in heat, back to her dorm room.
When she arrived, Marceline was pulling a shirt over her head. She wasn't phased by Bonnie seeing her in a bra, and neither was Bonnie. They'd immediately stopped caring about that sort of thing once they'd started dating. Marceline preferred to sleep topless, and was happy that she had that opportunity now. Bonnie didn't really mind, either.
"Is something wrong?" Marceline asked, her sentence cutting midway to let out a yawn, "I'm just goin' to class."
Bonnie paused. She wanted to dump her insecurities then and there, but she resisted. Marceline had her own problems, she didn't need to deal with Bonnie's in addition to that. Instead, Bonnie forced a yawn, "Nah, I'm just gonna nap between classes. Didn't get much sleep last night."
Marceline smiled and gave her a quick kiss before walking past, "Try to get in some training before we hit the gym," she said, winking playfully her way, "you might be out of practice."
Bonnie rolled her eyes, "Pft, never."
Marceline laughed and shut the door behind her, leaving Bonnie to collapse onto her bed. She wanted nothing more than to sit around and cuddle into her girlfriend's neck, to sleep the day away, but she had so much to do. Projects to work on, articles to read. She glanced at the 3ds on the side of her bed, now hers since Marceline had gifted it to her, and considered what Marceline had said.
Some practice battles wouldn't hurt.
Bonnie groaned and rolled over. She grabbed her laptop and booted it up.
Responsibility first.
Bonnie tapped away at her 3ds as Marceline led her along campus towards the Evergreen building. It was a smaller, two level building, covered top to bottom in long tendrils of English Ivy, which were trimmed on a regular basis to keep them aesthetically interesting, but not harmful.
When they entered the room, all eyes turned to them. She didn't want to be mean, but she was fairly sure most of the people here- all men with the exception of Bianca- weren't used to seeing women in their space. Bianca waved them over and Marceline dragged Bonnie into a seat next to her.
A man, probably in his mid twenties, stood up at the front of the room, "Welcome, I'm Todd, and we appear to have some new-comers," he waved his hand in her general, indicating for them to give their names.
"Oh, Marceline," Marceline said, turning to Bonnie. Her girlfriend was staring at her 3ds, not paying attention. She elbowed her firmly in the side, causing her to jolt to attention, "And this is Bonnie."
Todd nodded, "Well, to remind everyone, and to catch our new arrivals up," the eyes of the majority of the crowd continued to rest on them as they spoke, "We're going to be having a bit of a tournament, standard rules," he went on into a jumbled of terms that Marceline couldn't begin to understand, but Bonnie listened attentively to.
She smiled. She knew something was on Bonnie's mind- she'd seen the stress is her expression and posture early, but she looked better now. Not relaxed, exactly, but not anxious- more determined, excited.
Before she realized what was happening, Bonnie had placed herself at the front of the room. She was hunched over, eyes intent, surrounded by a group of men. A tall, lanky man with scruffy red hair sat opposite her, his 3ds also at the ready. From behind, in their hunched over positions, she could clearly see some of the men's t-shirts, displaying outdated internet humor and, in one case, an under-dressed anime girl.
Bonnie looked so intense, so focused.
Honestly? Kinda hot.
Marceline bit down on her finger nails.
My God, did she have some sort of weird nerd... kink? Uh, no, not that sexual. Er, maybe it was. Either way, Bonnie was really cute when she was all focused on nerd stuff.
Bianca looked at her, eyebrow raised, "Uh, Marceline? You good?"
Marceline blinked at them, "Uh, yeah, we should go closer, support Bon."
Bianca laughed, "You gotta support your cute girlfriend, eh?"
Marceline rolled her eyes, "Well, duh, c'mon."
Marceline took a seat next to Bonnie, roughly shoving a guy out of the way to do so. Men always seemed surprised by her strength. Wow, surprise, this girl took two years of various self defense classes. She wasn't jacked, but she was strong enough to dislocate a jaw if need be.
Not that she dislocated this particular guy's jaw.
She cozied up next to her girlfriend and peered over her shoulder.
Marceline pointed at Bonnie's screen, "Why are you using that move, it-"
Bonnie shushed her with a wave of her hand. She leaned over and kissed Marceline on the cheek, "I'll explain to you later."
She was pretty sure she heard one of the guys cuss under their breath, which made her laugh. Bonnie was out of their league even if she was into dudes. To add insult to injury, Marceline draped an arm over Bonnie's shoulders and kissed her on the cheek.
"I'm focusing," Bonnie grumbled, earning a laugh from Bianca.
Within a few minutes, Bonnie had beaten the first challenger. She threw her hands in the air, "Who's next?"
Todd laughed, "Uh, well, we have to have some battles between other people first, that's, uh, how a tournament works."
Bonnie scoffed and leaned back precariously in her chair. Marceline rolled her eyes, "C'mon tough girl, get out of the battle chair so someone else can fight."
Bonnie stretched and stood up, "Yeah, yeah, Marce, can you come to the washroom with me?"
It wasn't really a question so much as a statement, but regardless, she was happy to follow.
Once they were in the hallway together, Marceline found herself pressed up against the wall. Bonnie's right hand was pressed against the wall next to her head, while the other reached to grasp her lower back as she was pulled into a fierce kiss.
Marceline kissed back without hesitation- Bonnie's bursts of affection were often random and intense, and she was always happy to indulge her on the somewhat rare occasions where Bonnie initiated such contact. Normally, she was the one doing these things, but it was admittedly quite attractive to see Bonnie take control.
Bonnie's teeth tugged at her lower lip, and Marceline heard a soft moan escape her. Bonnie pulled back slightly, "Straight men are stifling. I think one of them tried to hit on me."
"Gross."
"Mmm," Bonnie agreed, the sound muffled as she pulled Marceline into yet another kiss.
They broke apart again, Marceline's face now significantly hotter than it had been just moments before.
"Right," Bonnie said, straightening her ruffled hair, "I have ass to kick, let's go."
Marceline swallowed hard, "Hell yeah babe," she said as she followed Bonnie back into the room.
Bianca looked her up and down as the two of them took their placed back in the room. Marceline, for as hard as she tried, wasn't able to hide a blush. Bianca smiled widely and held their hand up expectantly for a high-five.
With an eye-roll and a sheepish grin, Marceline returned the gesture.
Bonnie won a lot of battles that night, and she supposed that riled her up, because Marceline was also kissed a lot that night.
So in the end, everyone won.
Well, not so much everyone. Mostly herself and Bonnie.
Whatever.
Note: I really wanted to finish this by the end of summer but that sweet depression's gettin me haha