warnings - anxiety/panic attacks, eating disorder (implied)
dekkasaurus - i could never hate Carm. Carmilla is my child. season zero is great to be honest, i'm loving all of the cute hollstein commentary, particularly "Shut up and roll the tape, cupcake." and i swear if something happens to LaF this season i will be super emotional. my laferry heart won't be able to take it.
xxdancingwithdemonsxx - my evil side will never change, and one can never listen to too much Taylor Swift. Carm being all badass in season zero is what's making it so much better because the contrast between past-Carm and how she is sitting with Laura and trying to cheer her up makes me so emotional. especially at the end of episode 5 when Laura looks back to the screen and Carm is still staring at her. gROSS. Kirsch is still cute tbh, and wicca Perry is hilarious. i always have a minor heart attack when i hear "My friend Susan...".
anyway, this chapter was inspired by my best pal theoneandonlysnuffles. he gave me this idea when he was helping me brainstorm some future chapters back in like May/June time. (sidenote: i told you that there weren't any references to Harry Potter but then when i was proof reading i realised there was. so yeah. that's a thing.)
Friday 7th November 2014
Marceline flicked the basement light on and walked down the creaky wooden stairs, "I think it's down here. I don't really know."
"You're sure you have a tent? Because if you don't it's not too late to go to the store and buy one." Bonnibel assured, following Marceline down the stairs and into the basement.
"Fairly certain," Marceline replied, pushing a few boxes to the side and craning her neck to see, "I went camping with Keila once so I think we still have the tent. If not, she has it."
Bonnibel cringed, pulling Marceline away from a corner where a big spider was hanging from the ceiling, "Your basement is so…spidery."
Marceline shuddered and linked her fingers with Bonnie's, "I hate spiders. Let's just find the tent and get out of here."
Bonnie nodded, pointing over to a blue cylindrical bag, "Is that it?"
Marceline's face sunk into a frown and she shrugged, "I don't know. Maybe." She stepped closer to it, her hand hovering over the handle of the bag that the presumed tent was in. "I'm scared to touch it in case there's a spider or something under there."
Bonnibel laughed, placing a hand on Marceline's breastbone and pushing her backwards to make room for herself. She picked the bag up, holding it up to the light to check for any bugs, before she opened it up and looked inside. There was a rolled up sheet of plastic material and a couple of tent poles poking out.
Bonnie dumped the bag in Marceline's arms, "Yep, that's it. You go and put that in the car and I'll get our clothes and stuff."
"We don't need to drive, you know." Marceline pointed out, "The lakes are in walking distance."
Bonnie blew air out of her nose and shrugged, "Well, your car can be used as a storage room. Maybe if we get cold we can go in there and put the heating on."
"If we get cold?" Marceline laughed. It was November, what was Bonnie expecting? "When we get cold. It's pretty much winter, which is why I don't get why your friends want to go camping by the lakes now. Couldn't they have done that in summer?"
Bonnie rolled her eyes, but it wasn't very effective in conveying faux annoyance due to the soft smile on her face, "I get what you mean, but we'll be fine. We'll have our sleeping bags and we can cuddle to preserve warmth."
"Nice excuse to cuddle me, nerd." Marceline teased her, that dorky, irritating smirk tugging at the corners of her mouth.
"I don't need an excuse to cuddle you," Bonnie shot back as she followed Marceline back up the stairs, "You're my girlfriend. I'm pretty sure I have 100% cuddle privileges."
Marceline snorted, "That's not up to you to decide," but after a short pause she let out a soft chuckle and said, "but it's true. You can always hug me."
Bonnibel beamed, leaning over the tent bag and pecking Marceline on the lips, "Can I do that always, too?"
Marceline squeezed her eyes shut and bit on her lip to stop herself from smiling – because that would make her look like a completely smitten idiot.
(Not that she wasn't, but still. She had some dignity left.)
"Of course you can." Marceline eventually replied, opening her eyes and flashing Bonnie a toothy grin. "You can always do that."
Bonnie flicked the light switch off and closed the basement door, walking Marceline through the lounge and towards the front door. She opened the door for her – having to hold Schwabl back – and waited for Marceline to put the tent in the car's trunk, scratching the little poodle behind his ear and murmuring, "Marcy will be back in a second, calm down."
When Marceline stepped over the threshold and kicked the door shut, she leaned down and pressed a kiss to the top of Schwabl's head, "Hey, puppy. Stop attacking Bonnie."
"He's not attacking me," Bonnie assured, although the little dog was squirming around and had probably caused a few scratches on her arm, "he's just excited."
Marceline frowned as Bonnie put the little dog on the floor and he ran back into the living room and sat in his basket. "He's weird."
Bonnie linked her fingers through Marceline's and shrugged, "He's cute. You know, back before we were friends I'd never expected you to have a poodle. Maybe a scary Rottweiler."
Marceline snorted with laughter as she pulled her girlfriend up the stairs, "I bet now you understand that Schwabl is my kind of dog. Tiny and rat-like."
"He's not rat-like." Bonnie shot back, "He's cute and fluffy. Like you."
Marceline had to bite back her laughter, "I'm not cute."
Bonnie raised an eyebrow. She knew that was a lie. "Really? Because when you were drunk you had no problems accepting that compliment."
"I don't think that drunk me is a reliable source." Marceline said, falling on her bed in an ungraceful manner that could only be described as flopping, "One time she thought she could do a backflip and literally just fell over and nearly broke her wrist."
Bonnie laughed, shaking her head, "Drunk you is so cute." Pausing to correct herself, she added, "All of you is cute."
Marceline rolled her eyes, "Can we stop with all of the sappiness, please? It's starting to gross me out."
"You and I both know that you're incredibly sappy, Marcy." Bonnie said, "But I don't mind moving onto other topics if it's making you feel weird."
"Thanks, nerd," Marceline flashed her a smile as Bonnie grabbed Marceline's pyjamas and dropped them in the bag they'd reserved for clothes. "Why did your friends even invite me to this thing, anyway?"
"Because they're your friends too." Bonnie said, "And I was asked who I wanted to share a tent with, so…"
"What, you just casually announced that I would be there?" Marceline raised an eyebrow and fiddled with the drawstrings on her hoodie, "Sounds a little rude, don't you think?"
"Lady had asked if you would be there and I said yes. The tent thing happened afterwards." Bonnie explained, "So it was fine."
"Well, who exactly is going to be at this shindig?" Marceline asked. She didn't meet Bonnie's gaze – apparently the drawstrings of her hoodie were incredibly interesting.
Bonnie was extremely tempted to bring up Marceline's word choice, because shindig? Really, Marceline? This isn't the 80's, but she just smiled to herself, feeling a soft warmth glowing in her chest. She was so lucky, and not just because her girlfriend was arguably the cutest person alive, but because she was probably one of the only two or three people in the world that got to see this side of Marceline – her adorable, dorky, unguarded side. And even though Bonnie loved all of Marceline, this side was definitely one of her favourites.
Yep, Bonnie thought as Marceline glanced up and flashed her one of her endearing toothy grins, so lucky.
"I don't know. I'm not sure if LSP will be there, but I know that Cake definitely will be," Bonnie finally answered, "And the usual group are coming, and you're friends with them."
"I'm not -" Bonnie cut her off with a scoff and a roll of her eyes, and Marceline sent her a sheepish smile and finished, "Okay. Fine."
Bonnie raised an eyebrow, doing a solid imitation of Marceline's teasing smirk, "You admit that they're your friends?"
"I'm admitting nothing." Marceline folded her arms across her chests, "But I'm not denying anything, either."
Bonnie rolled her eyes. She knew that Marceline liked them; it actually kind of reminded her of how they were back in January, when people would accuse Marceline of liking her and she'd deny it, probably scoffing about how ridiculous that was.
But now that Bonnie knew Marceline had a huge secret crush on her back then, she was seeing right through the façade. Not that it was very good in the first place.
(Marceline was pretty terrible at hiding her feelings around Bonnie.)
"Whatever, Marcy." Bonnie responded, throwing a sock at her girlfriend, "You can't fool me. I'm a genius, remember?"
"I'm going to regret saying that, aren't I?" Marceline let out an over-dramatic, elongated sigh.
Bonnie flashed her a bright grin – half of it was genuine, but the other half was playful and teasing. "Probably. And I know you meant it, because you wrote it in your journal before we were even friends. You compared me to Einstein."
Marceline rolled her eyes, launching the sock back in Bonnie's direction, "You're so irritating. Why do I hang out with you?"
"Because you like like me." Bonnie teased, dropping the sock into Marceline's laundry basket and stepping over a discarded t-shirt to press a soft kiss to her girlfriend's lips, "Don't you, Marcy?"
Marceline avoided the question, but the soft blush on her cheeks was enough of an answer for Bonnie. "Why do you keep calling me Marcy all of a sudden? Usually it's just Marceline. Sometimes you call me a bitch, though."
Bonnie laughed, "That makes me sound mean," she felt Marceline rest her head on her shoulder and weaved her fingers through her girlfriend's soft black hair, "but to answer your question, I like the idea of a nickname. I know it's not very creative but I like it when you call me Bonnie – you're actually the only person who does that – so I figured I might as well. Unless it makes you uncomfortable or anything, but I know that Simon calls you it so -"
"You're cute when you ramble," Marceline cut her off, "I don't mind it. Nicknames usually aren't my thing; I only really let Keila get away with it because I've known her since I was five, my brother does what he wants no matter what I say and Simon is…well, Simon. He's basically a Dad to me so…"
"So it does make you uncomfortable." At least, that's what Bonnie took from that little explanation.
"Not when it comes from someone I care about." Marceline glanced up at her, "I'm pretty sure you fit in that category."
Bonnie grinned, "You're so sweet. Besides, I think it's alright for me to call you Marcy. You have plenty of nicknames for me."
Marceline frowned in confusion. Bonnie had to refrain from awing at her. "I don't. I only call you Bonnie."
Bonnie raised an eyebrow, smirking, "Have you forgotten about the times you've called me babe? And that time you called me a gumdrop. You called me Bon at my Aunt's wedding, and I can recall you referring to me as Bonnibutt and pinkie about a week and a half after we met," finally, she closed the case with, "and let's not forget about the infamous princess."
Marceline laughed, smiling sheepishly. Bonnie wasn't sure if the blush on her cheeks was an embarrassed one or not. "Yeah. Sorry about all that. If it was annoying you, why didn't you tell me?"
"The majority of them don't annoy me." Bonnie assured, "Princess was irritating at first, but I kind of…I don't know, I guess I kind of like it now. It's sort of a compliment, I guess? You were basically saying I'm royalty. And it was the original nickname. Kind of nostalgic, isn't it?"
Marceline frowned, "You like remembering when we weren't friends and I was a total bitch to you?"
Bonnie rolled her eyes, "Of course not, you weirdo. I just…with the knowledge that you secretly had a crush on me, it's nice to know that princess is kind of…it's like, sort of what you thought of me. Like, you thought that I was good enough to be royalty. And I think that's amazing."
Marceline was blushing even harder now, to her embarrassment. God, the nerd had a huge effect on her. "But you hate that nickname."
"I literally just told you that I like it now." Bonnie pointed out with a reassuring smile, "Not that it gives you permission to start calling me it every other sentence again."
Marceline flashed Bonnie a toothy grin – that's how Bonnie knew she was really happy, when she smiled with her teeth. "I think the only reason I called you it back then was because you got all high strung and annoyed and it was amusing. But if you want to interpret it like that, go ahead."
Bonnie rolled her eyes. They both knew that Marceline was lying. "Yeah, okay. Let's set off to the lakes, yeah? I told them we'd be there by six."
Marceline nodded, a stupid warm glow in her chest and an idiotic smile on her face, "Yeah, alright."
Marceline threw the tent pole on the ground in frustration and folded her arms across her chest, "I can't do it. Stupid fucking pole. It can't even pole right. It's a failure at life."
Bonnibel laughed at Marceline's upset pout and cute little frustrated frown, "Of course you can do it. Just put the tent pole through the hole."
"But it won't go through," Marceline complained, collapsing in a heap on the floor. Her hand rested on the bridge of her nose and she glanced up at Bonnie, "I give up. Get Jake to help you or something. Get someone actually competent."
Bonnie sighed, "But I thought it'd be a cute couple thing, for us to pitch the tent together."
Marceline sent her an incredulous look, barking out a laugh, "I doubt watching me swear at a tent pole is a cute couple thing." She sighed, dragging herself to her feet, "I'll get Jake. I'd rather not be half asleep and have a tent collapse on me because we did it wrong."
Bonnie opened her mouth to protest – she wanted to do the tent with her girlfriend – but she supposed Marceline was right. Besides, Jake had finished pitching his and Lady's tent quickly; he went camping with his Dad a lot, apparently. Maybe it would be better to have the help of a semi-professional.
So when Marceline returned with Jake, Bonnie didn't complain.
(Much.)
"You know, we could've done it. Maybe if I was the one to put the poles in and if you held it up for me." Bonnie pointed out, watching as Jake put the tent pole Marceline had been struggling with in with ease, "You didn't have to get Jake."
"Yeah, well I'm a musician, not Bear Grylls." Marceline shot back, folding her arms across her chest, "What were you expecting? It would've been midnight before we'd sorted it, let's face it."
Bonnie huffed, "Nice to know you have faith in me."
"Oh, shut up," That probably would've had more of an effect if Marceline wasn't smiling, but she found it physically impossible to look at Bonnie and not smile, "Even though you're impossibly good at everything else, I don't think you'd just magically know how to put up a tent."
Bonnie wanted to retort that she did know how to put up a tent – she'd gone on a camping trip with her family once and while her Mom and Dad had put up their tent, she'd figured out how to do it with her tent buddy – but thinking about that holiday was much too upsetting and she knew that if she looked the tiniest bit sad, Marceline would pick up on it and ask her questions that she didn't particularly want to answer.
Instead, she decided to steer as far as she could from the subject of her tent pitching skills, "I'm not impossibly good at everything. I don't have a creative bone in my body. I can't play an instrument or draw a picture."
Marceline raised an eyebrow, "You can play four chords on ukulele. And you did perfectly well on that creative writing assignment in English class last year. Everyone can be a little bit creative. Just some people have more creativity than others."
"I could play four chords on ukulele for about an hour," Bonnie said, "And I got a B on the writing thing and Betty said I needed to use more imagination and creativity. I prefer academic stuff with strict rules," She explained, a soft frown on her face when she realised, "Isn't music a thing that has strict rules?"
Marceline chewed on the inside of her cheek in thought, "Not really. There are rules, like keys and stuff, but they don't always fit. And you can get away with having no idea what you're doing. I guess it's a half and half situation."
Bonnie bobbed her head in understanding, "Ah, okay. With science you can't really wing it. You'd probably make something explode if you did."
Marceline laughed, "I kind of want to see you blow something up. You need to live up to your mad scientist Halloween costume."
"Does that mean you need to magically transform into a vampire, then?" Bonnie teased.
Marceline scoffed, "Thought I already was one?"
Bonnie opened her mouth to retort, but Jake beat her to it as he hammered the last tent peg into the ground, "There you go, guys. All done."
Marceline flashed him a smile. It wasn't as cheerful as her smiles when she looked at Bonnie, but it was still genuine. "Thanks, dude."
"Yeah, thanks Jake," Bonnie reinforced, "Is it okay if I take a look inside?"
"Yeah, of course." He grinned back, lifting up the tent flap and pinning it up so it was easier for Bonnie to crawl in and take a look inside.
Honestly, Bonnie was hoping that Marceline's magical cheering-her-up powers were actual magic powers, and the tent would be the size of a small house on the inside like in Harry Potter, but to her dismay it was just a regular tent. Dammit. At least it was big enough for the both of them to have some space.
(Not that they'd use it, but still.)
Bonnie crawled out of the tent backwards and grabbed the two sleeping bags that she and Marceline had left next to their previously flattened tent, tossing them inside. Then she zipped up the tent from the outside to stop any bugs from getting in and stood up, brushing any residual dirt from her jeans, and walked back to Marceline's side, "What's the plan now?"
She noted that Jake had walked back over to the rest of the group, who were watching as Phoebe started sorting out a fire, "I think they're all going to roast marshmallows, sit around a campfire and sing kumbaya."
Bonnie laughed at Marceline's sarcastic monotone, "Very funny. What are they actually doing?"
"I wasn't joking." Marceline said, linking their fingers together, "They have three bags of marshmallows and they're making a fire." At Bonnie's pointed look, she added, "The kumbaya thing was a bit of a stretch, though."
Bonnie smiled at her, squeezing her hand as they walked over to the rest of the group, "Are you going to have a marshmallow?"
"I don't like them," Marceline replied, trying to ignore Bonnie's doubtful look. Bonnie thought she was lying, and that stung a little, "I brought a couple of candy bars with me from the cupboard, though."
This seemed to satisfy Bonnie, "That's okay, then. We'll share those later, if you want."
Marceline nodded, "Yeah, okay. In the tent."
"In the tent," Bonnie confirmed. She dropped Marceline's hand as she sat next to Fionna on the ground, about a metre away from where Phoebe was working on the fire, "Hey. How long is she saying the fire is going to take?"
"She said it'll just be a few more minutes," Fionna explained. She smiled at both Bonnie and Marceline, addressing the latter of the two, "Hi, Marceline. Half of us didn't expect you'd actually show, since LSP and Cake are here."
Marceline's previously cheerful expression morphed into one of pure horror, "What?" She spun around to look at Bonnie, "You said she wouldn't be here."
"I didn't think she would be!" Bonnie held her hands up in defence. She knew it'd been mentioned, but she'd not been told for certain, "I did say she might be here."
Marceline sighed, a heavy puff of air coming out of her nose, "I should go. I should go now."
"No, you shouldn't." Lady sat down on Marceline's right before Bonnie had a chance to argue with her, "We've told her not to say anything bad to you, and if she does, she's uninvited."
Marceline looked like she didn't believe that at all. "She's been your friend since kindergarten and you'd do that? I doubt it."
Lady sighed, "Why can't you get it through your head that we like you?"
Marceline opened her mouth to answer but closed it and stopped herself, because I have anxiety disorder and it fucks with my head and there are times when I doubt Bonnie even likes me so shut the fuck up isn't exactly a good answer. "I don't know."
Bonnibel rested her hand on Marceline's thigh and Marceline was fairly certain she knew something, and that scared her, because if Bonnie could figure it out, what's to say that Lady couldn't?
Marceline moved away from Bonnie and looked over at her car; it was just visible to her. "I –"
"Do you want space?" Marceline stopped talking when she heard Bonnie's voice in her ear, soft and reassuring.
"I don't know." Marceline replied, equally as soft but nowhere near as assured. "I just -"
"Hey, guys! I brought Melissa, is that okay?" LSP announced as she sat down, shooting a venomous glare Marceline's way.
Marceline sent Bonnie a look and stood up, briskly heading for her car. Bonnie followed. Honestly, she wasn't sure if she was meant to. Maybe the look Marceline sent her was more of a 'leave me alone' sort of thing. It was almost indecipherable.
Bonnie climbed into Marceline's car and closed the door, stopping her girlfriend before she could put the key in the ignition, "Hey, stop. Talk to me."
"I can't." Marceline looked at her hopelessly, "It's pointless. I just…I don't want to ruin your night, so I should leave before I get any worse."
"Do you feel like you might have a panic attack?" Bonnie carefully asked; she knew that talking about things like that was like stepping on hot coals, "Is that why you want to leave?"
Marceline nodded. Bonnie could tell she was having a hard time keeping her breathing regulated and her speech came out rushed and shaky. "The only reason I came was because she wouldn't be here. I'm sort of comfortable with your friends now, but I just can't be there if she is. I can't do it."
Bonnie sent her a reassuring smile, "It's okay. We can stay here until you cool off and then go back. It'll be fine, I promise."
"I don't know if I want to go back." Marceline let out a soft sigh, "I'm sorry, I -"
"If that last part is going to finish in some sort of self-deprecating comment, I'm going to stop you right there." Bonnie interjected, slowly easing Marceline's hand from the car steering wheel, "You have nothing to apologise for. I know that certain things are hard for you and I'm not going to leave you just because you don't feel like you can do something. I'm here for you. Always."
Marceline tried a smile. It came out more like a pained grimace. "I don't want to ruin your night."
"You're not ruining anything." Bonnie assured, squeezing Marceline's hand, "If you want to leave, we can leave. Just say so."
"You don't need to come with me." It was said in a quiet, broken murmur that made Bonnie's heart smash into a million pieces.
"Of course I do." Bonnie pulled Marceline close to her, kissing the top of her head, "I'm not leaving you by yourself, no matter where we go. I can go and get our sleeping bags and tent if you want to leave."
"I'm not –" Marceline stopped herself, sighing, "We don't have to leave. I just need some time alone."
"Okay," Bonnie let go of Marceline and put her hand on the car door, "Text me when you're coming back."
"I didn't mean I wanted you to leave." Marceline stopped her by grabbing onto her wrist, "I meant to say time alone with you."
Bonnie beamed, taking her girlfriend's hand and squeezing it, "Alright. We can talk about some other stuff if you want."
Marceline nodded, "That'd be good. Thanks."
Bonnie smiled at her, before she began recounting a story about the time she got stuck in a tree as a kid and her Mom nearly called the fire department to get her down. The embarrassment of reliving that was worth it to see the soft smile on Marceline's face, because Marceline really was beautiful.
And when Marceline let out a soft laugh and kissed Bonnie on the cheek, she felt ten times happier with herself.
"It's kind of romantic, isn't it?"
"What is?"
Bonnie sighed, rolling onto her side in her sleeping bag to look over at Marceline, "Well, we're alone in a tent, away from the rest of civilisation. There's nothing to listen to other than the sounds of the crickets and the breeze, our phones are dead and we're huddled together for warmth."
"Sounds like the perfect setting for a horror movie." Marceline replied. That earned her a smack on the upper arm from Bonnie, "I'm right, though. All we need is the serial killer."
Bonnie huffed, "Thanks for that. You really know how to be romantic, Marceline."
Marceline laughed, giving Bonnie a soft squeeze around her midriff, "It's not really like a horror movie, but it's not like what you said either. I can hear Jake snoring from all the way over here, so we're hardly alone, and we can hear cars on the nearby highway. Sorry to burst your bubble."
Bonnie sighed, pouting, "Can we just pretend, please?"
"That we're in a horror movie?" Damn. Another smack.
"No," Bonnie rolled her eyes in irritation, tucking Marceline's hair behind her ear, "that we're alone and that this is perfectly romantic. Please?"
Marceline sighed, "Fine. We're completely isolated. What now?"
"Well," Bonnibel smiled, pressing a kiss to Marceline's cheek, "I could kiss you. Or we could talk about survival techniques in a scary movie like your car isn't five feet away from us."
Marceline let out a soft chuckle that made Bonnie's internal organs decide to do an extremely uncoordinated backflip, "Okay, sure. To both of those."
Bonnie grinned, "Okay." She thought for a moment – Marceline's comparison to a horror movie had given Bonnie a good idea for an imagined scenario, "Turns out all of our friends have gone missing and that's why it's so quiet. We decided to head to your car and it turns out someone has cut the battery out so we're stuck here. Then we hear a scream. What do you do next?"
Marceline responded with no hesitation. "Run in the opposite direction."
"Marceline. That's not -" Bonnie stopped herself with a sigh, "You're supposed to make it interesting. Like a story or something."
Marceline shuffled closer to her and huffed, "Fine. Who's screaming?"
"Why does it matter who the screaming is coming from?" Bonnie asked, "It's screaming. It means someone is in danger."
"Well I'm just saying, if it was like…Lady or someone, I'd probably go and help." Marceline explained, "But if it was LSP, I'd go and get a coffee or something."
Bonnie laughed, but smacked her girlfriend on the upper arm again – only lightly, of course. "That's mean, Marcy."
"It's the truth, though." Marceline folded her arms across her chest, but sighed, "If I heard a scream I'd go and help whoever it was."
"Thank you," Bonnie smiled, "Okay, so you go in the direction of the scream and come across all of our friends, tied up in a clearing near the water. One of them tells you that there's a killer on the loose and they just left. You hear a twig snap in the bushes behind you. What do you do?"
Marceline chewed on the inside of her lip, "Well – you're in this, right?"
"Yeah, I'm with you." Bonnie bobbed her head in confirmation.
"Okay then," Marceline picked at her fingernails as she thought, "Saving you would be my first priority, so you and I would get out of sight before the killer comes back, but stay close enough so we'd be able to see what happens in case we need to intervene."
"Okay," Bonnie considered her answer, "We see the killer come back and they have a knife, so you and I quickly duck out of sight so we don't get caught. The killer grabs…Lady, and holds the knife to her throat. Everyone else is tied up and can't do anything. What next?"
"This is a total lie, but it's a story so…" Marceline found Bonnie's hand, "I'd tell you how much I care about you and then jump the killer, wrestling the knife off them and using it to defend us."
"I call 911 on my phone -"
"I thought your phone was dead." Marceline pointed out her continuity error.
Bonnie just rolled her eyes. "Let's pretend it isn't. I call 911 and you pin the masked killer down, ripping off their mask. Who is it?"
Marceline hummed in thought, "Well, I don't think that LSP is capable of murder. Maybe – no, I've got something – Melissa was upset because LSP made fun of her outfit, so she went on a killing spree in revenge."
Bonnie laughed; actually, that wasn't too far-fetched. LSP and Melissa argued virtually every day. "You have the opportunity to stab her. Do you?"
"I'm not the serial killer. No." Marceline replied, "You untie our friends while I keep her pinned down until the cops show up. They arrest her, I get loads of money and guitars and stuff as a reward and then you and I go live in a fancy mansion. The end."
Bonnie didn't comment on how Marceline had said our friends and smiled, "Aw, you gave us a happy ending. That was cute." Bonnie paused in thought, trying to come up with another game they could play to pass the time. "We could play a different game, if you'd like?"
Marceline nodded into the crook between Bonnie's neck and shoulder, "Sure. Fuck marry kill? If you're not comfortable we can change it."
"I can play a hypothetical game," Bonnie assured, "You go first."
"Okay." Marceline bit down on her lip in thought, "Me, LSP, Finn."
Bonnibel stared at her as though she'd just kicked a puppy, "You can't make it that hard on my first go."
Marceline rolled her shoulders back in a careless shrug, "Tough luck. Go on, pick."
Bonnie sighed at her, "Um…do I have to say the naughty word that you put in every other sentence?"
Marceline wanted to point out that Bonnie had said the word before, but instead she just shook her head, "No. Just say them in the order you'd do them."
"Okay," Bonnie looked uncertain, "You, Finn, LSP."
"Alright," Because Marceline was curious, she put on the end, "Why'd you pick that?"
Bonnie sent Marceline a soft, not intimidating at all glare, "Well, I'm in a relationship and feel very strongly about you, and although I can never be sexually attracted to you, it's pretty obvious that the only person I'd ever be intimate with is you. I could marry Finn and then divorce him because he's too sweet to kill. And then I don't think I could do either with LSP, so…"
"You'd fuck me?" Marceline blurted out. Okay, so that probably wasn't the best thing to ask your asexual girlfriend, idiot.
Marceline picked up on the bright red blush on Bonnie's cheeks, and she felt kind of bad for asking. Honestly, it was more of a blurted out in surprise thing. Marceline never really thought before she talked, which was probably something she needed to get under control.
"I…well, you're – I think…" Bonnie stammered, looking anywhere but her girlfriend. She didn't really know how to say not until I know I'm in love with you and want to give you that in a subtle way, so she just shrugged and looked at her sleeping bag covered feet, "I think so. I don't know. Not yet."
Marceline blinked at her. She'd been expecting a flat-out no. "Oh. Okay."
Bonnie looked up with shining eyes and Marceline worried she was going to cry as she let out a strangled, "What do you mean? Are you upset with me?"
Trying to ignore the fact that her heart was beating ten times faster than usual, Marceline just shrugged, "No. I'm just surprised. I just kind of assumed we'd never…"
Yeah, she's definitely about to cry. God, you idiot, Marceline mentally scolded herself as she stared at Bonnie, "I know that it's an inconvenience and I'm sorry about that, but -"
Marceline was quick to interject, "It isn't an inconvenience. It's your sexuality. You can't change that. I was just a little surprised that there's a chance, is all."
"I don't – I know that in traditional relationships, people expect it, and I can't give you that. Not until I'm ready to give you that, because it's not like I'd be doing it for me or anything. Not until…" Bonnie trailed off with a sigh, "I'm going to sleep. Goodnight, Marceline."
"No, wait." Marceline pulled Bonnie back to her, "Not until what?"
Bonnie hesitated, trying to rephrase the words going around in her head. "Until I know that I feel strongly enough about you to be able to – to give myself to you completely. To be able to be intimate with you."
She sighed, kissing Marceline's forehead. She knew what that probably sounded like in Marceline's head – I don't like you enough, or you're not good enough or something along those lines. She needed to reword that.
"What I mean is that I'm not just going to wake up and be sexually attracted to you. I have no sex drive whatsoever and you know that. But if I…" She stopped herself. That's not what she wanted to say, "I'm absolutely crazy about you but I need to be – I have to know that you're the person that I…" Please fill in the gaps, Marceline. Please, Bonnie thought, forcing herself not to say what she was thinking, "Things have to be really, really serious."
Marceline moved forward, pushing her lips against Bonnie's, "Okay. I understand. I'll see you in the morning."
Bonnie stopped her, "You're not upset?"
"Of course I'm not upset." Marceline rolled her eyes, "I get it, okay? And I respect that. I know what you're talking about, and I'm not going to try and convince you otherwise or anything."
Bonnibel beamed, "I am way too lucky to have you. Thanks."
"Don't worry about it." Marceline replied, "Get some sleep, alright, nerd?"
And with that, she cuddled herself up close to Bonnie and left her girlfriend smiling stupidly into the darkness.
