Bonnie was reading a book when her bedroom door opened, and an extremely pretty girl walked in wearing her sweater. She looked up from the page she was reading and smiled. "Hi."
"Hey." Marceline smiled at her and flopped down next to her on Bonnie's tiny single bed. "Lift your arm up."
Bonnie did as she asked, and Marceline ducked under her arm, resting her head on her chest and throwing an arm over her tummy. "Okay. Proceed with your reading."
Bonnie laughed, and while it was harder to read her book with one hand, she really liked playing with Marceline's hair. It was always so soft. She read a few paragraphs and then asked, "How do you get your hair so soft?"
"Coconut oil," Marceline said, and Bonnie hummed in reply, "Once every two weeks, after a shower, just putting it on the ends. Makes it all nice and soft. And I don't get many split ends. Also, no heat. Unless I'm running late and have to blow dry."
Bonnie hummed, "Okay. I'll keep that in mind. So, how has your week been?"
"Fine, I guess," Marceline sighed, and Bonnie felt like she wasn't telling her something. "Missed you, though. Did you have fun with your friends the other day?"
"It was… okay," Bonnie described. Because really, that was all it had been. Elle went on about the boy of the week to Phoebe and Fionna, Lady tried to get information out of her about her trip with Marceline, Finn, Jake and Marshall loudly played video games. Bonnie had just sort of sat there. "I prefer spending time with you, though."
Marceline laughed against her. "That's just because you get to kiss me now."
"Not at all," Bonnie said, but when Marceline pushed herself up to press a kiss to the corner of her mouth, she definitely wasn't complaining. As Marceline settled back down with her head against Bonnie's chest, she admitted, "Though it is a wonderful bonus."
Bonnie read another two chapters of her book, intermittently combing her fingers through Marceline's hair between page turns. It was wonderfully comfortable, laying with her as she read, feeling another's presence there.
"Bonnie," Marceline whined, breaking the comfortable silence they were laying in. Bonnie paused mid-paragraph and looked down, "Make me a crumpet."
Bonnie laughed and looked back at her book. "It's really not that complicated a process. You're clever, I'm sure you can figure it out."
"But… but Bonnie," Marceline dragged her name out for as long as she could, "I might do it wrong or the crumpet might know I'm American and explode."
"I don't remember buying sentient, American detecting, exploding crumpets," Bonnie teased her, but she grabbed her bookmark and nudged Marceline so she'd get up. "Come on, then. I'll show you how to toast one perfectly."
If anything, Marceline snuggled further into her chest, and her grip on Bonnie's hoodie tightened. "Can you do it without moving?"
Bonnie laughed. As much as she wanted to stay curled up with Marceline, ever since she'd mentioned it, she also fancied a crumpet.
"Nope, I'm afraid I haven't fully mastered the force yet," Bonnie nudged her again, "Come on, you big lump. We can cuddle more after we eat."
Marceline sighed dramatically but pushed herself up to sit. She looked tired and Bonnie almost pointed that out, but then Marceline admitted it herself. "I'm tired. Didn't sleep all that well the last few nights."
Bonnie frowned. She was trying not to show just how concerned she actually was. "Any reason?"
Marceline ran a hand through her hair but shook her head. "No. Just… those kinds of nights, I guess. Lots of thoughts in my brain."
It felt like a lie, and as they walked down the stairs, Bonnie kept an eye on her movements. Mostly because she knew that Marceline was very independent; she always seemed uncomfortable whenever Bonnie asked her if she was alright or tried to offer solutions. She'd always shoot things down, or completely ignore others. It was frustrating, because Bonnie was starting to feel the weight of the secret Marceline was asking her to keep. Was it selfish to keep it, even though telling should be the right thing do to? Perhaps it was, because Bonnie knew that Marceline would never forgive her if she went behind her back and told.
Physically, Marceline seemed okay, but she was good at hiding that. Bonnie went to ask, despite how uncomfortable it made the older girl, but Marceline jumped the last few stairs and seemed in good spirits as they walked into the kitchen. Her movements were graceful, fluid, and not calculated like they were when Marceline was trying to hide some injury.
Marceline gestured to the toaster. "Okay, work your magic."
Bonnie grabbed two crumpets and put them in the toaster, and she blinked in surprise when Marceline passed her the plates from the cupboard and a knife. "Oh, thank you."
Marceline walked over to the fridge and grabbed the butter for her too, and once she'd put it down, she came up behind Bonnie, wrapped her arms around her waist and rested her chin on her shoulder. Bonnie felt herself blush, and she placed a hand over Marceline's, where they were rested on her bellybutton. Marceline turned her head and pressed a kiss to her neck, and the butterflies in Bonnie's tummy went a little crazy.
"You're feeling affectionate today," Bonnie commented, her voice a little bit strained, because neck kiss. "How come?"
"No reason," Marceline murmured into her shoulder, "except that I just really like you."
Bonnie hummed and squeezed Marceline's hands. "I really like you too."
She let Marceline rest her head on her shoulder and hold her tight as she waited for the toaster to pop. It was nice, just feeling her there. Bonnie found that she and Marceline could spend time in silence and it was relaxing, rather than awkward.
It popped the first time, and Bonnie turned the crumpets over and put them back in. "They're not quite done yet. Got to make sure you get a crispy bottom."
Marceline laughed into her shoulder, and Bonnie rolled her eyes at her immaturity. "Crispy bottom."
It was muffled by Bonnie's hoodie, but she heard it anyway and tutted, more in amusement than disappointment. "Honestly, Marcy… how is that funny?"
"How is that not funny?" Marceline lifted her head up and pressed a kiss to Bonnie's cheek, still chuckling to herself. "You said crispy bottom."
Bonnie reached forwards and popped both of the crumpets out, childishly muttering, "You're a crispy bottom," as she buttered both of them. Marceline just laughed softly and snuggled her face into Bonnie's shoulder again.
"Bonnibel, could you put the kettle on- oh," Peter paused in the kitchen doorway, and Bonnie certainly felt the cold when Marceline sprang away from her and kept a distance, smiling at Peter like they hadn't been all cuddled up. Peter looked between them, then back at Bonnie, who occupied herself with putting the knife in the sink as he said, "Well. I believe an 'I told you so' is in order."
Bonnie flicked the kettle on as he'd asked, and Marceline avoided eye contact and stuffed her mouth with crumpet. Bonnie just shrugged, casually taking a bite of her own crumpet. "I don't know what you mean."
"You're telling me that you're not dating?" Peter looked between them again, and Bonnie laughed a little awkwardly. She didn't know what to call what they were doing. Marceline wasn't her girlfriend, not yet anyway, but what they had felt like more than casual dating, too, because they already meant so much to each other.
When Marceline finished her crumpet and had nothing to occupy herself with, Bonnie looked at her expectantly as she ate, as if to say explain, please. Marceline folded her arms across her chest and shook her head. "I'm not saying anything, this one is on you."
Bonnie rolled her eyes at her, and Marceline stuck out her tongue childishly. "You're right, but please, no I told you so's. I feel like I'm going to be getting that from everyone I spoke to about her."
Peter laughed. "How long has this been going on?"
"Admittedly, it's early days," Bonnie said, and when she met Marceline's gaze, she smiled, "but I really like her."
Marceline sent her that soft smile back, but it faded a little bit when Peter set a stern gaze on her and stated, "Do not hurt her. Bonnibel deserves the best."
"We're in full agreement there," Marceline said, and Bonnie's stomach flipped, "I won't hurt her. I promise."
"Okay," Peter seemed satisfied, and as he turned to leave the kitchen, he looked back at Bonnibel again and smiled. "I have to say it. I told you so."
She groaned, and he just laughed as he walked into the living room. Marceline raised her eyebrows in amusement. "So, exactly how many people did you talk to about how hot I am?"
"Zero, but I talked to three about how big your head is," Bonnie retorted, kissing her on the tip of her nose when Marceline pouted. "Come on. Let's go upstairs."
She led Marceline back up to her room by the hand and decided to abandon her book for now in favour of watching a movie. "Don't put anything good on."
Bonnie laughed as she looked through her DVD collection and switched the TV on. "That's an odd request."
"Well, I'm going to try and get a little nap, and I don't want to miss a good movie," Marceline stretched out on her bed and yawned, "Put some dumb rom-com on. They're all painfully heterosexual and samey."
Bonnie forgot the DVDs and went to Netflix, scrolling through until she found an acceptable trashy teen movie. She squeezed onto the bed next to Marceline, who yawned and snuggled up to her again, resting her head on her chest and making sure her arms were around her. Once she'd gotten comfortable, she closed her eyes, but Bonnie decided to get a few more minutes of conversation before she was relegated to Marceline's personal pillow. "Tell me something."
One green eye blinked open and then shut again. "Like what?"
"I don't know," Bonnie shrugged, and like it was instinct, started playing with Marceline's hair again, "Something I don't know about you."
Marceline hummed in thought, and her voice was quite muffled when she said, "I used to have pretty bad stage fright."
Bonnie blinked in surprise. That was unexpected. "Really? You? But you're such a performer."
"It was mostly when I was younger," Marceline punctuated with a yawn, "up until I was like, fourteen. Whenever I performed anywhere I'd even go as far as to like, not wear my contacts so I couldn't really see the audience as well. Now, I just sort of go into a trance and forget they're there."
"I really didn't expect that," Bonnie hummed, and then picked up on the other thing Marceline had said, "Wait, contacts?"
"I told you forever ago. Back when we were civil enemies." Marceline murmured into her shoulder, "I don't wear them every day because my eyesight isn't actually that bad. Mostly just at school, because otherwise I wouldn't be able to sit at the back. I can't see long distance and teachers use annoyingly small fonts."
"Well, now I just want to see what you'd look like with glasses." The mental picture that Bonnie had was absolutely adorable.
"Like a dork, that's what I'd look like with glasses," Marceline replied, and then glanced up and added, "But you look cute in yours. Like, really cute."
She had a genius brainwave and nudged Marceline. "Wait, sit up. Do you have your contacts in now?"
"Nope and nope," Marceline stayed put, so Bonnie rolled her eyes and nudged her again, "Bonnie, it's sleep time. Marcy wanna go night-night."
Bonnie almost went to tease her for the adorableness of that sentence, but she was much more focused on getting Marceline in her glasses. Teasing her would not achieve that goal.
"You can go to sleep after I've made you try on my glasses," Bonnie said, taking her glasses off and squinting at the way everything went out of focus. Unlike Marceline, Bonnie's eyesight actually was quite bad. It was all of the reading she always did; it had strained her eyes over the years. "Sit up."
Marceline groaned dramatically, but did as she was told and sat up, rubbing the sleep from her eyes. She was blurry in Bonnie's unaided vision, but she could see well enough to push the glasses onto Marceline's face and then coo at the absolutely adorable sight in front of her.
Marceline cringed, "Jesus, Bonnie, you're fucking blind."
"Oh my god, you look adorable," Bonnie pulled her in for a kiss because she just couldn't help herself, and then laughed as she remembered something, "Look who's Professor Trelawney now."
"You know I didn't mean that. I was just trying to push your buttons." Marceline said, but she took Bonnie's glasses off and passed them back. When Bonnie put them back on, she saw that Marceline's eyes were watering a little. "They're more like Harry's glasses, anyway. But they suit you and your cute nerdy aesthetic."
Once she'd pressed a kiss to Bonnie's cheek, Marceline settled back down against her and closed her eyes again. Bonnie held her close and kissed the top of her head. Despite 'wanting to go night-night', however (Bonnie didn't plan on forgetting that any time soon) after a few moments of silence, she murmured, "Bonnie, guess what?"
Bonnie glanced away from the trashy teen movie. "What?"
She felt Marceline smile against her, and her hold around Bonnie's waist tightened. "I got a crush on you."
The butterflies that had taken up residence in Bonnie's tummy since getting to know Marceline decided that was their time to shine. Bonnibel herself just chuckled and answered with feigned surprise. "Wow. What a shock. That's brand new information."
"I know," Marceline murmured into her shoulder, "I can't believe I'm finally admitting it after all this time."
Bonnie dropped the sarcasm in favour of leaning down and kissing the top of Marceline's head. "Alright, hush up and get some sleep, you cutie."
Marceline was quiet for a few moments, like she was settling down to sleep, but then she whispered, "Tell anyone you called me cutie and I didn't tell you to shut up, and I'll… glare at you really hard."
Bonnie couldn't contain her smile. "Mhm, sure."
"I'm serious, Bon," Marceline said, and when Bonnie looked down at her, her eyes were still shut and there was this tiny little smile tugging at the corners of her mouth. "I'm scary. And badass. With huge guns."
"Of course you are, darling," Bonnie said, and she felt the way Marceline took in a sharp breath at the pet name, felt the warmth of her blush against her shoulder, "get some rest now, alright?"
Another beat of silence, and then Marceline murmured a tiny, "Okay," into her shoulder.
It didn't take Marceline long to fall asleep – Bonnie felt her relax in her arms and heard her breathing get a little shallower – and she elected to watch her over the movie. She played with her hair and traced little hearts on her stomach when her (or Bonnie's) sweater rode up.
There was a quiet knock at her bedroom door and Peter cracked it open slightly. Bonnie craned her neck to look at him, careful not to move too much so she didn't disturb Marceline. "Will she be staying for dinner?"
"I don't know," Bonnie said in almost a whisper, "She might have to be home but if she can't do it tonight, then I can invite her a different time."
"Okay. I'd like to get to know her a little bit," Peter said, "I would be a bad uncle if I didn't make an effort with my favourite niece's new girlfriend."
"She's not my girlfriend yet," Bonnie murmured, blushing, and then realised what he'd said. "Favourite niece? Peter, I'm your only niece."
He chuckled as he left the room, "Exactly, Bonnibel."
She smiled as the door shut behind him and went back to cuddling Marceline. She traced over her soft hands, feeling the hard callouses on the tips of her fingers. They reminded Bonnie that those hands could make beautiful music. She touched the curve of her jaw, feeling flawless brown skin, and she made a mental note to ask Marceline for her skincare routine, because she never seemed to get pimples. She was annoyingly perfect.
"You're so pretty," Bonnie breathed out, even though Marceline was far away in dreamland, "Seriously. You're probably the most gorgeous girl I've ever seen. And you like me. I really won."
She kissed the top of her head again and glanced up at the movie, exiting out of Netflix in favour of YouTube. Her recommended page was full of documentaries, and she chose one about black holes to get invested in while Marceline was sleeping. It was only twenty minutes long, so she decided to wake Marceline up afterwards.
She didn't need to – halfway through the documentary, Marceline shifted in her arms and mumbled tiredly, her voice raspy from sleep, "What're you watching?"
"Documentary," Bonnie replied, fingers combing through Marceline's hair, "about black holes. I used to want to be an astronaut when I was a little kid. That was like my 'unrealistic pipe dream' job. Probably because I was such a Doctor Who fan."
"I'm all for unrealistic pipe dreams," Marceline said quietly, and Bonnie knew what she was referencing and went to tell her that it wasn't her to dream to be big in music, it was her future. But Marceline spoke before she could. "What made you want to be Doctor Bonnie instead, then?"
"It was kind of a thing that my parents pushed when I was younger and showed an interest in science. They didn't exactly agree with my love for the subject – they were religious, so evolutionary biology was something I was banned from studying, though that was a rule I flouted – but science meant medicine. They encouraged that part, and I actually rather liked the idea." Bonnie said. "Helping and healing people would make me feel like I was making some kind of difference. Even saving one life makes an impact."
"Damn, Bonnie," Marceline pushed herself up onto an elbow and leaned over to kiss her. Bonnie blinked in surprise, but cupped her jaw and pulled her closer, pouting when Marceline pulled away. "Just when I thought you couldn't get any more perfect."
"Oh, hush," Bonnie blushed, and she closed out the documentary and passed the remote to Marceline, "You put something trashy on."
Marceline took the remote and frowned at the television screen for a moment, until Bonnie saw the spark of an idea in her eyes. "Bad X-Factor auditions. Like, yeah, it's bad because the producers trick them into thinking they can sing and then embarrass them for views, but… it's still funny."
As Marceline pressed play on a compilation video, Bonnie took her free hand and tangled their fingers together. "I used to watch this with Bubba sometimes, when there was nothing else on. I always found it funny when they get rejected and start yelling at the judges."
"Yeah, that's good too," Marceline said, and when the first bad singer started wailing, she cringed and then laughed, "Damn. I love laughing at tone deaf people." Her laughter paused for a second and she turned at looked at Bonnie, her eyes narrowed suspiciously. "Wait a second. Can you sing?"
Bonnie raised her eyebrows, "I have a strong feeling that this is a make-or-break question."
"It is," Marceline folded her arms across her chest and waited, "Answer honestly."
Bonnie hesitated. She'd been quite careful not to sing around Marceline, because she was so good at it. Bonnie sang along to songs she liked, but Marceline was a singer. "Not like you, but I suppose I can carry a tune."
Marceline pretended to wipe sweat from her brow, "Whew. That's a relief. I couldn't be with some tone deaf freak, no matter how cute they are."
Bonnie laughed. "Wow, so if I'd told you I was tone deaf, you'd have just gotten up and left?"
"Yup," Marceline glanced at her and her serious expression broke, "well, okay, no, I like you too much. Nothing could keep me away from you. But I would've been extremely disappointed. It's a very important factor."
Bonnie kissed her cheek. "All jokes aside, I know what it means to you. Anyway, let's laugh at some bad singers."
"Okay," Marceline smiled, "but just to let you know, I'm going to get you singing for me one day. Maybe I'll bring you along to band practice."
Inwardly, Bonnie kind of dreaded that, in case it turned out that she actually was tone deaf. Instead, all she did was smile in response and point to the TV as a 50 year old man danced around the stage with a microphone stand, singing about his 'candy girl'. "That would be me in that situation."
Marceline snorted with laughter. "In an alternate timeline where he actually opened his mouth to sing, that would be my dad. I'm like, ninety percent sure that the man is tone deaf and that's why he hates music. He's just jealous of my killer vocals."
Not wanting to get onto the subject of Marceline's dad – because she had a lot that she wanted to say about him and none of it was nice – she tried cracking her own joke. "No, that's Peter. He can't sing to save his life."
They watched a few more, and Bonnie loved how Marceline went from just laughing and telling jokes to actually commenting on the vocals themselves. It reminded Bonnie of the way she got when it came to science. Back home, there were a few younger students that she tutored, and she enjoyed helping them improve on their work.
"Okay, this girl isn't bad, necessarily. She's going off key on the lower notes because she's trying to sound breathy. It can work for some people, but…" Marceline cringed when the girl went off key, "breathiness makes it harder to stay on key, so you've got to have a lot of control over your voice to pull it off."
Bonnie hummed in reply. "You're so cute when you talk music."
"I- Bonnie," Marceline blushed and poked her in the arm, "You can't just spring that kind of thing on me, I'm going to need a flirt warning."
"No, I like it when you get all blushy and flustered," Bonnie said, and laughed when Marceline cringed at the bad singer on screen, "Okay, so… do you think that anyone can learn to sing? Like, even if they're tone deaf?"
"If they worked hard enough at it, I think anyone can learn the basics," Marceline rested her head Bonnie's shoulder to watch as the judges rejected the girl on screen, "But I also think that to be really good at it, you've got to have some raw talent to work off, as well as some form of innate vocal control. And you've got to have basic pitch discrimination which can be hard to learn if you're not born with it."
Even Bonnie cringed on the next clip when it played, and she had no musical knowledge. "Oh. She's not very good."
"That's putting it kindly," Marceline looked at the screen with her nose crinkled in disgust, "She clearly has no pitch discrimination and she's also pushing her voice way too hard which is messing with her control. You don't need to scream to sing with power," she cringed when the girl bellowed out a particularly sour note, "oh, damn, I didn't even know a human could make that noise."
Bonnie watched as the girl's parents talked about how amazing she was behind the scenes and frowned. "That's kind of irresponsible parenting. Obviously, any good parent wants to support their child and their dreams, but there's a difference between saying 'oh that's nice' versus allowing them on a national TV show when you know they can't sing."
"Unless the parents are tone deaf too and actually think it's good. Like, her mom is vibing," Marceline laughed as the mother clearly danced to the girl's atrocious singing, "You've got a point, though. I kinda feel bad for her, you know that school would've been hell for her after this. Teenagers are demons."
Having dealt with her own fair share of bullies, Bonnie nodded. "Agreed. But hey, I've got another funny one I can put on. It's one of the iconic British ones."
"Naturally," Marceline's mouth tilted up into a smile as she offered the remote, "Put it on, dork."
Bonnie took the remote and typed it in, pressing play on the video. The thumbnail gave away clearly what happened in the end, which was a little bit annoying. Marceline snorted. "One of them punched the other one?"
"Yeah," Bonnie laughed, and as the video played, she added, "You know who they remind me of?"
Marceline raised her eyebrows. "Who?"
Bonnie paused to quietly laugh at the joke she was about to tell, "Elle and Melissa."
Marceline blinked at the screen, and when the two girls started singing (badly), she burst out laughing. "Oh my god, yes."
Marceline looked so beautiful when she laughed, Bonnie decided. Well, she looked beautiful all the time, but when she was smiling or laughing, it was like a guitar getting plugged into an amplifier. Happiness enhanced Marceline's natural beauty.
Bonnie felt a pull in her chest, and cupped Marceline's jaw while she was mid-sentence about the time Elle and Melissa had competed in a school talent show and they'd been so completely tone deaf. She cut Marceline off with her lips, pulling her closer, kissing her deeper.
She didn't know how it happened, but somehow Marceline ended up in her lap as she kissed her and Bonnie's hand slipped under her shirt to touch her waist. As amazing as it felt, Bonnie really felt like she should stop this before anything went too far. But the word stop fell out of her vocabulary when Marceline kissed down her jaw and paused to suck on Bonnie's heavy pulse point, leaving her mark there.
All Bonnie managed to get out was, "God," and she felt Marceline's laugh against her throat. Marceline surfaced and flashed her a grin, and Bonnie had the oddest desire to kiss the dimple in her left cheek. Her face was flushed and her lips were swollen and she looked more beautiful than ever.
Marceline leaned in slowly and captured Bonnie's lips between her own again, a calloused thumb tracing across her cheek as her hand cupped her jaw and then tangled in her hair, knocking her glasses slightly askew. Bonnie smiled against her mouth and pulled her closer by the waist, so Marceline's chest was pressed against hers and she could feel her racing heart. There was some warbled note from the TV; the bad X-Factor auditions playing to themselves, because Bonnie paid it no attention. She was much more absorbed in what Marceline's tongue was doing inside her mouth.
Bonnie jolted when Marceline's hand found its way under her hoodie, and she seemed to take it the wrong way. She pulled away and moved her hand back, but she remained on Bonnie's lap and smiled sheepishly. "Sorry. Got carried away."
"It wasn't- I was just surprised, that's all." Bonnie murmured, and both of them laughed at the same time when an awful note sounded from the television.
"Okay," Marceline turned to look at the television screen and ducked her head with laughter, "Did we really just make out to bad X Factor auditions?"
"Mhm," Bonnie let out a very girlish giggle. Maybe it was the thrill of making out with the prettiest girl she'd ever seen. "I think we did."
Marceline laughed and leaned in to press a soft, quick kiss to Bonnie's lips. "Weird kink, Bon, but okay."
Bonnie couldn't hold the eye roll back, but her smile stayed fixed to her mouth too. It was hard not to smile when Marceline was right there on her lap, hand running through Bonnie's hair.
"Is it weird that this feels natural?" Bonnie questioned aloud. Marceline looked at her questioningly. "You know, being with you. Like this. I think about being just friends with you now, and it feels wrong. Not that I wouldn't value your friendship, but… it feels like we were always supposed to be something more."
"That's not weird," Marceline said, and Bonnie couldn't hide her disappointed pout when she shifted off of her lap to sit next to her again. She was less disappointed when Marceline took her hand and squeezed it gently. "I get what you mean. It feels right."
"Yeah," Bonnie sighed happily when Marceline rested her head on her shoulder, "It really does."
