"You make me feel like I'm living a teenage dream, the way you turn me on," Marceline sang, fingers sweeping across the piano's keys, "I can't sleep, let's run away and don't ever look back, don't ever look back."

She thought of Bonnie as she played; all of those stupid, gooey, fluffy feelings coming out. Intrusively, her brain reminded her of what her dad had said. I don't care if you have to convince her you are some violent layabout, I cannot have Bonnibel suspicious. Marceline scowled and focused on putting her fingers on the keys, singing the right lyrics. After a lot of sleepless nights and pushing away a lot of fear at actively disobeying something her dad had told her to do, Marceline had decided that he could go fuck himself.

She didn't care what he did to her. He'd taken so much from her, and she wouldn't let him take Bonnie.

"Okay, seriously," Keila interrupted her playing by sitting down on the piano bench next to her and stilling her hands by putting her arm over them, "When did you get all sappy? Usually when you're playing piano it's some sad song, but you're singing Teenage Dream?"

Marceline knew she was blushing, but she didn't meet her best friend's gaze. She played the Teenage Dream chord progression again and muttered, "I don't know what you mean."

"Oh my god, you've met someone," Keila poked her in the arm and repeated, "Tell me!" until Marceline finally got annoyed and flicked her on the cheek. "Oh my god, dude, I'm your best friend, so tell me why you're being such a sap. Ooh, did you change your mind about Tom?"

"Nope," Marceline popped the 'p' sound and went right back to playing, "I would tell you, but because you're being so annoying about it, it'll be funny to watch you stress out."

Keila grumbled, "You're the worst, you know that?"

Marceline laughed, and her hands paused on the piano keys. "Actually, I think you'll find that-"

The bell rang to indicate that someone had walked into the shop, and she shut her mouth and turned around on the piano bench, actually rather grateful for the customer. Keila jumped up and walked over to help, but then Marceline realised who the customer was and wasn't sure if it was a good or bad thing that she was here. Especially with that fading hickey quite obviously visible on her neck.

Bonnie smiled, looking around the store, seeing how Marceline was sat at the piano. "Hello, you two. Hard at work, I see."

There was a sarcastic musicality to her voice, and Keila just laughed. "No customers means jam time. Sometimes we conveniently forget to put the open sign up. But I am hard at work, actually. Trying to figure out why Marceline's singing sappy songs."

Bonnie's smile turned into a smirk, and when she met Marceline's gaze, she felt herself blushing. "She's singing sappy songs, is she?"

"Yup. Totally sappy." Keila looked over at her triumphantly, because apparently having Bonnie's smarts on her side was a win for her. "Like, she sang Teenage Dream. You don't get sappier than that. Has she told you anything about this mysterious person she's singing about?"

Bonnie feigned thought; she even went as far as to rest her hand on her chin in the classic 'thinking' look. Marceline glared at her. "I can't recall her mentioning anything. Although…"

"What are you even doing in here?" Marceline interrupted her, shooting daggers across the room. "Turning over a musical new leaf? Because if you are, buy that acoustic guitar over there, so I can steal it when you inevitably get bored and stop playing, it's been on my wishlist for a while."

"I came to see you, you big grump," Bonnie laughed, and she crossed the room to sit next to her on the piano bench, and then looked at the keys expectantly. "Go on, then. Play your sappy songs."

"Shut up," Marceline rolled her eyes, "no."

"I'm just saying, if this person has made you go from all of your punk rock anger, or whatever, to singing cheesy pop songs, they must mean a lot to you," Bonnibel continued, and Marceline felt like banging her head on the piano, "Why don't you share with the class?"

"Yeah!" Keila echoed, "Share with the class, Marceline!"

Marceline looked between them, and when her gaze landed on Bonnie, the redhead smirked. It was hot on her, to see her looking so cocky, but definitely annoying in this context.

"There actually isn't a person," Marceline shot more playful daggers Bonnie's way, "there was, but she annoyed me too much, so we're over now."

Bonnibel scoffed in offense, and Keila frowned at the two of them. Marceline saw the exact moment that the realisation dawned on her best friend's face. Her hazel eyes widened, her jaw slackened, and her hands were a black blur pointing between them so fast that Marceline wondered if her best friend was about to take flight from sheer speed.

"Oh my god!"

It was shouted so loudly that the customer who just walked in, a random middle-aged man, just turned around and walked right back out. Marceline snorted with laughter. "Any time you want to finish processing this, that would be cool."

"I- what?" Keila practically screeched, and Bonnibel blinked in surprise at her volume. "Since when? How long? Wait, I thought you were straight! Oh my god, is that why you were so weird at that party?"

Bonnie glanced down at the accusing finger pointed her way and chuckled in a 'got me' way. "Um, yeah, definitely not straight. And I didn't exactly want to watch the girl I like kissing someone else."

"Why didn't you tell me?" Keila asked, still at maximum volume. "That's to both of you, but Bonnie. If you just said something at the party, I would've been shoving her at you, not at Tom. Oh my god. This is amazing. And you!"

Keila rounded on Marceline and poked said accusing finger right into her chest. Rather than the bubbly 'this is amazing', she glared at her. "You didn't tell me you liked her. At all. That goes against best friend law, and I'm officially breaking up with you. Platonically. Bonnie, you're my best friend now, and I've decided I don't support your relationship with this traitor."

As Keila whirled around to dramatically stomp away – honestly, she was as bad as Elle sometimes, with the drama – Marceline grabbed her wrist and pouted at her. "Hey, don't platonic dump me. You love me."

"Ugh," Keila grumbled, "I guess I do. Fine. You can be my best friend again. But you're on probation."

Whatever that meant, Marceline just laughed. She pulled her best friend in for a hug and met Bonnie's gaze over her shoulder, sharing a knowing grin with her. "Honestly, K, you're such a drama queen."

"Shut up," Keila said into her shoulder, before she pulled away and glared at the both of them. "I can't believe neither of you told me. You're both so annoying. I'm owed all the details."

She grabbed the chair from behind the counter where the register was and dragged it over to place it opposite where Bonnie and Marceline were sat at the piano bench. She sat down, folded her arms across her chest, and waited. "Spill."

Marceline looked to Bonnie, and the younger girl obviously used the opportunity to get back at her for the other day. Mimicking what Marceline had said when Peter caught them being affectionate in the kitchen, Bonnie said, "I'm not saying anything, this one is on you."

Sighing dramatically, Marceline looked back at her expectant best friend and said, "I've liked her since a little bit before prom."

"What?" Keila practically screeched again, but at normal volume, she added, "You're lucky I love you, because that amount of time without telling me would usually warrant a best friend break up."

"Yeah, yeah, you're the best, whatever," Marceline nudged Keila's leg with her foot, and Keila kicked her back lightly. "Anyway, I liked her then, and spent a ridiculous amount of time flirting with her dumb ass-"

"Excuse you, I'm a genius," Bonnie interrupted, scoffing at her, "It's not my fault that you send mixed signals."

"Okay, what mixed signals?" Marceline scowled at her. "I literally sang that I wanted to slow dance with you!"

"God, you two bicker like an old married couple," Keila rolled her eyes, and then squinted suspiciously at them, "You're not keeping something else from me, are you?"

"You've met Bonnie, you know she's not dumb enough to marry me," Marceline retorted, "She is dumb enough to miss when I'm flirting with her, though."

Bonnie muttered something indistinguishable about how smart she was – Marceline was sure she heard IQ of 155 – but she ignored her in favour of continuing. "Anyway, I thought we'd admitted we liked each other and agreed that our trip to New York would be the first date, but someone still didn't get it because someone else told her that she wasn't my type and that I wouldn't date her."

She sent a customary glare Keila's way, and her best friend smiled sheepishly. "Oh. Oops. Well, you did say that."

"When I didn't like her," Marceline rolled her eyes, "doesn't count, dumbass."

"I was drunk, leave me alone," Keila said, but looked to Bonnie anyway and said, "Sorry, though, Bonnie. You probably shouldn't listen to me. Especially when I'm drunk."

Bonnie laughed. "Oh, don't worry about it. It's water under the bridge, because it turns out, I am her type. Even if it is in a totally objective, platonic, hypothetical way."

She said the last four words rather dryly, and when Marceline looked over at her, she mouthed the words mixed signals. "Oh my god, Bonnie, I said that because I didn't know how you felt, and it was so obvious that it was a lie."

"It was probably so obvious that I was crushing on you for our entire friendship, and a little bit before that too," Bonnie scoffed, and Marceline rolled her eyes. She still didn't believe that part.

"Wait," Keila laughed, "you liked her even when she was shooting you all those death glares?"

"Well, I thought she was attractive, despite her annoying personality," Bonnie said, and when Marceline scowled at her, she pressed a kiss to her cheek, "Oh, don't look like that, I know it was just a front to hide your real, amazing personality. The personality that I got to see over text. Because there was a certain disembodied entity that might have made me feel a few things. If that's even possible."

"I'm going to take credit for that part, since I wrote your number in that book," Keila stuck her tongue out at Marceline when she glared at her. She still hadn't healed from all of the random prank calls and unsolicited dick pics she'd received. "So, you guys went on a cute New York date?"

Despite how she'd said Marceline could explain, Bonnie spoke first. "Yeah. It was more like multiple dates that encompassed a single date. We went to the concert, then the next day she took me to the science museum, and then we had a fancy dinner date. It was all very lovely. And I suppose we're just… seeing where things go."

Keila eyed the fading hickey on Bonnie's neck. "Slept together yet?"

Bonnie choked, and Marceline chuckled with laughter at her reaction. On her behalf, she rolled her eyes at Keila. "Dude. One date. Or three mini dates. No."

"Ooh, you really are serious about her, then," Keila commented, and when she realised how that sounded upon Marceline's irritated glare, she added for Bonnie's benefit, "Not that she jumps into bed with everyone she's not serious about. Or does that at all. Well, she has, but – wait. Or- I'm just going to stop talking."

"That might be for the best," Marceline glared at her again. She'd rather not talk about her sex life at work. Or at all, in front of Bonnie, because she didn't know where she stood on it. She'd decided she'd just let Bonnie broach all of that when she felt comfortable.

Bonnie's phone rang loudly, and she jumped out of whatever train of thought she was on – Marceline hoped it wasn't about the prior conversation – and answered it. "Hello? Oh. I lost track of time. At the music store. Okay. Bye."

She hung up and stood from the piano bench. "That was Lady. I'm here with her and everyone else but when Elle wanted to go to this dress shop, I went to the bookstore and stopped by here and I've been gone for a while. They're on their way here and we're going to get some lunch. I would ask you guys to come if you weren't working."

Marceline snorted. "We'd pass anyway."

"Hey, no we wouldn't," Keila corrected her, "Unlike you, I'm not grumpy."

Bonnie laughed and placed a gentle hand on her shoulder. "She's not so grumpy."

Keila considered Bonnie's words and then admitted. "Okay. Not to us. But to your friends? Yeah."

Bonnie laughed. "I can agree with that."

"Hey," Marceline huffed, "I'm right here."

"Yeah," Keila grinned, "Being grumpy."

She rolled her eyes at her best friend, and Bonnibel just laughed quietly and glanced towards the door when it opened to Lady. She didn't come in, just stood holding the door open with one arm, and flashed everyone a smile. "Hey. You ready to go, Bonnie?"

Finn ducked under Lady's arm and bounced over, his excitable grin a permanent fixture on his face. "Hey, guys. This must be cool, working in a music store when you love music," He looked at Marceline, smiled, then looked at where she was sitting, "You can play piano? That's cool. I want to learn an instrument one day. Jake plays viola but he keeps that on the down low."

Even Keila seemed surprised by his energy. "Damn, how much candy have you eaten today?"

"Probably the same amount as you," Marceline nudged Keila's foot with her own again, "because you're exactly the same level of hyper."

"Shut up," Keila rolled her eyes, "You love me."

"I guess I just have a lot of energy," Finn shrugged, gravitating over to a turquoise bass guitar hanging on the wall. "This is cool! How much is it?"

Marceline laughed. "About $800."

Finn jumped away from the bass like it was going to fall off the wall and break, and then he'd have to pay for it. "Dang. Which ones aren't super expensive? I think bass would be fun to learn one day-"

"Come on, Finn," Lady interrupted and beckoned him back towards her, "let them get on with working."

Finn frowned at her, "I'm a paying customer."

"You haven't bought anything, dude!" The big guy – Jake, who apparently played viola – leaned around Lady. "Come on, man. I'm hungry, I want lunch. You too, Bonnibel. Move your asses."

Bonnie gave Marceline's shoulder one last squeeze before moving away as Finn left the shop as excitably as he'd entered. Bonnie smiled at her in that soft way that made Marceline's heart clench, and murmured a quiet, "Bye, Marcy."

Marceline reached out and squeezed her hand one last time before letting her go. "Later, Bonnie. If you're still hanging around after four, I'll give you a ride home."

Keila coughed loudly and over-exaggeratedly. "No goodbye for me, then? I see how it is, Bonnie."

Bonnie laughed and gave Keila a quick hug on her way to the door. "I'll see you later, Keila. Have a good rest of your work day, you two."

Once Bonnie and her friends had left the shop and disappeared down the street, Keila turned to her with a teasing grin. "Dude. You got a girlfriend."

She dragged the last word out and Marceline knew she was blushing. "Shut your mouth, she's not my girlfriend yet."

"Okay," Keila said it like she didn't believe her, and when she grabbed the expensive Gibson Les Paul from its hanger – probably to 'tune' it by playing it for the next twenty minutes – she added, "Seriously, though. I'm really happy for you. You deserve the best, and I know that out of all the people out there, Bonnie would give that to you. She's good for you."

"Yeah, I know. Thanks, dude. Now, if you don't mind," Marceline swirled around on the piano bench to face the keys again, "I'll get back to being sappy, now."


"So, I hadn't just noticed until now because I've been more bothered about shopping," Elle said, slipping into the McDonald's booth next to Bonnie and pointing at her neck. "But our dear, sweet Bonnibel has a hickey."

Bonnie's hand shot up to cover it, her body's natural surprise giving her away. She quickly tried to rectify it and scowled at Lady when she saw the way she was smirking. "It's merely a bruise. I fell."

"On your neck?" Phoebe said flatly. "We know what a hickey looks like, Bonnie."

She feigned interest in her quarter pounder and repeated. "It's a bruise."

Elle tutted at her in disappointment, but the smile on her face said otherwise. "Come on, Bonnie, we're all friends here. Who is he?"

Bonnie snorted, but despite her amusement, she chanced a quick glance at both Lady and Finn. Neither looked like they were going to correct the pronoun, and Bonnie didn't want Elle to know. Elle knowing basically meant the rest of the planet knowing.

Regardless of what Elle had said, Bonnie only slightly classified her as a friend. She still hadn't apologised for what she'd said to her at the party. She was nice enough, Bonnie supposed, but she didn't doubt that if she opened her mouth, the whole town would know in a matter of minutes that resident grump Marceline Abadeer had given Bonnibel Butler a hickey.

"It's a bruise," she said for the third time. And quite frankly, none of your business.

Elle looked like she was going to push a little bit more, but Fionna quickly jumped in. "Even though that's definitely a hickey, maybe we should just respect that Bonnie wants to keep things secret for now. This guy must be special to her."

Not a guy, Bonnie thought, but she isn't wrong.

Elle muttered something about how she'd find out eventually, and Bonnie ignored that subtle little threat.

"Proud of you, Bonnie," Jake flashed her a grin, "with the way things with Marshall and Braco were, I didn't think you'd ever like anyone."

Bonnie laughed. "I'm not sure that's the compliment you think it is, Jake."

Since Bonnie was evidently too boring and wouldn't let any juicy information out, when Elle went to the bathroom with Phoebe, she sat back down on the other side of the table. Finn flopped down next to her with a smile. "Hey."

"Hey, Finn," Bonnie said in between fries, "what's up?"

He looked around to make sure that nobody was listening, and they were all absorbed in their own conversations, and Bonnie raised her eyebrows expectantly. "Was it Marceline?"

Bonnie blinked in surprise. He'd figured that out? As much as she liked Finn, she'd never taken him for the sleuthing type, though she supposed he had the advantage of knowing that she wasn't interested in boys. "How did you reach that conclusion?"

"When you're not with us, you're with her," Finn pointed out, and she supposed that it made sense, "and she called you cute one time, so I figured she was into you."

Bonnie's eyes widened. That would've been useful information, depending on when it was said. "She said that? When? Also, when were you spending time with her?"

"I wasn't really spending time with her, I just saw her leave that party a while back. She was by herself and she looked really drunk and I didn't want her to get hurt. She saw you talking to Lady and I walked her back," Finn said, "that's when she said you were cute. She also nearly fell over like three times. I don't think I'll ever be able to find her intimidating after that."

Bonnie smiled to herself. Marceline had told her she'd gone to check up on her, but she hadn't mentioned that Finn had walked her back. Plus, the mental image of Marceline falling over was kind of hilarious, since she always seemed so graceful and light on her feet.

"That's good, because she's not intimidating at all," Bonnie's stomach fluttered when she remembered the way she'd woken up in New York, with Marceline's head on her chest. Marceline had had one arm around Hambo, and the other thrown protectively over Bonnie's stomach, the fabric of her shirt clutched in her fist. So cute. "She's basically a puppy."

Jake sat down on her other side and stole a few of her remaining fries. "Who's basically a puppy?"

"Marceline," Bonnie said, and smacked his hand away when he went for more fries, "those are mine."

Jake stopped going for her fries in favour of cringing. "What the hell are you talking about? She's scary."

Bonnie laughed. "Funnily enough, she said the same thing about you."

"I always forget that you've known my friends longer than I have," Bonnie said, and then frowned with realisation, "Like, your whole life, actually."

Marceline didn't look away from the late-night TV. She was sprawled out on the bed, the fancy dress she'd worn earlier thrown haphazardly over her bag. She hadn't hesitated to take her makeup off and put her pyjamas on. "I hardly know them. I've known of them for longer than you, but you know them better than me."

"You should come along next time I spend time with them. You'll probably have to give Marshall a lift there anyway." Bonnie reasoned. "You should get to know them. I know you came to the beach and everything, but you just sat with Keila."

"No way. Lady and Finn are alright, but Elle's crazy, that big dude looks like he could snap me in half without breaking a sweat, and I just assume the other two girls are like Elle's gossipy minions." Marceline said, and Bonnie sighed dramatically and pouted at her. "Don't try puppy-dog eyeing your way to victory here, Bon. I'm definitely not doing that."

Jake frowned. "She said that I look like I could snap her in half?"

"Well, you are rather large. In a muscular way, of course." Bonnie said, shrugging. "To be fair, you intimidated me when we first met. And then you started talking and I realised how nice you were."

Finn laughed, "You are pretty big, dude. Like the Hulk. I thought you were huge when mom and dad brought me home. They were like we know he looks scary, but he's nice."

"Okay, man, you're remembering that wrong," Jake reached around Bonnie to shove Finn, "Mom and dad would never call me scary. I'm their favourite."

Finn pshhed in disbelief. "Nah, man. They chose me, I know I'm their favourite. Nature just left them stuck with you."

"Plot twist," Lady squeezed in between Bonnie and Jake, "Jermaine is actually their favourite and you two are the annoying ones."

Bonnie didn't know they had another brother, so she assumed he was older. "I can believe that."

"Anyway, I came over to tell you guys that we're going," Lady said, sitting up just as soon as she'd sat down, "We're all going back to Elle's house."

Bonnie checked her watch. 3:12PM. Marceline still had almost a whole hour of work left, so going home wasn't an option. She turned to Jake quickly, "Can you take me home on the way?"

"Sure," He said, and she let out a quiet breath of relief. That was reassuring. She liked spending time with her friends, but she was getting tired. Shopping wasn't her favourite thing in the world.

She texted Marceline as they walked out of the McDonalds to let her know she was going home and wouldn't need a lift.

(And to tell her she looked particularly cute today, but whatever.)

When she was in the back of Jake's car and idly chatting with Finn, Marceline texted back. It was a selfie with a ridiculous Instagram filter that made her eyes and mouth bigger than her head. She sent another text as the caption.

Marcy (3:26PM): thx babe

Bonnie never stopped adoring how Marceline could make her laugh so much through a simple message.