It was just a normal January day.

Everything was as mundane as it had ever been. Bonnie went to her classes, focused on her work, ate lunch with her friends and then went to the library with Marceline for some study time. School passed by quickly and easily, and as per the revision timetable she'd drawn up, Marceline came back to Bonnie's with her for more studying. She was taking things seriously; Bonnie would make sure that Marceline graduated at the end of March. Not just that but graduated with flying colours. She was expecting straight A's.

It was a nice distraction, helping her girlfriend study. Partially because she'd missed studying with someone else – her revision hadn't been the same since moving away from Bubba – but also because studying with Marceline gave her the added bonus of those tiny little displays of affection. Bonnie's hand would find its way through Marceline's hair, or Marceline would sit close to her, arm around her shoulders, absentmindedly tracing little patterns against Bonnie's skin. And there were nice kissing breaks, too.

But sometimes, those things made her feel a little bit sad. Because she'd remember the reason they were studying so hard, and remember that Marceline would be leaving. She'd be going off to the west coast and never looking back. And Bonnie didn't know if she'd be going with her, because she'd received an email that morning telling her that her Oxford application had been successful. She still hadn't said anything.

"I'm never going to understand this," Marceline said with a resigned finality, snapping Bonnie from her thoughts, "My brain just doesn't work like that. It's not all scientific like yours. Can you take my tests for me and I'll do your art stuff?"

Bonnie laughed. "I'm afraid that's not how it works. Come on, let me go through it again. Once you learn the rules, it's not so bad."

"Ugh," Marceline buried her face in Bonnie's shoulder, and Bonnibel put an arm around her waist as she flicked back to the start of the chapter on kinematics. "There's no use. I think my brain is fried. Can we take a break? Give me time to recover?"

Bonnie bit back the no on the tip of her tongue. She might push herself until she dropped, but she was trying to get a hold on that. Sighing, she nodded, her hand finding its way to Marceline's hair. "I suppose so. Would you like some tea?"

"Let me make it," Marceline surfaced from her hiding place in the bend of Bonnie's neck and pushed herself up from the bed, "It's the least I can do when you're spending all this time helping me."

Usually, she would protest – especially because she'd be studying anyway – but instead, she only nodded. "Alright then. You know, you're probably the only American who knows how to make a good cup of tea."

Marceline flashed a grin on her way out of Bonnie's bedroom door. "Well, I had the best teacher."

Bonnie watched as she whirled out of the room, a small, soft smile lingering on her lips. Her heart clenched a little bit when she remembered the whole reason Marceline was here. Because she'd be leaving. Bonnie had to stick around until graduation at the end of May. Two months without Marceline. She'd never been without her before. The longest Bonnie had ever gone without seeing her were those eight days in summer when she'd been avoiding her, and that had been painful enough.

Perhaps she was getting a little bit clingy. Lately, they'd been seeing each other every day. Bonnie had even broken her rule about sleepovers on school nights, once it truly sunk in that Marceline would be leaving. She used the studying excuse, but really, it was because she had realised just how much she was going to miss her. And she would miss her – she'd even miss the moments when Marceline was trying to get on her last nerve, licking her or mimicking her or sticking her feet in Bonnie's face.

Her heart ached a little bit. Admittedly, there was a little bit of fear there. What if distance broke them? Marceline would be busy; she wouldn't have time to call Bonnibel. Eventually, maybe—

Bonnie put a stop to that line of thought by flipping open the physics textbook. It was heavy on the algebra, and algebra meant she wasn't thinking. She did a few exercises in her notebook, figuring out displacements, and felt a little bit better.

But when Marceline walked back in casually singing a song about wanting to go back to 1999, Bonnie blurted out, "Are you not worried about what's going to happen when you leave?"

She cringed at herself, and Marceline just blinked. She probably wasn't expecting to be immediately interrogated the moment she walked back into the room. "Um… what?"

Bonnie took the cup of tea she held out for her and took a sip. That was soothing. "I just… I don't know, sometimes when I think about you leaving, it kind of freaks me out. You're going at the beginning of April, and I won't finish school until the end of May. We've never spent that much time apart before."

Of course, her perfect, amazing, and ridiculously chill girlfriend made her feel better instantly. She laughed and put the arm she wasn't using to grip onto her own mug around Bonnie's shoulder. "Seriously? You're really worried about that? Come on, Bon, it's not like I'm just going to go radio silent on you. You know I'm going to call you every day. Probably so much that you'll get annoyed and block my number. Whatever happens, we'll make it work. I'm not worried."

"How are you so good at saying exactly the right thing?" Bonnie sighed into Marceline's shoulder, pulling her in for a tight hug. "You really aren't worried?"

"Nah. I know how much you love me, and I definitely know how much I love you." Marceline put her mug down on the bedside table so she could wrap both arms around her, and Bonnie melted into her touch. "I don't want to sound like, cheesy or anything. But I'm pretty certain you're my soulmate."

Bonnie was fairly certain her heart completely exploded at the words. She pulled Marceline in for a kiss, sighing against her soulmate's lips, and when she pulled away, mumbled, "God, I love you, Marcy."

"I love you too, nerd," Marceline said, and then she let go of Bonnie to grab her notebook again, "So, kinematics. Teach me."

Bonnie hummed in reply, and after a few moments of just appreciating her girlfriend's beautiful face, she leaned over and kissed her cheek. She broke the comfortable silence by admitting, "I got into Oxford. They emailed this morning offering me a place. I have until August to accept it."

In a way, she almost wanted Marceline to seem upset. Just to confirm that she wasn't the only one who was feeling a little bit selfishly sad at the other's achievements, despite how happy she actually was for her girlfriend.

But of course, Marceline was too amazing. She flung her arms back around Bonnie with a loud, "Oh my god, that's amazing, Bon! Never doubted you for a second, not with your big brain. Have you accepted the offer, then?"

"No," Bonnie murmured, sighing into Marceline's touch, "I haven't. I want to hear from UCLA first, and it's not like I have to accept it immediately."

"Is that why you were worrying about things?" Marceline asked, always annoyingly perceptive. She always had been, even before they were really friends. "Because you want to go to Oxford? Because you know I'll be happy for you no matter what you choose. I pride myself on being a supportive girlfriend."

Bonnie knew that, because she always demonstrated it. Rather amusingly, Bonnie thought to herself that it would be easier if Marceline could just tell her what to do. She groaned and asked, "Can you pick for me?"

"No," Marceline flashed her that soft smile, "I can't. It's your choice, and only yours. And whatever you pick, I'll be right there cheering you on."

"You're so annoyingly perfect," Bonnie huffed, and Marceline laughed at the little pout she put on, "Damn you for being so supportive."

If anything, Marceline just laughed harder at the way Bonnie was being so moody. "I'll try not to take offence."

"No, but, seriously," Bonnie said, "Is there not one single part of you that wants to be selfish? Tell me to forget Oxford and go to L.A. with you?"

"Well, yeah, duh," Marceline answered, and that made Bonnie feel much better, "but the rest of me just wants you to be happy. That's the part I'm going with. And at the end of the day, if you choose Oxford, I'm going to support you. That's part of my job."

"Maybe I say it too much, but I love you," Bonnie held onto her tightly, because she never wanted to let go of Marceline in any sense. "I really, really love you."

"You know I love you too, Bonnie," Marceline said into her shoulder, and when she pulled out of the hug, she reached out and tapped the physics textbook. "Now, let's get back to work, you slacker."

"You're going to call me a slacker?" Bonnie scoffed, "Never mind, maybe you're not annoyingly perfect after all. You're just annoying."

Marceline stuck her tongue out immaturely. "Thought you loved me?"

She dragged the word out, that smug grin on her face, the beautiful mischievous sparkle making her green eyes look like precious emeralds. "In your dreams, Marcy. Get to work. Find the displacement in this question."

"Ugh," Marceline groaned, "Business Bonnie is back. I don't like her."

"No," Bonnie said, and mimicking Marceline from earlier, she laughed and stuck her own tongue out at her girlfriend, "You love her."

Marceline rolled her eyes, but when Bonnie pointed down at the textbook and tapped at question she was supposed to be answering, she got to work. Bonnie watched over her shoulder as she worked through the exercises in the book, her hand pensively rubbing Marceline's shoulder, her smile growing with every question Marceline got right.

When she wasn't dramatically announcing how fried her brain was, her girlfriend was actually quite smart.

"Every single one is right," Bonnie said the moment Marceline threw her pen down, "You know, I think you were just pretending not to get it earlier so you could have a break."

"I don't know how they're all right," Marceline retorted, looking down at the page, "I told you, my brain doesn't work like that."

Bonnie raised her eyebrows and pointed at the evidence. "Clearly it does."

"Only when I force it," Marceline yawned; she was probably tired from forcing her brain to work. "I don't like things that only have one single answer. That's why I like English class. You can make stuff up, just as long as you can back it up with evidence from the text. It's all up for interpretation."

Bonnie smiled, combing her fingers through her girlfriend's hair. "You right-brained people confuse me."

Marceline snorted. "Right-brained?"

"You haven't heard that theory?" Bonnie asked, and when Marceline shook her head, she broke into the explanation. "It's like, people are either right-brained or left-brained. One side is more dominant than the other. If you favour the artistic stuff over the more analytical side, like you, you're right-brained. Left-brained is where you're more methodical, like me."

Marceline smiled. "Together, we make a whole brain."

"Maybe that's why opposites attract," Bonnie laughed. She took Marceline's hand and glanced back at the physics textbook. "Okay. You've worked hard enough today. You're free for the rest of the night."

Marceline grinned. "Sweet. What're we doing, then?"

Admittedly, Bonnibel was surprised. "You're not going to run away in case I change my mind?"

"Nope, studying isn't actually that bad with you," Marceline shrugged, and that did nothing to quell her surprise, "Do you want me to make dinner? I don't know if your uncle has anything planned for when he gets home, or…"

"Peter's version of cooking is sticking something from the freezer in the oven, so please make dinner. But this time, I'm helping," Bonnie warned, and as Marceline helped her up, she asked, "What time does Simon want you home?"

Marceline just shrugged. "Pretty much any time is good with him. Just as long as he knows where I am, which he does. I stuck a copy of your nerdy little study schedule onto the refrigerator."

Bonnie passed over the nerdy comment and instead just followed Marceline to the kitchen. "What're we making, then?"

"I don't know. What ingredients do you have?" Marceline asked, and once they were in the kitchen, she pulled open the fridge. She seemed to do an internal survey of the contents, and then moved to the cupboards, rooting through, looking at everything. Bonnie watched her process, mildly amused.

Once she'd rooted around in what seemed like every single cupboard, Marceline started getting things out. A pack of minced beef from the fridge. Soft tortillas that Peter always used for the wraps he had for lunch. Cheese. Sour cream. Salsa. Lettuce. Tomato. A red pepper. A few other miscellaneous condiments and spices from the cupboard.

"Tacos," Marceline said finally, staring at all of her ingredients, "probably more Taco Bell-esque than traditional Mexican, but whatever, I'm making do with what I've got. Grab me a pan, would you? Most of it doesn't even require that much cooking, I pretty much just need to cook and season the meat and then fry the pepper. You can grate the cheese and shred the lettuce while I do that."

Bonnie did as she asked with the pan, placing it on the stove for her, and once Marceline had finished chopping up the tomato and pepper, she took the package of beef and put it in the pan, grabbing the little spice bottles and bringing those with her. Bonnie let her get on with doing whatever it was she was doing, relaxed in the comfortable silence as she grated the cheese.

How comfortable she was in Marceline's presence, and thinking about how sweet she'd been all night brought Bonnie's thoughts onto another topic. "Hey, Marcy?"

"Mhm?" Marceline didn't look around, more focused on tipping a considerable amount of spice onto the cooking meat. Bonnie probably should've mentioned that she didn't handle spices well, but she thought that Marceline would just know that by looking at her.

That came up foremost. "First, maybe chill out on the spices, because I don't handle spice well and I don't want my mouth on fire."

"Oh, yeah, don't worry, that was just paprika," Marceline assured her, "I kind of assumed. Wait, you're not allergic to anything, are you?"

Even something as simple as that made Bonnie's heart flutter, but instead of gushing over just how perfect she thought Marceline was, she shook her head in response to the question. "No. Except maybe the sun without sunscreen. You?"

Marceline laughed at her half-joke, because it really wasn't a joke. If sunscreen suddenly ended up popping out of existence, Bonnie probably wouldn't be able to go outside without burning.

"No allergies over here," Marceline said, but then reconsidered and craned her neck to look over at Bonnie, "Well, I'm lactose intolerant, but I basically just ignore that and eat what I want anyway. And this isn't food related, but anything to do with tea tree oil makes my skin go crazy."

"Oh," Bonnie made a mental note to never buy any tea tree related soap, "okay. Good to know. Anyway, what I was going to ask was… do you think it's weird we've never had a fight?"

This time, Marceline turned around properly. "What?"

"It was just something that Elle said in passing, that relationships were full of drama and fights," Bonnie quickly assured her, "she said you get it, don't you? And I really didn't, because we've never actually had a fight. Do you think that's weird?"

"You think it's weird that we don't argue all the time?" Marceline blinked at her. "Why the hell are you listening to Elle, anyway? Like she's the expert on healthy relationships."

"I wasn't listening to her, I was just wondering," Bonnie said, grabbing a little knife and going to shred some lettuce. "I don't think it's weird, I think it's a good thing. I just wondered what you thought about that."

"Well, I mean… we were friends first, so that might be part of it," Marceline turned back around to the stove, "and, you know, we actually communicate. So maybe it's that, too. Or maybe we just got all of our fighting out of the way when we didn't like each other."

Bonnie hummed, abandoning the lettuce to go up behind Marceline, wrapping her arms around her waist and kissing her cheek. She snuggled against her, because she was so warm, and into her ear, whispered, "Maybe it's just because you're so amazing."

"I don't know, I think you're the amazing one," Marceline said, bending her neck to flash Bonnie a soft smile, "Or maybe we're just equally as amazing so we're the perfect match."

"I think I can agree with you there." Bonnie kissed her properly, before they were quite rudely interrupted by the sound of the landline phone ringing. Of course the thing would choose that moment to ring, when barely anyone ever called it. "You keep cooking. It'll be Peter's boss trying to reach him, so he's probably set off home from work. I'll have to take a message."

She headed into the front room, the smile on her face seemingly permanent. She grabbed the landline, wiping a little bit of dust from it before bringing it up to her ear. "Hello?"

"Bonnibel, is that you?"

Bonnie froze at the sound of that voice, her hand clenching around the phone. Her knuckles went white, probably as white as her face had gone. It was like every single bodily function just stopped except the violent banging of her rapidly beating heart.

"Bonnibel, sweetheart… it's your mum."