Chapter 6: Go the FROG to sleep!

This chapter takes place between the one-shot "Smol" and the episode "The Second Temple"

Anne was walking out of the Plantar's house, and went straight up to the Fwagon.

However, a note left by Marcy let her know that Marcy wasn't there, and was in fact in what she was calling her "study" to, well, study Frobo, Polly's new robot companion.

Anne had to smile at the thought. Marcy was always the super curious one of the group, and seeing her get so excited over the robot warmed her heart.

This was the first thing that somewhat resembled something that they had back home after all! And besides, ever since Marcy went on that mission just before the first temple, Anne noticed that she looked a bit down every now and then.

As such, between Frobo, Marcy's new study of the occult with Maddie, and locating The Second Temple, Anne was happy that the girl had plenty of things to distract her from that day.

That being said though, Anne severely missed spending time with her girlfriend.

As such, she was now ready to set out towards Marcy's study, keen on spending the day with her!

"Say Anne, you got a minute?"

… Right after she talked to Hop Pop!

"Sure HP, what's up?" Anne asked.

Hop Pop… had a worried look on his face.

"Uh… do you think you can talk to Marcy? I am starting to get worried about her…" Hop Pop admitted.

"Worried? About what? She seemed perfectly fine the other day." Anne said.

"Yes well, that whole fiasco with the shrinking potion was five days ago… and well…" Hop Pop said. "I… Don't think she's gotten any sleep since then."

Anne stared at him with wide eyes.

"I know it's hard to believe but…"

"I believe you one hundred percent." Anne said plainly.

"O-Oh! Well… wasn't expecting that…"

"Yeeeaaaah… Marcy has a bit of a bad habit of pulling all-nighters whenever she has a lot of stuff to do… or a lot of stuff she wants to do." Anne explained. "Should of known she would pull something like this…"

"Hey now, no beating yourself up Anne." Hop Pop scolded. "Just go and have a talk to her, I am sure she'd listen to you if you told her to try and get some sleep."

Anne began rubbing the back of her head.

"I dunno… back home she never listened to me about this… Sasha and I had to pretty much force her to get some sleep whenever she got like this."

"Well, that was before you two started dating!" Hop Pop pointed out. "Maybe she'll be more willing to listen to you now!"

After thinking about it, Anne decided to give it a shot.

"Alright, let me go talk to her."

"Thank you Anne." Hop Pop said.

"No… thank you Hop Pop, for letting me know about this." Anne said with a smile. "Alright… let's do this."

And so, Anne set off, ready for what might be one of the toughest challenges she would have to face yet.

Shortly after, Anne arrived at Marcy's study… aka, an abandoned outhouse.

Why Marcy chose this rundown thing on the outskirts of town for her study, Anne had no idea.

Knocking three times, Anne waited for a moment before the door slowly creaked open, revealing Marcy with her face buried in a notebook.

'Huh… she looks fine… focused, but fine!'

"Hey Mar-Mar! How's the research going?" Anne asked.

"…eh…" Marcy said very quietly.

"… Uh… Ok? How's that research on Frobo going?" Anne asked.

"Good…" Marcy said, once again, very quiet.

"… Ok, what's going on?" Anne asked as she lowered the notebook.

She nearly leapt back at the sight of her girlfriend.

She looked like absolute death.

Several dark bags under her eyes, hair was a mess, and she legit looked like she could fall over from a slight breeze.

Hop Pop was absolutely right.

"Marcy, you need to sleep… like, right now!" Anne said.

"Whaaaaaaa? … Oh! Hi Anne… when'd you get here?" Marcy said, sounding very loopy.

"Hi, now come on! You're going to sleep!" Anne said as she grabbed Marcy's wrist.

"Whaaaaaaa? Nah, I'm fiiiiine!" Marcy said as she floundered about. "I don't need any more sleep!"

This got Anne to worry…

So, she took Marcy's hands into her own.

"Marcy, listen, I am really worried about you." Anne said. "Hop Pop says that you haven't slept in FIVE DAYS!"

"Wow… been five days already?" Marcy asked, looking up at the sun.

"Marcy… please, just get some sleep."

"I will, I will…" Marcy said with a yawn.

And Anne couldn't help but let out a sigh of relief.

"Phew! That was ea-"

"As soon as I finish with this one thing." Marcy said.

"What?! No! Right now!" Anne asked.

"But Anne! I am so close to a breakthrough! I just know I'll find the second temple soon!" Marcy reasoned.

"Listen, as much as I want to go home, I REALLY would rather you take care of yourself!" Anne said. "The temple can wait, your health come's first"

"But Aaaaaaannnnnneeeeee!" Marcy whined out.

Then, she did something Anne wasn't expecting her to do…

She used… "The Face"…

Her eyes went wide, she began pouting, and even her ears somehow folded down a bit.

This face, was absolutely adorable, yet stupid sad at the same time… a powerful combination.

"No… must… RESIST!" Anne said as her eyes squinted, and tried to look away.

However, the pure aura that "The Face" exuded proved to be too much for Anne to handle, as she was forced to look by herself.

"UGH! Fine!" Anne relented. "But promise me that you'll get some sleep as soon as your done!"

"That's fiiiiiineeeee!" Marcy said as she clumsily turned around and got back into her study. "Talk to you later Annie-Bananie…"

And with that, the door closed.

"… Great…"

The next day, Anne was walking through town, desperately looking for Marcy.

The girl had not returned to the Fwagon the night before, knowledge granted to her by the kind Frobo who kept lookout, meaning that, once again, she spent the whole night in her study.

However, when Anne went to said study, she found that Marcy was not there.

Her worry instantly skyrocketed, as she began frantically running around town.

"Hey! Has anyone seen Marcy?!" Anne asked.

Most frogs passing by just shook their heads, or told her that they didn't.

However, one frog did have the answer she was looking for.

"Oh, your girlfriend? Yeah, she was walking towards the Flour's with her face buried in a book." Ms. Croaker explained. "Nearly stepped on poor Archy!"

Archy just barked and smiled.

"Right, thanks Ms. Croaker!" Anne shouted as she began running.

When arriving at the Flour's she saw Maddie standing in front.

"Hey Maddie! Did Marcy come by?" Anne asked.

Maddie just sighed.

"Unfortunately… what is up with that girlfriend of yours today?!" Maddie asked, looking very annoyed.

"No sleep for six days, trying to get her to fix that." Anne explained.

"Oh… yeah, that explains it." Maddie said, her demeanor softening.

"What happened?" Anne asked.

"Well, we were supposed to do some practice with an ice curse I was working on, but when she showed up she had her face stuck in a book and she knocked over the ENTIRE CAULDRON!" Maddie explained, sounding really irritated, and gesturing towards a bit of frost that was still in her hair.

"Oh… yeah, sounds like a Marcy thing to do."

"Has she done this before?" Maddie asked.

"Oh, more times than I can count…" Anne said. "But, before this, her record was only three days before I got her to sleep… this is just nuts!"

"Hmmm… let me see if I can find something to help." Maddie said as she pulled out her spell book out of no-where.

After flipping through the pages a bit, she found what she was looking for.

Turning the book around, she allowed Anne to get a good look at what Maddie had in mind.

"A sleep potion?" Anne asked.

"Oh yeah, this potion is said to be so powerful, that it could put a heron to sleep!" Maddie said. "All we need to do is get her to take a sip, and she'll be out like a light!"

Anne however, was not too sure on this idea.

"I dunno… back home, we have these things called sleeping pills that do the same thing… but if you take too much it can cause some real issues." Anne explained.

"Which is why we'll only make her take a sip." Maddie explained. "Don't want to make her fall asleep forever or something."

After thinking it over for a moment, Anne just sighed.

"… Alright, what do we need?"

After a half hour, the two had finally finished putting together the sleep potion… though because Anne was actually really bad at this, it took a few tries.

So now, Anne was walking through town, once again looking for Marcy, now with a small bottle filled with sleeping potion in her hand.

Maddie, meanwhile, was watching from a distance.

Eventually, they had found Marcy, sitting down by the statue in the middle of town, face still buried into her notebook.

"Hey! Finally found you!" Anne said with a smile.

"Hm…"

"Come on, let me see that pretty fa- OH MY WORD!"

Marcy had lowered her book, and revealed that she looked a whole lot worse than he day before.

Her hair was disheveled, her eyes were completely red, and now there was gunk building up along the sides of said eyes. Not to mention her face looking slightly red, and her nose was running.

She was actually getting sick.

"Marcy… you…" Anne started, but decided to calm down and follow the plan.

"I… whaaaaa?"

"You… need some energy drinks in you! You don't wanna pass out in the middle of your research, do you?" Anne asked with a fake smile.

"O-oh! Yeah, that sounds good." Marcy said.

"Well, look no further!" Anne said as she pulled the small bottle out. "Maddie brewed up a SUPER strong one! Sure to keep you going for days!"

Marcy couldn't help but smile.

"Thanks Annie… tell Maddie I said thanks too." Marcy said as she took the bottle.

And she downed it without any question.

Anne and Maddie both watched with baited breath, ready to catch Marcy when she passed out.

However… that didn't happen.

What DID happen, was Marcy suddenly perking up, and her eyes going wide.

"Wow! That really works!" Marcy said.

"… I'm sorry?" Anne said, her face dropping.

"Yeah! I just feel like I drank like, twenty bugguccino's!" Marcy said with renewed vigor…

However, she still looked like she was about to fall over.

"Thanks Anne, I'm gonna go continue my research now! WHOO!" Marcy said as she began to leave town, though she was wobbling a LOT.

And Anne just stared at her with her mouth agape, and her eyes wide.

Maddie walked over, with a very similar expression.

"Did… did she just convince herself that it WAS an energy drink?!" Maddie asked.

"… The power of Marcy's mind is beyond mortal comprehension…" Anne said as she watched her girlfriend stumble away.

The next day, Anne decided that she has had enough.

This marked an entire week since Marcy last got some sleep, and Anne was not going to let this go on for a second longer.

So, she marched her way towards Marcy's study, and opened the door rather forcefully.

"Marcy! You are going to sleep! NOW!"

"Wha… oh come on Anne… I am… I am so…" Marcy started but stopped. "What was I saying again?"

"Seriously, you can't even finish a sentence before losing your train of thought! You need to sleep, now!" Anne said as she grabbed Marcy's arm.

"But Aaaaannnnnneeeeeee!" Marcy whined. "I'm… I'm… what's going on?"

"… Yup, come on." Anne said as she began to lead Marcy back home…

However, then she heard a thud, as Marcy's arm suddenly went downwards.

Turning around in a panic, Anne gasped when she saw that Marcy was now face down in the dirt.

"MARCY!" Anne shouted, as she kneeled down and rolled the girl over.

"Ugh…"

Marcy was CLEARLY in terrible shape at the moment, so Anne did the only thing she could think to do.

Carrying Marcy bridal style, and start running towards the Plantar's home.

When Marcy woke up, the first thing she noticed was that she was in the Plantar's basement, AKA, Anne's room.

The next thing she noticed was that someone was holding her hand.

Looking to her right, she saw Anne, face buried in her left arm as she dozed the day… or night? Whatever part of the day it was, she was sleeping through it. All while her right hand was holding Marcy's right hand.

Marcy then began sitting up, which prompted a wet rag that was placed on her head to fall into her lap.

The movement caused Anne to stir, as she opened her eyes to see Marcy sitting up.

"M-Marcy!" Anne shouted before pulling the girl in for a hug.

"H-hey Anne…" Marcy said. "Uh… what… happened?"

"What happened?! WHAT HAPPENED?!" Anne shouted, clearly upset. "What happened was that you went an entire week without sleeping once! And then when I FINALLY decide to force you, you completely passed out! And… and…"

At this point, Anne began to cry.

"You… you were so sick Marcy… you had a high fever, and… I was so worried!" Anne said through the tears. "You didn't move, at all, for three whole days!"

That caused Marcy's eyes to go wide.

"Th-three days?!" Marcy asked. "I…"

"You, have to do nothing!" Anne said sternly. "All you need to do now, is get some rest."

"But… I…"

"Please Marcy… please…" Anne said. "I can't… I can't go through that again…"

"… Alright…" Marcy said. "I promise, I'll try and not pull any all nighters any more…"

"Thank you… thank you so much…" Anne said as she pulled Marcy in for a hug.

"So uh… hate to say it, but I still feel a bit tired…" Marcy said. "And… you look like you haven't been sleeping much… so…"

Anne didn't even skip a beat before climbing into the bed and continuing to hug Marcy.

"Good night Marcy." Anne said with a smile and a kiss on the forehead.

"Good night Anne…" Marcy said.

And so, the two drifted off to sleep, hand in hand.

The End

And then True Colors happens, and Anne handles that even worse.

Guess who got tired AF from studying for finals, and decided to write a whole one-shot based on it! THAT'S RIGHT! MEEEEEE!

Seriously people, get your eight hours every day. It's worth it.

Ok! So, All In happened… I mean, they didn't exactly de-confirm my theory from last time, but man did my heart skip a beat when Darcy asked Sasha if she wanted to know what Marcy REALLY felt about her… Maybe the final episode will have something about that, but probs not. NGL, starting to feel bummed that Amphibia is about to end. Who knows, I think Matt showed an interest in comics or spinoffs during an interview, so maybe one day we'll get some more froggy goodness, just not in a show… don't quote me on that, I don't remember where I read that.

So, I wanna let you all know some of my plans for the future. Right now, writing for Recovery is in full swing. I have the first few chapters done, and I have a lot of the story planned out, just need to get it into writing.

Crossing Paths will come out tomorrow as planned, I will probably put it up right after the finale.

I have also got a good bit of the Crossover-less Season 3 story planned, and I also need to write that out. It will simply be called "One Small Change Act 2" btw, since it is kinda just a continuation.

The Marcy in Wartwood story I have started to write, not too far into it, but I have some neat stuff planned. I do have a title in mind, but imma keep that to myself for now.

One more story is currently in the works. I will not say what it is about quite yet, but I will say that it is gonna be big.

And finally, there is going to be another, shorter story planned for this series. I was originally going to make it a one shot, but then I got some more ideas for it, and it honestly feels like it would be too long for that, so I am going to split it into three or four chapters. I will say this though: It is for sure going to be the darkest story I have ever written, and deals with some very real topics that, while I've never had to deal with them myself thankfully, I've always wanted to write about, and spread awareness of. The title of this story is going to be "No Matter What." For an idea of what this story might be about, a hint to a big part of it, at least, how it all starts, is somewhere in Chapter 6 of "One Small Change." The idea is also mentioned in the very first chapter as well.

Alright! Wow… you know… maybe I should have some way to inform you all about updates without having to post a new chapter…

Follow me on twitter: 77Xfire!

Whenever I have news to share, it'll be there :)