AN: I have moved over to AO3 as the restrictions on actually don't allow me to post stories like this (technically) even if I have never heard of someone actually being reprimanded for doing so, it does make me feel uneasy. So, catch me on there. Same username, yeah? Also, did some final edits. Hope they are efficient (not that you'd notice them...).
Night was always Marshall's favorite time. No one to bother him, nothing to distract him. It was just him, his guitar, and the crickets.
The moon was coyly sliding through the sky as he burned away hours in fiddling with tunes.
Marshall Lee was entranced in his music. Something about his mood and the chords hitting in dissonance made him feel things. It was chaotic and beautiful. He was at his best.
Then there was a knock at the door and his fingers reluctantly left the frets to answer the unwelcome inquiry. As he swung his guitar behind his back and unplugged it from the amp, he glanced at the clock. It was 2:30 in the morning. Who could possibly be knocking?
There was another knock, it was much more insistent this time.
"I'm coming, I'm coming…" He groaned as he imagined Bubbebutt's face behind the paneled door, and even the doorknob seemed resistant as he turned it to open the door.
His eyebrows rose in surprise as he saw a blonde girl instead.
"Fionna?" He asked. "What are you doing here? Aren't you diurnal or something?" Again he looked at the clock to assure it was truly the middle of the night. When he looked back at Fionna he saw she was shaken. She wiped at her eyes with an already wet (an possibly snotty) sleeve, and offered him a small smile when he opened the door.
"Can I come in?" She asked in a strangled tone.
"Yeah, of course." Marshall replied, pulling her in by the wrist and sitting her down on that horrible couch of his. She sniffled and mumbled a thanks as she felt a blanket being thrown over her shoulders. It was pretty unusual for Marshall to see her so upset. In fact, he couldn't recall once seeing her so... vulnerable. Possible scenarios raced through his mind as he placed the blanket comfortingly around her shoulders. His hand jerked as he felt hers gently clasp it as he reached to cover her.
It wouldn't have been anything unusual if this were an intimate friend, but Fionna had always been very... distant when it came to him touching her. And now she sought out his hand? Despite his growing unease, he let her hold on to his hand and even offered her a comforting squeeze in return.
"What happened, Fionna?" He asked.
"I'm sorry…" Fionna said in answer as she wiped her snotty nose on her sleeve again. "I had, like, a freak out. I don't know."
"Preaching to the choir." Marshall said with a small smile. "I understand freak outs." It awarded a soggy chuckle from her, and she caught his gaze, staring into those dark orbs of his. She calculated whether or not to share her shameful experience. He blinked in surprise, feeling a small twist of emotion in her gaze.
"I ran all the way from Candy Kingdom… I was planning on running away forever. Didn't even stop to grab BMO…" She muttered. Marshall wanted to ask why, but knew better than to pry for answers when the person in question was so vulnerable. Instead he rubbed his thumb along the back of her hand in a comforting sort of way. How strange, usually Fionna always pushed him away. Usually he was the one making her feel uncomfortable, and not the other way around. It didn't escape his notice how her hand felt in his. It was a warm sort of thing that penetrated his tepid skin. In the past she would have pulled her hand out of his and smacked him in the face, but to his surprise, she placed his hand on her hot cheek. A flurry erupted in his guts and it alarmed him, so he pulled away from her, feeling a forgotten tear wipe off of her face as he snaked his hand away.
She looked at him, in a small hurt kind of way, with big watery, blue eyes. Marshall tried to ignore the obvious tension between them and the strange feelings that were stirring within himself.
"Are you coming here to crash for the night?" Marshall said, trying to dissolve the situation.
"If you'll let me…" She answered. Her tone did not go unnoticed to Marshall. He shuffled the hair on her noggin.
"You weirdo, of course you can stay. Stop looking at me like that."
Her eyes were piercing his. She stared at him with such intensity he couldn't help but lean away from her burning leer.
"Want some snacks?" He offered, breaking the uncomfortable eye contact.
He heard her let out a big sigh as he made his way to the kitchen.
What was up with her? It was clear something was very off. Never had she been so… easy. So willing to... touch him. His hand squeezed as he recalled the way she had held onto it, and he poured her a glass of bug milk with the other while peeking at Fionna from the pass-through window. She was playing with her hair, and staring at her feet. What a sad, and helpless pose for the heroine. Guilt crawled through him. Perhaps he had been a bit stand-offish towards her. It was the first time she had ever come to him so distressed, so maybe this was just her way of seeking comfort from him. Marshall put the milk back in the fridge, and felt a bit like a butt for a friend. Thinking of the warmth he felt from her little hand in his, he mixed in strawberry powder to the milk.
He came back, spoons clinking musically in their cups as he offered one of the glasses to her.
"Thanks." She said flatly.
"Yeah, no problem." Marshall replied. He watched her from beneath his outgrown hair as she sipped slowly on the pink milk. He watched her neck as she gulped it down and a carnal feeling rustled its way through him. He had never felt that way towards Fionna before. He had never felt hungry for her. He shook the feeling from his head to clear his mind, but it lingered in his hands as he clasped his own pink cup.
She upturned her cup and wiped her mouth on her sleeve; Fionna was really a tactless kind of person; and let out another exasperated sigh, unleashing with it a puff of strawberry laced breath. Marshall sipped the pink from his milk and stared readily at the wall before him. Never had he felt so intensely how terribly close she sat to him. Did she feel it too?
"You want to jam or something?" He offered in a second attempt to break the ice. When she didn't answer he looked over at her, and she caught his glance, shaking her head in response.
Once caught in it, he couldn't escape her gaze. It was so blue, so wide. She looked at him in a way very few people had ever looked at him. He felt needed, and wanted by her. Another shiver ran through him. Why was she here? Why did tonight feel so different than other nights with Fionna?
"W-What do you want to do, then?" He asked. "I've got movies, puzzles…" Marshall watched as her face leaned closer towards his, and panic set in his heart, but he couldn't seem to move away from her. "Board games, basketball…" He continued, watching her close the distance between them. He could smell strawberries, and his mind clouded with the thought of the impending inevitable. "K-karaoke…" Marshall whispered as he felt finally the softness of her lips against his. He should be pushing her away. Wasn't she in some sort of emotional distress? This must be wrong, but he felt the warmth of her mouth melting onto his and he couldn't help but try to seek for more. He pushed back onto her lips, returning the strange kiss. She tasted like strawberry milk.
Holy shit, he was kissing Fionna. Marshall tried to ignore the voices in his head that told him all of the reasons he probably should not be doing this, but she was so warm against him. And after all, she had kissed him first.
Her little hand pressed into his chest, and he was pushed back against his lumpy couch. His own hands sought to squeeze the flesh of her. Hunger. It was a feeling he was long depraved of, and it coursed through him sure and true; growing thicker every time her mouth moved against his.
But before he could satiate himself, she pulled away from him.
"Why?" He asked.
"I don't know, it's been a weird night…" She answered. "I shouldn't have come-"
"No… I meant why did you stop?" Marshall replied, seeking the warmth of her face on his again. How strange for such a familiar friend to open her mouth to his so willingly. Greedily, he took in the experience with fervent need, but when they kissed again, the magic had gone and been replaced with the nagging feeling that this wasn't quite right.
What was he doing kissing his friend when her eyes were still pink from crying?
"Okay," Marshall said, trying to hold himself together, "So really, why?" Fionna sighed deeply, and moved away from Marshall. He eyed the crevice between her breast and he nearly whined with want, but he had to think of her feelings first, despite wanting to disappear into the softness of her flesh.
"I was going to leave and never came back but it got cold, and I was passing by your house so…" She said, avoiding his gaze.
"Fionna… that's fine and all but… why did you kiss me?" He said, trying to recover an acceptable and friendly distance between her.
"Why did you kiss me back?" She replied defensively.
"I couldn't help myself. You just- How could I not? Wait- I asked first!" He shot back.
"I don't know!" She cried, and the threat of tears pooled on the rim of her eyes. Marshall immediately calmed. Guilt began to crawl all over his skin. He should not have kissed her back. He should have pushed her away. He knew she was in distress and still…
"What happened in Candy Kingdom?" He asked.
"I got in a fight with PB…" Fionna admitted. She covered her face with her hands. "Ugh, I'm so embarrassed."
Marshall pulled her hands away from her face, not even noticing that he had already grown too comfortable with touching her without asking.
"Don't be, that guy can be a real wad, what did he do?"
Fionna glanced at the way Marshall now held her hands in his.
"What he didn't do, more like…" She began. His thumb began that strange comforting rubbing on the back of her hands.
"You told him how you felt?" Marshall asked gently.
"Kind of… and then he- He said that he would be happy to give me what I wanted from him. It was so strange…"
Marshall cringed internally for his socially awkward friend. What was PB thinking?
"Yikes… what did he give you?" Marshall dared ask. Fionna glared at Marshall and turned red with embarrassment.
"He gave me an itinerary for our 'mating ritual'… and told me to sign release forms."
Marshall's jaw dropped in amazement, amusement, and absolute horror.
"That idiot…" Marshall managed to say. "Do you really want to… you know…" Marshall cradled an invisible child, and was promptly pushed off of the sofa. Well, at least Fionna seemed more like herself.
"Heck no!" She cried. "I just told him my feelings… and he told me that it was nothing but a construct for genetic reproduction that could be remedied in one afternoon. But I know there's more to that. There has to be… right?"
Fionna sought desperately for an answer in Marshall's eyes, and again he felt captured in that doe eyed gaze. He floated up from the floor, and sat back on the couch.
"Of course, there is." He said calmly. "You think Cake and Mono are still together just because they have kids?"
"Marshall…" Fionna said, her face nearing his again. "Do you know how it feels?"
"To like someone who doesn't like you back?"
"You don't have to say it out loud…" She groaned.
"Fionna of course I know how that feels. How do you think I feel every time you punch my cheek meat?" He teased.
"Yeah, but you're just playing around, right? You don't actually like me like that." She said chuckling. Marshall could not respond. Of course, he told himself. He was just playing around.
"I just- I just like to tease you that's all." He reasoned. There was silence between them for a while, then. Both of them looking at different corners of the room.
"But what if- If you teased me and I didn't punch your cheek meat. What if I went with it?"
Marshall shrugged.
"I guess… I'd go with it too."
Fionna nodded, looking pensively at her shoes.
"So, when I kissed you before, you were just going with it? You don't like me or anything?"
Words failed Marshall. He had never asked himself how he felt about Fionna, he just always did what he wanted, but before he could stammer out a response, Fionna hit him with an even more alarming question.
"How far… would you go with it?" Fionna asked quietly. The question rang in his head before its meaning truly resounded.
"You mean… how far would I let you go before I stop you?" He asked, watching her carefully as his heart steadily picked up pace. Those big blue eyes turned slowly towards him again, and he noticed for the first time that she was blushing heavily. Fionna nodded and Marshall struggled for an answer.
"I don't know… I guess I won't know until- until it happens."
Her little hand found his, then, and he couldn't help but look at it curiously. A rush of feeling overcame him, and he craved again to kiss her, and to taste that strawberry breath. He licked his lips as his gaze turned to her mouth, then darted quickly back to her eyes. Her brows quirked in curiosity.
"You're going to have to tell me to stop too." He said seriously. "But… I can't promise that I- No. I do promise that I will." Marshall said stammering. Fionna's eye widened a bit, and watched him with careful calculation. Then, her blush returning full force, she whispered;
"Was I a good kisser?"
Marshall smiled, enchanted to see her shy about their earlier make-out session.
"Oh yeah!" He said, nodding approvingly. "Knocked my socks off."
Fionna chuckled. "I haven't had much practice…" She admitted bashfully.
"Do you want more practice?" Marshall suggested, then almost kicked himself for suggesting such a thing.
He felt her little hand touch his cheek, and her fingertips tentatively traced the corners of his mouth. My god, she really would have to tell him to stop. Did she know how alluring she was? Or was this just pure naivety?
"You're sure you're okay with this?" Fionna asked.
"I'm all yours." He replied.
Fionna pulled his face down to hers and enveloped him in shy kiss. Her lips pressed against his, and he let her slowly move against him. Exploring; playing. It almost felt as if he were being kissed for the first time and all the sensations were new again. It was the most electrifying thing he had experienced in at least 100 years.
She no longer tasted like strawberries. The aftertaste had diluted into something pure and metallically human. Ah, crud. He had forgotten that he was a vampire. Only now did he regret his rash decision. How could he kid himself into thinking he could sit still through Fionna kissing him like this? Fionna, the last human. The taste of spit was intoxicatingly similar to blood. With a tangy taste, and slippery texture.
Marshall longed to press his tongue against hers again. His hands balled into fists at his sides as he felt his blood begin to pulse in an increasingly hungry rhythm. All the while, Fionna continued to slowly devour him in languishing kisses having no idea of the effect they were having on him.
And when her tongue touched his he could have done away with his senses. He emitted a moan of satisfaction, and could not help but to suck at the tip of her tongue. His hands found their way into her hair and entangled themselves in the strands, his fingertips ever so slightly digging into her scalp.
This caused her a tiny gasp of shock, and it snapped Marshall a small bit out of his trance. He pulled away from her and looked at her through the cloudiness of his judgment. Her lips were pink and parted; her cheeks were flushed and her eyes glazed over with that same cloudiness that he suffered from.
"Do you want to stop?" He said reluctantly. Fionna did not truly answer. Her tongue darted from between her lips and it was answer enough. She wanted more. Marshall eagerly pressed his tongue against hers, lavishing the way that she tasted. His fangs grazed dangerously over her lips, and caused a small drop of blood to leak from them. The shocking taste of blood seized him. He had to be careful; he had to keep his head. Marshall broke the kiss.
"Fionna." He said in a drunkenly sort of way. Fionna shivered. No one had ever uttered her name like that. "Maybe we should stop kissing." He suggested softly. Really, he couldn't stand to keep kissing her, or he may devour her. But Fionna didn't understand, and thought he had tired of her.
"I can do better… I wasn't really trying-" Fionna pleaded. Marshall shook his head.
"You're amazing. Honestly you have no idea the effect you're having on me. I'm just- I need a break." He said, gathering his breath. He hadn't realized how breathless he had become.
Fionna's eyes wandered over Marshall, and she began to wonder what else she could explore, but she was too shy to ask.
"I don't know what I'm doing…" She said unsure. Marshall took her hands in his.
"We can just hold hands, if you want." He said, slowly swallowing the surge of hunger that had almost overwhelmed him.
Marshall closed his eyes and leaned back into the sofa, squeezing Fionna's hands.
"God, this sofa is uncomfortable." He groaned.
"Yeah..." Fionna said, taking the opportunity of Marshall having his eyes closed to truly look him over. From his moth-eaten band shirt to his ripped jeans, outwardly he looked like a mess. Fionna pulled her hands from his and felt the fabric of the collar of his shirt. It was frayed and rolling from his neck. Marshall felt her fingers playing at his collar bone and it afforded him some time to think. His eyes slowly opened and he watched her looking at him with fascination.
Tonight did not make sense at all. Fionna had just been heavily rejected, and she was coming here for… Glob knows what. Comfort? Acceptance? Whatever it was, Marshall suspected that it wasn't an accident that she had stopped over at his place.
And it wasn't an accident at all. Fionna knew that of all people, Marshall would never reject her. For reasons unknown he had always dangled the opportunity of 'more' before her like a carrot, but she had never taken it.
Until now, apparently.
A streak of sunrise peaked its way through the crack of the curtains, and it caught Marshall right in the eyeball. He hissed and jerked away from it. Fionna, forgetting herself in admiring the Vampire King, jumped back to the opposite end of the couch as if she had been burned as well.
"Sorry." She said for no reason in particular. Marshall chuckled.
"Aren't you tired? You missed a whole night of sleep."
Fionna shook her head. She had just begun to explore the skin of his neck, and she was curiously drawn to the quiet pulsing of it; the way it vibrated with his voice as he spoke. She'd never noticed those little things about Marshall before. She wanted to press her ear against his chest, and to listen to the timbre of his voice pulse through her. It was a strange desire she didn't completely understand. She also found herself wanting to... mush him? To press her skin against his, to feel him move under her; over her.
Marshall stood to break the strange fascinated way that she looked at him. Something about it made him feel less like the predator, and more like the prey.
"You can take the bed, grab some rest. Maybe when you wake up, you'll be- more like yourself." He said reluctantly.
Fionna did not want to go to bed. She wanted to keep this experience afloat, but Marshall was adamant. This amazing, shocking night had to end here.
"-and anyways, I'm tired too." He finished.
"We can share the bed." Fionna suggested shyly. Marshall was silent for a bit as he imagined trying to sleep with her soft, human flesh pressed against his. He would never be able to sleep soundly like that, but it was too tantalizing to resist. And anyways, he was a bit scared of how she would react if he rejected her company. She needed a friend... he reminded himself. He had to be a good friend.
"Okay." He said. "But don't you dare put my finger in a cup of cold water."
Fionna smiled and gave him a small hug. He patted her unsurely on the back. Even this hug was different from the ones before.
Something critical had changed between them, and it was clear that things would never return to normal, and terribly Marshall was a bit
glad for it.
When he floated up to his room, Marshall was instantly aware of how sad his room appeared. His bed wasn't made, there was crud all over the floor, clothes thrown on every surface. Truly the lair of a loner who did not expect company, but before he could grab the plethora of boxers and stinky socks from the surfaces, Fionna's head peaked out from the hole in the floor. Marshall sighed and gestured at his bed uneasily.
When was the last time he had changed his sheets? He wondered, as Fionna moved to sit on the edge of the bed. He watched her as she took off her shoes and long, white socks. It was the first time he had ever seen her bare legs, and Marshall wondered how they would feel grazing against his.
Quickly he shook the thought from his head. This whole night had been a terrible idea. He was being pushed far past his comfort zone.
He took off his own shoes and socks as Fionna watched him in turn, eyeing the shirt that he wore almost expectantly.
When he didn't take it off, Fionna swung her legs over the bed and under the blanket. Marshall could kick himself for the way he looked leeringly at the crevice between her legs and skirt in some small hope that he may catch a glance of whatever lay beneath.
Fionna looked back at him, snug as a bug in his blankets and he scoffed at the complete insanity of the situation. Carefully he laid on the edge of the bed, not even daring to seek refuge underneath the blanket.
"You sleep with your pants on?" She asked sheepishly.
"Not usually, Fionna." Marshall responded, almost annoyedly as he closed his eyes firmly in some small attempt to shut out the warm, soft body next to his. Fionna shuffled the blanket over him.
"I'm not going to eat you, Marshall." She whispered. His eyes burst open.
"You're not going to- you should be more worried about ME eating YOU!" He groaned, taking hold of the blanket and turning his back towards her. A hand snaked around his waist, and warmth pressed itself softly against his back.
"I'm not scared of you, Marshall." Fionna said before a big yawn.
"Yeah, well you should be…" He growled as the heat of her body slowly seeped into his. It was insanely calming. He hadn't felt this warm in a very long time.
Marshall imagined that he could never sleep with Fionna around, but strangely felt his eyes becoming heavy.
Her legs pressed against his, and he regretted greatly that he had not taken off his pants. The last thought he had before falling asleep was wondering how her skin would feel against his.