(Alternate Title: Bad Little Boy)
What with the lasting relationship of Fionna and Flint, Marshall tries his best to revive the old easy-going, rough-housing friendship he enjoyed with Fionna before Flint's arrival.
Fionna had cried many times in front of Marshall Lee, though that wasn't to say she cried often. The tears usually came on because of something horrible happening to innocent people or those that Fionna loved, or a little more rarely, Marshall and Flint fighting until it nearly came to blows. Fionna hated to see two of her favorite people hate each other. But as Marshall drifted home that morning under the protection of a hat and coat from Fionna's house, he thought back on Fionna's tears only hours before. His face and ribs still ached from the beating she'd given him for pranking her so badly. Or at least, she'd thought it was a prank, thankfully.
He'd been bored for a few days after his last big fight with Flint Morkai that had nearly burnt up a section of the grasslands and melted a fair share of its border with the Ice Kingdom. So at the news that LSP was throwing a party in the woods, Marshall immediately thought to bring Fionna. Of course when he arrived in the rain soaked to the skin and looked in the window, he found Prince Gumball there offering the adventuress and her sister his best cream puffs. Naturally, Marshall swooped in and stole them all before perching on the roof. He made sure to make plenty of noise to get Fionna's attention. It'd hardly taken any effort and his cocky 'I know you're gonna say yes to me' line to get Fionna and Cake to come with him after running Gumball off with a color-drained cream puff to the face.
The party was pretty good by Marshall's standards what with dancing, fist-fighting, and a few tipsy people stumbling around the place. He'd wasted no time in taking the stage- that was what LSP had asked him to come for after all- and drumming up an impromptu song to tease Fionna about being a good little girl.
With the first strums of his guitar, Fionna was copying his dancing until he managed to embarrass her once again. The moment she shoved him away, he began and the cat and the girl sang harmony backup.
"Good little girl, always picking a fight with me.
You know that I'm bad, but you're spending the night with me.
What, do you want, from my world?
You're a good little girl…"
Marshall knew Fionna was up for his musical challenge, so the moment he finished his last line, he landed to dance with Cake and sing backup while Fionna sang and the crowd of partygoers cheered for her.
"Bad little boy; that's what you're acting like.
I really don't buy
that you're that kind of guy.
And if you are
why do you want to hang out with me?"
Marshall had dropped the harmony a moment ago when Cake stopped paying attention, but with a hiss, Fionna gasped to see him baring his fangs as Cake's exposed neck as she'd dipped down. Fionna rushed forward and Marshall let Cake go and drifted up into the air above the stage with a maniacal laugh. He didn't hesitate to continue.
"Don't you know I'm a villain? Every night I'm out killin'
Sendin' everyone running like children.
I know why you're mad at me: I got demon eyes
and they're looking right through your anatomy
Into your deepest fears. Baby, I'm not from here
I'm from the Nightosphere.
To me you're clear, transparent.
You got a thing for me girl, it's apparent."
He'd always teased Fionna about having a crush on him regardless of whether it was true or not. If he was honest with himself- which he refused to be- he wished she did. But just before he could get into those thoughts Cake took over and began singing something he didn't really pay attention to. Behind the singing and dancing cat, Fionna approached Marshall.
"You're not so bad, y'know," Fionna commented with a smile. She reminded him of said fact as often as possible.
"Not so bad?" Marshall snorted. "I'm the son of a demon… and the Vampire King. It's not something I have to try at. You on the other hand…"
"I'm not trying to be bad," Fionna insisted, quite sure of herself. "I'm hanging out with you because you're my friend."
"What?" Marshall chuckled, pulling a sugar-covered cream puff from his shirt and holding it up. "Like him?" He loved to tease her about her former crush on Gumball and their friendship now. He blew the powdered sugar off and Fionna spluttered trying to wave it away.
"No! Different!" She tried to shove him, but he dodged round and tripped her playfully. "Hey!" She was able to catch herself and looked up with a grin to accept his challenge. "Hi-yah!" She kicked his feet out from under him. All too ready, Marshall only laughed.
"Oh no!" He cried sarcastically, drifting to the stage floor like a leaf. However, he wasn't ready for her elbow-drop into his stomach. This rough-housing was nothing new but they hadn't done it since she'd begun dating Flint. So Marshall got a little carried away and his return kick ended up hitting her head and sending her sliding. His eyes grew wide with worry and he sat up quickly as Cake jumped between them.
"Hey! Break it up you two!" Cake demanded. Marshall tried to play it off like everything was fine, but he forgot Fionna's one rule when he pushed Cake aside.
"Out of my way, kitty." Again, it seemed he got carried away with the shove and Cake fell from the stage. Still, Marshall tried to feign indifference to save face.
"Hey!" Fionna bolted past him to get Cake.
"Oh, come on, that was funny!" Marshall called after her even though he himself didn't think it was all that hilarious. He always went too far… But he couldn't stop and apologize. He'd look weak. He'd lose his reputation. He wouldn't be considered the bad boy he tried so hard to be. He couldn't lose that title, it was all that most people seemed to like and respect him for.
Fionna picked up Cake after checking that she was alright and Marshall flew after them. "Hey! Come on, where you goin'? What's the deal? Th- Y-…" He stumbled over his words when she turned her nose up at him and continued on with Cake in her arms. "You're missing the party," he reminded her, hoping she'd give in and come back. And as if to pretend he didn't really care that he'd crossed her, he added laughingly, "Fionna, lighten up."
"Look. I don't care if you're being a jerk to me," she then fixed him with an icy glare, "but nobody messes with Cake."
"Oh, really?" Marshall was starting to get angry at himself as much as he smiled devilishly. "Well what if I just take her right now, you know?" He snatched the cat from Fionna's arms and drifted into the sky.
"What?!" Fionna's eyes grew wide. Marshall had gone too far.
"Unexpected!" Marshall called back as he flew toward the nearby graveyard. He couldn't stop now or he'd look like an idiot and a jerk.
"MARSHALL!" He heard Fionna yell after him, and he knew he was screwed if she got her hands on him. As she arrived in the graveyard calling for Cake, Marshall lifted a hand to the sky to summon his demonic and vampiric power.
"You want your Cake back? Come… and… get her!" With a flash of lightning, the undead skeletons began to claw their way from the dirt. Fionna looked shocked and Marshall kept his roll going. He couldn't stop… he just couldn't. He was too invested in getting some outcome out of this that he himself was not really sure of anymore. He'd just wanted to have fun, play some music, and maybe tease Fionna a bit. Now he was sending skeletons after her. This was her idea of fun, right? Fighting? But… he'd screwed up so badly and it wasn't about the fun anymore. Fionna was coming to save Cake. It had always been Fionna's rule that Marshall could never mess with Cake to any degree beyond a little teasing. Whenever he'd broken that rule before, he got quite a beating in their rough-housing or, far worse, the silent treatment for days.
In an attempt to keep up his charade of being in-control and enjoying himself- why, he didn't know anymore- he brought up a skeleton to give him a beat.
"Did you think I was lying? I said I'm evil without even trying.
Already dead so I'm not scared of dying…
Drinking the read from your heart in one sitting-
You think you've got me pegged? You must be kidding!
I raise the dead up and they do my bidding!
Girl, I'm a thousand years old; I'm a riddle.
Bad little boy- yes I'm bad but not little…"
By this point, Cake had had enough. "Uh-uh, boy. What're you thinkin'?" As she began to stretch out to wrestle away, Marshall found himself now fighting to keep hold of her, even stop her from ensnaring him. He had to take on his demonic giant bat form in order to stay in control snarling with effort. Fionna fought through the mass of skeletons with a sword taken from one, and Cake called for help. "Fionna!"
"Cake!" Fionna called back, bolting toward the mausoleum on which Marshall stood.
"Grab onto my little paws!" Cake cried, stretching her paws out to her sister. With both girls' might combined, Marshall found himself being pulled from the stone platform until suddenly an ancient spear stuck point-up in the ground came into his view. It narrowly missed Cake and instead plunged right through the left center of Marshall's ribs and ran him clean through. Marshall let go and cried out with a horrible bat-screech as he shrank back down into his vampire form on the stone roof, clutching his ribs with the spear still protruding upward from his body. He groaned quietly in pain as he lay on the cold stone, and growled weakly as the sun peeked above the horizon and burned his exposed skin. Cake was quick to bolt up and block the sun and Fionna was even quicker to Marshall's side with the most concerned, even hurt look that Marshall had ever seen from her.
"Oh, this is bad guys… this is really bad," he groaned half through clenched teeth.
"Marshall!" Fionna knelt beside him, hesitating as she wasn't sure what to do. "Come on! You gotta be okay…"
He couldn't help a chuckle, and in a moment of delirium, he told her, "I think this is it for me, Fionna… so why don't you just admit it..." Did he dare? For once… he did. "You're in love with me…"
Fionna gasped quietly and sat back on her knees as tears filled her eyes. "I… I get that you flirt with me all the time and it's funny or whatever… But you're doing that now?!" The tears really came on then and her voice was watery and cracking as she growled, "What are you trying to do to my head? You think I've got some little crush on you?! … Well for however long we've got left… FOR ONCE, DROP IT YOU FREAK!"
Marshall had never sat up so fast in his life, pulling the spear from his ribs recklessly. "Faking it! Faking it!" He told her quickly. He opened up his shirt just enough to show her the crushed cream puffs that had stained his shirt. "Okay, my shirt is like, filled with cream puffs."
"Oh, goodness…" Cake sighed in relief. As much as he annoyed her, she certainly didn't want him to die. He was still a friend.
Running his fingers back into his shaggy black hair, Marshall fixed Fionna with a disbelieving gaze. "Glob, Fionna… you're like the realest person I've ever met…" He'd broken her heart with that stupidity and he knew it well. But what concerned him most was her answer, or lack thereof. Of course she didn't have a crush on him anymore, if she ever did… she was with Flint. He was all she needed and Marshall Lee was just pursuing and teasing some stupid fantasy of his own making. But his thoughts were promptly cut short when Fionna hauled off and punched him across the face.
"Augh! My cheek meat!" Marshall cried, looking back at Fionna and nursing his bruising cheek as she smiled with tears streaming down her face and laughed like she'd gone absolutely nuts.
"Quit clowning, Fionna," Marshall tried to shake her out of her relieved, heartbroken, angry daze. When she began stalking closer even as he tried to drag himself away quickly, his eyes grew wide. "Fionna…? F-Fionna?" She wasn't stopping! "FIONNA!" SMACK!
She gave him quite a few good knocks before she finally collapsed against him, sobbing her heart out even as she clung to him. She'd backed him up against a lone tree in the graveyard and he leaned back against it as he wrapped his arms around her to offer apology and comfort if he could. Cake remained close, but not too close, letting the tree shade the vampire now. After a long while when Fionna's tears subsided to sniffling, Marshall hugged her a little tighter.
"I'm sorry, Fi," he murmured. "I was just trying to make things the way they used to be… but I got angry and carried away…" Fionna had never heard him apologize for being the bad boy he tried so hard to be. She knew he was good, just a little stupid when he got upset.
"It's okay… just as long as you don't do anything this stupid ever again." Fionna looked up at him. "You're really okay…?"
"Yeah, I'm fine," he lied with a smile, but she believed him. After a long while more of simply sitting in silence, Fionna curled into his side as her emotions calmed, Marshall walked her home and picked up a hat and coat he'd left there for emergencies so he didn't have to run all the way home if he was out during the day. Fionna did the same, leaving a change of clothes at his house.
As he drifted in and tossed aside the hat and coat, he headed up to his room to pause before the mirror on the back of his bathroom door. He pulled off his ruined plaid shirt and wiped away the crushed cream puffs to inspect his bruises and the gaping hole through his ribs. Thankfully he didn't bleed easily and the pastries had covered up what little blood and gore there was. It'd take a long time to heal, but it was alright. Meeting his reflection in the mirror, he sighed quietly at the rings under his eyes. At least Fionna doesn't know…
Hey, I'm back! This chapter wasn't my original idea to follow Abadeer Hall, but I wanted to get something out to you guys while I work on building the story up a little more. Normally I don't write chapters that don't contribute to the overall story, but this seemed necessary not only to pay tribute to the original appearance of Marshall Lee, but also to show Marshall's side. I always wondered what would happen if Marshall had been lying about faking his injury. I think this may lead into something. But it's good to be back, guys. I missed this.
-Taiylor Wallace