It's a fairly normal day when Fionna takes a calm and curious Flint to see the Candy Kingdom and assure him it's all okay despite Gumball's protests. After they take shelter from a harsh rain and head back to the bridge across the river, you'd think it'd be Flint who had the hard time crossing the waterlogged bridge.

"Come on, Flint. It's okay, you only burned the tarp, and he wasn't even mad."

"But I feel so guilty…"

"We paid for a new one, he'll be fine."

"You paid for a new one. I just stood off to the side looking like a jerk."

The Prince of Fire and the Hero of Aaa made their way along the only just-dried path toward the bridge over the river, away from the Candy Kingdom. Fionna had been showing the scholarly prince around the city, and Flint had spent half the time apologizing to the townsfolk for nearly burning the city down months before. A few people just ignored him, but most of the good candy people told him they knew it wasn't intentional. They were much more accepting than Prince Gumball, who was wary of Flint getting anywhere near the city, much less in it.

They'd been exploring when it had begun to rain and they took shelter under a vendor's tarp. But just as the rain had subsided, the tarp had burnt to a crisp, leaving Flint feeling incredibly guilty, Fionna paying for the damage, and the stall-keeper good-naturedly telling them the tarp had been old anyway and had needed to be replaced.

"You really think he was okay with it?" Flint asked softly.

"Sure, dude! He was all smiles," Fionna assured him brightly. Both paused as they came to the river, which had flooded. The bridge itself was under about half a foot of rushing water and the duo looked at each other, knowing it would be painful for Flint to cross normally.

"Uh oh…" Fionna muttered.

"Hm… I suppose I'll just have to sta- oh, wait!" Flint suddenly lit up with an idea. "The rails! They're wide enough to walk on! And I have good balance!" He quickly hurried to the above-water rails, jumping up and balancing like a perfect gymnast on a balance beam. He practically jogged across, even showing off with a somersault as he landed. With a bright laugh, he turned to Fionna. "See?"

"That was awesome! You can tell you were raised by cats," Fionna smiled. She was too and even though she always landed on her feet, she had never gotten the same balance as her cat family. "If you don't mind, I'm just gonna cross the normal way. Wet feet are no big." Even if she did hate getting her feet wet like Cake did. She trotted along into the water, but the moment she took a step, she slipped and nearly fell. The current was intense and she knew she had to be careful. She grabbed onto the rail with one hand, but as she inched forward, she felt a shudder through the bridge.

"Fionna!" Flint cried, seeing his end of the bridge begin to shift and become dislodged from the soil. He couldn't do a thing, though, or he'd end up killing himself if he fell in the water. And entire half of the bridge suddenly groaned and snapped, and Fionna fell with it. Flint nearly did jump in, until he saw she was clinging to the breaking rail of the other half for dear life as the current tried to sweep her away. She let out a heartbreaking scream, and Flint knew what to do.

"Hold on! I'll get help!" He was off like a flaming shot across the grasslands. He knew Cake wasn't home, they'd had lunch with her and Lord Monochromicorn earlier before the couple flew off for a quiet date. So, Flint went to the next-nearest person who could help with all speed, feeling fiery tears of worry brimming in his eyes.

Hold on, Miss Fionna…

Marshall Lee sat forward with a jolt at the sound of a breaking window in his home, and he bolted downstairs to see his front window shattered with a rock laying amongst the shards. Outside, he saw Flint, staring right at him. Marshall Lee hissed viciously and flew out through the broken window with his axe guitar in hand. "What the glob'd you break my window for?!"

"Forget the window, Fionna needs help!" Flint cried. He'd used the same tactic with Marshall Lee that he used to let Fionna know when he was at the treehouse; throwing pebbles at the window to catch her attention. But the rock was too big and he'd thrown too hard in his rush. He didn't care, and it seemed Marshall Lee forgot about it at the mention of Fionna. It was midafternoon, so without another word, Marshall Lee retrieved his umbrella and they sped across the plains to the river. But they arrived to see the bridge entirely gone.

"No! No she was here!" Flint shouted, glowing brightly in anger and worry. Marshall Lee flew off downstream, Flint following on the banks, until they found where the pieces of the bridge had come to a halt, lodged against a log that had fallen over the river. Fionna was there, having lost her white bunny-eared hat, and she was crushed between two large pieces, clinging to the log above for dear life.

"Shoot the pieces!" Marshall called out as he landed on the log and took Fionna's hands.

"I'll hurt her!"

"Shoot them or they'll crush her to death!" Marshall roared, and Flint hesitated only a moment longer before hurling fireballs at the wooden pieces. His aim was true enough not to hit Fionna, but the impact caused her to yelp in pain as one jagged and broken piece of wood dislodged and slashed her side as it was carried away. Marshall pulled her up and out of the water just before she could be carried away when the pieces broke loose, and Fionna found herself in his arms, clinging tightly around his neck and shivering violently between shock and cold.

"C'mere!" Marshall growled to Flint as he brought Fionna back to the riverbank. Flint drew near and Marshall took off his grey plaid shirt, leaving him in just his grey tank. He wrapped Fionna in the long shirt and when Flint wouldn't get close enough, Marshall Lee outright grabbed his arm and pulled him in so Fionna could warm up,

"Marshall Lee," Flint gasped as Marshall pulled his hand away and grit his teeth.

"It'll be gone by tomorrow," Marshall Lee snapped, telling him without further words to focus on Fionna. Flint knelt before her, letting her get as close as was safe to warm herself before she could catch hypothermia from the cold river. Marshall Lee pulled away and dipped his burnt hand in the water to sooth it without another word.

"M-Marshall," Fionna spoke through chattering teeth after a long silence.

"Yeah, bunny?" Marshall Lee answered softly, not even realizing he'd said the nickname. He looked over his shoulder at her.

"Th-Thank you…" she whispered, then she looked to Flint, who seemed a little bit ashamed of himself for having taken so long to bring help, even though he'd gone as fast as he could. He only wished he could've been able to save her, that his fire wouldn't have been quenched by the water, that he could've been her hero like she always was for him. "Flint?"

"Hm…? Yes, Miss Fionna?" He asked her softly, immediately attentive to her words.

"Thank you too. I'd be so dead meat if you hadn't gotten Marshall Lee." She gave him a smile, letting him know she was okay. "If you'd gotten anyone else, you would've never gotten here in time." Flint then realized, with a soft smile, he actually was a hero in a small way, at least in her eyes. If he'd not gotten the lightning-fast flying vampire, Fionna might've drowned or been crushed by the time he arrived with help.

"I just… wish I could've saved you without help," Flint told her honestly. "No offense to Marshall Lee, but… I wish I hadn't needed help."

"Everyone needs help," Fionna told him with a smile as warmth crept back into her bones. "Why d'you think I have Cake, and Marshall has me?"

Marshall Lee raised an eyebrow, looking over his shoulder from where he was letting his burnt hand trail in the water. "Psh, I don't need help."

"Says the guy who insisted we 'needed three' for the Dungeon of Doors."

"Hey, if not for the magicky stuff in there, I totally could've done it alone."

"Uh-huh. Alright, then, boys, take me home." Fionna rose with Marshall's shirt drawn tightly around her.

"Are you sure you're alright?" Flint asked worriedly as he rose at the same time. "You were hurt-"

"Just scratched up. I'll be okay, Flint. Promise," Fionna assured him brightly as the cold gave way to her usually peppy attitude. She still insisted Flint walk close beside her, and the three made their way back to the treehouse. Flint didn't go in for fear of burning the place, but Fionna changed into dry clothes and made soup before coming out to join him and Marshall. Marshall Lee put aside his umbrella as the sun set below the horizon, and Flint glowed warmly, glad to see Fionna was alright, and he and Marshall Lee seemed to be on good terms.

"I still haven't forgiven you for breaking my window," Marshall grunted after a long silence following a short discussion about what had happened at the bridge.

"What?" Fionna looked to Flint in confusion.

"I… I threw a big rock at his window, like I do with the pebbles here, to get his attention…" flint explained quietly, blushing with embarrassment. Fionna only giggled and Marshall Lee fixed her with a highly unimpressed glare. "I can fix it easily," Flint told the Vampire King. "I will after Miss Fionna goes to bed."

"Which'll be right…" Yaaaaawn. "About now," Fionna murmured before rising. "Y'know… falling into a freezing river can really take it out of you."

"Alright fine. C'mon, Torchy."

"I've told you ten times now, Torcho-"

"Is your cousin, I know," Marshall Lee sighed and rolled his eyes. "Let's go."

"Bye, boys. Play nice!" Fionna called after them.

"Yes, mom!" Marshall called back teasingly, floating lazily above Flint as they made their way back toward Marshall Lee's cavern home. Flint set to carefully rearranging the shattered glass, melting them one-by-one back into place in the window. It was a long and painstaking puzzle, but eventually, Marshall Lee couldn't tell at all that it had been broken. "Finally," he huffed, going inside and fetching the rock Flint had thrown. "And take your stupid rock with you. Just yell next time."

"Hopefully, for Miss Fionna's sake, there won't be a next time," Flint sighed with a nod.

"Hey…" Marshall murmured, looking down when Flint met his eyes for a moment. "About what I said before… y'know, about you always hurting Fionna… I take it back, man."

"I think we would both hurt her much worse if we were to stay away for her safety," Flint spoke with wisdom that his lion-mother Asha would be proud of.

"Yeah… I think you're right. So… thanks for, y'know, coming and getting me. I'd think you'd ask someone a lot… well, nicer."

"Nicer doesn't make up for the fact that you're a very intelligent and quick person, Marshall Lee. And Fionna trusts you, so I do too."

"Again with that? Man… Her, Gumball, now you?"

"What?"

"You all apparently see something you like about me, and I still don't get it."

"You have a good heart." That made Marshall Lee pause and look straight at Flint, who was now turning away with a smile. "Goodnight, Marshall Lee. Oh, and I believe I missed it a few weeks ago… Happy Birthday. I hope you liked my gift."

Flint left the entirely confused and frozen-in-surprise Vampire King behind him as he made his way to his cavern home. Marshall Lee hadn't had a real birthday party since he was very young, a makeshift operation by Symone, his caretaker and mother-figure back then when his real mother had lost him in the mortal world. That was back during the Mushroom War… The party that Fionna had secretly set up for him included Prince Gumball's newly-discovered perfect red velvet cake which Marshall had enjoyed way too much, a sweet leather choker with a bear claw from Fionna, a handmade white and black plaid shirt from Cake, and then a little stone statuette of a crescent moon imbued with a magical glow that nobody else seemed to know about. The stone moon looked naturally-formed and the glow turned out to be a magical recording spell, as explained by a note burned into a sheet of birchbark beside it. Marshall Lee had been using it to record himself making random tunes away from home so he could come back and work on them later. Now that he knew who had left it, it seemed so obvious that it was Flint. The charred note on bark, the way the little moon with all its symbols and markings that seemed to have formed naturally from obsidian… Why hadn't he seen it before? Flint had made it and enchanted it, likely with the help of some witch or wizard.

Marshall Lee quietly returned to his home, mulling over all that had happened in those short few hours between himself, Fionna, and Flint. Then, he sat down to play a somber tune with his recording amulet, despite the pain in his fretting hand.

Why do I always assume the worst?

Even when he's just like me…

Why can I never see the good,

Not even in me…?

Because there's none to be had,

None left if there ever was.

There's none to be had,

Even if there ever was.

I know why I always assume the worst,

Because he's just like me.

That's why I never see the good…

Not even… in me…

A lot of Flint recently, I know, but that's because he's got just as much to do with this season as Marshall Lee does, plus he's a good buffer to secretly bounce Marshall's feelings off of and make him consider himself when he realizes that, take away the rocker-villain vibes and the titles and the flames, he and Flint are very similar. Ohoho.

-Taiylor Wallace