Chapter 2

"Marceliiiiine!" The aforementioned Vampire Queen raised her head groggily from her pillow. Who dared raise the great Marceline, Bass Master, Empress of Darkness, Great and Powerful Lady of Sexy Malevolence? A knock shook her from her ruminations as the voice rang out again.

"Maaarceliiiine!" Oh. It was Finn. She let out a throaty chuckle as she floated from bed and began to dress. Of course it was Finn. The little squirt was the only one who ever showed up unannounced; everyone else was too scared to. But not Finn. Marceline paused a moment to think about the kid. It was odd she still called him squirt when, physically, he was older than her. At six feet tall, the boy she had met all those years ago had become a man. And what a man… Marceline shook her head, banishing such thoughts from her mind; Finn didn't like her that way, so why should she? She softly hovered towards the door after checking the mall mirror to make sure that yes, thank you, she did look fabulous today. Composing herself before the door, she pulled it open abruptly, and in her best fake-mad voice, shouted,

"What the lump are you dweebs doing? You woke me up!" As per usual, Finn was completely nonplussed. He grinned, hiding something behind his back.

"Hey, Marcie, I found this in a forest by Raggedy Princess's shack. Do you think you can help me learn how to use it?" He pulled the object from behind his back. Her eyes widened as she tried to comprehend what he was holding out to her.

"Oh my glob, a guitar! I haven't seen one of these since before the War!" She took it from his hand, inspecting the golden "Taylor" inscribed on the headstock. She fingered the frets, and sighed in aural pleasure as a beautiful G chord resonated through the air. Strumming in a quick pattern, she started to sing,

"wasting time…

All along you were

just wasting mine…

Ignoring all the signs

That point their way

out of our time…"

Finn grinned as he listened to beautiful voice of the raven haired girl.

"That's great, who is it?"

"No one important, just some band from a long time ago." She smiled softly. "I lost my CD's when the War went down, so now all I have of them are some chord sheets and memories." Her smile adopted a tinge of melancholy. Then she brightened. "So what did you need again?" Finn seemed to come out of a trance, shaking his head and smiling.

"Oh yeah, so, me and Jake found this and I was wondering if you could teach me how to play." Marceline was taken aback.

"Yeah, sure, I guess I could teach you." Her expression smoothly shifted from shock to excitement. "It'll be great to have someone to play with again!" She beckoned him inside. "Do you want your first lesson now?" Finn smiled brightly as he stepped inside. He turned to Jake, "Hey, do you want to come chill with us while I learn?" Jake shook his head.

"Nah, man, I gotta see Lady Rainicorn. She'll have picked the kids up from P.B.'s by now. I'll see you at home tonight."

"Aiight. Tell Heeryong and Jamie that Uncle Finn said hey."

"Will do, brother!" A quick fist pump later and Jake was on his way. Finn turned and carried his new guitar into Marceline's room. She grabbed a stool from her closet and set it up for him.

"Alright, so you know nothing about guitars, do you?"

"Well, I've watched you, but… not really, no." He looked slightly downcast. Marceline smiled reassuringly.

"That's fine." She said, patting his knee. She grabbed her axe bass and started pointing out different components of the instrument.

"Here's a crash course in the parts. Here's the headstock, and these are the tuning keys. The keys keep the strings in tune. Speaking of, these here are the strings…"

A couple hours of foundation training later, Finn was ready to start. He put his hands where Marceline had shown him for a G chord, inhaled, and strummed-a discordant jangle was his reward. Slightly miffed, he continued plucking at the strings, failing to generate more than an unpleasant jangled sound.

"Marciiiiie, I can't do it!" He whined dejectedly, hanging his head and pouting. Marceline smiled.

"You're not pressing down on the frets enough." She said, floating over to him and putting her arms around him to help. Finn blushed as he felt her pressed against his back. She softly smiled before continuing, "You've got to press down all the way on the strings, or they won't vibrate right." She put her fingers over his, depressing them completely. She moved his other hand across the strings and played the chord. She looked up him and smiled. "Get it?" He nodded. She grinned, kissed his cheek, and floated back to her bass as he flushed crimson and tried to concentrate on his guitar. She did that to him a lot. He figured it was a power thing; she was a radical dame who liked to play games, and seeing how red she could make him was one of them. He dismissed it and kept practicing.

It didn't take long for Finn's fingers to start hurting. At that point he kept pausing to blow on them so much that Marceline called time for a break. They went off to her living room for a snack; Finn lounged on the couch while Marceline grabbed some sodas from the kitchen fridge.

"Hey, catch." She said, tossing a plaid can to Finn. He caught it with ease and studied the label.

"Radi-cola?" He said, perplexed. "Where'd you get this stuff? I've never seen it before."

"Oh, I bought it off a raccoon at a party a loooong time ago." She waved her hand. "But that's not important. So tell me, why'd you want to learn guitar?" Her eyes were bright and attentive. Finn shifted a little.

"Well, I mean, I always see you playing bass, and Jake has his viola, and even P.B. can use Beemo to make music. I was just kinda tired of just beat boxing, you know?"She nodded, understanding completely.

"You wanted your own voice." "Yeah…" He absently sipped his drink and looked down at his sore fingers. "But I never thought playing guitar would hurt!" Marceline giggled.

"You just have to practice more," she said, "soon enough you'll start building up calluses like mine." She touched her hands to his, and Finn marveled at the complexity of feeling that her hands conveyed; strength and tenderness, rough and gentle, a juxtaposition that suited perfectly the girl whose eyes he was now staring into deeply. Slowly, almost imperceptibly, their faces moved towards each other, the scarlet orbs of her eyes seeming to swell until they dominated the whole of his vision. His pulse quickened; a bead of sweat formed on his brow. Then, as their faces moved ever so slowly towards each other, deliberately, sweetly- Finn's phone rang.

"Adventure Time! C'mon grab your friends! We'll go to ve-"was all the phone blared out before Finn frantically grabbed it to answer.

"Nice ringtone." said Marceline amusedly, a playful if disappointed look on her face.

"Yeah, well, heh, you know…" Finn chuckled weakly before turning to the phone. "What do you need, Jake?" He nearly hissed, inwardly seething at the interruption.

"Hey, bro, I need you to watch the kids tonight. Something came up and Bob needs my help in the Crystal Dimension. You know, business stuff. Can you help me out?" Finn sighed.

"Yeah, I'll be there in a bit." He turned to Marceline with a rueful look. "Jake needs me to babysit the kids. Is it okay if we cut the lesson short?" Marceline's expression softened.

"Yeah, it's cool." She said, sweetly. "Just practice what I showed you and come back in a couple days so I can gauge your progress. Mkay?" Finn smiled.

"'Kay." He picked up his guitar and started making for the door.

"Wait!" came Marceline's voice. He turned, perplexed. She flew up to her room and came back with a big guitar case. "This'll keep your guitar safer than just carrying it around all exposed-like." She proffered it to him, and he took it happily. He snapped it open after a moment of examination and nestled his guitar into the plush interior. He inspected the leather exterior and all the stickers atop it.

"Simple Plan? Rancid? Fall Out Boy? What're those?"

"Echoes from a forgotten time, Finn." She said with a tinge of nostalgia, "Just echoes." She patted her knees and stood, or rather, shifted from a sitting position to a more upright one in midair. "Now, you got some unholy abominations to watch over." She paused. "Come to think of it, I have no idea what you'd call the tykes. Rainipups? Puppicorns?" She shook her head. "Anyways, scoot." Finn grinned and headed back for the door. With his hand on the doorknob, he paused.

"Hey, Marcie?" He said in a strange, strangled voice. Her head shot up.

"Yes, Finn?" For a moment, he seemed about to say something important, but the appeared to think better of it and simply stated,

"Thanks for teaching me guitar."

"Oh… Yeah, no problem." She said, bemused. Finn nodded and walked out the door. Halfway out of the cave, he stopped and looked back. For a moment, he fancied she would be thinking of him the same as he was thinking of her. But then the moment passed, and he dismissed the thought as frivolous; she was a super tough, beautiful vampire queen. She had no feelings for him. He had imagined the moment earlier. He turned back and kept walking.

Inside the house Marceline floated beside the window. For a moment, she fancied Finn turned back to look at her. Then, just as soon as it had happened, he kept walking. She must have imagined it. Finn was probably too stuck in seeing her as a friend to think of her as anything else. Still, that moment in the living room… it seemed like he'd been about to kiss her. She decided she'd do a couple tests to see if he could really feel anything for her. She turned back and sat idly strumming her bass. A smile formed on her face as she considered finishing that almost kiss.