Marceline ducks to avoid the apple flying through the air towards her head. She laughs and grabs and spoonful of strawberry jam, flicking the jam through the air and hitting Finn straight in the face. She laughs even harder and ducks behind a fallen card table, a makeshift barricade in the ongoing food-war.

Finn licks the jam off his face with a slurp and grins, snatching a tomato off the counter and hurling it over the cards table.

"Haha," he lets out a cry of victory as he hears the tomato hit his target with a splat. "Gotcha!"

He ducks, waiting for the retaliation to come flying over the card table, but there is nothing. "Marceline…?" Finn approaches the table slowly and cautiously, ready to dodge the attack he was anticipating. He quickly pushes the card table aside, only to find a tomato splattered on the tile floor, but no Marceline.

"What the… Oof!" Marceline darts out from her hiding place and tackles the human boy to the ground. "Buns! You got me…"

"What can I say? Super awesome vampire beats wimpy human boy every time." Marceline responds with a joking smile.

"Hey, I'm not a wimp…" Finn glares at the vampire queen, still pinned to the tile floor. Marceline shrugs nonchalantly and sits up, observing the mess that the food fight has made in her kitchen.

"You're cleaning this up."

"Oh c'mon… It's not my fault!"

"Hmm," Marceline considers. "Fine. I'll help you clean this up."

"Mmmmmmmm okay!" Finn pushes Marceline off him and runs out of the room. "I'll get the mooooooop!"

Marceline smiles. Such an enthusiastic kid. His positive energy was refreshing to her, like a candle in the dark. She wishes she could be a great mentor for him, teach him life lessons and values. But messing around was so much more fun then teaching little boys about life. And anyway, what advice did she have to give about life? What had she accomplished in life? She was over 1000 years old and all she had to show was two lost families and a list of people she'd pushed away. She wanted to make sure Finn never ended up sad and lonely like her. She cared about him too much to let that happen. He was like a little brother to her.

Finn rummaged through Marceline's hallway closest, brushing away irrelevant items so he could find what he was looking for.

"Blugnuts! Where's that stupid mop?" He mutters as tosses an empty can of soup behind him, unearthing a worn piece of notebook paper. Something about the paper peaks Finn's interest, and he snatches it from the messy terrain of dust at the bottom of the closet.

Marceline,

I hope and pray you never read these letters. I have treated you like a diary, and for that I am sorry. This crown is making me say things I don't know about and forget who Simon Petrikov really is. Soon, I plan on burning these letters, so that no one has to read the diary of a dying man. I can only hope that you will

"Hey! Don't read that!" Marceline snatches the letter from Finn's chubby fingers. Marceline reads through the letter with a scowl on her face and throws it back into the closet. She sits against the wall holding her knees, closing her eyes sighing heavily at the ceiling.

"I'm sorry, I didn't know… I didn't mean to…" Marceline waves her hand for him to stop. She takes a deep breath and opens her eyes.

"It's okay, I've already read that one before."

"What do you mean?"

"Nevermind, it's not important… When I was a kid, y'know, after the days when my mom would patch me up, Simon used to be the one who'd patch me up and make everything okay. But he doesn't even know who I am anymore. It's hard for a kid like you to understand, it was hard for me to understand then too. But, I shouldn't complain. Everyone has their own problems."

"That's heavy stuff." Says Finn, scratching his head. "Your stories can really bum a guy out, Marceline."

"Sorry to trouble you." Marceline says sincerely. Finn stands up, brushing the dirt off his shorts. He smiles and holds out a hand to help Marceline up. She reaches for the mop at the back of the closet and hands it to Finn. "Let's finish cleaning, I don't want to live in a house with a sticky kitchen."

"This stinks." Finn complains, cleaning tomato sauce off the floor. "I came over here to jam out."

Marceline grins mischievously, eyeing the open jar on the counter. She reaches in, scooping a handful of raspberry goo from the glass jar. "We can still jam…"

Splat.

Marceline is nailed straight in the face with raspberry jam just as she turns around, prepared to fire. Finn laughs, and licks the excess jam off of his hand.

"Ugh! Finn… I'm gonna kill you!" Marceline chuckles and chases after Finn, chucking raspberry jelly at him while he ducks behind furniture, the whole house ringing with laughter.

Yes, this chapter was surprisingly not so depressing. At least I hope. What can I say, I was in a good mood. Sorry Finceline shippers but yeah... no. It ain't happenin'. So... Is it rasberry or rasPberry? Weirrrdd words! Gah, English is a dumb language right? Have a splendid day/evening! :3

-Sam