Chapter 11: talking like normal people…ish

"Not my face though," she told him again.

"I got that the first five times," he replied, smiling at her gently with a raised brow.

"I'm just making sure you know. I have sensitive skin, and I can barely find a foundation that doesn't break me out," she sassed.

"Baby, you don't need any," he charmed, hitting her with his most flirtatious smile and biting his lip out of habit. Fionna blushed bright red and slapped his shoulder.

"No flirting with me! That's seriously unfair," she hissed. Marshall laughed.

"What's so unfair about it?" He questioned dipping a wide brush in to a nice red color.

"B-because I can't…" again, Fionna was mumbling.

"I can't understand you when you barely move your lips."

"Because I can't flirt back," she said a little louder with her cheeks a little redder. Marshall turned pink himself.

"You can't flirt? Why not?"

"I don't know how to," she murmured shyly as he pressed the paint soaked brush to her arm.

"I see, you're one of those people who never learned how to do that stuff."

"Well, I never needed to know how. In high school guys kinda just flocked around me so I really just had to pick and choose. I dated this one guy in my senior year and it continued until like my junior year in college. I've been single ever since," she explained.

"Hmm, makes sense. High school guys are pathetic. Trust me, I was one and it was sad," he said as he added more to her arm. Fionna giggled.

"Oh yeah? How sad?"

"Very," he replied while cleaning his brush and picking up a new color. "This one time, I asked out a girl and she said no. So I tried asking out another girl who was not as hot to make her jealous, but she turned me down too. Then, the first girls boyfriend beat me up for harassing everyone."

"You asked out a girl who already had a boyfriend?" Fionna questioned holding back her laughter.

"I didn't know at the time. He went to a different school and it wasn't like I was stalking her," he defended.

"Wow, Marshall, you're so smooth," she giggled sarcastically.

"I know I am, baby, you don't have to tell me," he said a little quietly and looked up at her. Fionna brushed off his flirting with some nervous laughter and looking down at the grassy ground. Marshall couldn't help but grin at how red her cheeks were. She flushed like a rose, and her eyes sparkled like morning dew on a blue bell. He tried to work between glances, but if he was any more distracted he would've painted her portrait. So he forced himself to focus on her arm and the paint on his brush.

"What are you painting anyways?" She asked after a few moments of silence.

"It's a surprise," he said and stuck his brush between his teeth to hold it as he reached for a different one.

"I hate surprises. Just tell me," she urged. He looked up to her for a moment and shook his head, trying and failing to hold back his smile.

"No way, bossy pants. You might've been able to bark orders at me during the challenge, but now I can do whatever I want." His voice was slightly muffled by the brush, but he was still understandable.

"That's why I don't like surprises. You could be painting anything on me right now," she pointed out.

"What do you think I'm painting? A dick?" He questioned pulling the smaller brush from his mouth.

"Could be. I dunno what you're doing," she said stubbornly.

"Oh, c'mon. I'm not a high schooler, don't you trust me?"

"Not in a million years."

"Do you really think I would draw a dick on you?"

"There's a chance you are."

"And there's also a chance that you're pulling my leg and didn't even think that in the first place," he suggested and cleaned his brush again. He set down the larger one and let the smaller one sit in the jar before picking out a thinner smaller brush.

"I'm not pulling anything on you," she said without thinking. He looked up at her in surprise at the words that had left her mouth. It took her a few moments before she caught on and blushed furiously.

"U-uh, I-I didn't mean it l-like that! I was j-just…I mean…!" She signed and slapped a palm over her forehead. "Don't listen to me, I have no clue what I'm saying," she whimpered. Marshall laughed and pulled her hand from her head.

"Don't sweat it. That's probably the strangest way someone told me they're not gonna give me a hand job, but it's not the first time," he assured her.

"I-I didn't mean that! I wasn't trying to say anything about…" Fionna hesitated and then whispered, "…hand jobs."

"Sure you weren't," he chortled and then continued painting.

"I swear! Unlike you, I'm not some kinda uncivilized perv who only thinks about sex," she snarked. He chuckled and placed his hand under the paint on her arm, his callouses tickling her skin and sending electric currents down her back.

"Oh, but life is so much more fun when you have a dirty mind," he purred and leaned closer. Fionna's heart was about to beat out of her chest. His stupid smile was getting closer and closer to her until she could feel his warm breath on her cheeks. Her toes curled under themselves in the healthy grass, and her body became tense in the metal chair she sat in. She could feel herself unconsciously holding her breath as he chuckled once more and then pulled back.

"Calm down, buttercup, you look like you're gonna have a heart attack," he said abruptly. She blinked.

"Huh?"

"I wasn't really gonna kiss you, so you can save the smacking for later," he told her as he cleaned up his brushes and started putting them away.

"O-oh…"

"I'm finished now, and I'll just tell you now that I did not draw a dick on your arm," he announced. Fionna looked down at her arm and saw what looked like red and yellow blobs on her arm.

"Well I wouldn't know because I can't exactly see it," she sassed. Marshall rolled his eyes and pulled up a hand mirror from his table for her to see. Her eyes caught the illustration through the reflection and froze. There, perfectly placed on her arm, was a magnificent cluster of ruby red poppies in a patch of grass painted on her skin. She gaped at the reflection as he eyes traced the tiny details and curved with the petals of the flowers. He did that in such a short amount of time…it was almost unbelievable. It left her speechless, and dumbfounded. The only words she could manage to find were…

"What the fuck?" She blurted harshly. Marshall furrowed his brows in confusion.

"Um…do you not like it?" He asked. She looked at him like he was crazy.

"Are you kidding? Of course I like it."

"Well, when people say 'what the fuck' it's usually a bad thing," he replied.

"Sorry, it's just…Jesus Christ it looks so pretty and perfect. Did you seriously just do that?"

"Uh, yeah. What did you think I was doing? Drawing five white circles with yellow one in the middle?" He questioned.

"Uh, yeah. That's what people expect when they're getting body paint at events like these. The only place I'd expect this from is fucking Disney land." She went back to staring at it through the mirror and was tempted to run her fingers over it. Marshall laughed, flattered by her blunt compliment and blushing slightly.

"I thought about working there, but there's too many kids."

"You qualify?" She asked.

"Yeah, but they were asking me to work there," he responded setting down the mirror.

"Wow, that's big. Is this all you do or is there more miraculous talents to you?" She asked and leaned her face on her palm. He shrugged.

"I like to dabble a bit with music. Guitar and vocals mostly."

"Oh yeah, I thought I saw guitars in your…" Fionna trailed off. It was a mixture of awkwardness and fear that stopped her from speaking. Oh shit. She basically just invited him to talk about that night. "…y-your…um."

"My…room?" He questioned. Her cheeks turned pink again and she looked away. Marshall sighed.

"We gotta stop this," he said. Fionna's eyes returned to his.

"Stop what?"

"This…whole 'pretending like it never happened' shit. It's making things kinda awkward," he told her.

"I-it works for me," she stuttered.

"It obviously doesn't. You couldn't even say you were in my room," he pointed out.

"Well excuse me for forgetting and not wanting to talk about it," she said harshly.

"C'mon, Fionna, we gotta talk about it sooner or later. It was just a one time thing, and we were drunk and we were being stupid."

"So you regret it?" She asked. Marshall was caught by surprise.

"W-what?"

"That night. You're saying we were being stupid. Do you regret doing something so stupid?" She reiterated.

"I…I can't say I regret it," he stammered with a nervous laugh. "I mean, it's sex for Christ's sake. It's kind of…I mean, i-it was good if that's what you're asking."

"I wasn't asking that!" She squeaked with discomfort.

"Okay, okay! Sorry, just stay calm," he hushed and placed a hand on her arm.

"I was just asking if you regret it, not if you liked it," she muttered.

"Do you regret it?" He asked. She looked him in the eyes and hesitated.

"A little bit. I'm not a fan of one night stands," she answered.

"Yeah, I don't blame you." Fionna nodded and they sat in silence for a few moments. Marshall's hand was still on her arm, his skin gliding perfectly over hers as he drew patterns in her forearm.

"If you don't mind me asking…did you like it?" He inquired. She blushed.

"Um…do you want me to be honest?"

"Awh, was I that bad?"

"No! I-I mean…you did all the right things, and it felt really g-good. It's just there wasn't a real spark between us," she explained.

"You make it sound like we're in the princess diaries," he chuckled. Fionna rolled her eyes and smacked his arm lightly with her free one.

"Whatever dude, that's what Cake said."

"Cake? You told her?" He questioned with a smirk.

"More like she forced me to tell her, but yeah…sorry."

"I don't mind," he smiled. She looked at him skeptically.

"Okay then…"