Chapter 12: fake it till you make it

"Marshall? Fionna? Oh good! You two are together!" A plump, short girl with short hair walked over to the two of them and smiled.

"Uh, hey," Marshall greeted.

"Hi, I'm Casey, Peggy's daughter," she introduced with an out stretched hand.

"Pleasure to meet you," Fionna smiled and took her hand. They shook, and then Marshall shook her hand as well.

"And you. I'm sure you can guess why I've come all this way to meet you two," she said with a big grin.

"New challenge?" Marshall asked.

"Yup! Go ahead and start walking down to the center, Peggy will explain the next challenge in about ten minutes when everybody is there," she told them.

"Okie dokie, we're on it. Thanks for telling us," Fionna chirped.

"No problem, I'll see you there!" She waved as she started walking off to inform the other sponsors.

"You go ahead, I'm gonna use the bathroom really quickly," Fionna said and walked over to her camp to slip on her flip flops.

"Okay, I'll see you then," Marshall replied, trying his hardest not to stare as she bent over to get the grass out of the toes. He failed.

"See ya!" She hollered as she ran off to the unisex bathrooms.

He watched her bounce off for a few moments before shaking out of it and making his way to the center. It was strange not being around her. He's only had a few conversations with her over the course of the day, but damn had they been interesting. Interesting enough to miss her five seconds after she left. Marshall frowned. He was thinking like some kinda middle schooler with a hopeless crush on the popular girl. Over glorifying her and everything she did…or maybe she really was just that fucking great. He doubted it, it was his perception of her. Everything she did was cute, and everything about her made him want to melt in to her again. He hoped she liked him a little bit now, and started to regret teasing her by getting so close. He could feel her tense up and hold her breath, and see all the freckles starting to pop out of her faire skin from the sun. She was too temping to him…he needed to control himself better.

When he arrived at the center only four other teams were already there. He couldn't remember the exact number of teams, but he thought it was somewhere around ten or twelve. All he knew for certain was each group consisted of two members and one was female and the other male. It seemed a bit of an old fashion way to organize teams, but there was nothing he could really do about it. Marshall decided it didn't matter and leaned against his team numbered table. He pulled out his phone to check the time and noticed the countless calls he missed during the past five hours or so. Instead of calling back, he decided to power it down and leave it in his pocket until further notice.

Hopefully Fionna won't take too long, he was really starting to feel an urge to talk to her again. He wanted to know the basic shit about her. Like her favorite color, what music she likes, how many siblings she has. Stuff like that. He could feel the tug in his bones to find her and ask her these things, but before he could get his ass off the table someone had already gotten to him.

"Hey there," greeted a dark, curvy woman with a cherry red smile. She was the jeweler from the last challenge. Marshall was just looking up as she spoke to him, his mind still stuck in his thoughts before he stuttered out a hello.

"How's it going, hot stuff? You waiting for your partner?" She asked and popped her hip out to the side, resting her hand on it as she waited his response.

"Uh…yeah, she had to go the restroom," he replied noticing the beads that adorned her wrists and neck.

"That's a good idea, smart girl. What's your name again? Marshall?"

"Yeah, Marshall Lee Abadeer," he said.

"Pleasure to meet you! I'm Patrice Max, but everyone calls me Pat," she introduced herself and held out her hand. Marshall looked down at her outstretched hand and accepted it.

"Now, I'm sure someone like you probably already has a little darling of your own, but I tend to be a bit more optimistic. You doing anything after the challenge?"

"Um…e-excuse me?" Marshall stammered. She chortled and grinned.

"C'mon, honey. Don't tell me you've never been hit on before," she said seductively while taking a step forward. Marshall felt his hands get clammy as he tried to squish himself in to the counter.

"I don't think I have," he muttered bitterly.

"Well, baby. If you're not doing anything after this, you could always do me in the bathrooms if you'd like," she whispered and winked. He sighed.

"Look, you're a very beautiful woman, and I'm sure you have a great personality, but I'm just not interested," he told her. She took a step closer and pouted, twisting a lock of her curly dark hair in her slim fingers as she tilted her head.

"What do you mean? You said so yourself I'm beautiful. Don't worry, it'll be a no strings attached kinda thing, I won't drag," she assured him.

"Just because I think your pretty doesn't mean I wanna…I don't want to…" he got redder each time he tried to finish his sentence, but he felt…strangely dirty. This wasn't making sense, not too long ago he was telling Fionna how much fun it was to have a dirty mind and now…

"Gosh, so sorry for taking so long, babe. The line was unbelievably long, it was like everyone all of the sudden had to take a piss!" Marshall looked down at the source of the familiar voice and was greeted with a quick peck on the lips along with slim fingers intertwining with his. He blinked down at Fionna as she winked up at him and looked over at Patrice.

"Oh, who's this?" She asked curiously.

"Uh, this is Patrice. She's another team member," he introduced.

"Nice to meet you. The sponsors don't really talk to each other much, do we," she grinned and held her hand for her to shake. Patrice looked from her dainty hand up to her and then over to Marshall. Hesitantly, she accepted the blonds hand and shook.

"I love your bracelets, where did you get them?" She asked.

"Thanks, I made them," Pat replied curtly.

"That's neat. I don't normally wear bracelets, but I always thought they were really pretty."

"Who are you?" Patrice inquired harshly.

"Oh! Excuse me, where are my manners? I'm Fionna," she told her.

"Uh-huh, and how do you know Marshall?" She asked.

"I'm his girlfriend," she announced. She squeezed his hand affectionally in hers and Marshall blushed. Pat raised a skeptical brow and looked at Fionna and then Marshall.

"Is this true?"

"Yeah, of course it is," Marshall answered without hesitation. He let go of her hand and snaked his arm around her waist to pull her closer. Patrice looked at the two of them for a few moments and crossed her arms. She said nothing and then chuckled.

"Is there something funny?" Fionna asked. Pat smirked and rolled her eyes.

"Oh, no. It's just I didn't really think you two were the kind to swap spit with each other," she said rather bluntly. Fionna giggled as well, obviously not picking up her sarcasm.

"Yeah, we are a bit of an odd couple. But we've swapped a lot more than just spit, if you know what I mean," she joked and patted Marshall on the back. He laughed as well, trying to ignore the images her words had put in his head. Patrice chuckled again and smiled slightly.

"Well it was nice meeting you two. Good luck on the challenges," she said before turning to walk away.

"Thanks, you too!" Fionna replied before she had left. Once she was completely out of earshot, Marshall let out a deep breath.

"Thank fucking God you came back when you did," he sighed and combed his hand through his hair.

"No problem, it looked like you were in a real pickle," she responded as she fixed the collar of his red flannel. Her fingers brushed against his nape and he shivered slightly. He hoped she wouldn't notice, but of course she did.

"Are you ticklish?" She asked with a smirk.

"No," he lied.

"I think you are."

"I'm not."

"Are you sure?"

"Positive," he stated looking down at her and ending their argument. She frowned, but only for a second before rolling her eyes.

"Whatever you liar, you're lucky I'm being nice to you," she sassed.

"Wow? You're being nice, I never would've guessed," he snarked with a flirtatious smirk.

"Well I am, so you better appreciate it."

"Whatever," he chuckled. It was only when he rubbed his thumb against the thick fabric of her belt that he realized his arm was still snugly wound around her waist. Her body was so close and he hadn't even noticed. He looked down at her and she looked up, sticking her tongue out in the most endearing way as he stared at her dumbfounded.

"Does…this mean we have to pretend to date to make sure she doesn't suspect that we're lying?" He asked. Fionna blinked, becoming aware of his arm as well as that realization hit her like a ton of bricks.

"I…guess we do," she replied. "Fuck, I haven't dated anyone since college…I dunno what to do or how to act," she panicked.

"I haven't had a serious relationship since high school! All I've had is like on-again-off-agains and one night stands and shit," he told her, panicking a little as well.

"Calm down! I'm sure we can do this. I mean…it can't be that hard can it?" She was starting to sound desperate.

"I'm sure it can't be so hard, just h-hand holding and stuff like that. Our spots are already right next to each other so it shouldn't be too difficult," he pointed out.

"Yeah! This…this'll be easy…I hope."