In which Bonnibel gets pecked by birds

[royal_tarts]

Characters: Princess Bubblegum, Marceline the Vampire Queen & Fionna the Human
Date:  Backdated to the morning of December 22nd
Summary:  Day breaks on the second day.
Warnings: None. Well, maybe a little language.

Comments

In which Bonnibel pointlessly truncates a nickname, and finds a zipper.

[royal_tarts]

"Oh Marcy I told you I had to take care of some stuff! I needed to get you something so you could get out of the tent without looking like." She paused, trying to find a good analogy. "A trussed up sausage! And besides you probably would have gotten junked up on cabin fever sitting in there waiting if I'd woken you up before I left, silly." And I didn't want to make you uncomfortable after last night. And I thought you might need some space. And I needed to be alone to think about some stuff. And oh lemons was that water potable? Do you need to boil that junk before you drink it? ...And I never expected you to be worried about me.

"Mhm, we're totes even now Marzi." She followed up with an equally quiet voice, while truncating Marzipan to Marzi, which fit easily enough because of its phonetic similarity to her usual nickname of Marcy. Marzipan was powerfully cute, and she had to be careful with its use so as not to cheapen it. And then she gave Marceline a wink and that saucy grin was back. "Hmm, actually nope. Now you owe me for saving your buns from the sun!" The lecture, and subsequent 'moment' had gone on just up to the point of the tent collapsing. As soon as they heard the crash Marceline and Princess Bubblegum had indeed dropped everything to run over and frantically search for that elusive zipper.

"Fionna we're working on it, you patoot!" And, there! There it was! She ran it along its track opened the tent flap, and reached in to help extract the trapped Fionna. "Ow. Oh, ow." she winced, her bird induced bruises were sore, and hurting from all of this moving about. "There! What in the cautiously cooked cabbage happened? Are you okay, Fionna?"

In which we learn why the food is called pigs in a blanket and not adventurers in a blanket.

[lost_moral_code]

"Yeah," The words dragged from between her pain, difficult but not in anyway painful or embarrassing to say. "It kind of slipped my mind or some junk," Had this been another place (OOO) or another time (last week) Marceline would have made a big scene about being told that she looked like a trussed up sausage! In the here and know it was not only a totally honest assessment but totally flipping funny. Her throat tight and dry from the chill that still hung in the air, Marcy gave a hoarse laugh. "It was my bad, BonBon." She badly wanted to add in Thank you for looking out for me; however, her tongue slammed into the roof of her mouth until the urge passed. If only the Vampire Queen knew that there was so much to teach Bonni about survival she would have balked and been in shock for a few days!

Never mind, the affection would do just well for putting Marceline in a state of JJ Flip, what the zip! From Marzipan to Marzi in a shot, in hushed tones no less! Yet again they had slipped into having a moment! "Y..yeah," She coughed as hard as she could, as if that would clear not only the tightness from her throat but also the strange thoughts from her head. In the pre-war books and movies when two people talked quietly while leaning close they..
Not going there!

"Totally even," She found herself once more, "-for now!" From them screaming, flailing and flopping it was obvious that Fionna was awake and struggling. It would be mean to leave her to it for too much longer, right? Before she could find the zipper or flaps herself Bonni had a hold of them and was tugging the collapsed tent open.

"What the fig Fionna," Marceline hovered just behind Bonnibel, "--did you have a nightmare of some junk?" She was thankful for the parasol for so many reasons.The main one being that it hid her rather questionable expression.

Re: In which we learn why the food is called pigs in a blanket and not adventurers in a blanket.

[fionna_time]

Finally FINALLY Fionna was able to get out of the blasted tent. She looked more than a little bewildered, and was more then embarrassed to says she had totes forgotten that the three of them were in a tent to begin with. In an attempt to at least earn herself some scrap of dignity with the girls, she stretched and adjusted her hat.

"I'm fine dudes," she said. "I'm just sorta used to charging out of bed with full energy and junk. I totes forgot we were still, you know, in a tent. Lemme go set it up and try to get all our stuff together. I'm real sorry."

She then noticed, aside from the fact there was a sort of adorable tension in the air, that Marceline seemed to have somehow acquired some shelter from the sun in the form of an umbrella.

"Oh neat dude, where did you..." Her voice trailed off when she saw it, there on the floor. The SWORD. "Oh, no way man! You got one!?"

She ran over to it, inspecting the detail, her eyes shining. "Wow!"

In which Bonnibel gets misty eyed over symmetry.

[royal_tarts]

"Oh plums Fionna, you startled us! Me. you startled me. And probably Marceline too, right Marceline?" Since when as there an 'us'? And what was that just then? She hadn't even meant for anything to happen, but there was indeed a...moment. A moment that ended a little too soon for her liking. That beautiful serene composure Bonni had worked up this morning was already starting to wear down, she was already feeling self conscious. This was going to be a long day. Oh right the sword! Thank Glob for the sword! Something else to think about!

"Mhm, and I totes paid for it dearly!" Bonni rolled back a sleeve, revealing a few bruises here and there along her arm. "The birds don't take too kindly to last minute additions, those massive...ly amazing wonderful creatures who are positively not butts!" She laughed nervously. Who knew if that jay was still lurking around, ready to swoop down and peck at her again for the slightest provocation. "But despite the terror from above I managed to get us all stuff that we totally needed. For Marcy the parasol, for you the sword, and some parchment for me."

"I know it's not in the best shape right now, but maybe you can take it to those cats and they do something with it? Besides, since your last sword was given to you by a Candy Prince, I thought it was only appropriate to get your next one from a Candy Princess. That makes it symmetrical." Bonni's OCD was showing. She looked a little wistful, and added sheepishly, "I like symmetrical."

In which Marceline calls Bonnibel a brain lord, in a nice way!

[lost_moral_code]

Us? When and how was there an us? That was something to thank about, to chew on and to generally freak out over; however, Marceline just nodded in agreement. Hey, not like it wasn't true! There was something pretty jarring about a tent attempting to eat your friend whole! That strange moment had come and gone--Marcie wasn't sure how she felt about it in the aftermath however.

At the mention of the dastardly Blue Jays Marcie gave a low hiss, her attempting at reminding the little jerks just who was at the top of the food chain here. Then again, without their help the three girls would have spent their first night hungry and sleeping literally in the snow. Giving a shifty glance about Marceline swallowed her hiss and painted on a smile. Yeah, she had been very much warned not to get on the bad side of the animals here. At the mention of her most awesome parasol she waved it, letting the precious jewel inlay catch enough light to sparkle. "Yeah, we owe her huge!"

Drifting over, playing a small game of catch up, Marceline went to get a look at the sword. "That is some seriously choice weaponry," she was actually in awe, it carried in her tone. "Now that's something that deserves to be called Math!" Then and there, Marceline was distracted by something: Bonnibel's wide, sparkling, starry eyes! At least the laugh she gave was good-natured! "Total Brain lord!" For the first time ever it wasn't an insult, it was a term of endearment.

In which Fionna waves her sword around!

[fionna_time]

Fionna, at this point, had no choice but to go straight to Princess Bubblegum and give her a great big hug. What she never would have said to the Candy Princess was that it had in fact NOT been Prince Gumball that had given her the sword, it had been Ice Queen, but that didn't matter. The thought behind it, the idea that a Princess from another place had even thought to give her something this awesome actually made her very happy.

When releasing the Princess though, she did turn to the bluejays and say, "Guys, no more pecking at Princess Bubblegum, ok? She is one of the kindest, sweetest most awesome monarchs in forever, and you'll have to answer to me and Marcie if she ever gets hurt again, all right?"

Seriously, Fionna was more than happy with the gift, and showed Marceline how intricate it was. "Sure man, I'll get the cats to help fix it," she said, and then turned to look at Marceline's new parasol. "Oh man, this looks just as awesome as my sword! Sweet! Thanks so much, Princess!"

In which Bonnibel proves that she does not know how to set up a tent.

[royal_tarts]

Bonni happily accepted, and returned Fionna's hug. Being able to do something for her friends like this, and seeing them so happy with their presents made the whole ordeal with the jays worth it. "Oh Marcy, does having an appreciation for an abstraction of euclidean geometry into real world situations make me brainlord? Wait, cabbages I guess it does." This was a first! Marceline hadn't ever called her a brainlord in a nice way before! Usually it was said with about the same tone Bonni would use to call her a butt, or some other posterior related insult. Maybe their friendship was starting to mend itself after all, despite the bits of awkwardness? While contemplating that Bonni made her way to the tent and tried to get it set back up. It should be easy for some one with her knowledge of physics and geometry, right? Well it wasn't. The thing was heavier than she expected, and it didn't at all want to stay steady or move in the ways she wanted it to.

"The sword is for carrying me to camp last night after I was a big dumb patoot and hurt my foot. And as an apology for bringing up something I shouldn't have like, again, a big dumb patoot. As for parasol, uhm, Marceline got me something ages ago. I thought I should be pretty overdue to give her something back."

Bonni put a hand on her hip, it looked like this tent was going to acquiesce after all! She was feeling powerfully proud right up until the point where it started to fall over. "Now the only debt left is in my favor for saving Marceline's bacon from the solar fry!" The tent wobbled about some more, and nearly landed on her. She panicked. "Hey, uh, guys can you help me with this amazing butt of a tent, before it flattens my buns? Oh and Fi! Sometime after we get this junked up junk the junk up could you be so awesome as try out your new sword and hunt us up some stuff to eat? I don't want to send Marcy out to do it during the day." She paused, and gave a mischievous smile, "And I am totes going to make her pay me back by tending to my bruises anyway!"

In which Marceline wonders if it is possible to rain check payback?

[lost_moral_code]

BonBon had really out done herself! When she had told Marceline that she had business to attend to, Marcie hadn't expected anything to this level! Then again, the Bubblegum Princess was a quick study and typically even quicker to action usually. Resourceful, yeah that was the word! "It does," she laughed with a shake of her head, "-but you wouldn't be you if you weren't totally a brain lord!" There were a whole lot of firsts going on, weren't there? Maybe things were looking up and specifics of the past were finally becoming water under the proverbial bridge?

So lost in admiring Fionna's new sword, Marceline was rather relaxed in her manner and didn't keep herself at the usual emotional arm's length. Even if they were tarnished by time and use the gems were still some of the most brilliant that Marcie had seen in a very long time!

"Hey, what now?!" But not so far gone that she missed the whole of the conversation, "-pay back?!" By that point the tent weebled, wobbled and fell right down. Okay, so that was really funny and all the pay back she needed for Bonni's intent. Being sure to keep under the protective shadow of her umbrella Marceline wafted over and started fussing with the tent. She paused for a second, "Fi, go on ahead! I'll stay here and help Princess Butterfingers get the tent back up!" Putting on a grin of her own she tilted her parasol in Bonni's direction. "Be awesome and hold this for me?" Syrupy sweet, she was laying it on as think as she felt she could get away with.

Re: In which Marceline wonders if it is possible to rain check payback?

[fionna_time]

Ah, those guys. Fionna was struck immediately by how they reminded her of Cake and Lord Monochrome, always exchanging knowing looks and running off together and such. At first Fionna had been slightly jealous, but now she realized that it was just how they were, and nothing was really going to change that

Whatevs. It was kinda sweet, in its way.

"Yeah, I'm going," she said, gazing at her sword, and putting it against her leg. She turned to the two of them. "Try not to get too kissy faced, we do need to get back in the tent. See ya!"

Oh, that was deliberately being mean, but even Fionna liked to be playful. She learned it from the best!

In which Bonnibel thinks too much!

[royal_tarts]

Fi was teasing them again, of course, but Bonni had an idea. Maybe instead of getting all nervous and self conscious, she could just laugh along with it? Maybe if she didn't treat it as a big deal it wouldn't be a big deal. Apparently common sense was not something brainlords had an excess of. Besides, friends tease each other all the time right? "I'm perfectly capable of being kissy faced and setting up a tent, thank you very much Fi." She made a silly puckered face, and was treated to another wobble. "Cabbages, scratch that. Not at all capable of setting up a tent, kissy face or not!"

"Oh sure thing Marzipan." Bonni had countered with some sticky sweetness in her own voice when she reached out to hold the parasol. She had not, in her entire recollection of anything with Marceline ever, been referred to as 'awesome' before. And had she actually said that being a brainlord was part of what made her unique? This was, wow! Whatever was left of that tension just about melted away right then. Maybe this was exactly what their friendship needed? A little time away from stress and work. A little less bitterness on the part of Bonnibel, and a little more effort on the part of Marceline? And maybe even the little bits of flirting weren't really hurting things as badly as Bonni had worried. Friends do that too sometimes right? Besides, she had choked back emotions and impulses before, and she would be perfectly capable of doing it again if she needed to. "Just let me know if you need help with this amazingly buttish butt tent!"

Bonnibel was happy right now, and unfortunately that gave her cause to hesitate. She had plots within plots involving that parchment of hers, and everything was exactly ready to be set in motion, except for the fact that she utterly did not want to do it now. It would require her to be alone with Marceline for a while, but she just wanted to spend that precious time hanging out with her and having fun. It would require that she twist her heart around and use herself as a pawn, but right now she didn't want to have to go through all of that junk. Bonni just wanted to stay happy for as long as she could manage. She wanted to enjoy being buds with Marceline for the first time in ages. She wanted to get to know Fi better and have fun with the two of them. She wanted put herself first and her responsibility second, for a change.

This was going to be a long day.

In which Marceline does her best to not think about it.

[lost_moral_code]

Being teased, Marceline could dish it as well as take it. Glob, it was what she and the ghost crew did to pass the time most nights. Be that as it may, something was beginning to rub her the wrong way. What was that something? It wasn't Fionna or Bonnibel. It was the feeling that she wasn't quite getting something, that she had some how been put out of the loop. She was used to Finn's almost creepy level love for Peebles or Lady and Jake's very active sex life being the butts of jokes!

Every nice word and gesture, deep in the pit of Marceline's stomach she was beginning to regret them. She was the flipping Vampire Queen! She was too powerful and too awesome for this kind of thing! For duck's sake she had killed to get her title and the respect that came with it. Sure, her ego was bruised but not as much as her heart and brain at that point. The best way to explain what she was feeling was Pandora's box Ad infinitum. Each joke and vaugely intimately moment just opened a box, which meant boxes inside of boxes. Marceline was confused and one thing she didn't like was being confused, not like this. Thinking, for once, about as much as Bonnibel was Marceline nearly dropped her parasol. Thankfully Bonni was there to "catch" it, making it look like a trade off to anyone without very trained eyes. "You try not to get kissy faced!" Yeah, really weak. But ugh, nothing witty sprang to mind.

At being called Marzipan again she jerked her head up, looking quickly to Princess Bubblegum. She was a rabbit hearted doe eyed girl for a second, and she hated herself for it. Why had she done what she had done and said what she had said? Two questions, not a single answer between them. "Yeah," She just as quickly put her attention back onto the tent, "-thanks, BonBon." They had gone from seemingly bitter enimies over night to this weird place where flirting and compliments happened? What-the-duck! Yeah, thinking way too much. All this thinking wasn't like her at all. Protected from the sun the vampire was able to work on getting the tent not only errected but properly secured to the ground. The first time she had set up camp it was freezing cold and dark as pitch, being able to see what you were doing really helped. Hammering the stakes into the ground really helped to ease the building tension that she felt.

It really was going to be a long day.

In which Fionna goes hunting!

[fionna_time]

What was happening there was anyone's guess: Fionna was still getting the hang of her sword. She hadn't gone hunting like Marceline had, but she knew enough how to go about it, had seen Cake stalking her prey a number of times. The strange thing was getting to where she needed to go, and since she couldn't fly, that meant the Ruins and THEN the Orchard. The stillness in the architecture of the ruins was enough to creep her out to keep her moving.

One she reached the Orchard though, there was game and enough fruit to make a decent morning meal. Upon catching quail Fionna was mercifully quick, decapitating and then making sure to drain the blood enough before putting the animals in a sack. Weird thing was, after each kill Fionna silently thanked the animal for its meat.

No one had taught her that, it just seemed right.

She went for some quail eggs too, but was careful to only pick two for each of them. She also picked some really nice smelling fruit, only after cleaning her sword again, and then she was on her way back.

In which the irony is not lost on Bonnibel.

[royal_tarts]

Bonnibel quickly saw the changes in mood in Marceline's face, heard them in her voice, and read them in her words. A good portion of her career involved her observational skills after all. And just like that Bonni's good mood was deflating. A moment ago everything was going so well, and now it was already slipping again! Every time she settled into a comfortable space with Marceline she was left with nothing but that painful distance! Bonni was noticing a pattern here, and it was bothering her. Marceline would cautiously inch close to her, open up a little, and then at the sight of Fionna's teasing she would recoil. Maybe that was a hasty assumption, but she was in no mood to chart up all the data right now. She knew that Marceline had been hurt before. She knew that they had their own rough past and that in a way they would both be slow opening up. Bonni could deal with that, she could pace herself, and deal with the scrapes and cuts along the way but Glob Dammit she did not want someone else mucking up the waters!

And so, Bonni set out to fix this.

"Marcy I.." Bonnibel paused, looking for the right words. The usual diplomacy training was tossed aside for a more sincere approach, one that she thought Marceline would respond better to. "I've seen how you get when Fi teases us like that. I'm a diplomat and a scientist; I know how to be observant." She added, feeling the need to explain herself. "If I'm making you uncomfortable..." Another pause. The irony that she would be the one to worry about making Marceline uncomfortable was not lost on her. "If you need me to stop doing any junk, just please let me know Marcy." Her voice wavered and carried a little more vulnerability than she had hoped near the end. Bonni braced herself. She knew Marceline would probably pick up on it, after all the Queen of Vampires had to know how to be observant too.

And that was exactly what Bonni was banking on. She pushed the slightest amount of air through her vocal cords as slowly as she could, forming words softly with her tongue and trying to keep her lips still. She couldn't even hear the sound of her own faint faint whisper, which was just the way it needed to be.

"Marceline, can you hear this? Please don't respond verbally if you can, just give me some small sign."

In which Marceline has to read between the lines.

[lost_moral_code]

It was emotionally and physically killer to bound and rebound as Marceline had been. Although she hadn't wanted or needed for much since she, Bonnibel and Fionna had formed their trio she was unable to recover to 100% due to the emotional hurricane of it all. The near constant thundering of her heart was giving Marceline not only wicked headaches but caused her ears to ring. The ringing was most noticible during those close and quiet moments with Bonni. She could have gone mad! However, she was unsure of if she'd even really mind losing her mind?

Putting all of her consentration and energy into putting up the tent, going as far as to make ruts in the dirt for it to snugly sit in, Marceline was a bit startled when Bonni started talking. Breathing heavily, she locked her eyes with the Princess' and waited for her to finish her thought. "It's not like I didn't think you wouldn't," she stopped to wipe her own hair out of her face, "-you know?" This conversation could go one of two ways: Well or super horrible. Marceline didn't have it in her to wether another storm, so she wasn't going to let it end badly. They were both observant and had been picking up on the same shifts in emotion and tension. Weird, they were both feeling something.

Only able to look the Princess in the eyes for so long, Marceline turned her attention back to the tent. "You really want to know?" Rhetorical question. Rhetorical meant stupid right? It doesn't? Oops! Anyway, she knew Bonni well enough to know that she really did want to know and was probably going to feel worse and worse the longer she was left to ruminate on it herself. "You don't make me uncomfortable," sadly being observant meant that she picked up and responded to things as they happened.

Bonnibel was too cleaver for her own good! It took a person with a great deal of intellect and cunning to be able to literally speak between the lines. In response to the question asked Marceline flipped a bit of her hair out of her face, her head inclinded to the right to mean yes. "Why?" She finished their first line of conversation, answering a question with a question like a total butt.

In which Bonnibel's bruises honestly do hurt though.

[royal_tarts]

"Well of course I really want to..." Bonni was interrupted by Marceline's rhetorical question turning into an honest response. She hadn't seen that coming. "Oh. Oh thank Glob." She breathed a sigh of relief. That was a tremendous relief. And, diligent and cunning as she was, there was a message hidden in that sigh.

"Perfect. Awesome. You're awesome Marcy. Let's head into the tent if we can, that way there's less risk of the Vine spying in on us." She took a few breaths. It was actually quite difficult making sure that she never made these reach even a single decibel. "I'm going to feign some junk about the bruises for that. They really honestly do hurt though."

"Why? I, uhm." Why?! Oh glob Marceline did you really have to ask that? Bonni took another moment, hoping the right words would come to her. She was feeling much better after hearing that she wasn't making Marceline uncomfortable, but she still wasn't entirely sure how to answer something as complex as 'why'. "I know I've been more affectionate than usual. And I was just worried that it was too much." She paused again, meeting Marceline's gaze and quickly darting her eyes away. Her heart was beating a little too fast, her voice trembled too much belied a good deal of fragility. "It's been so long since we've been really cool like this, and I'm absolutely not going to let myself wreck it with my junk." I don't want to wreck it with what I think is a crush. I don't want to wreck it with what I know is an attraction. I just don't want to wreck it.

"Hey Marcy, do you think you could take a look at my bruises? I just want to make sure there's not any cuts and stuff. We can go in the tent when you're done so there's no worry about the huge glowing butt in the sky." Bonni smirked a little. She had meant that as implying both the sun and the Queen, and she hoped that Marceline got that little joke.

In which Fionna turns into a chef, again

[fionna_time]

And again, coming back to camp (which took a longer time of course) Fionna was bound to notice some tension in camp. The first thing she wondered was if this had something to do with her teasing them. Now it was beginning to dawn to her that she had to stop pushing the teasing: whatever was happening between them, it was between them, and she ought to just let them go at their own pace.

Somehow, and even she didn't really understand it, that made me feel a little lonely, but for now, she wasn't going to let tat kind of stuff phase her. She got started on cooking the quail at once, saving the eggs for afterward because they would take less time to cook then the actual bird. as she let them smoke, she turned her attention toward the ground and called, "Meow!"

Several moments later, some cats were on the ground next to her, and seemed really friendly, rubbing themselves against her leg. Fionna laughed lightly, scratching them behind the ears.

"Guys, could you please get me some plates for my friends, and maybe some, like, soothing lotion stuff for bruises and junk? The birds kinda got mad at my friends earlier."

The cats gave each other a look as if to say what else can you expect from birds and were off, Fionna looking into the remaining birds still cooking on the spit, and brought out some fruit to drizzle some juice onto it to give the skin a bit more flavor. It was starting to actually smell quite delicious.