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Chapter Text

“So I just hit the button on this pendant, and it will open a portal?” Fionna clarified, holding up the necklace Prince Gumball had given her and eyeing it warily. The pink gem twisted lazily on the chain, catching and refracting little rays of the setting sun from the window into a diamond pattern on Gumball’s flawless skin. One of the fragments of light shone directly in his eye and he winced. 

“No, not a portal, Fionna,” Gumball said with a sigh, covering her hand to lower the pendant. “A very, very temporary wormhole into another universe, there’s a difference. I only had enough ultra, double-refined candy essence to power two tears, one in the fabric of our reality to get you and Cake there, and one more to get you two home, so don’t waste a trip. Just to refresh your memory, the pendant works by synthesizing-” 

He spoke for a long time here, about many things Fionna didn’t comprehend. Fionna held the pendant close to her eye and peered at it, almost imagining she could see minute little wires no wider than a wisp of cotton candy under the pink crystal-like surface of the gem. She wondered how Gumball had manipulated wires so tiny. The pendant itself was small enough to sit comfortable in her palm. It almost looked like a piece of hard candy. She kind of wanted to bite it. 

“Do you understand?” Gumball asked, regaining her attention.

“Not really,” she said, and he sucked in a deep breath, which she anticipated he was planning to use to explain concepts beyond her mental capabilities again. “I don’t get all the science stuff, but I understand what you want us to do. You want Cake and I to hit this button and go through the portal-” 

“Wormhole,” he corrected. 

“Wormhole, into the dead world-” 

“Not one of the dead worlds, Fionna, the underworld has nothing to do with this. Another version of Aaa. It just so happens that everyone there will be dead,” he interrupted again, and she was beginning to feel annoyed. 

“Right, the Aaa where the vampires won, and everyone just so happens to be dead, but absolutely not a dead world,” Fionna said, and Gumball nodded serenely, completely blind to her sarcasm. 

“You’ve got it, and then you will?” he prompted. 

“Find the Ice Queen’s crown that exists in that Aaa, and bring it back to our Aaa,” Fionna recited, and Gumball beamed at her. 

“Good job, Fionna, have a lollipop,” he said, pulling a pen out of the pocket of his white science coat and offering it to her. Fionna didn’t like the tone he spoke in, as if he were talking to a little kid and not a grown adult, but she still found herself accepting the lollipop pen and putting it in her mouth. He began walking away from her, from one end of his science lab to the other, and she followed him, sucking on the lollipop pen. It was good. Sweet.

Prince Gumball brought her over to a closed curtain and pulled it open. Fionna gasped, her lollipop pen falling out of her mouth to shatter on the floor. 

“Oh my glob,” she said, feeling oddly paralyzed as she looked at the hospital style bed that had been hidden behind the curtain. 

She had known that Prince Gumball had said Ice Queen was sick, but she hadn’t realized the extent of it. She instinctively wanted to hurry forward and take her hand, to comfort or help her in some way, but there were so many machines and medical equipment she didn’t feel right even touching the sliver of a hand poking out of the blankets. She almost didn’t recognize the hand as being the Ice Queen’s, as it was a strange, almost tan color, not the bluish pigment she was used to seeing. What she could see of the Ice Queen’s face was different, too. She looked… almost human. 

“Yes, without the power of the crown she is reverting back to her original form,” Gumball said with a nod, tearing off a long, winding paper printing out of a machine and looking over the numbers scrawled on it. “I’ve induced a candy coma to stop the magic still within her from seeping out. It leaks out faster when she’s awake. She’ll be able to stay like this for some time, but we need to find her a magical substitute to power her life, ideally another crown. Butterscotch Butler used her undead connections to find us the safest universe to send you to to retrieve a new crown, and it’s the one where the vampires won. The pendant is as smart as I am, just tell it which universe to take you to after you hit the button. She said Death himself verified nobody was left alive in this world so there shouldn’t be any problems, but you and Cake need to still be careful. Multiverse travel is inherently dangerous, it’s never before been done.” 

“I’m all about danger,” Fionna said, taking a last look at the Ice Queen… or, she was more Simone now, she supposed, and turning to find Cake and get this mission completed. 

“One more thing,” Gumball said, and Fionna gave him a curious glance. 

“What is it?” she asked. 

“The sun is setting. If you happen to bump into Marshall Lee on your way to get Cake, make sure you don’t mention anything about Ice Queen… Er, Simone, I suppose, to him. When her crown shattered, in the moments of sanity she had before I had to knock her out, not letting him know was her only serious request. You know the complexities of their relationship and she understands she may not survive if we don’t find her a suitable crown replacement. She doesn’t want Marshall to worry in the interim.” 

“That’s… that’s horrible,” Fionna said, squirming slightly at the sound of Marshall’s name. That tricky, flirty vampire was the last person she wanted to think about right now, not after the confusing shift in their relationship she was still mentally reeling from. She gulped, not even letting herself think about it, forcing her mind onto the purpose for him being brought up. “Despite everything that happened between them, don’t you think he has a right to know?” Gumball spared her a glance over the long sheet of data he was reviewing. 

“I think it’s not for me to tell them how to live their lives,” he said in an emotionless sort of voice. Fionna considered this for a moment, and would have argued further against it, but she didn’t think it was worth it. Gumball had started fiddling with little beakers and bubbling vats of colorful fluids again and she knew his single-minded attention had shifted elsewhere. 

The air outside of Gumball’s science lab was warm and dark and she frowned as she began the walk to Lord Monochromicorn’s barn, where Cake had lived for some time now. Sundown was Marshall Lee’s prime hunting time. Typically, she knew he wouldn’t be able to resist messing with her if he saw her walking alone, but that was before… that thing she told herself she wasn’t going to think about. She normally would have liked to see him and be the focal point of his attention, despite whatever she said to him about it, but tonight was not the night for it, and not just because she was still embarrassed. 

She held the pendant Prince Gumball gave her in her hand and quickened her pace, the smooth crystal-like surface of the pendant feeling oddly cool against her palm. 

“Got ya!” a voice said in her ear, and tense as she was, if that hadn’t been enough to make her jump the hands coming in to pinch both of her sides certainly would have. 

Sneaking up behind her was an old joke of Marshall’s, and typically wouldn’t get much of a rise out of her, but tonight she shrieked. Her reaction even seemed to scare Marshall himself, as she felt him start behind her, his hands which had initially been playful gripping her tightly in shock. 

She spun around quickly to come face-to-face with him. His eyes were wide, and his hands were still around her waist. He let out a breath he had been holding, and she felt the warmth of it on her lips. She usually would have pushed him away by now, but she stood absolutely still, completely terrified that the secret she was supposed to be keeping from him would be somehow visible on her face.

“Fuck, Fi, what’s gotten into you? You look scared to death,” he said. Her heart hammered wildly in her chest and she felt warmth flood her face as he looked into her eyes.

Her heart swelled with sudden emotion and she tried to stamp it back. She always felt this way around him, she used to hate herself for the reactions he could get out of her as a teen. She had thought that now that she had grown up it would be different, but if anything, his effect on her had grown even greater. While he had never outwardly mentioned it, she had noticed in recent years his flirting, which had never been subtle, had grown more bold. 

He found ways to ‘accidentally’ bump into her almost every time she was outdoors while the sun was down. These inadvertent meetings were always followed by an exceedingly casual invitation to whatever he had just happened to be going to that evening. It had all seemed to come to a peak that one night not long ago, the night that she refused to let herself think about. 

“N-Nothing,” she squeaked, and she visually watched as his concern grew. She swallowed hard, fighting her face to relax and tried to still the shaking hand clutching the pendant. Gumball’s pendant. Her eyes left his for a second and flitted to the outline of the Candy Palace, which she could still see in the distance. He followed her eyes, and his gaze hardened. 

“What did that pink wad do to you?” he asked, his hands leaving her waist to grip either side of her face. He forced her to look at him, their noses almost touching. For a moment, she didn’t dare breathe. Then, her senses returned to her and she pushed him away. 

“Prince Gumball didn’t do anything to me!” she said, and he was on her again, pulling her into his chest and burying his nose into the hair escaping her bunny hat, deeply inhaling. 

“You smell like his lab. Did he try to get you to do some fucked up experiment or something? Is that why you’re so freaked out?” he asked. She tried to push him away again but this time he wouldn’t let her go. 

“No! His lab doesn’t have anything to do with it, so don’t you dare go anywhere near there!” she said with her best attempt at a glare. He looked down to meet her eyes and scoffed in her face. 

“Pfft, yeah, like I believe that. You literally came running away from his lab, screamed when I grabbed you-” 

“Of course I screamed! You scared me! It’s what you were trying to do!” Fionna retorted, and he raised an eyebrow at her. 

“Grabbing you from behind like that hasn’t actually scared you in, like, years, so don’t pretend that’s why you screamed.” 

“If you know it’s not going to scare me, why do you do it, then?” she asked, trying to reflect the conversation back on him. It seemed to work, as his face paled slightly and he stammered for a moment, seemingly at a loss for words. 

“I-I, I just do it to get your attention, I don’t know,” he said, and she gave him a critical look before feeling the coldness of the pendant in her hand and remembering what she needed to do. She had to get to Cake, explain everything, and retrieve Simone a new crown. She tried to pull away from him again, and this time managed to slip from his grip. “Hey! Where are you going? Fi, listen, if this is all about the other night, I’m sorry-” 

“Leave me alone tonight, Marshall, I’m not in the mood to be messed with,” she said, scrambling down the path to get away from him. 

“I’m not trying to mess with you, you’re just acting weird and I don’t know why,” he said, floating along, following close behind her. “Listen, if that shit that happened during the movie made you uncomfortable, Fi, I’m sorry.” 

“Just… Just leave me alone,” Fionna said frantically, starting to really panic. He was trying to talk to her about what happened between them? She absolutely couldn’t do that right now, not tonight. She didn’t even know how she felt about it. 

“I will, once you talk to me,” Marshall said, and she felt him grab at one of the ears of her bunny hat, which was probably the only part of her he could reach, because she had broken into a full-out run now. 

Fionna veered to the left, tumbling off the path. Her hat remained in Marshall’s hand, and she felt as her hair was freed and flowed down her back, but there was nothing she could do about that right now. The landscape dipped off the path and she rolled, barely managing to hold onto the pendant. As she came to a stop at the bottom of the dip she heard him yell her name, not far off. 

She wasn’t sure at that moment whether she consciously pressed the button on the pendant or if she had just gripped it so tightly in her hand the activation of it was inadvertent. She felt an odd pulling inside herself that she would never be able to adequately describe and felt an undeniable urge to speak. She whispered her request automatically, the words Gumball had given her to say, and the pulling inside her increased, until it felt like it was going to split her in two. One moment she was lying in a heap in the grass, Marshall’s voice in the distance, and the next she was falling through darkness. 

Air and time rushed past her, and she couldn’t see anything at all, but she could feel the coldness of the pendant in her hand. She was scared, but she focused on the feeling of the pendant until the rush of air and time finished sweeping past her and she felt the ground under her again as the wormhole dissipated. She had her eyes shut tight, she must have done that in the wormhole, but she hadn’t been aware of doing it at the time. 

She could feel that she wasn’t on the grass any longer. She was on something hard, she felt it gingerly with her free hand. She was on… concrete, maybe, but not the delicious hard candy type that lined the streets and pathways of the Candy Kingdom. It was stone-like, like the types she had felt in old human city ruins that she had explored with Cake. It felt worn with little cracks and pebbles covering the unforgivingly hard surface of it. 

Fionna opened her eyes, and she knew immediately she wasn’t in Aaa anymore, or at least, not her Aaa. It looked like Aaa as it had existed in what she had only ever seen in Marshall’s memories. She was splayed out on the street in the destroyed remains of a city. She spent a few moments on the ground simply looking around and gaping. 

Although this was what she had been warned the pendant would do, she couldn’t help but have trouble believing that she had really traveled to another universe. The more she looked around, however, the more sure she was. The crumbling buildings, the eerie silence, the strange, heavily clouded look of the sky overhead. None of this was the Aaa she knew.

Eventually, she got up and dusted herself off. She hadn’t been injured, and most of the dirt brushed off her easily enough. She threw her sheet of blonde hair over her shoulder, wishing she had a hair tie. She began walking, not really sure where to go, but feeling like she needed to move her body, to set the pretense that she was getting closer to her goal. Her head felt oddly empty and incapable of complex thought, as if she had left half her brain in the other Aaa, but the feeling was slowly going away. 

The crumbling buildings were covered in layers of graffiti, but Fionna tried to ignore it after she read the first few lines. The words written on the buildings (in what she hoped was paint, although it was dripping and flaking unlike any paint she had ever seen) only said very scary and depressing things. She swallowed, beginning to feel more than a little creeped out. She had known everyone in this world was dead, but this… this was really creepy. 

Little red mushrooms were sprouting out of the ground, mounds of trash, and even the occasional bone and she couldn’t help but squish some of them under her feet as she walked. She heard a rustle and felt a prickling sensation on the back of her neck, but when she whipped her head around to look there was nothing there. The breeze blew and rustled her hair, and she tried to shake off the creepy feeling that had permeated her bones. 

There was a lot of litter in the streets and she kicked at the rusted cans and assorted garbage as she walked, trying to distract herself from her unease. She kicked a can as hard as she could and as it clanked noisily away she wondered why there was so much trash everywhere. Then, she remembered only humans and vampires had lived in this world. There were no magical trash-eating candy monster hybrids like Gumball had made to get rid of the trash from his kingdom. She supposed the humans of old just had no choice but to throw their trash on the street. 

It was probably ultimately a good thing that they died out, she figured, as the world would be completely full of garbage by the time she was born otherwise. She wondered how long it had been since anyone had lived here. She saw a fluttering out of the corner of her eye and jumped, but then she felt silly when she realized it was just the tattered remains of a flag. 

Fionna took a deep breath to calm herself down as she approached a fork in the road. She went to the right automatically (because right is always right), and followed the road around a bend. There she saw a pile of several human corpses on the ground, blocking her path. They appeared twisted up and dehydrated, almost mummified in their death. She gulped and retraced her steps, quickly backing up and going to the left, instead. She locked the visual of the corpses in her mental vault as she walked, making a mental note that her trusty old saying of right always being right clearly did not apply in this unfamiliar universe. 

On the new path she passed a stray bone here, the rusted out shell of a car there, but besides that, there was nothing but garbage and mushrooms. She couldn’t shake the feeling that she was being watched, but she never saw anything that could be watching her, not even an animal. She eventually attributed the feeling to a result of the overall eerie atmosphere of this strange, dead Aaa. Seriously, this world was dead dead, she thought. There was nothing alive around here but the mushrooms.

The little bit of grass that she found growing through the cracks in the cement was brown and unhealthy, probably due to the lack of direct sunlight. The red mushrooms were the only thing that seemed to be able to flourish here. The sight of the half-dead grass made her sad, for some reason. She kept walking, until the skyscrapers of the city were behind her. She saw a castle in the distance that looked distinctly out of place. 

A castle would be a good place to keep a crown, she figured, but she didn’t know how to get to it. She wished she had Cake, her sister could just stretch them up to the castle. Her sister would make her feel safe. Even though she didn’t appear to be in any danger here, she couldn’t help but feel vulnerable. She didn’t even have a sword! 

She tried to keep walking in the same direction, but she didn’t have the sun to guide her. The dark clouds filling the sky seemed to be emanating out of that castle in the distance, but she wasn’t seeming to get any closer to it despite how far she walked. She just kept coming up to these big, towering stones and having to change directions. 

It took her an embarrassingly long amount of time to realize they were very, very tall cement walls, and they seemed to be surrounding the crumbling buildings from all sides. The city she had exited the wormhole into was a… big cage, of some sort. Like a… almost like a pen. Her face paled as this realization sunk in and she took several quick steps back from the wall, horrified. She had known in this universe the vampires had won, but the thought of them keeping the humans in this giant, city-like cage was just... It was just… 

Before Fionna could even decide what it was she was startled by laughter coming from somewhere behind her. It was high, cold, and cruel, and she spun around quickly to locate its source, but there was nothing there. The wind blew, and she tried to tell herself it had just been the wind making that noise, but she couldn’t even fool herself. She saw movement out of the corner of her eye and tried to turn her head to see it, but there was nothing there, either. 

“Everything here is dead,” she said out loud. She had meant to say it to reassure herself, but the squeaky, terrified sound of her own voice only shook her confidence further. 

Her ear twitched as she heard a noise to her left, a few stones coming tumbling off the nearest building to hit the ground. She watched the stones roll a few times as they settled, trying to tell herself it was just the natural degradation of her surroundings. It had to have been… the wind, or something. She was just reminding herself she was alone when a second later a noise sounded to her right, one of the rusted-out cars denting sharply by an unseen force. She couldn’t hold back a little scream at this and immediately covered her mouth, her heart hammering in her chest.

She couldn’t gaslight herself into believing that was just the wind. She started to run through the not-so-abandoned city, not sure where she was going, but it didn’t matter. She cursed herself as she ran. What kind of hero was she? The trip through the wormhole had stunned her more than she had thought, she hadn’t even realized this whole time she had been in a cage. She hadn’t even realized she was being hunted. 

She searched frantically for a weapon as she ran, anything she could use to defend herself. She saw the rusted handle of a newspaper stand to her left. It looked like it would snap off if she hit it with enough force. As soon as her eyes had fixated on it, however, she watched as the entire stand was ripped out of the sidewalk and thrown soaring across the street, loose pages of newspaper flying everywhere. 

She didn’t even try to hold in her scream as she ran through the fluttering pages and turned sharply down an alley, trying to get away from the vulnerability of the open street. She had to find cover, she wasn’t safe here, something was after her. She ran down the alley like she was running for her life, which she figured she very well may be. Her eyes filled with tears at the realization and she tried to blink them away, her surroundings going blurry from the unwanted tears. She blinked hard and gasped, seeing a brick wall directly ahead of her. The alley was a dead-end, and she was running too fast to stop herself in time. 

“Got ya!” a voice said in her ear the split-second before she felt a pair of hands close around her waist as someone grabbed her roughly from behind, stopping her the heartbeat before she would have slammed into the wall. 

Fionna would have struggled against the firm hold and fought for her life like a caged animal (which she sort of was) but instead she froze. It wasn’t just the familiarity of the voice in her ear, but the feel of the hands that had grabbed her that gave her pause. She knew that touch. She knew that voice. It was his oldest trick. 

She relaxed, and the grip of his hands steadily loosened on her as he seemed to realize she wasn’t going to try to get away from him. 

“What, are you just going to let me have you?” the voice said into her ear. It was undeniably Marshall’s voice, but it was different. There was a hint of amusement to it, but the pitch of it was colder, almost unkind. She didn’t know what to say. Let him have her? What was that supposed to mean? 

When she didn’t reply, he pressed himself up against her and she shivered at the feeling of his body touching hers so intimately. He had never been so close to her before, or at least, not like this. Not in the middle of the day. Not in the open. The closest to this he had ever come was when he had thrown his arm around her at movie night. 

He had tried it before, and she usually pushed him away, but that night, the night she tried not to think about, for whatever reason in the darkness of the room she had let him glue his body up against hers. She didn’t stop him, even when his hands began to subtly roam her body under the cover of their shared blanket. His hands had grown very, very bold on her by the time the credits rolled and she realized what she had let him do to her. She had been so embarrassed after the fact that she had avoided him as completely as she could since. She couldn’t help but remember that night in vivid detail now, with him so close to her again. 

His hands began to roam her body again now, too, as if he had taken her silence for permission to continue, the same as before. His touch wasn’t nervous and shaky as it had been in the beginning, under the blanket. Instead it was as if he had skipped ahead to what he had built himself up to by the credits. He firmly dragged his open palms up from her hips to feel the softness of her belly, the dip of her waist, teasing the insides of her thighs. He greedily grabbed and squeezed every part of her, mapping out her body with his hands as if he had never seen it before. 

 The way her heart was pounding wildly in her chest made her knees feel weak, its frantic beating no longer the result of her run. She tried to take a step forward. He let her, but he advanced with her. She took another step, but the wall was there, and there was nowhere left for her to go. She felt the cold roughness of the bricks against her front as he pressed her against it, sealing himself up firmly behind her. 

One of his hands had traveled up from her waist and locked around her shoulder, his fingers digging almost painfully into her skin. She whimpered at this, the adrenaline coursing through her body telling her to run, but there was nowhere for her to go, and the way he was touching her was different, but it wasn’t bad. She… she didn’t mind it. 

His other hand left her front and buried itself into her hair, his fingers softly carding through the length of it. She relaxed slightly and even let out a sigh. She had always liked the feeling of her hair being played with. It was almost soothing, but then his fingers tightened as he took a handful of her hair in his grip, wrenching her head to the side. She winced and let out a little cry at his sudden roughness. 

He shushed her and murmured something, but she couldn’t quite catch what he said. His lips were moving against the exposed skin of her neck, his words were muffled but she found the tone comforting. She was sweating, her heart was pounding, a fleeting, half-formed thought flitted through her mind that she was perhaps in some form of shock, but then his tongue ran up the side of her neck. He licked her slowly, as if he was… tasting her, her skin, her sweat, she wasn’t sure, but he seemed to like it. He let out a little moan and licked again, and she began to shake. 

“Shh, it’s okay, I’m not going to kill you,” he reassured her, pulling his lips away from her skin only far enough for his voice to be audible. Her muscles were tense, and he relaxed his grip on her shoulder just enough to rub little comforting circles into her skin with the pads of his fingers, but he kept his hand in her hair pulled tight. “It’ll just be a little bite,” he said, and she swallowed nervously. 

He had never asked to bite her before, although she had spent a good amount of time throughout their years of friendship wondering what she would do, if he made such a request. She never knew what she would theoretically say if she were put in that position, although she had thought of about a hundred different ways she would answer the question. Now that it was really happening, however, it didn’t feel like an ask. It felt like more of a statement of intent. 

“Okay,” Fionna breathed, and then, he bit her. 

She couldn’t help but let out a gasp as his fangs pierced her skin. She had been warned it was happening, but the actual feeling of their sharp points breaking through her skin surprised her for some reason. Despite all the time she had spent thinking about him doing this very thing to her, him actually following through on it surprised her. The warmth of his mouth sealed around the bite and she felt as he sucked, her blood pouring out of the punctures he had made in a hot rush. 

She felt him moan, she felt the vibration of it inside her, through the holes he had made on her neck, as he swallowed down the first mouthful with an audible gulp. He was so close against her she could almost feel it traveling down his throat. The taste of her blood seemed to greatly affect him and he pressed his mouth more firmly down on her punctures, eagerly sucking her neck for more. 

She relaxed and let him have her, because, once she got over the sharpness of the bite, the rest of it really wasn’t so bad. Marshall was her friend, she felt… actually, she wasn’t sure how she felt, but she knew she cared about him. If he needed this of her, she decided she could be okay with it, for him. His grip on her hair and shoulder lessened as it became apparent she wasn’t going anywhere. 

He let go of the handful of her hair he had taken and stroked at it tenderly as he drank. The hand that had been digging into her shoulder drifted up to cup her jaw. He still had her locked against him, she didn’t think she could get away from him if she wanted to, but he was at least now holding her in a more comforting way. Slowly she brought a hand up to touch the one cupping her jaw. She felt his grip tighten as she brushed her fingers against the back of his hand, but then he relaxed them again as she rested her hand over his and simply stroked his skin. 

He sucked another mouthful off her and swallowed it slowly, as if trying to savor the taste before pressing his tongue against the punctures. She supposed that meant he was done. It hadn’t been so bad. The firm pressure of his tongue encouraged the punctures to clot, and when he pulled his mouth away, she was no longer bleeding. 

“Your blood tastes good,” Marshall said, pulling her away from the trance-like state that him feeding off her had put her in. The statement surprised her, and she tried to turn to look at him, but she could only arch her neck so far back. Pain radiated from the bite he had left on her, and that side of her neck had gone oddly numb. 

“Really?” Fionna asked, wondering if he was telling the truth. She had never before thought about if her blood would be good or not. 

“Yeah, do you want a taste?” he asked. She didn’t understand how he could have her taste her own blood. 

“Okay,” she said, and before she could wonder what he would do to her he was pulling at her hair again, forcing her to look back as far as she could. 

Then, his mouth was on hers. Her first thought was that he had kissed her, but it wasn’t really a kiss. Or, maybe it was, she didn’t know. All she knew was he was licking into her mouth, and she was letting him do it. He ran his tongue against hers. She could taste on his spit the lingering metallic hint coating his tongue, and knew it to be her blood. Hesitantly, she ran her tongue against his, too. 

They did this for some time, she wasn’t sure how long, their lips moving together, their tongues touching. He ran the tip of his tongue on her teeth, too, as if he wanted to feel and taste those as well. Some of their shared saliva dripped down her chin. Eventually, he pulled away from her, and she instinctively swallowed down the dilute, metallic taste he had left inside her mouth. 

“You taste sweet. Were you eating candy?” Marshall asked, and she was surprised his question even made sense to her. The kiss, or whatever it was, had left her dazed, and hungry for air. 

“A lollipop,” Fionna said, still catching her breath. Her back was still to him, and she tried to turn around. He let her move, but he didn’t let go of her completely. He kept his hands on her as she turned around in his arms and faced him. As soon as she looked at him, really looked at him, she gasped. “You’re not Marshall Lee.” 

Art by Momilayde on Tumblr/Instagram 

Chapter Text

“Marshall Lee? I haven’t heard that name in a long time,” the man who looked like Marshall said, giving her a searching look. “Where did you hear that? And, where did you come from? There aren’t supposed to be any humans left.” 

Fionna just gaped at him in silence for a few moments, transfixed by the resemblance he bore to her friend. He was the same, but different. This universe’s Marshall? She thought he had to be. Everyone here was supposed to be dead… but, she supposed her friend had technically died long ago, even in her own universe. She just never thought of him that way. 

Physically, this Marshall’s features were nearly identical to hers, but looking into his red eyes, she could tell they weren’t the same. This Marshall’s eyes lacked any sort of warmth or familiarity as they stared into hers, waiting for a response. His fingers were still carding through her hair. Without warning he tightened his grip and gave her hair a sharp yank. 

“Ouch!” Fionna said, wincing. She slapped his hand away instinctively. He released his grip and she jerked her head away from him, the strands of her hair he had tugged sliding smoothly out of his fingers. He looked at his empty hand curiously for a moment before he returned his attention to her. “Why’d you pull my hair?” she asked. 

“You weren’t talking,” he said, and she waited for him to elaborate, but he didn’t explain any further. 

“That doesn’t mean you can pull on my hair,” she said. 

“Why not?” he asked, and she would have thought he was joking, but he appeared genuinely interested in her answer. 

“Because I… I don’t like it,” she said. He held her gaze, and she realized it was his turn to wait for her to elaborate. She wasn’t sure what else to say. She didn’t have a reason for why he shouldn’t pull her hair beyond that she didn’t like it. She had never had to explain such a simple concept to someone before. 

“Alright,” he finally said, seeming to accept her explanation when it became apparent she didn’t have anything else to add. “Answer my questions.” 

“Do you know about the multiverse?” she asked, hoping he had. She knew enough about it to explain it in very rudimentary terms if she had to, but nerdy little details weren’t really her thing. Thankfully, he nodded. 

“Yeah, my mom used to talk a lot about sending vampires into the multiverse to bring back more humans,” he said, and Fionna’s eyebrows rose with interest. This seemed to her a very odd thing for Marshall’s mom to do. “She had found old books about it, you know, when she got desperate.” 

“Did she ever do it?” Fionna asked, and he shook his head. 

“No, she starved before she could figure out a way how,” he said. She didn’t know whether to comfort him or not. He didn’t appear upset. 

“Wait, I thought your mom was immortal,” she said, and her eyebrows knit together in confusion. Could this universe’s Marshall have a different mom? If that were the case, why did he look so much like the Marshall she knew? “You are talking about Hana Abadeer, right? Who is your biological mother?” 

“I don’t know who Hana Abadeer is. Before she died, the Vampire Queen raised me, but she wasn’t biologically my mom,” he said, and she nodded, everything slowly coming together. 

It seemed this Marshall wasn’t found and taken in by Simone, but rather the Vampire Queen. Simone was the one who had figured out how to summon Hana from the Nightosphere when she got too crazy to take care of Marshall. If Simone hadn’t been in the picture, that never would have happened, and he never would have met his real mom. This universe’s Hana must still be spending her time causing chaos down in the Nightosphere. 

The Marshall she knew had slayed the Vampire Queen, but in this universe, it seemed he had sided with them. She realized in a flash this minor change in the timeline, the person who found and took in an abandoned little boy, ended up making the difference in who won the war between the vampires and the humans. What a strange thought that was. 

“Okay,” Fionna said quickly, realizing she had been silent for some time. She was afraid if she was quiet for too long he would pull her hair again. However, he had made no move for her hair while she worked out her thoughts. He was just watching her curiously, waiting to hear what she said next. “So, the multiverse, right. I came from a different version of Aaa.” 

“Are there more humans there?” he asked quickly, and she shook her head. 

“I’m the last one there, too,” she said. “I think humans were kind of doomed in every universe.” 

“Are there vampires there?” he asked, and she shook her head again. 

“Just you, or, my universe’s version of you. The vampires, as well, I think were kind of doomed.” He considered this silently for a few moments and she remembered his other question. She wasn’t sure if he was waiting for her to answer it or not, so she just went ahead. “I know the version of you from the Aaa I came from. That’s how I know your name. You’re called Marshall Lee there. Or, you know, just Marshall. Is that not what you’re called here?” 

“There’s nobody around to call me anything anymore,” he said with a frown. “All the other vampires died out with the last human. They wouldn’t drink red. But, I was called Marshall, a long time ago. After I joined the Vampire Queen’s inner circle, though, everyone called me The Star.” 

“So, which do you prefer? Marshall, or The Star?” she asked, and he shrugged. 

“I don’t know. Does it matter? Why are you asking?” 

“Well, I’d like to know what you’d prefer to be called,” she prompted. She tried to smile at him, but he didn’t return the expression. Her smile fell off her face rather quickly. 

“I don’t really care what you call me,” he said somewhat flatly.

“Oh, um, okay,” Fionna said, his statement surprising her, and making her feel awkward. 

She had never before met anyone who didn’t care what they were called. He didn’t ask for her name, which she typically would have found odd (if not downright rude), but it somehow fit his strange behavior. She supposed social manners probably wouldn’t be something the Vampire Queen would deem important enough to teach him. She wondered how long he had been alone here. Years of forced solitude probably didn’t help. 

The seconds dragged on, and now that she had answered his questions, she wasn’t sure what to say. He, too, seemed to be at a loss for words. He kept looking at her, it was like he thought if he looked away she would disappear or something, and she didn’t like it. People didn’t just stare at each other like that. It was weird. It made her uncomfortable. Her mouth tasted faintly metallic and her neck hurt. She tried not to think about either thing. 

Eventually, he reached up a hand and took a lock of her hair between his fingers. She winced slightly in anticipation, but he didn’t pull on it. He just ran his fingers down the length of it, looking curiously at the blonde strands. 

“I never thought I’d see a human again,” he eventually said, quietly, almost as if he was talking to himself. 

“I’m sure it’s been hard,” Fionna said, feeling a pang of guilt for this version of her friend, who had been trapped alone for she didn’t even know how long in this sad, dead Aaa. 

“It has, red can’t compare to real blood,” he said, his eyes flitting from the length of her hair in his hand to the bite he had left on her neck. Fionna was more than a little thrown off by this. She hadn’t been thinking at all about him going without blood. 

“Besides drinking their blood, don’t you miss simple things, like… I don’t know, having conversations with them?” she asked. 

“I mean, I never really talked with a human before,” he said. “I wasn’t the type to keep them around if they were still alive when I was done eating. I always thought it was pathetic, but maybe I was wrong.”

“What do you mean, ‘keep them around’?” she asked with a frown. 

“Some of the other vampires in the inner court had favorite humans they kept, you know, before everyone died. I never understood it then, but you’re not like the humans we had, all they ever did was scream, and they usually tasted awful.” 

“They just… screamed?” she asked, her mind struggling to keep up with what he was saying. In her shocked state she didn’t appear to be able to do much more than parrot his own statements back to him, waiting for him to explain himself in a way that made sense to her, hoping she just misunderstood. 

“Well, sometimes they cried,” he said, and she was forced to consider that this version of her friend might just be evil. “They weren’t like you, you’re actually fun. Chasing you around was the most fun I’ve had in I don’t even know how long, and when I finally bit you, you tasted so unbelievably good. It was just… unreal. I knew as soon as I saw you I was going to keep you no matter what, but I think I’ll actually like having you.” 

“But… why?” she asked.

“Why not? I like you, and I want you, and you’re right here,” he said and she felt his hand leave her hair to wrap around her waist. He pulled her a stumbling step closer, into what could almost be described as a hug, but it wasn’t comforting. Disconnected with her own body as she was, she barely registered it. She felt his nose press against her neck, felt him deeply breathing her in. 

“You even smell so good,” he sighed into her ear, and she tried to think. 

Everything he said disturbed her beyond words, she had never before thought she would hear her friend talk like this. In her world, he had been the defender of the humans, he had given up everything, even his humanity, to save the dying human race. He was so powerful, really, he could probably do whatever he wanted and nobody could easily stop him, but he never did. She realized now, after looking into the red eyes of this warped version as he talked about how he was going to keep her, just because he could, that she had never fully appreciated that about him. 

It was hard to wrap her head around the differences between these two Marshalls, and it all stemmed from the person who took him in. She hadn’t known until now the difference that Simone had made in her universe by showing him kindness and love as a child. Her hand ghosted over the cold hardness of the pendant Gumball had given her in her pocket, where she had absentmindedly stuffed it in her stunned state after exiting the wormhole. 

It had enough power for two trips. This whole time she had known in the back of her mind that she could use it to get back home whenever she wanted. Okay, maybe not right this second, he would probably stop her if she made a sudden grab for it, but she was sure she would have an opportunity to activate it eventually. 

She felt his mouth close on the punctures he had left on her neck and he sucked the site gently, feeling the little scabs with his tongue. It didn’t feel bad, the way he was sucking on her soothed the ache from the bite, so she let him continue. She actually wasn’t entirely sure if he would stop if she asked him to, but she couldn’t focus on that right now. She was here to get Simone a new crown. Certainly she deserved one, especially now that Fionna finally understood the impact she had had in her universe. 

Besides that, this Marshall had been alone for so long, despite how horrified she was by his actions, she couldn’t help but feel bad for him. She didn’t have to wonder if he would have grown up to be a better person if he had been shown love. She already knew this for a fact. She lived in that universe. She knew and cared for that version of him in a very deep and confusing way. 

Despite what he was saying, she couldn’t help but wonder if deep down there was some of her friend inside this man. There had to be. She was sure her Marshall would help her find Simone’s crown if she asked it of him, and not just because of his connection with Simone, but because she was the one who asked. Her Marshall would probably help her get anything in the world she wanted if she asked. 

Maybe it was the hope that this Marshall, too, would help her. Or, maybe it was the way her body was reacting to the feeling of his mouth moving across her skin. While she was lost in thought he had moved on from sucking the place he had bitten to explore the rest of her neck. It was such a pleasant feeling. It was nice to know his mouth could do more than cause her pain. It could do nice things, too. Maybe it was the reassurance she could leave if she needed to, with the push of a button like waking up from a bad dream. Maybe she was still a bit stunned, from blood loss or interdimensional travel and just couldn’t think of another option. 

Whatever the reason, Fionna wrapped her arms around The Star and let him take her. She felt his grip on her tighten, and her feet left the ground as he lifted her into the air. She clung to him, feeling suddenly helpless in the open air, but he was holding her so securely she didn’t feel like she would fall even if she let go of him completely. The castle she had seen in the distance grew ominously closer and she closed her eyes, burying her face into his chest to not have to see its approach. 

“Is this where you live?” Fionna asked, looking around in wonder at the entryway of the castle this Marshall had brought her to. 

Castle probably wasn’t the best word for it, but she didn’t know what else to call it. It was big, and certainly grand, but she didn’t feel like it was a castle in the traditional sense of the word. It almost reminded her of the inside of a cave, with spires of porous rock for walls intermingling with ornate finery the likes of which she had only seen in fancy old movies. 

“Of course. All the vampires of the inner court lived here,” he said. “We called it our hive.” A hive was probably a better word than a castle to describe this place, she thought. 

“It’s a big place to be all alone,” she said, glancing up at the ceiling far above her head. 

The dark clouds that had been covering the sky outside were visible overhead, through a massive skylight carved out of the ceiling. There were many tunneling walkways visible in the rock-like walls of the hive, hinting at the structure’s size. There would be many hiding places here for the Ice Queen’s crown, she thought. Although she didn’t have a lot of evidence, she was nearly certain it was here. She could almost feel the crown’s chaotic magic in the air. 

“I won’t be alone anymore,” he said, and she felt his hand run through her hair. His touch was kind, it was soothing to her, and she closed her eyes, enjoying the feeling. 

Fionna noticed that he hadn’t taken his hands completely off her since he had caught her in the alley. She didn’t know if he just liked touching her, or if he was subconsciously trying to prevent her escape. Maybe both. She never would have let her Marshall’s hands linger on her like this, or at least not for so long. She found she didn’t mind it, if he was touching her gently. 

“I have you now, and I’m going to have fun with you,” he said, and her eyes cracked open in alarm. She didn’t like the sound of that. She had fun with her Marshall all the time, so the concept of them having a good time together wasn’t what concerned her. She just didn’t see this version of her friend being interested in the same things as the one she was used to. 

“What are you going to do with me for fun?” she asked, looking at him warily. He met her blue eyes with his red ones. This Marshall’s eyes, she noticed, always seemed to be red. She palmed at the pendant in her pocket, to physically remind herself of its presence. His eyes flitted from hers to her hand and she immediately stilled it, afraid he somehow knew of the pendant's presence. 

“I’m not sure yet,” he said slowly, his hand leaving her hair to drift down the length of her body. 

He stopped at her hand, which had begun to tremble, and took it loosely in his. He wasn’t holding her hand, well, technically he was, but not like that. She watched curiously as he lifted her hand up to eye-level, as if he meant to examine it. His eyes didn’t leave hers, and she felt her face grow hot as she tried to guess what he was doing. Was he going to kiss the back of her hand? It almost seemed so, and her skin tingled slightly as if in anticipation. 

He smiled at her, and his teeth looked sharper than she ever remembered them being. 

“Maybe I’ll start by biting off a few of these,” he said casually, and made to bite at her trembling fingers. 

“Hey!” Fionna yelled, wrenching her hand free from his grip, his teeth snapping closed in the open air that her hand had just occupied not even a second later. She stared at him in horror, and he smiled at her again. 

“Okay, just one, then,” he amended, reaching out for her as she took a few steps back. 

She held his red gaze, her mind reeling to keep up. He had just been touching her so tenderly a moment ago, now he was trying to bite her fingers off? This couldn’t be real. What the hell was wrong with this Marshall? He laughed and made a grab for her, and she knew she couldn’t fight him off, so she spun around and ran. 

Fionna darted down the nearest tunneling pathway deeper into the hive, her mind going blank in her terror, the intrinsic urge to flee taking over her body. The interior of the hive was like a maze and she ran this way and that, but despite how fast she ran she could feel his presence close behind her, almost teasing her. She stumbled over something, her eyes flickered down and in her panicked state she registered it as a stray bone that looked horrifyingly human, and she screamed, throwing her arms out to catch herself on the wall. 

The Star’s laughter echoed around the corridor and she felt him grab at the fabric of her shirt. She twisted and frantically wrenched her body away, feeling as the strained fabric of her shirt snapped and eventually tore as she freed herself. There was an opening to her left that looked different from the other tunnels. It was wider, as if it led to a room and not another winding pathway, and she ran for it. 

Before she passed through the threshold she felt him grabbing her again, this time his hands closing securely around her sides. 

“Got ya!” he said in her ear, and he sounded amused, like it was a game. It wasn’t a game for her, though, she was actually terrified. She let out a shriek and flailed, and he laughed harder, grabbing at her arms to try to restrain her. “What, I have to work for it this time?” he asked. 

“No!” she yelled, and managed to land a blow on him, elbowing him as hard as she could in the stomach. He grunted in pain, and she tried to do it again, but he wrapped his arm around her, pinning her arm to her side. 

“That actually hurt, you’re pretty strong,” he commented. She would have told him she was glad, and that she hoped it had hurt very badly, but she was struggling against him too hard to do anything more than let out frantic gasps as she tried to escape his hold. “Not as strong as me, though,” he said before pinning her other arm. 

She felt his knee dig into the back of hers and her legs went out from under her. The next thing she knew she was on the cold, hard floor and he was on top of her. She tried to struggle and writhe but he had her body in a solid hold. She managed to get one of her hands freed and tried to whack him in the face, but he grabbed it and restrained both of her hands together with one of his. 

“There,” he huffed, and as close to her as he was she felt the warmth of his breath on her face. She tried to squirm and he tightened the hold around her wrists to the point it caused her pain. She cried out and stopped resisting, and he thankfully loosened his grip. His thumb began dragging in a slow circle on one of her wrists, and he said, for the second time that day, “It’ll just be a little bite.” 

He pushed her head to the side to give himself access to her neck, and she felt more hopeless and terrified than she ever remembered being. She felt like she was out of all other options, so she began to cry. He bit into her in the same spot as last time and sucked eagerly at her neck. She felt a mouthful of her blood leave her body in a quick rush, and then he gagged. His mouth was off her neck a heartbeat later and she heard a sickening wet splatter on the ground next to her as he spit her blood out. 

Her hands were freed as he gagged again, loudly and violently, as if he were about to vomit. She clamped a hand over the trickling bite he had left on her neck and watched him with wide, confused eyes. He spit again on the ground and visibly shuddered before looking at her. 

“Your blood tastes awful,” he said, grimacing and looking as though he was still reeling from the lingering hint of it she could see staining his mouth. 

“Good!” Fionna yelled at him, making to kick him off her. He uncovered her body willingly, and stared at her as if completely bewildered. “Serves you right! I hope it was the worst thing you’ve ever tasted!” 

“It might have been,” he agreed, licking at his fangs and spitting onto the ground again. “I don’t get it, you tasted so good last time.” 

“Last time I wasn’t scared out of my mind! I had thought you were the Marshall from my universe! He’s my friend, not a monster like you,” she screamed at him, angry tears leaking out her eyes to mingle with her sad ones. “What you just did to me was seriously messed up!” 

“I was just trying to have fun with you,” he said back, and he looked so legitimately confused it broke through her shocked outrage at his actions. 

“Well, it wasn’t fun for me,” she said. “I didn’t like it.” She couldn’t believe she even had to explain such a thing to another person. She didn’t even have the capacity to feel bad for the crownless, dying Simone back in her own universe, this Marshall was too unpredictable to deal with. She crept her hand not clutching the bite on her neck toward her pocket as slowly and silently as possible, trying to get it closer to the pendant so she could get out of here.

“But, I didn’t pull your hair,” he said, and her hand froze as he shifted near her again. He reached for her face and she flinched, but his fingers only lightly grazed one of the tear tracks running down her cheek. His touch was gentle, curious. Pull her hair? What did that have to do with anything? She remembered, vaguely, telling him not to do that to her earlier. She supposed he hadn’t done it again after being told not to. 

“You didn’t,” she agreed slowly, her mind beginning to catch up. Did she have to explicitly tell this man each and every thing that was okay and not okay to do to her? She felt like such things should be obvious, but maybe they weren’t obvious to him. “But, there are other things I don’t like, besides that.” 

“I didn’t know,” he said, and she frowned, frustrated. 

“How would you like it if I could fly around and taunt you and bite you, and all you could do was run and scream?” she asked hotly, and he shrugged. 

“I don’t know,” he said, and she glared at him in disbelief. 

“How do you not know? Even if they weren’t trying to bite you, hasn’t anyone ever messed with you before?” she asked, and he shook his head. 

“No, who would mess with the Vampire Queen’s son? I was the strongest out of all of them, even the other vampires were too afraid to even look at me,” he said. 

“Well, it doesn’t feel good,” she said. “It feels probably about as bad as my blood tasted.” 

“I didn’t know,” he repeated. 

She typically wouldn’t believe someone who did something so blatantly awful to her and then claimed ignorance, but something about the way he was acting really made her believe it. She almost suspected it could be another trick, but then his hand left her face, and he brought his tear-dripping fingers to his mouth and tasted them. He immediately grimaced and pulled them away, turning his head to spit her tears on the ground. 

“Those taste awful, too,” he said. 

“Well, I mean, I was crying because I was upset, so that makes sense, I suppose,” she said slowly. If the taste of her blood mirrored her emotions, she imagined her tears would, as well, but it was still a strange thought. “I don’t know why you’d even try them, there’s no blood in tears.” 

“There’s no blood in your spit either, and I liked the taste of that,” he said, and despite the situation and how upset she still was at him she felt her face grow hot at the memory. He had seemed to like the taste of her mouth, but she didn’t think at the time that it had anything to do with her saliva. 

“That’s just because I had eaten candy,” she said quickly, and he shook his head. 

“It wasn’t the candy that I liked, it was the you,” he said. 

“The me?” she asked, disbelieving. 

“Yeah, spit’s not the same as blood, but it’s still good in a different way,” he said. “It tasted human, I liked it.” 

“I guess I liked that, too,” she said, although she felt as though she had liked his mouth on hers in a very different way than he did. Her flush deepened, and she forced the memory out of her mind. She thought maybe things could work out in this universe with this Marshall until she found the crown, but apparently she had to be extremely blunt with him. Blunter than she had ever been in her life. It was worth a try, at least. “I didn’t like it when you threatened to bite off pieces of me or when you chased me like that.” 

“Okay, I didn’t know,” he said. “I was just trying to have fun with you.” 

“It scared me,” she said, and he frowned at her. 

“I wasn’t really going to, I know I’m never going to get another human again. I can’t even believe that I have you. I can’t just bite pieces off you like that whenever I feel like it, there won’t be any of you left.” 

“Well, I didn’t know that you weren’t being serious,” she said. “How was I supposed to know that?” 

“How was I supposed to know that you didn’t like it?” he asked. 

“Who would like something like that?” she asked, her voice rising. 

“I don’t know! I told you, I’ve never kept a human before,” he said, sounding just as exasperated with her as she felt with him. “Those are the types of things the other vampires used to do with their humans for fun. They’d threaten them and chase them around, take away their clothes, make them sleep on the ground, I don’t know, why are you looking at me like that?” 

“Because, you can’t really believe the humans liked any of that, can you?” she asked in disbelief. 

“I never thought about what they did or didn’t like,” he said, and he sounded so sincere in that moment she almost could have laughed at the ridiculousness of it all. 

“Well, if you want to try to do things like that to me, I won’t like it, and my blood will taste awful,” she said with a sigh. “I’m not sure what else to say.” 

“I want to do the things you like,” he said, and then he surprised her by pressing his mouth against hers. She hadn’t been expecting it, and his lips moved on hers, seeking entrance into her mouth. As soon as her senses returned to her she shoved him off. 

“Knock it off!” she yelled, wiping at her mouth. 

“I thought you said you liked that!” he said, and he looked so genuinely confused she almost felt bad for him. Almost. 

“I do, but only when I want to do it, too,” she said. “You need to ask me before you do things like that, if you want me to like them.” 

“Okay, can I put my mouth on yours?” he asked, and she scoffed at him. 

“No,” she said harshly, and he made no move to seal their mouths together again. 

Fionna took in a breath to berate him for even asking, but then she hesitated. Strange as his behavior was, it did seem as though he was trying. He didn’t know she had a way home, he didn’t have to accommodate her in any way. He apparently didn’t want her to be miserable here, even if it was just to sweeten up the taste of her blood. She could maybe work with that. 

“Just, not right now,” she amended. “You can hug me, if you’re gentle.” 

“You’d like that?” he asked, and she nodded. 

“Yeah, if you do, too,” she said, sitting up slightly. 

He slowly took her in his arms and held her against him, hesitantly this time, as if he were afraid of messing up. She silently debated this for a few seconds before she wrapped her arms around him, too. It was comforting, and it felt nice. She found she was eager for comfort after all the crazy emotions and events of the day. 

“I like this,” Fionna said softly. 

“I do, too,” he said, and then, just as she had completely relaxed into his touch, “Can I bite you again?” 

“Not yet,” she said, wondering what he would do. The seconds ticked on, and he didn’t make a move for her neck, although she could feel his body steadily becoming tenser with growing want. She took this as a sign of goodwill from him, that apparently he could control himself if he wanted to, and lifted her head off his shoulder where it had settled. She supposed it was only fair to reward this good behavior. 

“How about we just do this, for now?” she asked, tilting her face up to press her lips against his.

His mouth sealed against hers automatically, as if it were the most natural thing in the world to do, and when she opened her mouth for him he moaned at her taste. It felt good for her, too. So good she may have moaned a little as well, but it was hard to be aware of such things with the intimate way his tongue was running against her own. 

She wondered as they kissed, because certainly, it was a kiss (maybe?) if perhaps this mission would work out, after all. Maybe this Marshall wasn’t so bad. The way his mouth was moving on hers wasn’t bad, at least. Maybe it wouldn’t be bad to get to kiss him like this whenever she wanted while she sorted out her confusing feelings for her Marshall, who she couldn’t help but feel like was the ‘real’ one. Although this one certainly felt very, very real at present. 

She still wasn’t entirely sure he wasn’t dangerous, but that was okay. She wasn’t afraid of a little danger. She could tell he was at least willing to try to make her time here as pleasant as possible, even if it was just to make her taste better. 

She had to find the crown first before she could even think about leaving this strange universe. What a strange universe it was, too, she thought. A few moments ago she was running for her life from this man, and now he was sucking on her tongue as she moaned for more. 

Fionna pulled away from him, gasping for breath, but he tried to follow her mouth, clearly not done with tasting her yet. 

“Wait,” she panted, wiping at her mouth. Glob, didn’t he know what kissing her so deeply was doing to her? Her body felt hot and excited, it had been more than she had expected from the little peck she had given him. His hand was on her face, his thumb running across her swollen bottom lip. He appeared ready to press their mouths together again, and she had to stop him. “That’s enough for now.” 

“Are you sure? The longer we do that the better you taste,” he said, and she saw the tongue that had just so thoroughly ravaged her mouth lick across his fangs as he looked at her in wonder. 

“Yeah, I’m sure, that was… a lot for me,” she said. 

“Okay,” he said, but his eyes were still on her mouth. She wondered if he would come back for more anyway, but he seemed to be trying to show some restraint. “Your lips were pink, but now they’re red,” he commented. 

“That’s what happens when you kiss hard like that,” she said, her mind still reeling. 

“Can I taste it?” he asked, and she raised an eyebrow at him. 

“The color?” she clarified, and he nodded. “Sure.” 

He pressed his mouth against hers again, and she felt the pressure of one of his fangs against her lip, but he wasn’t puncturing through. He sucked gently on her bottom lip, and she felt a cold tingle as the color drained out of it. A few heartbeats later the sensation was gone as the color returned, and she felt as he sucked it out again. He pulled away after a while of this, and she looked at him curiously. 

“How was it?” Fionna asked, reaching up to feel her lip. It felt extra sensitive and a small thrill went through her as the pads of her fingers grazed the tender flesh, but beyond that it felt the same as before. 

“Different than blood, or spit, but so, so good,” this strange Marshall said, looking at her fondly. She smiled shyly at him, finding it hard to think of him as The Star when he was being so affectionate to her. “I know why the me from your universe wanted to be your friend. You taste so good when you’re doing things you like.” 

“It’s better when it’s something I like too, isn’t it?” she asked, and he nodded. 

“So much better,” he agreed. “Maybe we can be friends, too?” 

“Maybe,” she said, and her hand found the back of his neck as she brought him in for another kiss. 

Chapter Text

“I think I’ll like being friends with you,” Marshall said as she pulled away from his mouth. Fionna wiped at her face, the air occupying the small space between them feeling warm and heavy. She felt short of breath. Nobody had ever kissed her so thoroughly before. 

“There’s more to being friends than this, you know,” she said. 

“I don’t, I’ve never had a friend before,” he said before pulling her forward to suck the redness from her abused lips. Her skin tingled and cooled with the strange sensation. He licked at her paled lips, as if trying to coax the color back into them, and her skin filled with heat before he drained it away again. Her lips were growing oversensitive, and this time, when he dragged his tongue across them she felt like she could feel it with her whole body. “Fuck, you taste good.” 

“I’m glad you like it, but that’s enough for now,” Fionna panted, putting her hands on his chest to stop him. She was sweating, and she had her thighs clamped shut tight, little throbs of pleasure intermittently pulsing between her legs as he kissed her. 

“Just once more,” he said, dipping forward to drain the color from her lips again. Her fingers dug into his chest as he sucked at her lips but she allowed it because it felt so, so, so good. 

After this last time he pulled away, and she was glad for it because she felt like she was going to lose her mind if he continued. 

“You’ve really never had a friend before?” she asked as soon as she composed herself enough to speak. His hands drifted away from the back of her neck where he had been holding her, and she felt his thumb graze her sensitized lips. 

“No, I told you the other vampires wouldn’t even look at me,” he said. “But this is really great. What else do friends do?” Her face burned, and she didn’t know if he understood how dirty that sounded. 

“Friends do things they like together, I guess,” she said carefully, feeling like it wasn’t a great explanation. “Things they both enjoy.” She grimaced when she realized how dirty that sounded as well, but she didn’t know how else to describe friendship. Him kissing and touching her like that had made her mind go fuzzy, and really she had had quite a day. 

Fionna didn’t think he was messing with her anymore, but the concept of being so powerful and yet grossly unaware of friendship and physical intimacy felt unbelievable to her. But, she had to admit she couldn’t see the Vampire Queen as being a physically affectionate mother. If humans were food to him and vampires shunned him out of jealousy or fear, she supposed that left nobody for him to become close with. 

The thought of him having nobody made her sad. Her Marshall in her world had always portrayed himself as a loner, but she knew deep down he needed connection as badly as anyone else did. She knew being excluded from things due to his vampirism hurt him, he just never let it show. She suspected it was the same with this Marshall, but instead of throwing himself into music and hobbies he… threw himself into the war against humans, which led to the death of the world and him being stuck here alone. 

His hands had crept down from her face to touch her body while she thought, and as used to his constant touch as she had become she hadn’t even noticed it at first. One of his hands groped at the swell of her breast and she jumped at the unexpected pleasure. Her hand flew up to cover his and stop his exploration. 

“Do you not like that?” he asked, and she didn’t know what to say. She knew she had to be explicitly blunt with him, but how was she supposed to even answer that question? 

“I mean, technically I do,” she settled on. She sucked in a quick breath and wondered how things had gotten out of hand so fast. 

“I like it, too. Your body is great,” he said, and she felt his hand close around her breast again. He palmed at it experimentally, and as her nipple hardened and became visible as an outline against her shirt he seemed to grow more interested, flicking at it with his thumb. Her hand had grown lax on his but she came alive with a jolt and pulled his hand away from her chest. 

“Don’t do that,” she said, feeling so embarrassed she could die. 

“Why not? We both like it, and we’re friends,” he said, and she frowned at him, not liking his convenient spin on her own words. “I can smell how much you like it. It makes you smell good.” 

“I said maybe we could be friends,” she clarified. “We’re not friends yet. You don’t even know my name.” 

“Is that a requirement?” he asked, and if she wasn’t completely sure at this point that he was being serious she would have laughed. 

“Yeah, it’s sort of a major one,” she said. “You have to know what your friends' names are.” 

“Okay,” he said, and looked at her expectantly. She looked back, waiting patiently for him to ask her for her name. When it became apparent he wasn’t going to, she frowned. 

“Do you not want to know my name?” she asked. 

“No, I do,” he said, and she raised an eyebrow at him. 

“Are you going to ask me for it?” she asked. 

“Oh,” he said, appearing a bit uncomfortable. His red eyes left her face and he swallowed a few times as he seemed to consider this. She couldn’t believe it but she actually thought he was embarrassed. “Um, yeah. I didn’t think about that. What’s your name?” he asked. 

She didn’t understand how asking for her name could embarrass him while he had no problems touching her body or even playing with her breasts. Was he seriously that out of touch with other people? Then, she remembered he had been alone here for who knew how long and thought he must be. Maybe it was easier for him to do things to connect rather than talk. 

“My name is Fionna,” she said, and he nodded. 

“Alright, now we’re friends,” he said, and she felt as his hands found their way to her waist again. She squirmed away from his touch, afraid he was going to resume touching her the way he had been. Her body was far too overexcited to deal with that. 

“Not quite,” she said. “It takes more time than that.” 

“Okay, well you’re still my human,” he said. “And I want to touch you. It was fun.” 

“And I don’t want to do that anymore right now. I’m tired of it,” she said, shoving his creeping hand away. “You don’t want my blood to taste gross, do you?” 

His hands froze, and he grimaced at the memory. 

“No, I don’t,” he said. “What do you want to do now?” She had so many things she needed to do, map out the hive, find the crown, he mentioned books about the multiverse, she probably should try to find those, the list went on and on, but for some reason only one thing stood out in her mind. 

“I’m… actually just tired. I’ve had a crazy day. I want to sleep,” she said, and beyond tired, she also felt pretty dirty. “And I’d like to get cleaned up, and why did you have to tear the back of my shirt when you grabbed me? I don’t have any more clothes.” 

“I can find you something else to wear,” he said, and she eyed his outfit warily. She didn’t quite know how to describe his clothing beyond the term ‘fancy’. Circumstance had called for her borrowing clothing from her Marshall before, but he didn’t wear anything like what this one had on. 

“Are all your clothes fancy like that? I wouldn’t know how to put something like that on,” she said, and he appeared amused. 

“These are vampire clothes, but there’s human clothes here, somewhere. I told you before the other vampires used to keep humans in the hive,” he said, before looking at the doorway she had tried to flee through earlier. “In fact, that was the Emperor's room, right there. He always had a few humans at any given time. I bet there’s plenty of human clothes in there.” 

“The Emperor? Was that his real name? It’s kind of strange, isn’t it?” Fionna asked, getting off the floor and dusting herself off. Ugh. Why had she writhed around on the ground so much? She was filthy.

“As much as my name’s The Star, my mom gave each of us a new name when we joined her inner court,” he said, going through the doorway. “I don’t know what his name was before that.” 

Fionna followed him inside the Emperor's room, hoping desperately they would find her something simple to wear. She was momentarily impressed as she looked around the room, it was probably the fanciest sort of bedroom she had ever seen. The walls were the same porous, stony material as the rest of the hive, and the furnishings were far more ornate and fussy than she thought anything had the right to be. 

The Star drifted over to a big, fancy standing closet, she thought it may have been called an armoire but she wasn’t confident on that (Cake would have known, she liked frilly words like that), and threw it open. There were rows and rows of hanging clothes, and this closet must have been for the Emperor's humans, because the clothes were much more simple than what he had called ‘vampire clothes’. Clothing wasn't the only thing that was in the standing closet, however. 

Hanging off hooks on the inside of the closet’s doors were collars of different shapes, colors, and sizes. There were what looked like leashes, too, and maybe some other messed up stuff, but she looked away in horror before her mind could really comprehend what she had been seeing. 

She unfortunately looked in the perfect direction to see a cage on the ground near the bed that she had missed on her first brief glance over the room. Her first thought was that it should be for an animal, but then she realized obviously it would be for whatever human the Emperor was keeping at the moment. 

“Hey, do you think this will fit- Is something wrong?” The Star asked, and Fionna quickly wiped at her face to try to hide her tears. She hadn’t even realized she had started crying. 

“No,” she said quickly, and she felt his hand on her face, his thumb grazing one of the damp tear tracks. 

“This means you feel awful, though,” he said, and the next thing she knew he was pulling her forward, and his mouth was on hers. 

He was kissing her deeply, and she kissed him back, unsure when she had gotten so used to him inside her mouth like this, but she felt so upset she couldn’t shy away from it. She was eager for comfort however she could get it. He separated away from her before she was ready for him to, and she immediately missed the physical contact. 

“Something is wrong, I can taste it on you,” he said, giving her a critical look. She hadn’t even realized he had just been trying to get a taste of the hint of her emotions he could somehow pick up in her spit. Her mind had warped it into nothing more than a kiss. 

“There are a few things in here that are scaring me. The collars, and the cage, I don’t like any of it,” she said, feeling embarrassed to verbalize this. “You’re not going to try to make me wear a collar or sleep in a cage, are you?” She knew she had to play along with his strange idea of ‘keeping her’ to placate him enough to complete her mission, and it hadn’t been entirely bad so far, but the idea of him trying to do these things scared her. 

“What? Why would you need a collar? There aren’t any other vampires around anymore. You obviously belong to me, and I don’t even have a cage in my room. I told you, I’ve never kept a human before. I could maybe get you one, though, if you wanted-” 

She smacked him, and he grinned toothily at her. Maybe it sounded crazy but she couldn’t help but smile back at him, as reminded as she was in that moment of the Marshall from her own universe. Except for the part where he so casually talked about the sense of ownership he felt over her. That was very much unlike the Marshall she knew. 

Unless… well..  She supposed even her Marshall had a strange sense of ownership over things, places, the treehouse immediately came to mind, but never, as far as she was aware, did he feel that way about another person. She had always thought the way he seemed to need to mark and claim things for his own as a weird quirk of his. Now she was wondering if that was perhaps a vampire trait showing through. She wondered, if without the social boundaries against it that existed in her Aaa, if he would want to keep her, too. 

“Those clothes look like they’ll fit fine, I don’t really care what I wear, anyway. I just want to get out of here,” she said quickly, forcing that last thought from her mind and accepting the clothes in his hands. They looked like a pajama shirt and shorts to her, but the material felt fancy and silky. At least she would be comfortable. 

He brought her to his room next, and she was relieved to see he was telling the truth when he said there would be no cage. She tried to remember the way, but the inside of the hive really was like a maze. His room was somehow far nicer than the Emperor's, but she supposed that was only to be expected if the Vampire Queen was his adoptive mother in this universe. 

She couldn’t help but smile when she saw how disorganized and messy it was, as it reminded her of her Marshall’s room, too. Then, she recalled that the only time she had been in that Marshall’s room she had been hiding in the closet and accidentally saw him naked. This led her to wonder if this Marshall would look the same way without his clothes on, and that thought embarrassed her so badly that she had to focus on something different or else she felt like she’d simply die. There was a door in his room leading to a bathroom, and that sparked a thought in her.

“How do the lights and water and stuff work in the hive, if you’re the only one left?” she asked. “And what about when it needs, I don’t know, repaired? What do you do?” She knew with his immortality he would have had the time to learn how to do a lot, but she found it hard to believe he was able to do absolutely everything himself to maintain this giant home. And, for being uninhabited for who knew how long, the Emperor’s room hadn’t been dusty or anything like she would have expected. 

“Oh, the hive has a magical core, it basically just takes care of itself. It’ll be able to get you food, too, when you’re hungry. It just can’t make blood, for some reason,” he said. 

“A magical core?” Fionna asked, interested. She hadn’t thought about how she would eat here, she had just assumed she would have to forage for those mushrooms or something when she got hungry. It was nice to know that wasn’t the case, but she was more interested in this core than eating at the moment. 

“Yeah, my mom got it set up before she died. Do you not have things like that in your Aaa?” 

“No, we don’t,” she said. “What does it look like? I’d like to see it.” 

“I don’t even know how to get to it. Anyway, I thought you wanted to shower and go to sleep,” he said, and she had to agree. She felt filthy and exhausted. This magical core didn’t seem like something she would be able to access tonight, and she didn’t think she should be showing too much interest in it. If it was the crown, she didn’t know how he would feel about her taking it. She imagined he wouldn’t be very pleased, if it was the thing powering his home. 

“A shower would be great,” she said, and he showed her the bathroom. It was, like the rest of the hive, very nice. Ornate and fancy to the extent that she didn’t feel like she had any business being there, but she was too tired to really care about that. A big, claw-footed tub caught her eye. She liked that she wouldn’t have to go without taking baths here. 

“That’s probably the biggest shower I’ve ever seen,” she said, looking at it. It was just as nice as the rest of the bathroom, and she was a little excited to get in it. His hands were still on her, they always seemed to be making contact with her in some way. He was holding her loosely from behind, and she felt his hands slip under the fabric of her shirt to touch her bare sides. 

“It’s nice, there will be plenty of room for both of us,” he said, and his hands slid higher on her body, her shirt bunching up with the motion. 

She grabbed his hands to stop him when they made their way to her waist and she realized he was attempting to undress her. He stilled his hands when she covered them with hers, but he didn’t remove them from her body. Her heart pounded away in her chest with a sudden surge of nervous anticipation. Had he really said ‘both of us’? Both, as in, together? 

“What’s wrong?” he asked. “I thought this is what you wanted.” 

“I do want to shower, but I’ve never done it with someone else before,” Fionna said, swallowing nervously. “It’s weird.” 

It was hard to think of a better reason than that, with the way his hands continued to work up her body, slower this time. Her first instinct was to make a grab for the pendant in her pocket to escape this horribly uncomfortable situation, but she felt like if she grabbed for it with him so near he would stop her. Also, if she let go of his hands even for a second she felt like he would have her shirt off. 

“Neither have I, but I think I’d really like to,” he said. “And, we’re friends. I know your name now, Fionna.” 

A shiver ran through her at the sound of her name coming out of his mouth, and she didn’t know why. He was nearly identical to her Marshall, and he said her name all the time. Maybe it was the way in which this one said it, or maybe the way his hands had worked their way up to the bottom of her bra. She panicked at this and grasped his hands more firmly, and thankfully they again stilled their ascent.  

She wondered how worth it it would be to give him more pushback on this. She felt like he had been very accommodating to her already. Now that she had seen physical evidence of how poorly the humans in the past had been treated by the vampires who kept them she knew he was already being kinder to her than he had any reason to be. For whatever reason he seemed more insistent on this than anything else so far, and she supposed she had already seen him naked once. A version of him, anyway. 

“Alright, but I want to undress myself,” she settled on, and his hands left her body. 

Fionna didn’t want this universe’s Marshall to feel the concealed pendant when he helped her out of her skirt. She didn’t like the idea of leaving it in her pocket and being without it, but it’s not like she could activate it right this second anyway. She found that taking off her own clothes made her feel a little less uneasy, it gave her a small amount of control over the situation. 

She kept her arms wrapped around her chest and her legs shut together as tightly as she could manage while he turned on the water. She stared fixedly at her pile of clothes on the floor, refusing to look up at him until she felt his touch on her arm. She tensed up at first, afraid he was going to make her uncover herself, but he seemed to just be trying to guide her into the shower. 

She let him guide her, keeping her eyes on her feet to not accidentally catch a glimpse of him. Once inside the shower he settled behind her, and she felt a little more comfortable, not being able to see him. The water was warm and it felt nice on her body. She tried to focus on that, and it was almost enough to soothe her. The situation still made her feel anxious, but then his hands began working through her hair and she couldn’t help but gradually relax. 

“I like your hair,” he said after a little while. “It was the first thing I noticed about you.” She wondered if this meant the other Marshall felt the same way. If he had, he had never mentioned it. 

“Thank you,” she said, because she didn’t know what else to say. “It feels nice, when you touch it softly like that,” she added, remembering how blunt she had to be with him. 

“I can tell,” he said, and she felt his nose pressing against the back of her neck, breathing her in. “I can smell your blood. It smells good.” 

His hands left her hair and wound around her front as he glued himself up against her back. He nudged her head to the side with his to expose her neck, and she allowed it, because it was a markedly kinder way to get access to her than pulling her hair. He simply held her like this, his nose pressed against the warm, wet skin of her neck, breathing her in for a long time. He seemed to really enjoy it. She would be lying if she said she wasn’t enjoying it, too. 

Being held like this made her feel safe, which was a stupid feeling, when she took into account how terrified she had been of him earlier. And the way he had bit her, twice. And how he had the ridiculous notion that she was his to keep, simply because he wanted her. Because he liked her. 

She felt her face heat up as she recalled how he had actually said, out loud, that he liked her. She didn’t think he had meant he liked her like that, he probably liked her about the same amount as he would any random human he found, but still. Even her Marshall had never said such a thing out loud. She’d be lying if she said hearing it didn’t affect her deeply. Even just remembering it now made her heart feel heavy with emotion. 

“Fuck, you really smell good,” he said, and she felt his mouth on the skin of her neck, but he wasn’t biting. His tongue ran up the punctures he had left on her slowly, as if he was savoring the feel of them. She felt him shudder against her and then lick her again. She didn’t think anyone else had ever enjoyed her body as much as he seemed to. “I can almost taste it like this.” 

“You can bite me again, if you want,” she said, her face burning at the thought. She found she didn’t mind the idea of it. It hadn’t hurt so bad, and the way he was licking at her neck almost made her want it. Maybe it wasn’t the biting itself that she wanted, but the validation that came with it, that she tasted good, and he at least truly liked that part of her. 

His mouth left her neck and she felt a little disappointed. She had thought he would jump on the opportunity. Maybe he didn’t want her as badly as she thought he did. However, he hadn’t pulled away from her completely, he was still so close behind her that she could feel every part of him pressed up against her. He was wet and warm from the water and her mind fixated on the way she could feel the outline of his cock touching the curve of her bottom. She had only seen that part of him once, briefly, and she had never been able to forget it. It was strange to feel it now, touching her. 

One of his hands drifted up from her waist, and she felt him cup her jaw and encourage her to look back as far as she could. 

“I want to do this, first. It makes you taste better,” he said before he pressed his mouth on hers. 

Fionna couldn’t exactly complain about that. She liked the feeling of his mouth moving against hers. She knew it wasn’t really a kiss, it was hungrier than that, he was… tasting her spit, or something, but it felt like a kiss to her. It wasn’t hard for her to kiss him back. She liked it. Him kissing her deeply, the warm water beating down on her, the feeling of his arms around her, the occasional, sensitive tingle of him sucking the color from her lips, it was all… really nice. 

He still had one of his hands on her jaw, urging her to look back so their mouths could meet, and she felt as his other hand drifted up from her waist to experimentally cup one of her breasts. She had asked him not to do that earlier, but here he was trying again. Pushing the boundary to see what he could get away with. It was so much like the Marshall she knew that she couldn’t be upset. 

She separated from his mouth with a shiver and looked down, the sight of his hand on her like that doing something indescribable to her. Her first instinct was to push his hand away, but it really felt so good, and she supposed she had let her Marshall touch her there once, too. Maybe it would be okay to allow this one to do it, just this once. 

As soon as his mouth lost contact with hers he began nipping at her, working his way from the rim of her ear down the flesh of her neck. His fingers found her nipple and he began playing with it, lightly pinching and teasing and slowly dragging across the hardened flesh. Pulses of pleasure erupted between her legs in response and she clamped her thighs shut tight. 

“You’re pink here, too,” he murmured against her neck, taking her nipple between two fingers and giving it a little tug. 

Her hand flew up and she really did push him away at this, the sudden jolt of pleasure it gave her was too good, it almost hurt. She was getting too sensitive there, her body wasn’t used to so much direct attention like that. He didn’t seem bothered, and instead moved his hand to her other breast and started playing with it in turn. 

His mouth latched on the punctures he had left on her like a magnet and he began sucking at them, and she could just tell he was trying to taste her blood through the barrier of her skin. She didn’t know how well he could taste it like this, but he had to pick up on some flavor of what she was feeling because he let out a moan and sunk his fangs into her without warning. He had given her some kind of heads up the last two times he had bit her. She had been expecting it this time as well, but it was like the hint of her arousal he could pick up through her skin made him forget his new found manners. 

She gasped at the unexpected bite, the pain of it not cutting through the pleasure he was giving her but somehow adding to it, mingling with it and strengthening it. The stinging, piercing sharpness of the bite only made the pleasurable way he was squeezing her breasts and teasing her nipples all the sweeter. He sucked out a mouthful of her blood and her knees felt weak, but she didn’t think it was a result of the sudden blood loss. He seemed equally affected by the way he was making her feel, sucking at her neck harder, hungry for more of the secondhand pleasure he was experiencing through her blood. 

He didn’t stop playing with her breasts as he drank from her. The subtle movements of his hands became more precise as he learned through her taste what made her feel good and sought out more of it. He was, like the Marshall from her own Aaa, very good with his hands. By the time he unlatched from her neck she was a flushed, squirming mess in his arms and the place between her legs was throbbing wildly with surges of pleasure. 

She had never felt more aroused in her life. She felt like she would be able to caress herself to orgasm in less than a minute if she tried, and her body was aching for the release of it, but despite what he had just done to her she felt too uncomfortable to touch herself in front of him. Maybe if he was touching himself it would embolden her to do the same, but she could tell he wasn’t, as both of his hands were still on her. 

He seemed deeply affected by the taste of her blood, and grabbed her by her jaw and urged her to look back, sealing his mouth on hers the moment he pulled away from her neck. 

Her senses were overwhelmed with the metallic tang of a mouthful of her own blood being forced into her mouth. She knew, like the first time he had bit her, he was just trying to give her a taste of it. He had liked it so much he wanted to give her a chance to enjoy it as well. 

He was… trying to share something he liked with her. Maybe it was thoughtful, she couldn’t tell. She didn’t like it like he did, but she liked the feeling of his mouth on hers, so she swallowed it down obediently to prolong the kiss. His fingers were digging into her painfully, he was holding her so tightly, like he didn’t want her to escape or maybe to prevent himself from biting into her again, she couldn’t tell. 

“Can you taste how delicious you are right now?” he pulled away from her mouth enough to ask her after she had swallowed. 

“Maybe,” she lied. “Let me try some more.” 

She turned enough to face him and wrapped her arms around him, sealing herself up against him as close as she could be. Their mouths moved together more comfortably this time, and she lost herself in the feeling of his lips on hers. It was a long time until either of them had enough sense to separate and make an attempt at washing themselves off. 

Her body was hot and overexcited from all the teasing and kissing, but it had settled to a somewhat manageable level by the time they left the shower. She felt his eyes on her as she dried off, hungrily drinking in her wet, naked body. She was still heavily aroused and he seemed well aware of it. He seemed to like her in this state, the smell of her, the taste of her, she wasn’t sure what it was about her feeling this way that appealed to him so. She got dressed in the silky pajamas he had found her as quickly as possible, not wanting to go through the pleasurable torture of him touching her like that again so soon. 

Fionna was so exhausted from the day's events that she couldn’t even summon the energy to be embarrassed at the thought of sharing a bed with him after what he had done to her. He hadn’t stopped touching her in some manner throughout the day, she supposed it only made sense he intended to maintain the same level of physical contact throughout the night. 

He sealed himself up behind her without comment after she crawled into his bed, and tired as she was, she should have fallen fast asleep but the intermittent throbs between her legs kept her up. She wished she could have just five minutes of privacy to get herself off. She could deal with the way he pressed his body so completely against hers if only she didn’t have to keep squeezing her thighs shut to dampen those annoying jolts of pleasure his touch was causing her to experience. 

He was spooned up behind her with one of his arms behind her head and the other resting on the dip of her waist. This wouldn’t have been bad, but his hand kept inching closer to her chest, and she knew he was itching to play with her breasts again. It was like he didn’t understand how frustratingly uncomfortable being repeatedly put in this aroused state was to her. She realized he probably didn’t because she hadn’t explicitly told him as much, but it seemed like such a difficult thing to explain to another person. She covered his creeping hand with hers to hold it in place so she could try to get some sleep. 

Fionna didn’t think she would ever fall asleep like this, but she must have, because she had a very, very strange dream. She dreamed she was in a room made of multidirectional stairs that was so bizarre it couldn’t have possibly been of this world, and she watched one identical version of herself sneak up behind another. It looked like she was trying to prevent herself from waking up Cake. 

She watched as she grabbed herself, and as soon as the two versions of her touched a blinding light emitted from one copy and then she… turned into a sword? It was a cool sword, but the thought of it scared her. She liked swords, but she didn’t want to become one. She woke up with a start and frantically looked around the dark room, trying to remember where she was and what was going on. 

Her heart felt like it was going to race out of her chest and she felt Marshall’s hands on her, sleepy as she was she knew his touch. She would know the feel of his hands anywhere. He coaxed her back down to a lying position and wrapped his arms around her, his touch soothing her. He was murmuring something against her in the darkness, but her fuzzy, sleepy brain couldn’t catch what he was saying. 

He tugged on her shoulder to get her to turn around and face him. As soon as she did his mouth was on hers. She was too tired to even worry about concepts as complex as morning breath, the way he was kissing her was too all-consuming to allow for that. He pulled away from her before she was ready and she tried to follow his mouth, wanting more of the physical comfort he was giving her. 

“Why do you feel awful?” he asked her, and she could hear the subtle wet sound of him licking at his fangs as he tried to identify the foreign feelings he was picking up in the taste of her saliva. 

“Bad dream,” she mumbled, sleepily wrapping her arms around him and pulling his mouth back on hers. 

His mouth connected back with hers at her insistence, but his hands also found their way on her chest, palming at her breasts through her shirt. He groped at her like this as they kissed, and then she felt as his fingers sought out her nipples to tease them to hardness. She moaned into his mouth, her body enthusiastically responding to his touch. 

She couldn’t tell if he meant this touching as sexual, or if he just knew it was something she really, really liked the feeling of and he was doing the only thing he had learned how to make her feel better. Certainly if he were coming on to her he would try to get off himself, but he seemed completely focused on giving her pleasure, tasting her mouth all the while as if to ensure he was doing an adequate job at making her feel good. 

She was too deliriously tired to deny her desire any longer, and her hand drifted down her front as he played with her breasts, not stopping until it was buried in the pulsing heat between her legs. She rubbed herself with her first two fingers and her body flooded with pleasure. It felt so unbelievably good to finally be touched there, it was almost a relief. She felt him bunch her shirt up on her front so he could touch her directly without the barrier of the fabric between them. Everything felt so good she knew she couldn’t deal with it for long, and she wondered if she should share it with him. 

He appeared to be enjoying the deepening of her pleasure through the taste of her mouth and was hesitant to separate from her when she tried. She pulled her mouth away from his with more insistence, smiling when he tried to follow her. Her aroused state seemed irresistible to him and he was clinging to her tightly, his hands glued to her bare breasts. As soon as it became apparent to him she didn’t want her mouth ravaged anymore he switched to licking at her neck as if he were trying to taste her sweat instead, which she figured he probably was. 

“It’s okay for you to bite me,” she said, her voice coming out both pleasure-ladened and sleepy. He didn’t waste any time in taking her up on her offer, his fangs immediately sinking into her neck with a sharp, almost familiar pain. At this rate, she didn’t think the punctures would ever completely heal. 

Her hand grew wet as it moved between her legs, and she could feel him moaning as her blood filled his mouth. She was so sensitive she couldn’t touch her clit directly, it felt so good it nearly hurt when she tried, so she settled for working her fingers on either side of it, caressing it gently between them. By the time he was pulling his second mouthful off her her body had erupted into pulsations of pleasure from her core outward, the strength of her release flooding her mind like a wave. 

He seemed greatly affected by whatever he could taste of her orgasm on her blood, and like when he shared a mouthful of her own blood with her she found her wet hand finding its way down his front to share what she had liked, too. His cock was so hard it felt painful, and although she didn’t really know what she was doing she wrapped her hand around it and squeezed. He rocked his hips in response and she set a rhythm of pumping him, feeling as he moaned and continued to suck at her neck while she jerked him off. 

Like with her own release, it didn’t take very long at all until she felt him shudder against her, a hot wetness splattering all over her hand as he came all over them. Most of the mess had been contained inside his pants and she pulled her hand out, sleepily wiping it off on the fabric as she did so. 

His mouth was still on her neck and sucking at her punctures faintly, but he wasn’t really drinking anymore, it more so felt like he just wasn’t ready to part from her yet. She didn’t mind it. It felt nice. She couldn’t believe she had started the day never before having been bitten and plagued by complicated thoughts of this man and was ending it falling asleep comforted by the feeling of his mouth on her neck after getting off together. She would have thought more heavily on what a strange universe it was that she had ended up in, but she was already asleep. 

Chapter Text

When Fionna woke up a long while later she was still in The Star’s arms. It appeared he had held her all night. Was it a desire to be close to her, or a caution to prevent her from sneaking away? Maybe it was just that he had gone so long being alone that he needed constant physical contact with her to make sure she was real. These thoughts made her feel strange, but not as strange as her memories of all the complex events of the day prior.  

She had been so deliriously exhausted and overwhelmed that she only remembered fragments of it like a fever dream. She tried to piece the fragments together. She went through a wormhole into this dead Aaa, where the vampires had won the war against humans long ago, looking for a new crown for Simone. She had been found by The Star, this universe’s version of her friend Marshall Lee, but he was different. Warped. He had been alone a long time, and even before that, it seemed he had been as good as alone. 

She had thought he had been a bit of an outcast in her own universe, but apparently it had been worse for him in this one. Was not fitting in a strange, fundamental trait tied to his being, no matter what universe he existed in? She wound a stray lock of her long, blonde hair around her finger as she wondered if other versions of her had some sort of a fundamental trait, and if they did, what it could be. 

He shifted against her, and she felt his hand running through her hair gently. He must have felt her move and realized she was awake. She held still and feigned falling back asleep, not quite ready to face him. She didn’t entirely know how she felt about him yet. But, to be fair, she didn’t know quite how she felt about the Marshall Lee from her own universe, either. Maybe she was cursed to always have conflicted thoughts about the man. 

The Marshall she knew would never do the things this one had done to her. This one had hunted her through the crumbling remains of the city she had exited the wormhole into. He had bit her, pulled her hair, and decided he was going to keep her. He had chased her around the hive he had brought her back to and led her to believe he was going to bite pieces off of her. It all sounded very terrible, even to herself. 

But, he had also been kind to her. He hadn’t pulled her hair again after she told him she hadn’t liked it. While he didn’t seem to understand her emotions, he could get an idea of them by taste, and it seemed he had been trying to do the best he could with that. He had shown an interest in learning the things she liked. He had told her he wanted to be her friend, even if he didn’t seem to know entirely what that meant. 

He didn’t want her to be upset. He didn’t like the taste of it, she wasn’t sure if it ran any deeper than that. He had been learning the ways he could touch her to get different responses out of her, and he had maybe been a little too good at this. Her feelings were somehow like flavors to him. He seemed to like the taste of her when she was happy or relaxed, but as soon as he discovered the taste of her arousal it was like he couldn’t get enough. 

He had touched and teased her relentlessly yesterday to drive her body to that state once he learned how, but it was like he only wanted her to feel like that because he liked it. He hadn’t tried to get himself off, he had only really seemed interested in pleasuring her to enjoy the smell and taste of it, or, as she discovered late last night, to improve her mood. 

She had had a nightmare about being in an unfamiliar place, touching a replica of herself and the replica turning into a sword. It felt a little silly now that she wasn’t half-asleep that it had scared her so badly. As soon as he had tasted how upset she was he had begun touching her in the way he had learned she liked. 

She wasn’t sure if this was his idea of a kind gesture or not. Like trying to share the taste of her blood with her, he seemed to harbor strange ideas about what was friendly behavior. He didn’t have to touch her, he hadn’t been planning on feeding off her at that moment. He could have just gone back to sleep. 

The way he had touched her had felt so good in her exhausted state that she couldn’t help but touch herself to orgasm. Despite how sexually he had touched her and aroused he had made her he hadn’t gotten hard himself until he tasted her orgasm. That’s right. She had sleepily gotten him off as well before she fell back asleep. 

She would have never expected herself to do such a thing, and she almost could have even convinced herself that the last part hadn’t happened if she didn’t peek an eye open and see he had a different pair of pants on than he had put on after their shower. He must have cleaned himself up after she fell back asleep. She wondered how he felt about the way she had touched him. She probably should have asked first. 

She stole a glance down at her hand she had used on him and examined it, wondering if she would see evidence of his dry come on it or something. Her hand appeared clean. He must have wiped her off as well afterwards. She hadn’t even woken up to it. She noticed her shirt had been pulled back down, too. It faintly embarrassed her to think she had fallen asleep with it bunched up and her chest completely exposed. 

She felt his hand under her chin, urging her to look up at him. He had let her fake sleep long enough, it seemed. She didn’t think she could really fool him, anyway. As Cake always reminded her, she was a poor actress. She complied and tilted her face up toward his, and before she could fully open her eyes to look at him his mouth was on hers. 

Fionna knew it wasn’t a kiss, he was just tasting her, but she allowed it because it felt nice, and she imagined it really was a kiss. She liked kissing. She wished the Marshall from her universe had felt emboldened enough to kiss her as often or as thoroughly as this one did. That one hadn’t even kissed her once. She didn’t think she could have helped but fall in love with him if he had. He had never even admitted out loud that he liked her. She supposed she had never admitted out loud that she had liked him, either, but still. 

It made her feel so confused after that movie night in her own universe that really had not been that long ago, but remembering it now felt like recalling something that happened in someone else’s lifetime. He had touched her just as intimately then as this one had last night (actually, more so), but the experience had left her filled with anxious regret. She found she didn’t feel that way this time. 

Maybe it was the way this Marshall had verbalized that he liked her. Or all the kissing they had done before the act. Or, the fact that she herself had been the one to initiate the below-the-belt touching. Whatever the reason, it was easier for her to accept in her mind what happened this time. It still confused her, and she didn’t know quite how she felt about him, but she didn’t feel the need to run from him, either. 

“I don’t know what you’re feeling,” he said when he separated from her, looking at her closely and licking at his fangs as he tried to decipher the hint of the tangled threads of various emotions going on inside her that he had tasted. 

“Neither do I,” she said, reminding herself that they hadn’t just shared a good morning kiss at all, like she had been fooling herself into believing. He had just been… checking on her. Trying to see a glimpse of how she was feeling after last night, maybe. Perhaps it was thoughtful. Mostly, she just found the idea invasive, she would have rathered he asked. 

She didn’t have a way of seeing into his mind. Well, she too could probably ask how he felt about it, but what an uncomfortable conversation that would be. And she would have no way of telling if he lied. She realized she wouldn’t be able to lie to him about how she felt about anything if he tasted her. What an unfair thought that was. 

He must have gotten up sometime before her and then returned to the bed to hold her until she woke up, as he had brought several pairs of clothes for her to try on from one of the other old vampire’s rooms. She picked the simplest outfit out of the assortment, shaking off the horrible thought that the last human who had worn it before her was long dead. 

She had no moral hangups on using a dead human’s things, she raided dungeons for loot as a pastime, but it was more so knowing the way that the human who had worn these clothes had died that gave her pause. They had been enslaved and eaten by a vampire. The healing punctures on her neck faintly ached as she thought about how she found herself in a remarkably similar situation. 

In a rare moment of privacy she had gotten to use the bathroom she dug through her torn and dirty clothes from the night before to retrieve the pendant. She had almost been afraid it would have somehow vanished throughout the night, but it was still there, shining faintly and looking more and more intricate the longer she looked at it. Her thumb grazed the button on the side and she reminded herself she was not like the long-dead humans that had populated this world as she pocketed it. A powerful vampire might be under the impression she was his to keep, but she had a way out. 

She actually had control over her situation. It was just a calculated risk to complete her crown retrieval mission, like sizing up the risk versus the reward of taking a more dangerous but quicker path. And he may be feeding off her, but she had a modicum of control over that as well. Besides, he wasn’t a completely terrible person, he was learning not to be, at least, and she didn’t mind the biting so much. She had even asked for it and fallen asleep soothed by the feeling of it. What a strange thought that was, but it had felt right at the time. 

“I’m starving,” Fionna said when she walked out of the bathroom. The Star had been waiting for her in his room, and wasted no time in taking her into his arms. 

“Me too,” he said, dipping his head down to sniff hopefully at her neck. She shied away and gave him a critical look. 

“You probably ate more yesterday than you have in I don’t even know how long,” she said. 

“I only took a few mouthfuls each time, they were just little bites,” he said, looking slightly put out. “But, you’re right. I just can’t help wanting more, you taste so good.” 

“I don’t think you should drink my blood more than once a day,” she said. He appeared to think about this for a moment before nodding. 

“That sounds fair enough, alright,” he said, making a move for her neck again. She clamped a hand over her throat to protect it from him and shot him a glare.  

“My neck is sore from you chewing on it so much yesterday. You can have your blood tonight,” she said. “It won’t kill you to drink red until then.” 

“I do like the taste of your red,” he said, dipping down and draining the color from her lips. She hadn’t been expecting it and the cool, tingly sensation of it was something of a shock to her. She gasped and covered her mouth to prevent him from draining them again. “Pink’s not bad, either.” 

“You have to ask me before you do that,” she said through the cover of her hand. Her pale, sensitized lips grazed her fingers as she spoke and the light contact felt magnified. 

“Alright. Can I have more?” he asked. 

“No,” she said, tapping at her lips to feel if the color had returned or not. They felt normal now, so she lowered her hand. “Maybe after you show me where I can eat.” 

There wasn’t really a kitchen to the hive, probably because the vampires of the inner court it had been designed to house didn’t need one. Marshall brought Fionna through the winding tunneling pathways to a room with a computer screen on the wall. It looked like it may have been a MO model, but it had been relatively disassembled. Below the screen, but not attached in any visible way was a keyboard, and below that, an empty shelf. 

It was the first bit of pre-war tech she had seen in this universe, which she was just now realizing was very odd. Her version of Aaa was full of old relics from the past. She looked at him curiously, unsure what to do with it. 

“This isn’t the magical core you were telling me about, is it?” she asked, and he shook his head. 

“No, I told you, I don’t even know where that is. This is linked to it somehow, though. Type in something you want to eat and it’ll make it for you if it can. It can’t do everything, though.” 

There was a keyboard coming out of the wall below the screen, and she experimentally typed in ‘apple’. There was a little spark of light and an apple appeared on the empty shelf. She picked up the apple and eyed it warily. She had been around a lot of magic and science in her life and she had never seen anything quite like this before. The apple looked fine, so she took a bite. It tasted fine, too. 

“Where did it get this apple from?” Fionna asked. 

“I don’t know,” Marshall said with a shrug. 

“It had to come from somewhere, though,” she said. She didn’t think it was possible to just make something out of nothing no matter what universe you were in. She had been mentally present through enough of Gumball’s science lectures to know that much, at least. “The Aaa I saw outside the hive didn’t look like a place an apple tree could grow.” 

“It can’t, everything that needed the sun died when my mom covered it up,” he said. “She wanted us to use this to keep the humans from starving, but it couldn’t provide enough food to keep the population up.”

“So then why did she cover up the sun?” she asked through a mouthful of apple. She couldn’t stop eating it even to talk, she had been hungrier than she thought. 

“So we could go outside to hunt humans whenever we wanted,” he said as if it were obvious. “It was what finally swayed the war in our favor. We loved the clouds at first, but they ended up causing more problems in the end. We were already low on humans, and then they couldn’t grow food because there was no sun, and it all sort of went downhill from there.” 

“Why didn’t she just get rid of the clouds if they were causing the humans to starve? And, I don’t know, reduce the number of vampires or something?” she asked as she typed ‘pizza’ on the keyboard. It didn’t work, so she tried something more simple. She typed ‘strawberries’ and several of them appeared on the shelf a second later. 

“She did both things. She tried to get rid of the clouds as soon as she realized what a mistake they were, but she couldn’t get them to stop once they started. Eventually she had no choice but to have me suck the souls out of the other vampires until we were the only ones left,” he said, and she frowned.  

“Did you want to suck the souls out of the other vampires?” she asked. 

“I mean, I wanted to do what she asked of me, she was our Queen. She had always threatened the other vampires with me sucking out their souls to keep them in line but I didn’t think she’d really have me do it. Anyway it didn’t work in the end and she starved not long after she ate the last human.” 

The more he spoke the more sense it made to her that he didn’t have friends among the other vampires. Maybe this was why the Vampire Queen raised him. It would be handy to have someone with his abilities on her side to secure her position. 

“That sounds really terrible,” Fionna said. “I can’t imagine what it was like to be here all alone after something like that.” 

“I tried to starve, too, but no matter how long I’d go without eating red I’d end up going feral and eating after I lost control over myself,” he said, appearing frustrated. 

She wasn’t sure what to say. The idea of anyone wishing themselves dead was hard for her to grasp, but she thought if he had been left alone in this world long enough she would understand the desire to stop existing as well.

“Come here,” she said, putting down her handful of berries, finding herself no longer hungry as she thought about what a bad life this version of her friend had lived. 

The thought of it was enough to break her heart. She wrapped her arms around him and pulled him close. He returned her embrace eagerly and buried his nose into the crook of her neck. She initially thought he was going to cry and was preparing herself to comfort him when his open mouth latched on her neck and he began sucking at her skin. 

“Ugh! You’re like a leech,” she complained, trying to wiggle away from him. “Doesn’t talking about this stuff make you sad?” 

“No, I never really feel anything but hunger, especially when I’m around you,” he said. She raised an eyebrow at him, wondering if he was telling the truth or not. She thought about how he had to taste her to understand what she was feeling and thought he likely was.  

“Why don’t you drink some of the red from the strawberries, then?” she asked. 

“Why would I when your red tastes so much better?” He looked like he was going to close the distance between them and drain the color from her lips again. She quickly covered her mouth with her hand and gave him a stern look. 

“Don’t forget to ask first,” she reminded him. “I don’t like it when you don’t ask.” 

“Can I?” he asked, and she nodded. 

“Yes, you can,” she said. “Because you asked.” And, maybe, a little because it felt very nice when she was expecting it, but she didn’t add that part. 

He closed the distance between them and she felt his mouth on hers. He sucked the color out of her lips with a cold tingle and then applied pressure and licked at them until the color returned so he could drain it again. It felt almost like she had eaten something very minty, but the sensation grew with each time he drained the color and allowed it to return. She knew it was probably nothing more personal than eating for him, but it felt very, very personal for her. 

She tried to focus on the strange computer in the wall that seemed to be able to grant very specific requests as he sucked and licked at her lips. Nothing like that (that she knew of) existed in her universe. The food it was bringing her couldn’t possibly exist in this universe. This made her wonder if it was somehow bridging the gap between two universes? If it was just plain magic why couldn’t it make her anything she asked? Could it only bring her things that existed in whatever universe it was programmed for, like how her pendant was programmed for this one? 

He had said the Vampire Queen was interested in the multiverse before she died. Maybe she hadn’t gotten far enough in her research to send vampires into it to bring humans back, but maybe she did learn to access it in some capacity. Gumball would be interested to know about that if so. She had to find out more. 

“Mmm, you taste so good,” he said as the color drained from her lips again. He sucked her sensitized bottom lip into his mouth and ran his tongue across it, sending a sharp jolt of pleasure through her. 

“That’s enough,” she gasped, separating her mouth from his. She touched her extremely sensitive lips gently with the tips of her fingers and felt an explosion of sensation. He had never sucked the color out of them for so long, she hadn’t realized how sensitive they had become. 

“It was just getting so good,” he said, holding on to her hips to prevent her from fully getting away. He looked down at her abused lips with his red eyes and appeared to be debating whether or not to drain them again.  

“You can have more later,” she said. “If you keep sucking on them like that it’ll hurt, and then I’ll taste bad,” she added when it didn’t look like he was convinced. 

“Alright, later, then,” he said. 

“I want to learn more about this computer,” she said. “Does it do anything else but make food appear?” 

“That’s pretty much it. I spent a few years messing around with it after, you know, everyone died, but that’s all I could make it do. It doesn’t make blood so it was worthless to me before I found you.” 

Fionna spent a long time typing in different requests to see what it would make. It didn’t seem capable of making anything complex or ready-made. If she typed in ‘bread’ nothing happened, but if she typed in ‘wheat’ a few loose stalks would appear. It wouldn’t make ‘orange juice’ but it would give her ‘oranges’. Nothing appeared to be powering it. It just seemed to be coming out of the wall as if it had always existed there. 

The Star seemed content to just watch her poke and prod at the strange computer as long as she wanted. He didn’t say anything until she sighed in annoyance, taking a step away from it. 

“Was it not able to make something you wanted?” he asked. 

“No, well, I mean yes, but that’s not what I’m frustrated about. There’s something weird about this computer, but I don’t know enough about this kind of science stuff to understand what it could be,” she said, crossing her arms. “I wish Gumball was here, he would understand what this is all about.” 

“Gumball?” he asked, and she shot him a confused look before she realized he wouldn’t know who that was. She had forgotten for a moment he wasn’t the Marshall she had always known. 

“He’s my friend from my Aaa, he’s super smart,” she said, and he frowned. 

“I’m your friend,” he said firmly.

“I can have more than one friend,” she said. “I have a lot of friends.” 

“Maybe before I found you, but you’re mine now,” he said, his arm finding its way around her shoulders. 

“Okay, what about the other you? He’s my friend,” she said. 

“He used to be, he shouldn’t have let another vampire take you,” he said. “He clearly didn’t do a very good job keeping you.” 

“Are you seriously jealous of yourself?” she asked, trying not to laugh. “You know, in my Aaa, people don’t keep other people. It’s not a thing there. I never belonged to him.” 

“How’d he keep other vampires from feeding off you?” he asked, appearing taken aback by this concept. 

“I told you already, he’s the last vampire in my universe like you are in this one, and he doesn’t drink blood. I don’t know if he ever has. He just drinks red.” 

“But, why? You were right there,” he said, and she shrugged. She was pretty sure the Marshall she knew would say something about self-control, morals, or restraint, but she wondered if those were just easy responses to cover up a bigger truth. 

“I’m not sure, but I think it’s because he… doesn’t like being a vampire,” she said, verbalizing for the first time something she had suspected for a long time now. He was quiet for a few moments, silently contemplating this. 

“Why wouldn’t I like being a vampire?” he finally asked, and she wasn’t sure what to say. 

“I think maybe… he didn’t like that he didn’t have a choice about it,” she said. “Maybe he misses what it felt like before. I don’t really know. How do you feel about it?” 

“I’ve never thought about it,” he said. “I’ve been one so long I don’t even remember what it was like before, so I don’t think I can really miss it. I do think I miss feeling things, though. I had sort of forgotten there was more to feel than hunger.”

“Well, you were alone for a long time. Maybe feeling other things will come back eventually.” 

“Maybe. At least I can taste yours, for now,” he said, and then his mouth was on hers. 

Her lips were still tender and sensitive from him repeatedly draining the color out of them, but she knew that wasn’t his goal this time. She opened her mouth for him and let him taste her. She knew he just wanted to taste a hint of her emotions, but it felt so much like a kiss that she couldn’t help but wrap her arms around him and return the affection. 

She felt a sense of warmth and comfort through his touch, and she didn’t fight it, knowing maybe he wasn’t feeling it as strongly as she was but he was at least tasting it through her mouth. It was a nice feeling, and she didn’t mind sharing it with him. After a while his hand crept up from her hip where it had been resting to cup her breast, and she separated her mouth from his. 

“I like how you feel when I touch you here,” he said, giving her breast a squeeze. 

“I don’t want to feel like that right now, though,” she said, shying away from his touch.

“But it makes you taste so good,” he said, connecting his mouth to hers again. Her lips were still so sensitive that the contact sent a tingle throughout her entire body, and when he began kneading at her breast it was hard not to moan. She liked it, a lot in fact, but now really wasn’t the time. 

“Not now,” Fionna said, taking his hand in hers to remove it from her body. She wasn’t sure if he was going to be more persistent, but thankfully he seemed to drop it. “You told me your mom had books about the multiverse, do you know where they are? I’d really like to read them. I think it might help me understand what’s going on with that weird computer.”

“Oh, uh, probably,” he said, appearing taken aback by her sudden request. “I can think of a few places they might be.” 

“After that, if you still wanted to taste me after making me feel that way, you could,” she added, trying to keep herself from blushing. She felt as though this reward may make him put more effort into helping her find what she was looking for. 

“I’ll want to,” he said immediately. 

Fionna followed The Star through the winding corridors carved into the hive again, and she thought maybe they were starting to look a little more familiar. As soon as she saw the number of books contained within the hive she was filled with dread, it seemed the Vampire Queen had done a lot of reading about a variety of subjects. Her library was vast, and they spent a very long time there, but couldn’t find any titles about the multiverse. 

They tried her personal study next, but it only had an excess of books about magic. 

“Was your mom a wizard, too, or something?” Fionna had asked, and he shook his head. 

“Not that I knew of, but I didn’t know everything about her, either,” he said, holding up some yellowed papers covered in faded symbols. “She was willing to try anything to keep the vampires alive. I wouldn’t be surprised if she tried to dabble in magic.” A jolt went through her as she noticed a crumpled drawing on the desk uncovered by the papers he had removed. 

“Oh,” she said, picking it up and smoothing it out. It appeared to be a very quickly sketched depiction of Simone’s crown. It had three points and three gems, at least. There were other things, too. Lots of squiggly lines and notes too sloppy to decipher. She saw ‘hive’ and ‘clouds’ but that was really all that was legible. “Have you ever seen this crown?” she asked, handing the paper to him. 

She had been careful not to mention to him that she had come to this universe looking for the crown and would be leaving with it once found. He seemed pleased enough to have someone to keep him company that he hadn’t questioned how or why she had wound up here. He seemed to think she had just fallen through a random, spontaneous wormhole, and she wasn’t about to correct him. 

“Yeah, that’s my mom’s old crown,” he said, sparing the paper a glance. Her jaw dropped. There was no way this was going to be so easy! 

“Great! Do you know where it is?” she asked, and he raised an eyebrow at her. 

“No, she stopped wearing it a long time before she died,” he said slowly. “Why do you care?” 

“I really love crowns,” she said nervously. “I think they’re great.” She knew she wasn’t a good liar, but he seemed to accept this. 

“She thought it was great, too,” he said. “She wore it for as long as I knew her until a few years before her death. She stopped wearing it right before we won the war against humans. I’m not sure what happened to it after that.”

Fionna dropped the subject of the crown for the moment, not wanting to seem too interested in it. She found many more drawings of it throughout the study, however. There was a mix of quick sketches and long, detailed diagrams and everything in between. The crown seemed like it had become a point of obsession for the Vampire Queen. 

She didn’t find this particularly odd, it seemed the magical power of the crown had become an obsession for Simone, as well. Perhaps that was why the Vampire Queen stopped wearing it. Maybe she had taken it off before it completely consumed her being. Or maybe… maybe something else was going on here. She wasn’t sure, but she felt like she’d have to circle back to this new mystery later. 

“Do you know where more books might be?” Fionna asked. “I’d still like to read her books about the multiverse if we can find them.” 

“Uh, maybe,” The Star said. He had been sorting through tarnished, clearly highly magical paraphernalia in the corner of the study for the better part of the last hour. 

He led her to another study deeper in the hive, and she sighed in relief when she saw stacks and stacks of very old, very large books, all about the multiverse. Her relief quickly turned to alarm when she eagerly opened the first volume and had to reread the first sentence four times before she could even understand it. She sighed in disappointment and closed the book.

“Nevermind, let’s just leave,” Fionna said, feeling as he wrapped his arms around her from behind.

“What’s wrong? I thought this is what you wanted,” he said. His words surprised her. She hadn’t thought him capable of picking up on when she was upset without tasting her. He was a quick learner. 

“It was,” she said, relaxing back into his touch. “These books are way too complicated for me to read. I’ll never understand them.” 

“You gave up really quick. Why don’t you try for longer?” he asked. 

“Because I already know I’m not smart like that,” she said. “It would be a waste of time.” 

“I did learn one thing being here alone for all those years,” he said slowly, brushing the hair off her shoulder so he could sniff at her neck. “There really isn’t such a thing as a waste of time. You can stay here and read for as long as you want.” 

“Well,” she began, but then she stopped, her eyebrows knitting together as she thought about this. 

She was used to actively pursuing a goal. She was fine sitting around playing BMO at home, but if she had a job to do she wanted to get it done as quickly as possible. She didn’t like the idea of sitting around trying to read books too complex for her when Gumball had asked her to bring Simone a crown, but she supposed he had said she could safely stay in a candy coma for some time. 

“Maybe you’re right,” she finally said, pulling a different book off the stack, hoping it was easier to read than the first one. She thought it might be. It appeared very well used compared to the others.

Fionna settled back on a couch in the study, The Star finding a way to wiggle himself up behind her to hold her a moment later. She wasn’t surprised he planned on just watching her read the whole time, he didn’t seem to care what she was doing as long as she was within touching distance. She didn’t mind lying back on him like this, his body wasn’t particularly soft or comfortable to rest against but she had grown used to the constant feel of his skin against hers. 

He wasn’t as distracting as he could have been, either, which was good. He seemed content holding her like this for as long as she wanted. His nose was pressed against the side of her neck and he seemed focused on steadily breathing her in and out as she read, his fingers occasionally combing through her hair. She found this new book might have been a little less complicated, but it still used too many big words. 

What was more interesting than the big words on the pages were the notes scrawled in the margins. The big words used complex terms to describe the multiverse, a never ending series of every possible scenario fleshed out in its own distinct universe. The different universes were at times interconnected by wormholes that could be temporary or permanent in nature, blah blah blah, it went on and on. She mostly knew all of that. The notes in the margins, however, gave her much more valuable information. 

It seemed the Vampire Queen had written notes as she read. Her handwriting in the front of the book was loopy and ornate, vastly different from the nearly illegible mess Fionna had found on the drawing of the crown. They were mostly well thought-out summaries of the big words written on the page, and they actually helped her understand the terms she was reading. 

The Vampire Queen had added in a few personal thoughts, as well, most of which were speculations on how to narrow down which universes had humans and theories on how to access them. The word ‘crown’ was written under this followed by numerous question marks. Did she want to use Simone’s crown to access the multiverse? 

Fionna knew it had powers, it kept Simone alive for so many years and gave her control over ice, but she hadn’t thought before it could do other things besides that. Had it worked? She had seen the computer, clearly it had worked to an extent, unless she found another way to create such a thing. Either way perhaps she would mention where she ultimately put the crown. She had to read on, she was still at the very beginning of the book. 

Fionna read for a long time. The notes, while informative, seemed to frustratingly lack vital bits of information a stranger would need to completely understand them. The Vampire Queen had written them for herself, and there were certain things she seemed to not bother with mentioning or skimmed over describing. She kept mentioning the number three over and over again as if it had some sort of significance. 

She didn’t realize she had fallen asleep, but she must have, because one minute she was reading a boring passage in the book about the numerous wormholes that had been documented as having temporarily visited this universe throughout the years (she debated penning in her own to add to the list) and the next minute she was being gently shaken awake. 

She felt so sleepy and comfortable in his arms, she couldn’t help but tilt her head to the side to allow their mouths to meet. She opened her mouth for him and let him taste her, wanting to share the comfortable feeling with him. He seemed to like it. After a while he scooped her up and she was too tired to complain about him carrying her to bed. She rested her head on his shoulder and enjoyed the weightless sensation of being held. 

When she was alone in the bathroom before bed she took the pendant out of her pocket and glanced at it, realizing she hadn’t even thought about activating it today. His behavior had improved so much in just a day, she couldn’t help but be impressed. She had been debating in the back of her mind what she would do with him when the time came for her to leave this universe. She couldn’t just leave him here alone, but she didn’t know if she could bring him back to her Aaa with her, either. 

For one, she didn’t know if her pendant would work that way, and for two, she didn’t know how well he would integrate into living in her Aaa. His behavior toward her had improved, but she was pretty sure this was only a result of him wanting to keep her tasting good. Even if he were capable of truly caring about others feelings, he was still extremely possessive of her, even being here alone together. She wasn’t sure how he would deal with her interacting with other people. 

Maybe she would find an answer in one of the books, or in the Vampire Queen’s notes, but she wasn’t going to figure anything out tonight. She was exhausted and she knew she couldn’t just go right to sleep. She had not only agreed to let him drink off her again tonight, but she had gone as far as to agree to let him arouse her first, to make her taste the way he liked. She had been too mentally preoccupied to think about it during the day, and now that it was right in front of her she wasn’t sure how she felt about it. 

She hid the pendant with her old clothes, stashing away these conflicted, confusing thoughts with it, and returned to his bedroom. He was waiting for her on the bed, and despite how anxious she felt at the thought of him biting her again she crawled on it and cuddled up against him automatically. He had spent most of the day touching her in some capacity, it was strange for her body to crave more, and yet she sealed herself up against him willingly. 

He wrapped his arms around her in turn, and a sudden, unexpected surge of affection shot through her as she realized in the dim light of the room how much he looked like the Marshall she had known.

“Your blood smells good,” he murmured, burying his face into her neck to enjoy it. “I’ve been waiting all day for this.” 

“You don’t have to wait anymore, you can drink off me now. You deserve it, you were… a good friend today,” she said, unsure how else to express her gratitude for him. He had helped her find the books she had been looking for and even stopped touching her breasts when she had asked him to. These acts wouldn’t be much coming from anyone else, but from him this was nothing short of a miracle. 

“I wanted to make you happy,” he said. “You taste good like that, but you taste better like this.” His hand had been resting on her waist and drifted up to grope at her breast, greedily squeezing and feeling the soft flesh with the perfect amount of pressure. 

His mouth sealed against hers and she opened for him, letting him taste as she experienced the first few jolts of pleasure. He moaned in appreciation, his fingers finding her nipples and teasing them to hardness through her silky pajama top. The fabric was cool and slippery against her sensitive skin and added a layer of sensation. She began to squirm and clench her thighs as throbs of pleasure emitted from her core in response to his touching. 

He broke apart from her mouth and she thought he was going to go for her neck, but instead he surprised her by tugging the bottom hem of her shirt up high on her waist. 

“What are you doing?!” Fionna asked in alarm, her hands flying to cover his to stop him. 

“I want to see your body again,” he said. Being naked with him in the shower was one thing, but here in bed? The thought made her stomach feel like it was full of squiggling worms. 

“Why?” she asked, and he shrugged. 

“Because I like the way you look,” he said. 

He said it flatly and factually, similar to the manner in which one person would tell another that the sky was blue (although in this universe, it seemed to be perpetually gray), or that water was wet. The way he spoke wasn’t seductive or romantic. It wasn’t like some random guy telling her she was beautiful or sexy or some other adjective she wouldn’t believe. It felt real. He really just liked the way she looked and wanted to see more of her body. 

“Alright,” she said, and she let him take her shirt off. Her bottoms were next, and as she settled back on the bed she mustered up the courage to say something she had never spoken aloud to any version of him. She had been too shy before, she knew the statement would only be met with infinite teasing if she said it in her own universe, but she felt like it wouldn’t be the case in this one. “I like the way you look, too, you know.” 

“Oh, do you want to see me, too?” he asked, and she silently nodded, her face burning. 

He took his own clothes off without hesitation, and unlike the last time he had been naked before her she allowed herself to look at him. She swallowed nervously as she looked him over, while she could admit his body perhaps wasn’t the generic image of perfection, to her he was perfect. She thought about every imperfection on her own body and was filled with dread at the idea of being a disappointment to him. She wrapped her arms around his shoulders and pulled him forward so their mouths could meet and he’d be forced to stop looking at her. He crawled on top of her compliantly, and tasted her mouth. 

“I’m not sure what you’re feeling,” he said, parting from her slightly so he could speak. “You’re not feeling bad, or, maybe you are,” he paused to taste her again. “No, not bad, but not entirely good either.” 

“Uh, I guess I’m feeling a little nervous,” she admitted, trying to name the anxious, vulnerable feeling swirling around in her gut. 

“Why? It’ll just be a little bite,” he said. His hand had found her neck and he was stroking his fingers up and down the side of it, feeling the healing punctures he had left on her skin. 

“It’s not about the biting, it’s about having my clothes off,” she said. “I’m afraid you’ll decide you don’t like the way I look without them.” He shifted off her slightly so he could look down at her. 

“I like you better without them,” he said. His hand drifted down from her neck to ghost over the swell of her breast. His fingers found the hardened, sensitive tip of her nipple and he brushed them against it, the light contact making her shiver. “I like that you’re pink here.” He looked like he was about to dip down to suck the color but hesitated suddenly. “Can I?” he asked. 

She wasn’t sure how she felt about him doing such a thing, but she decided that because he had asked, she should probably allow it. She wouldn’t be able to stop him if he really wanted to, but he had remembered she liked being asked first. 

“Maybe you can, once,” she said, and then she felt the warm, wet heat of his open mouth on her breast. 

His tongue slowly dragged across the puckered flesh, warming and wetting it before he sucked and she was suddenly cooled as the color drained out of her. It was a sensational shock to flip from experiencing warm wetness to a cool tingle and she jumped at this, but then his tongue was dragging across her nipple again, warming and soothing it. 

Her hand flew to his hair, and her first intention was to try to yank him off her. The color suddenly draining from her breast had left her too sensitive, the place between her legs throbbed almost painfully in response, but his tongue running against her skin to coax the color back in was an amazing, welcomed relief. She was sensitive, and she felt like she could feel every little bump and ridge of his tongue running across her until he separated from her a few seconds later. 

“You taste really good here,” he said, and the jolts of pleasure from his lips brushing against the wet tip of her nipple as he spoke made her squirm. 

“Oh my glob,” she said, because she couldn’t really think of anything else to say. 

He seemed to take this as permission to continue and he sucked at her nipple again, slower this time as if he were trying to savor the color he was extracting from it. The rush of cool tingly sensation wasn’t as sharp, and she found it more enjoyable. He applied pressure with his lips and dragged his tongue across her sensitized skin again and she moaned, her hand fisting in his hair. 

She arched her back, trying to force her breast further into his mouth as he began sucking again, his mouth sealing up around her. He sucked the color out and licked her as she recovered in a cycle, and she didn’t know which part was more pleasurable. The cold tingle of the color being drained from her or the warm pressure of his tongue soothing the aching, oversensitive flesh after. 

He couldn’t seem to resist pressing his body more firmly against hers as her arousal deepened, and she opened her legs to allow this as he switched to her other breast. She felt eager for some sort of stimulation as his hips met hers and she couldn’t help but try to grind up against him. He wasn’t hard, but she still got some relief from the friction of moving against him. Last time he had touched her like this he hadn’t gotten hard until he had tasted the pleasure of her orgasm in her blood. 

While he could definitely taste (and seemed to greatly enjoy) the arousal on her through the taste of her spit and sweat and color it must be too secondhand to ignite the same feeling inside him. She realized he couldn’t have been lying earlier when he said he never felt anything but hunger. She wanted to know for sure. She tugged on his hair to get him to separate from her, and he seemed hesitant at first, but eventually pulled away. Her breast came out of his mouth with a faint ‘pop’, and she shivered as she looked down at her glistening, reddened nipples. 

“The way I feel when you touch me like this,” she panted, trying to catch her breath through the heavy haze of arousal enough to speak. “Does tasting me like this make you feel this way, too?” 

“Almost,” he said. 

“Try some of my blood, but just a little bit,” she said, and then winced as he gave the side of her breast a quick, sharp nip. 

He only bit her hard enough for his fangs to break the thinnest layer of her skin, but after all the pleasure his mouth had given her the pain from the bite was a shock. Before she could even process this he was licking the bite, soothing her inflamed skin and collecting the few droplets of her blood leaking out of the tiny punctures. 

He moaned at the unadulterated taste of her aroused blood and sealed his mouth up to the little bite, sucking to try to work more out of her. More drops of her blood coated his tongue and she felt as his hardness began pressing against her intimately. He wasn’t completely hard, but it was a start. She wondered if it would take less blood this time as his body had already been exposed to the feeling last night. 

“Try again, but just bite me somewhere different this time,” she said, grinding herself up against him in a discordant rhythm, her body feeling like it was on fire from the arousal and sensations. He went for her shoulder this time, biting it just hard enough to make her bleed. She sucked in a sharp breath and dug her nails into his back, but a second later the pain was over and he was licking up the drops of her blood again. 

“Mmm, you really like being touched here, it’s making you taste so good,” he groaned in appreciation after the tiny bite clotted off. He was harder now, and he snaked a hand down to grasp himself at the base and slid himself over her with more pressure. “Fuck, I like that too.” 

“You feel it now, don’t you?” she asked, but she didn’t really need to. He was so hard against her, and he seemed more interested in seeking out his own pleasure by sliding his length over the wet, sensitive place between her legs than feeding off her. 

“Yes, this feeling is amazing,” he said, moaning at the friction as she ground herself up against him. “You get to feel like this every time you’re touched here? Why don’t you want me to do it all the time?” 

“Because, it’s embarrassing,” she said. “People usually don’t touch each other like this. You have to, um, be a different type of friend.” 

“You’re my human, we can be every type of friend,” he said. She wasn’t sure how she felt about his view on this, but before she could say anything else he let go of his length and began exploring her body with his fingers as if to demonstrate that between them no such barriers existed. 

His mouth closed around hers and he tasted the pleasure he was giving her, refining his technique in response to her moans and taste. His fingers coated in her wetness and he pulled them away, breaking the kiss to bring them to his mouth to taste. Her face burned as she watched him lick at his fingers. 

“Fuck, that’s good,” he said, and she felt so embarrassed she thought she would die. 

“There’s no way you actually like the taste of that,” she said. 

“What do you mean? It’s great, almost as good as blood,” he said before crawling down on her body. “I want more.” 

She had clamped her thighs shut automatically at the thought, but he grabbed them and pulled them back apart. She squirmed uncomfortably as he gazed down at her, not liking the feeling of being spread open under him with his face so close to her. He didn’t seem to share her embarrassment. He looked down at this new part of her with interest for a few moments.

“You’re pink here, too,” he commented before dipping down to taste. 

“Of course I am,” she began, but her words turned into a moan, her hands fisting in his hair as she felt his tongue glide over her. 

“Fuck, that’s really, really good,” he said before sealing his mouth up against her and sucking.

She couldn’t hold back her moans as he devoured her, his desperation increasing by the second. She didn’t know if he was responding to the taste of her arousal or if he was now guided by his own, but no matter the cause she just knew she didn’t want him to stop. His tongue eventually worked its way low enough to find the wet slit of her entrance and once he realized it was the source he honed in on it, trying to actually lick his way inside her. 

The pleasure of this momentarily paralyzed her, she didn’t know whether she should try to stop him or buck against his face to try to push his tongue in deeper. He was moaning at her taste and the vibrations of this just added to the experience, and her body began tensing up with her impending orgasm. She wanted to relax back and ride out the waves of pleasure, but then she noticed his hand that wasn’t holding her thighs open had wandered down and he was touching himself as he licked her. 

She felt a bit guilty at seeing this, feeling this way was clearly a new thing for him. Although he seemed to be greatly enjoying using his mouth on her, she felt like she should probably make it a little better for him. She squirmed to try to work her way down his body, but he wouldn’t release her hips. He had his mouth sealed up against her perfectly and it felt so good it was hard to concentrate. 

Once she bent enough to take his cock in her hand he apparently realized her intentions were not to wiggle away and he loosened his grip on her enough to allow her to fully reposition herself. The moment she stopped moving he grabbed her again and tried to pull her body on top of his. She flailed a bit, but then his mouth was back on her as if magnetized and she complied. She ground down and moaned, the feeling of him sucking desperately at her an entirely new sensation in this different position. 

His cock was right there in front of her and emboldened by the way he was sucking and licking at her she grabbed it around the base and sunk her mouth down on it before she could lose her nerve. He seized up under her and moaned, and she took this as a green light to continue. He was too big to fit entirely in her mouth but she did the best she could with what could fit, and gripped and squeezed with her hand what couldn’t. 

His fingers dug into her thighs painfully and his mouth felt so good on her that she couldn’t help but grind down against it desperately. He seemed fine with this, and even shifted his hands to grab at her ass and try to pull her down more firmly against his open mouth. She couldn’t last more than a few moments of this before her body was clamping down around his tongue as she was flooded with the surge of pleasure from the strongest orgasm she had ever experienced. 

Much too quickly his mouth left her and she felt as he turned his face to the side, his mouth burying into the place where her thigh met her pelvis in a sharp bite. Her body had still been pulsating from her orgasm and she hadn’t been expecting the pain of his bite quite yet. She cried out and in a momentary panic tried to get away but his arms wound around her hips and held her firmly in place. 

After the sharpness of the puncture was over his mouth sealed around the bite and the pain was somewhat dulled as he sucked out a mouthful of her blood. Her whole body was shaking and she fought to relax, returning her attention to sucking him in turn to distract herself from the pain. He was so big and hard inside her mouth and she could actually feel the throbs of his heart beating as she sucked him as deeply as she could manage. 

He sucked another mouthful out of her and swallowed it down with an audible gulp, his nails digging into her and little drops of salty fluid leaking out of his cock. She licked them up and sucked harder, and a moment later the grip of his arms around her tightened and he was coming, her mouth filling with the taste of him. She did her best to swallow it all but some of it leaked out of the corner of her mouth and dripped down the side of him. He sucked a last mouthful out of her before releasing her, and she slid off of him, wiping at her face and gasping for breath. 

The place between her legs was still faintly pulsing, the bite on the junction of her thigh was aching and oozing, and she was covered in sweat, her mind reeling to catch up with what exactly had just happened. Before she could think too deeply on this he grabbed her shoulder to roll her onto her back. She limply complied, and he wrapped his arms around her, pulling her into his chest. 

She felt spent beyond words and melted into him. She tensed up as she felt one of his hands wandering low on her belly, but he just pressed against the trickling bite he had left, holding pressure to stop the bleeding. She tilted her face up to look at him and saw that he was already looking down at her. 

They maintained eye contact for a few moments, and she saw that his eyes were dark, almost black. She had never seen them any shade but red in this universe. She wasn’t sure if what they just shared had made him a little more human or not. She had at least gotten him to feel something other than hunger for a change. After a half-second’s hesitation she closed the gap between them, pressing her lips softly against his. 

Their mouths had met many times before this, but the exchanges had always been hungry and full of heat. She knew this time was different, and it was as if he could sense it, too. He pressed his lips back against hers with a gentle pressure, and after everything they had been through together, under the influence of the blissful cloud of lingering pleasure, they shared their first kiss. 

Chapter Text

“Am I early?” Fionna asked as she walked inside Marshall’s house. They all took turns hosting movie night, and she had been certain tonight was his turn. Looking around, she realized it had to be. His living room was completely set up for movie night, the only thing missing was the rest of their friends. 

“No, I was going to call to let you and Cake know pretty much everyone canceled, but I know how much you love movie night, and I had already gotten all the snacks, so I figured I could still host for you two.” 

“Everyone really canceled? Even Gumball?” she asked, and he shrugged. 

“Butterscotch Butler said Gumball’s had some sort of breakthrough in his lab and hasn’t stepped foot out of it in three days,” he said. 

“LSP?” 

“His dad wouldn’t let him borrow the car tonight to fly down from Lumpy Space.” 

“He doesn’t need the car to fly to your house,” Fionna said, kicking off her shoes and shutting the door behind her. 

“I know, and I told him as much. He just said that sounded like the poorest suggestion he’s ever heard and then called me a peasant,” he said, and she snorted with laughter. 

“Does he forget he’s broke? He lived in the forest eating garbage for months the last time he ran away from home,” she said. 

“Well, he’s back home now and eating gold-plated sandwiches by the dozen, so he’s too good to fly the boring way,” he said. He hovered a few more inches off the floor and sighed dramatically to demonstrate how mundane the power of flight was. He twisted around in the air and flashed her a fangy smile, but then seemed to forget whatever he was about to say, noticing that Fionna had come alone. “Speaking of missing friends, where’s Cake?” 

“Two of her kittens got into some sort of cat fight at a brunch party earlier, and I guess it was pretty serious. She had to call Lord Mono to come help turn everything back the right color and clean up, they flattened and zapped the color out of half of the breakfast kingdom.” 

“Damn, her kittens were okay though?” he asked. 

“Yeah, I think it was just a normal sibling fight, but they’re both super powerful so it got out of hand quickly,” she said as she sat on the floor, leaning her back against his couch in her usual movie spot. She looked around, feeling a bit awkward, the realization that she was here alone with him setting in. She had never been alone with him in his house before. She swallowed anxiously, and he seemed to sense her unease. He grabbed a bowl of popcorn and shoved it in her face. 

“Popcorn?” he offered, and she lowered the bowl with a hand, giving him a nervous smile. 

“Um, I think I’ll actually head back to the treehouse if nobody else is showing up,” she said, and he slid down on the ground next to her, throwing an arm over her shoulders. She felt her face heat up at the feeling of him touching her, and her first instinct was to shove him off, but she knew he was just trying to get a rise out of her, so she allowed it. It didn’t hurt that his body felt so nice against hers. She secretly liked his playful flirting, but the last thing she would do was admit or feed into it. 

“I mean, you don’t have to go,” he said smoothly. “I was counting on you and Cake to eat all these snacks, and I have the movie we all picked out.” 

While ‘you don’t have to go’ didn’t feel like a very enthusiastic invitation to her, she felt as his arm around her trembled ever-so-slightly as he spoke. She almost wondered if he felt as nervous as she did about the idea of her being here alone with him. She immediately wrote off that thought, because there was no way she could make him feel even half as nervous as she currently felt, but still. 

She had harbored a massive crush on him for years… the idea of enjoying a movie together was tempting. She could almost pretend it was a date he had asked her on. Of course it absolutely wasn’t, because he would never seriously do such a thing, but she couldn’t deny the self-indulgent fantasy. 

“Alright, well, I do love snacks,” Fionna said, hesitantly accepting the bowl of popcorn from him. 

“You mean you love me,” Marshall corrected, and she scoffed at him before shoving a handful of popcorn into her mouth to hide her burning face. 

She busied herself with munching her way through the popcorn as he got up, dimming the lights and turning on the movie before rejoining her on the floor. She looked over at him curiously. 

“You usually hover above the couch,” she said, and he raised an eyebrow at her. 

“Why would I do that when no one else is here?” he asked, and she shrugged. 

“I just thought it’s where you like to watch movies from,” she mumbled. 

“I’d prefer to watch them right here next to you, but Cake is always glued to your side,” he said, and she gulped. He wanted to sit next to her? Was he messing with her? She wished he’d stop. She was actually starting to get really embarrassed. She put the bowl of popcorn on the floor, not finding herself very hungry anymore. 

“That’s just because she likes to hold hands for the scary parts, and if she gets tired by the end of the movie she likes me to pet behind her ears until she falls asleep,” she said, and then the intro to the movie started playing on his TV, distracting her from her embarrassment. 

Despite having looked forward to the movie all week (she had voted for this one at their last meeting, after all) she watched it with unseeing eyes. She was far more mentally preoccupied with the way she could feel his body against hers as the scenes unraveled. Was it just her imagination, or had he shifted even closer to her? 

The room was dark besides the flickering light from the TV, and she was too plagued by her own nervous thoughts to look over at him. Certainly he would make a comment about her ‘checking him out’ or something if he caught her glancing over at him, and she didn’t think she could deal with any more teasing today. While she had liked the idea of being alone with him at first, she found the reality of it just made her nervous. She felt his eyes on her and she began to squirm uncomfortably. 

“Are you cold?” he asked, apparently mistaking her squirming for shivering. 

“A bit,” she lied, and he drifted away from her. He came back with a blanket and threw it over them. It wasn’t big enough to completely cover him as well, so he threw an arm around her shoulders, pulling her body closer. 

“Is this better?” he asked, and it took her a moment to respond. She was closer to him now than she had ever been, and she could faintly feel the unnatural rhythm of his undead heart beating in his chest. It seemed to be going fast. She wasn’t sure if that was normal, for a vampire. She found she liked the feel of it. It was almost soothing. 

“Uh, yeah,” she finally said, adjusting slightly so she was more comfortable against him. She had always envisioned holding him like this, and he just thought she was cold. Wrapping her arms around his middle and leaning in was just… playing the part. “This is better.” 

She felt his fingers begin to card through her hair, and she was thankful she wore it down today, because that actually felt pretty nice. She relaxed further, resting her cheek on his chest so she could discreetly listen to the strange, fast thumping of his heart. 

The movie went on, and so did his subtle touchings. He didn’t say anything to draw attention to it, and following his lead, neither did she. She was afraid if she said something he would stop, and then they would separate, and it would be awkward between them. She wasn’t sure how this had happened, but they were sort of cuddling under a shared blanket and he was stroking her hair. Her face burned at the thought, and pressed against him as she was, she was sure he could feel the warmth of it, but for once he didn’t tease her. 

The rise and fall of his chest seemed very measured and deliberate, but she couldn’t judge him for this, because once his hand worked its way through her hair and to her neck she kept having to remind herself to breathe. Her eyes were still glued fixedly on the TV, but her mind was entirely focused on the soft feeling of his fingertips grazing her throat. Was he just being a creepy vampire, or was there affection in his touch? She couldn’t tell, and she honed in on the feeling as she tried to decide. 

He spent a long time slowly running his fingers up and down the side of her neck. It was all so soft and gentle it could have been absent minded. She wasn’t entirely sure he was even aware of what he was doing or not. Eventually he left her neck, his touch moving to her shoulder and then the length of her arm. She had allowed it so far, and his soft touchings felt so nice that she didn’t want them to stop, but she wanted to know what he meant by it. If she said something she was sure he would stop, so she lay against him paralyzed with indecisiveness as he traced the outline of her collarbone through her shirt. 

Was this some kind of game to him? Was he just trying to make her nervous? See how far he could go before she shoved him off or barked at him to stop? If so, how far would he take it before he decided to tap out? Or… maybe it wasn’t a game. 

Maybe he had meant it when he said he had always wanted to sit next to her like this? Was he touching her because he wanted to? Did he like the way her body felt? This last thought was the most outlandish of all to her. She liked the feeling of his body in her arms, and she wanted to touch him, too, but the idea of him replicating that desire felt impossible. 

Her mind was spinning so hard as she tried to make sense of all of this that she almost didn’t notice the way his hand hesitantly cupped her breast. A small jolt ran through her at this, and his hand froze on her as if he were waiting for a response. She wasn’t sure if she should hit him or not. She didn’t think he would go quite that far as a game, but she couldn’t be sure. 

She knew no matter what she said or did he would immediately reflect any embarrassment back on her as if she had been the one to initiate this. She knew him well enough that she could even predict the jokes he would make. ‘Wow, took you long enough to shove me off, Fi. I knew you were in love with me,’ or ‘Your face is looking pretty red there, want me to suck some of the color out of it before you head back home?’ immediately came to mind. 

When she didn’t say anything, he gave her breast a gentle squeeze, and then another, firmer this time, as if he were testing the waters. It… wasn’t so bad, she decided. It actually felt nice. Her nerves had grown sensitive from his gentle touchings, and the pressure of his hand on her clothed breast felt better than anything she had ever done to herself while exploring her own body. Her back had stiffened and she fought herself to relax back against him as he began kneading at her breast as if trying to memorize the feel of it. 

She glanced down nervously, but they were covered by the blanket, and she could just see the fabric shifting slightly as his hand moved under it. Not being able to see what he was doing somehow created a buffer, and she closed her eyes, releasing a shaky breath and allowing herself to hone in on the pleasurable feeling. It wasn’t just nice, it was really great, actually. 

Taking her silence for consent he took it a step further, sliding his hand down the front of her shirt, the feeling of his skin directly on hers making her shiver. She let out a little moan as he grazed the hardened, sensitive flesh of her nipple, the light touch sending an almost electric zap of pleasure between her legs. She froze up and immediately regretted letting out the little noise, afraid breaking the silence between them would cause his touching to stop. 

Instead of stopping her moan only made him grow more bold. He gently pinched and dragged the pad of his thumb across the raised flesh, experimenting to see what got other noises out of her. She was forgetting her embarrassment the more he played with her, the way he was touching her felt so unbelievably good, better than she ever thought possible. Before long she was clenching her thighs and panting, the place between her legs throbbing with strong surges of pleasure. 

Even though she wasn’t emotionally ready for more her body had been worked up to the extent that she needed it, and when his hand slipped down the front of her skirt release was the only thing on her mind. She opened her legs for him, and his fingers slipped against the wet, sensitive place between her legs, his touch having grown much too gentle for her again as he hesitantly explored this new place. 

She ground against his hand, and he seemed to take her hint, firmly dragging his thumb around her clit in tight circles as his fingers probed lower, seeking entrance into her body. They teased the wet slit of her entrance a few times before the tip of one slipped inside. 

“Oh my glob,” she moaned, forgetting she was supposed to be quiet. 

“Do you like that, Fi?” he muttered in her ear, his voice deeper than she had ever heard it. 

“Yes,” she said, her head thrown back on his shoulder. She wasn’t sure when she had wiggled her way into his lap. He didn’t seem to mind, his body was curled around hers to hold her in place, both of his hands eagerly playing with different parts of her. One hand was down the front of her shirt and the other deep between her legs, just the thought of it was enough to make her face burn. 

His forehead rested against her reddened cheek as he leaned in to bury his nose in her neck, his finger pressing more firmly inside her. The friction of it sliding into her felt amazing, and he gave her more of that feeling as he pumped it in and out of her, working her up to a grinding, moaning mess in his arms. She had never felt so good before, and when he slid in another finger the way her body stretched to accommodate it made her feel like she was going to lose her mind. 

She bit her lip, feeling like her orgasm was dangling on a string in front of her it was so freaking close. His mouth sealed around the side of her neck and the way he was sucking at her skin, the rhythm of his fingers working deeply in and out of her, and the perfect pressure of his thumb on her clit all became too much. She cried out as her body clamped down around him, pleasure flooding her mind as her orgasm momentarily overwhelmed her. 

She had been so worked up that the only thing she had wanted was this moment of release, and it felt just as great as she had anticipated it would. After a series of intense pulsations her body calmed and her mind cleared into a relaxed, blissful cloud. She enjoyed the mindless sensation for a few moments until his fingers, which had stilled with her orgasm, shifted inside her. 

The blanket covering them had slid down, and she opened her eyes to see a very alarming sight. She was in his lap, her back pressed against his chest, her legs spread and his hand buried to the wrist down the front of her skirt. Her heart thudded wildly in her chest as the reality of the situation dawned on her. She looked up at him, and he pulled his face away from her neck to look her in the eye. 

Perhaps the situation could have been salvaged if he had kissed her then, or confessed his feelings, or done anything other than smirk at her and tease, with his fingers still buried deep inside her, “I knew you were in love with me.” 

“Ugh,” Fionna grunted in disgust, making to shove him away, the motion made extremely awkward by his hand tangled up down the front of her skirt. His fingers were absolutely soaked and slid out of her body in an abrupt and unpleasant way, but she was scrambling to try to get up off his lap before she could even register this. 

“Wait, fuck, Fi, I’m an idiot, I was just joking,” Marshall said in a panic, looking absolutely furious with himself as she shoved her skirt back down on her thighs to cover herself. 

“That’s all you freaking do is joke around, Marshall,” she yelled at him, angry tears threatening to leak out of the corners of her ears. 

Had seducing the human girl been some big joke to him? See how far she’d let him go? Was he going to tell their friends how easily she opened her legs for him and let him inside? If he did, what could she possibly say in defense of herself? She couldn’t even blame his vampire powers, he hadn’t even looked at her or uttered a single word to convince her to let him have her. 

She began to cry in earnest at this realization, and she grabbed her shoes and stormed out the door, not willing to delay her escape for even a second to put them on. He tried to follow her, but he looked just as embarrassed as she felt, and he had to take a moment to adjust his pants as he stood up. He was clearly uncomfortably hard and hesitant to leave the house to pursue her in that state. 

She was thankful for this because the last thing she wanted to do was face him after the embarrassment of melting into a moaning mess in his arms as his idea of a funny joke. She slipped her shoes on mid-stride as she ran from his house, tripping slightly as she did so. She windmilled her arms frantically to try to regain her balance, the only thing worse than running out of his house after something like that would be to immediately fall on her face before she even made it out of the mouth of his cave. 

Despite Fionna’s best efforts the ground came alarmingly closer to her face, and then her eyes flew open. She sucked in a shaky breath as she looked around the room, trying to figure out where she was and what was even happening after that very, very real dream. Her heart pounded wildly as her sleeping companion stirred next to her, drowsily wrapping an arm around her to pull her closer. 

Once her back was sealed against his chest The Star relaxed against her, and seemed ready to fall back asleep before he became aware of the rapid thudding of her heart. His hand drifted up from her waist to press against the upper left portion of her chest with his open palm. His nose buried in her hair and she felt him deeply inhaling for a few moments before he spoke. 

“Did you have another bad dream?” he asked. 

“Sort of,” she said, not really sure if this label applied to the dream. It was more of a vivid, exact replaying of her memory, and she still didn’t know if it was a bad memory or not. 

“I don’t understand,” he said, smelling her again. “You smell scared, but also…” his voice trailed off as he deeply inhaled, pulling her impossibly closer as he did it. He let out a little groan as he breathed her in, sealing his body up as tightly against hers as he could. He didn’t have to even say it, she could feel the arousal from the dream coursing through her body, they were both painfully aware of it. It wasn’t something she could hide from him, so she didn’t even bother trying. 

“Yeah,” she said in confirmation. “It made me feel both.” 

“Can I taste you?” he asked. His hands had already begun roaming her body, squeezing and feeling whatever they could, excited by her aroused state. She knew how much he liked when she felt this way and how eager he would be to experience the feeling again through her taste, and she was touched he had asked, but she still hesitated. 

The memories the dream had forced to resurface confused her, that night she hadn’t allowed herself to think about had just been replayed perfectly in her head. She had shared a deeply intimate moment with the other Marshall that had ended poorly because all she had really wanted was a kiss and some confirmation she was wanted. 

The Star’s hands on her were trembling with what she knew was the desire to flip her over and taste her mouth anyway, and he had never been shy about verbalizing his want for her. She wasn’t entirely convinced anymore that he just wanted her for lack of options, either. 

In this universe he had been the son of the Vampire Queen, he could have had whatever human he wanted. Nothing was stopping him now from just keeping her around for food. Instead he had kept her close from the moment he found her, tried to understand her, tried to make her happy despite the situation because he… wanted to. 

“Yes,” Fionna said, making up her mind in an instant. “You can taste me.” 

She tried to roll over in his arms obediently to face him but he was on top of her before she could complete the motion. He cupped under her chin with one of his hands and encouraged her to look up, and then his mouth was on hers. It wasn’t a gentle kiss like they had shared last night, it was all hunger and desperation as he sought out the addictive taste of arousal only he could find in her mouth. 

One of her hands found his and she grasped it, feeling a bit dazed from the intensity of the kiss. His fingers interlocked with hers, and feeling more connected to him at that moment than she ever had with another person she wrapped her legs around his hips, trying to bring him in closer. His hips ground against hers, and he wasn’t quite hard yet but there was something there. 

She honed in on the pressure of his pelvis against hers, the feeling of him ravaging her mouth, and the way his hand felt tightly gripping hers. She gave herself over to the pleasure of it, allowing herself to feel more and more turned on, wondering if she could get him there too without any blood this time. The idea of being so detached from humanity that you no longer experienced your own carnal urges was strange, but it seemed to be something that was slowly coming back to him. 

Eventually, and to her great satisfaction, she began to feel his hardness pressing between her legs without the need of him biting her. She couldn’t take full credit for this, as one of his fangs had grazed her lip and their shared saliva had developed an iron tang, but he hadn’t needed much. He ground against her and she moaned, nearly beside herself with desire. His hand left hers to pull at her shirt. 

“I like your body,” he said, his lips moving against hers. “I want to feel it.” 

“I want to feel yours, too,” she said, grabbing at what little he was wearing to sleep in and blindly trying to yank it off before hesitating. “And I know you like my body, but, do you like me? Like, my brain, or whatever?” she asked softly. Speaking the question aloud in the dark room had left her feeling suddenly shy, doubly so when he pulled his mouth away from hers more fully to look down at her. She avoided his eyes as he considered her for a moment, clearly thinking deeply on what she had asked. 

“I like every part of you,” he finally settled on, and she looked up at him. She met his eyes and he was looking back at her with sincerity. She couldn’t help but believe him, he had no reason to lie to her, she wasn’t sure he even was capable of lying or really understood the depth of what she had asked. He really just liked her, and he wasn’t afraid to admit it. The realization made her feel… strange. 

Their mouths crashed back together, Fionna now matching his intensity. She squirmed under him to try to get her pajamas off, which was difficult as he didn’t want to part with her for even a moment to allow her to undress. He didn’t seem to really understand what caused this change in her behavior, but he was reacting heavily to the surge of emotions he could taste in her mouth. 

His hands were on every inch of her as she was revealed to him, gripping and feeling and caressing her as if touch starved, his newfound desire guiding him. He left her mouth when she undid the last button on her pajama shirt and finally wiggled out of it, burying his face in her breasts as they were exposed to him. He took each of them in hand and licked up the sides of them, the feeling of his fangs scraping against her hot skin as he licked making her shiver. 

“You smell so good,” he groaned, his fingers teasing the sensitive pink tips of her nipples, flooding her with pleasure and deepening her arousal. “Can I taste you here?” 

“Yes,” she said, not only because he asked, but also because she wanted to feel it. She actually craved the feeling, and when he took her breast into his mouth and the tip of it was cooled as he sucked she buried her hands in his hair and moaned. 

He licked and soothed it before sucking at it again, extracting not only the color but the taste of her arousal and pleasure, somehow experiencing the feelings himself in this strange way. It created a pleasurable cycle for both of them, and she reached down and felt his cock. It was so hard in her hand, and a bead of fluid was leaking from the tip. She ran her thumb across it and spread it around him, squeezing and feeling. 

She was loving what he was doing to her, but despite him alternating sides her breasts were getting too sensitive from the onslaught of stimulation. She pulled him away from her chest, and with some reluctance he separated from her. His mouth was wet, and she pulled him up so she could press her lips against his. He allowed her a few of the surface-level kisses she liked before he deepened it, licking into her mouth to taste. 

His cock ground against her as their hips met and she wrapped her legs around him, bringing him in closer and rocking back against him. The place between her legs was throbbing with pleasure each time his cock slid against her and they were both desperate for more. They set up a mutually pleasurable rhythm of their bodies intimately rubbing against each others, and she was satisfied to do this until she reached orgasm, but he seemed to have other ideas. 

The head of his cock caught against the wet slit of her entrance and he bucked his hips at the unexpected pleasure, the tip of him slipping inside her. She moaned as she felt her body stretch around him, the feeling of being filled even a small amount so insanely good she could barely stand it. He seemed to like it too, and he gripped himself at the base to try and press more firmly into her. 

Her thighs suddenly tightened around him to try to hold him in place when she realized, a bit slowly due to her sleepy and lust-hazy mind, what they were about to do. 

“Wait,” she said, her mind spinning as she tried to figure out how this had happened. 

“Do you not like this?” he asked. The tip of him was still inside her, and he rolled his hips slightly, causing the head of his cock to slide out. Her body clenched around nothing and she immediately missed the feeling, but then he was pushing it back in, the friction pleasurable beyond words. 

“I do,” she admitted. 

“Me too,” he said, and he rocked his hips forward, more of him sliding in, and she panicked slightly as he tried to penetrate her in earnest. 

“Wait,” she repeated, grabbing at his shoulders. He stilled his hips and looked at her curiously. “I’m not sure we should do this.” 

“What’s wrong? We both like it,” he said. 

“I know, but this is different,” she said, fighting to find the words with him still partially inside her. She had to actively work not to grind against him to get him in fully, and he seemed to be struggling against the urge to allow her to speak as well. She appreciated him giving her the chance, she knew she wouldn’t be able to stop him if he really wanted to. 

“How is it different from anything else?” he asked. “We’re friends, we do the things we like together.” 

“I don’t know if you can get me pregnant or not,” she said, this for some reason being the first thing that came to mind, and much easier to discuss than the emotional complexities of what he was trying to do with her. “What would you do if that happened?” 

“I don’t see what’s wrong with more humans in the world,” he said. “I like you, so I’d probably like them, too.” 

“If you got me pregnant, you’d like the baby?” she asked, the words feeling strange even as she spoke them. 

“Yeah,” he said. “I don’t know if we can, but I think I’d like whatever kid you’d have.” 

These were not the devout words of commitment she always thought she’d hear if she were ever in this situation with a guy, but she knew they came from the heart. Or, at least, as much of a heart as he really had. Either way, it was deeply touching to her, and she became aware in that moment of the depth of her feelings for him. He liked her, and she liked him, so she didn’t see why she was fighting this so hard. 

“Just, go slow,” she said as she relaxed her legs and allowed him to push himself more deeply inside her. 

He took no time in taking her up on the offer, and he moaned as he pressed himself into her. It didn’t hurt exactly, she had been so turned on and prepared for it that her body didn’t have a problem stretching around him, it was just kind of a strange sensation. As his hips met hers and she took his full length she squirmed a bit, that actually sort of hurting, but then a second later he pulled it out. 

He pushed it back in, the stretch of it being easier to take this time, and she rocked back against him. After a few semi-uncomfortable thrusts instinct took over for both of them and their bodies began moving together more naturally. It felt so unbelievably good after a minute she was wondering what was wrong with her for even hesitating to be with him like this at all. He was filling her so completely in a way she had never imagined, and she was moaning and grinding back against him, desperate for more. 

He gave it to her and fucked her harder, and she squirmed under him a bit lower so she could wrap her legs higher up on his hips. This caused him to hit against an impossibly good spot inside her, and the next thing she knew the pleasure surged in her and she was clinging tightly to him, her toes curling as her body erupted in pulsations around him. She was so overwhelmed by her own pleasure she was only vaguely aware of him shuddering against her as he came, filling her in hot, wet spurts. 

She was still holding onto him tightly, and after sucking in a few shaky breaths his hand found her face. He cupped her cheek and encouraged her to look at him, and once she did he captured her lips in one of the sweetest kisses she had ever received. It’s not like she had a lot of kisses to compare it to, but the affection and fondness she could feel behind the action was even more undoing to her than the pleasure they had just shared. 

Her heart swelled with emotion for him, and she couldn’t hide it with his mouth on hers, so she didn’t even bother trying to curb the few tears that leaked out of her eyes. Instead she parted her lips and allowed him to lick inside so he could feel it, too. 

“Mmm, I like this feeling, it makes you taste so good,” he moaned, shifting above her to more comfortably taste her. “I think I feel it, too.” 

“Really?” she asked, and he dipped down to taste her mouth again, as if to be sure. 

“Yeah, or something close to it, at least,” he said. “What is it?” 

“It’s love,” she said, almost afraid of speaking the word out loud. 

“Love, huh? It feels good, I like it,” he said. 

“I like it, too,” she admitted, and then, “Do you want another taste?” and his mouth was back on hers. 

They got up not long after that, Fionna wasn’t sure if it was morning or not but she had slept enough. This universe seemed to exist in a perpetual twilight due to the clouds, and she was really starting to miss the sun. She wasn’t sure when she’d get to see it again or feel its warmth. Even more than the sun, she missed her sister and friends more than words could describe. Cake was supposed to come with her on this adventure. 

She wondered how Cake felt about being left behind. She vaguely wondered how scratched up Gumball would be for sending her to another universe alone when her sister was done with him. She hoped Cake hadn’t hurt him badly, activating the pendant in the first place had been a mistake, after all, but she wasn’t home to explain it to anyone. 

She pondered the many problems she needed to sort through as she ate the breakfast that the strange computer on the wall summoned for her. She pursed her lips as she stared at it, wondering how in the world it worked and if it could be a piece of this strange puzzle. She felt as though it had to be, she just didn’t know where it fit in yet. 

Fionna sighed in frustration, and The Star put his arm around her. 

“What’s wrong?” he asked. If she wasn’t so annoyed at the mystery of the computer and how it stood in the way of her obtaining Simone a new crown she would have been touched that he had learned her social cues. Finding and retrieving the crown should be her priority, but as she looked over at him her only concern was what would happen to him once she found it. 

“Nothing, I just want to go back to reading about the multiverse,” she said. The idea of returning home without him was nearly inconceivable to her at this point, especially after what they had done together this morning. She wasn’t ready to talk to him about any of this yet, though, so she quickly added, “I’d really like to understand that computer.” 

“Sure,” he said, and he began leading her back to the study containing the books. She felt bad about making him sit in there again with her all day. Not that he had seemed to mind it yesterday, but she felt like it would grow boring for him eventually. 

“I’m not sure what you usually do with your time, I’m sorry if I’m messing up your day,” she said. 

“I don’t mind it, holding you while you read is better than anything else I could be doing. I’ve sort of been on autopilot for a long time, having you here has been really great.” She gave him a tight-lipped smile, not wanting to think about the temporary nature of her stay in his universe while he was talking like that. She tried to force the thought from her mind, hoping she could find something helpful today in one of the books. “What does the other me, you know, the one who doesn’t like being a vampire do?”

“Oh, um,’ she said, thinking. It’s not like Marshall had a job. He just seemed to flit around doing whatever he wanted in his immortality. “He likes to play pranks on people, he’s always joking around, really, but uh, mostly I think he fills his time with music.” 

“Music?” he asked, and she nodded. 

“Yeah, he can play pretty much anything, and he’s really good, too, but I guess that’s to be expected. He’s had a thousand years to practice. Sometimes I play my tambourine while he plays his bass guitar, and I think we sound pretty good,” she said. 

“I think I’d like to do that with you, too,” he said after a moment’s thought. 

“Of course we can, that is, if you have any instruments here.” 

“I think I remember one of the other vampires having some, she used to like her humans to play for her,” he said. “Maybe I can practice in the study with you while you’re reading. I’ve never played anything before.” 

“That sounds really nice,” she said honestly. She felt like it would probably be healthy for him to focus on something other than her for a little while. 

A small detour found the vampire in question’s old room. Although Fionna didn’t ask anything about it she could tell from the lack of a cage and the other scary things that this vampire had treated her humans markedly better than the Emperor had. There were a few instruments they found buried among her possessions. 

Most were very grand or complex and Fionna had no idea how one would play them, but he did find a simple version of the bass guitar the Marshall from her universe favored. He seemed to like it too, and he took it with them to the Vampire Queen’s study. She settled on the couch with the book she had been reading yesterday while he hovered in a seated position in the opposite corner of the room, curiously inspecting the instrument he had found.

She found the place where she had left off and resumed her reading as he began plucking at the strings, listening carefully to hear what sound each produced. She was too focused on her reading to be impressed at him teaching himself how to play. It seemed every version of him had a talent for music. 

Her eyes grew heavy as she finished the passage from yesterday, about the different wormholes that had visited this universe, but she perked up when she made it to the next chapter. This one appeared dedicated to theories on creating a temporary opening between universes, and a small jolt of excitement went through her as she began reading the Vampire Queen’s additions in the margins. ‘Last wish?’ was written, and the words felt significant, but she wasn’t sure what this meant. 

There were theories too complicated for Fionna to really understand, but almost all of them had been crossed out as the Vampire Queen had proven them ineffective. Her handwriting became increasingly sloppier the further she read, until it nearly resembled the scrawl on the picture of the crown she had found. Fionna wasn’t sure if it was desperation to find more humans to eat or madness from the magic of the crown that caused this, all she knew was it made it hard to read. 

By the end of the chapter the most difficult to decipher note of all was added, this one on a folded and crumbled paper shoved between the pages instead of written in the margin. Fionna had to read it multiple times until she could understand. It appeared to be the Vampire Queen penning out, in broken and jumbled words, a declaration of her failure to find another way to access the multiverse and that she would be forced to use her last wish. A little below this, clearly added at a later point in time with a different color of ink, barely legible were the words ‘It was another monkey’s paw. We’re dead.’ 

Somehow the Vampire Queen had gotten the ability to make a wish, more than one, by the sounds of things (the number three had kept coming up in the notes, and she wondered if it was referring to three wishes in total), and had used the last one on creating a way to access the multiverse. Fionna had seen the little computer that had apparently resulted from this wish, and she felt like she’d be dissatisfied with it as well if she were using her last magical wish on it. 

“Hey, do you want to come see this?” she asked, feeling like he would like to see what was potentially one of the last things the person who had raised him in this universe wrote. 

He had been experimenting with putting together different chords in a row, really it was amazing how quickly he was picking this up without guidance, and he put the bass guitar down to drift over. She offered the crumpled paper to him and he took it, giving it a curious glance. 

“I don’t understand,” he said, staring at the page strangely. “My mom wrote this?” 

“I think so,” she said slowly, watching him closely to gauge his reaction. “I know you said she wanted a way to send vampires into the multiverse to bring back more humans. She somehow had a wish to spend on it, and I think that’s where that computer that makes food came from, but she must not have worded it correctly. It doesn’t seem like it was the first wish to go wrong for her, either. Does any of this make any sense to you?”

“I mean, a little,” he admitted. “She never did tell anyone where the clouds came from. They helped us win the war, but they caused the world to die.” 

“Do you know of anything else she could have wished for? Something big that ended up blowing up in her face? I feel like there were three wishes, she kept writing the number three over and over again.” He thought for a moment, his face deeply troubled. 

“The hive,” he finally said. “It just appeared here, perfectly suited to house her inner court not long after she found me. It was probably her first wish.”

“How did the hive go wrong?” she asked, and he shrugged.

“Vampires don’t usually live so close together, there were a lot of issues that splintered us apart stemming from proximity. Mostly it had to do with jealousy over humans. I never kept any humans so I didn’t understand how attached you can get to one. I get it now, though. If I had you back then, I’d probably kill anyone who could take you from me.”

“I’m not sure those vampires felt the same way about their humans as you feel about me,” she said carefully, trying to think of what label to put on what he was to her. Lover? Captor? Nothing felt right. “I don’t think they were… friends with each other, like we are.”

“Even if we weren’t friends, you’re still my human. I don’t like the idea of anyone else even looking at you,” he said. “Vampires can be crazy possessive.”  

“I’ve noticed,” she said with a sigh. Perhaps this conversation would have been exceedingly concerning to her before, but she had grown so used to his viewpoint on this that his words didn’t alarm her at all. “So you think that’s how the first wish backfired? Distrust and jealous fights?”

“Maybe, and then when it was time for me to suck the souls out of the vampires who were left, they couldn’t get away. They were all right here. You know, everyone except me who lived in the hive died in it. Maybe that was how the wish went wrong.”

“I don’t know if I like the sound of that,” she said with a frown, the idea of the hive being magically cursed making her feel uncomfortable. “Are you sure it’s safe to live here?” 

“Yeah, I mean, all this happened like hundreds of years ago,” he said before pausing, clearly deep in thought. “I… didn’t live here until I joined her inner court when I was old enough. I wonder if all the vampires who she initially made the hive for were doomed to die in it from the beginning.” 

“She must not have worded that wish right at all, I wonder where she went wrong,” she said. Secretly, she didn't think this was a bad thing, but she wasn’t sure if she could verbalize that thought out loud or not. The Star didn’t seem to care one way or another about the other vampires who had been in the inner court, but he appeared to harbor some lingering respect for the woman who had raised him. 

“I don’t know, but she wrote out her multiverse wish on the back of this page… it looks like she tore it from a book,” he said, sitting next to her to show her the writing on the back. 

The page did appear to be torn from a book. The text only went down to half the page, so it must have been the end of a chapter. It was about the multiverse (like everything else in this study) and heavily marked up with revision upon revision of her final wish. 

“I feel my mind maddening more and more with each wish, and I know I said I’d never use the last one, but now I don’t have a choice. I should have destroyed the crown long ago, but I can’t part with it, and now it’s time to make my last wish,” she began, reading the Vampire Queen’s words aloud from the page. She paused to look up at him. “So, the crown has to do with the wishes? And, where is ‘down there’?” 

“I have no idea, but keep reading,” he said, and she returned her eyes to the page. 

“I wish for a method of accessing, as in exclusively viewing and retrieving, things from a programmed universe.” It seemed like a very specific wish, but she found it odd in more than one way.

“Programmed universe?” she asked, looking away from the page as she spoke to see if this made any more sense to him than it had to her. It didn’t appear to. 

“I don’t know, maybe she had something from a specific universe that she wanted to access she could use to program it,” he said. She supposed that made sense, there were a lot of weird, magical objects in the other study. One or more of them could potentially be from another universe, but it still didn’t completely clarify the wish. 

“But why only viewing and retrieving? Why purposefully exclude… What’s the word for sending a person? Transmitting? I thought you said she was interested in sending vampires to other universes to bring back humans.”

“She talked about it, but she must have changed her mind about that part and only wanted to use the wish to bring humans here,” he said. He pointed to an underlined passage in the printed text above her sloppily written additions. “Looks like it was too dangerous to send a person to another universe, in case they came across another version of themselves. I’m glad there’s no one but me here, it looks like this would have happened to you, too.” 

She didn’t know what he was talking about, so she read the text he was pointing to. It had been underlined heavily, as if the Vampire Queen wanted her eyes drawn to it every time she picked up the page. She wrote (and Fionna believed her, due to the degradation of her handwriting) that she was maddening more as time went on. Maybe she was worried about forgetting this passage while formulating her wish if she didn’t aggressively underline it. 

‘-perhaps one of the most dangerous aspects of the multiverse is the counterpart paradox. One cannot safely visit another universe in which a counterpart to themselves currently exists. Two copies of the same person cannot mutually exist in the same universe at the same time. Every documented case of this happening has resulted in the copies being compulsively drawn to each other. When they get too close, one of the counterparts is reduced down to their cosmic equivalent,’ it read. The text went on further, but Fionna had to stop reading there. 

“I bet that’s why she didn’t want to go there herself, and wanted to see the humans she was bringing back first,” he said when it became apparent she was done reading. “She didn’t want to accidentally bring back another version of herself. I can’t blame her for being careful, it seems these wishes were all destined to fail in the worst possible way. I’m not sure why it didn’t work with how she worded it, though. Maybe because whatever magic she used didn’t consider humans as ‘things’-” he spoke on, but her ears stopped working as a wave of shock ran through her.  

The hairs on her arms stood up and she felt a cold tingle run down her spine as she remembered the nightmare she had on her first night here. Had it been somehow prophetic? It had to have been. There were two copies of herself, they touched, and one of them turned into a sword. She couldn’t even consider how badass it was to have a cool sword as her cosmic equivalent as she considered the implications of this. 

Dread filled her as she looked up at The Star, realizing due to this paradox he could never exist in the same universe as Marshall Lee. Even if her pendant would allow it, she couldn’t bring him back home with her without him and Marshall being drawn to touch each other and one of them turning into a… guitar, or something. As far as she could see it, he would forever be trapped in this dead universe, completely alone once she left with the crown. 

Tears filled her eyes as she was gripped with this horrific realization, and he stopped talking when he saw how she tried to discreetly wipe them away. The heavy book slid off her lap to fall on the floor as he took her in his arms, and as he became aware of the magnitude of her sadness he tried to ask her what was wrong, but all she could manage to do was cling to him and let out a garbled sob. He tried faintly to comfort her in his clumsy way, but these attempts only made her cry harder, so he eventually stopped and just held her until she ran out of tears to cry. 

Chapter Text

“How’s this feel?” The Star asked, and she felt the gentle pressure of a warm, wet washcloth on her back. She was still in such a shocked state that she was only faintly aware of the sensation, but she could tell it was a pleasant one. 

“Good,” she mumbled, unable to summon up the energy to think of a more complex response. He made a noise of acknowledgement and she felt as he gathered up her hair, draping it over her shoulder as he washed higher up her back. 

After she had run out of tears to cry he had asked, a bit frantically, what she needed. His concern for her only added to her depression, and if she could have cried more, she would have. As she couldn’t cry she swallowed down her feelings and asked to take a bath, wanting nothing more than a long soak in the tub to try to drown her misery with warm water and bubbles. He hadn’t wanted to let her out of his sight, and so they wound up here, with him kneeling at the side of the tub cupping handfuls of water to drizzle down her back to rinse off the suds. 

Really, she wanted to be alone, but she didn’t think he would allow it, and she didn’t have the energy to argue. Maybe having him here at her side was actually helping. She couldn’t tell.

“Do you want your hair washed?” he asked, and she drew up her legs, wrapping her arms around them and resting her head on her knees as she considered him. 

She had never before thought about letting someone else do that for her. She wondered if the Marshall from her home universe would be willing to wash her hair. She wasn’t sure if he would be or not, it seemed like such an… uniquely intimate thing to do for another person. There were so many universes out there, she wondered if there was a version of him, somewhere, who had done that for a version of her before. She wondered if she had ever done it for him.

She figured both had to be so, and the thought made her feel oddly warm, in a way. 

“No, I think I’d just like to lie down,” Fionna said, and really, she meant it. 

The bath felt nice, but she found herself gripped with this odd warmth, and it felt more comforting to her than warm water ever could. She stood up and he helped her wrap a towel around herself, which really wasn’t something she needed any help with, but his care only added to the warm feeling in her guts. She realized the warmth was a deep seated affection toward him, and the moment she stepped out of the tub she wrapped her arms around him, bringing their mouths together in a hungry kiss. 

Although clearly startled by her sudden intensity he kissed her back eagerly, this being far more familiar territory for him to navigate than her moping in a bathtub. While he was still hopeless with giving her any emotional comfort he had learned the ways to touch her to give her physical comfort, and she found that was exactly what she needed. His hands ran over her body, feeling whatever they could reach through the barrier of her towel, and she began urgently tugging at his clothing, wanting nothing more than to feel his skin against hers. 

Her towel was a puddle on the ground by the time they made it to the doorway, and he was just as naked by the time they made it to the bed. She was still sad, but her growing desire was rapidly overshadowing this. She felt hungry for his touch, especially knowing now what she did about how temporary it would be. She wouldn’t accept that he couldn’t come home with her easily, there had to be a way around it. 

Even if she had to go back to her Aaa without him, she would find a way to help him. There were many people far smarter than she was that she could consult once she was home. She didn’t have to think about it yet, however, because he was very real in her arms right this second. His body was hard with a want all his own, and she smiled as best she could with his mouth sealed to hers as she felt it pressing against her. 

She put her hands on his shoulders and encouraged him onto the bed. She wasn’t strong enough to actually make him do anything, but he sat back willingly at her insistence. He wrapped his arms around her middle and pulled her into him, burying his face into her breasts. He took one of them in his mouth and sucked, her breath catching in her throat as the color drained from her nipple, cooling and sensitizing it. He hadn’t asked permission, but she couldn’t be mad about that right now, especially not as she locked her arms around his head to hold him close and moaned. 

He licked at her breast to soothe her before changing sides and repeating the action. Her nails dug into his scalp, it felt so good, but she was more interested in his body. With some difficulty she wiggled down and out of his grip, settling on her knees before him. She took his cock in her hand and licked up the length of it before wrapping her mouth around the head and sucking. 

He bucked his hips and moaned, causing more of it to slip inside, and she lowered herself as comfortably as she could on him. She wrapped her hand around what couldn’t fit, encouraged by the noises he was letting out and the subtle movements of his body. She set a pace he seemed to like, finding herself more interested in making him feel good than anything else.

His hands were buried in her hair, petting through the length of it, his fingers occasionally seizing up with what she sensed was a suppressed urge to push her down more completely on him. She tried to relax her throat for him, and she sucked him in as deeply as she could with each pass, which was clearly what he wanted. It felt like he was growing harder in her mouth, and she squeezed around the base of him, moaning around his cock. 

She found giving him pleasure was one of the best distractions from her grief she could ever imagine, and she couldn’t help but let out a little noise of disappointment as he lifted under her arms to raise her off him. She had really been enjoying the feeling of using her mouth on him and hadn’t wanted to stop, but she supposed with the way he had been throbbing and leaking in her mouth he wouldn’t have been able to tolerate it for much longer without coming down her throat. 

She felt robbed from the satisfaction of making him come, and she squirmed slightly to try to slip out of the grip of his hands so she could get back to working on him. He was freakishly strong and had no problems lifting her up and throwing her onto the bed next to him as if she weighed nothing at all despite her best efforts to prevent this. She let out a little noise of surprise as she found herself suddenly face down on the bed. 

Before she could get up he was crawling on top of her, pinning her body down with his, his open mouth attaching to the back of her neck as if magnetized. He ground his cock against her ass as he sucked at her, and she could do little more than moan into the sheets as she was paralyzed by the pleasure from this. He trailed a line of open-mouthed kisses down her back, his fangs occasionally scraping against her skin as he worked his way lower. 

He tugged on her hips, maybe a bit harder than he intended, and she slid up from her stomach to her knees, her elbows digging into the bed with her sudden change in position. She was on full display to him like this, and he didn’t waste any time in burying his face between her legs to taste her sex. Her thighs shook as he licked at her, the way his tongue glided over her feeling entirely different like this from behind than it did when she was on her back. 

She wasn’t sure how he could locate her clit like this, but he flicked his tongue over it a few times to give her pleasure before plunging it inside her to taste. She quickly delved into an incomprehensible, moaning mess at the firm, wet pressure of his tongue licking in and out of her. She knew he loved the taste of her down there, and she really couldn’t wrap her head around how it tasted so good to him (honestly, his come had tasted kind of awful to her) but she supposed she wasn’t a vampire so maybe she’d never fully understand. 

He had said the place between her legs tasted nearly as good as her blood to him, and with the way he was greedily licking into her now to taste her wetness, she had to believe him. He moaned and sealed his mouth up against her entrance and sucked eagerly, and she buried her face into her hands in an attempt to stifle the obscene noises she couldn’t hold in. 

She didn’t really think he should be using his mouth on her like this, but it felt too good to try to stop him or take the time to wiggle into a more dignified position. Technically, she figured, his mouth on the center of her body was nothing he hadn’t done to her before, but the idea of his face buried between her legs from behind to get at it felt so perverted, like it was something that just shouldn’t be done, although she wasn’t sure why. 

He could lick so much deeper into her like this, and she sucked in shaky breaths as he took full advantage of this. The feeling of his tongue sliding against her inner walls as he fucked her with it was one of the best things she had ever felt, and she didn’t want it to stop, but the pleasure of it was too intense to continue. 

She squirmed forward to try to get away from his mouth, sinking down from her knees to lie on her stomach, and he seemed to understand. She gasped for breath as he separated from her, busying his mouth with alternating wet kisses and light, teasing bites in the space between her shoulder blades. His lips and chin felt soaked as they trailed across her skin, and the thought that she was the one who caused them to become that way turned her on more than words could say. 

She was beyond ready to take him again, and he seemed to be on the same page, as he had already begun palming and squeezing at her ass, rutting his cock up between her legs to rub it intimately against her. She liked the idea of him being inside her like this, and she spread her legs as best she could with him on top of her in invitation, grinding her ass up against him when he didn’t immediately take it. 

She felt him shift to hold himself steady, and then the head of his cock was pressing against her entrance, firmer and firmer until the tension gave and he slid inside. 

“Oh my glob,” Fionna moaned, her body stretching around his cock perfectly as he seated it fully inside her. 

The Star let out a low string of curses in her ear before pulling out, his cock dragging against a deliciously pleasurable spot inside her before he pushed it back in, filling her completely. His chest sealed up against her back and his face nested into the crook of her neck as he set a rhythm, hitting deeper inside her than she thought possible with each thrust. 

She did her best to jerk her hips back against him, moaning into the bed as she was overwhelmed by the pleasure of it. It already felt insanely intimate with his body covering hers like this, pinning her into the bed as he ground into her, but still she wanted more of him. His hand wasn’t far from hers, and she shifted to grasp it. He squeezed it back automatically, and her heart flooded with love for him. 

She had grown to care about him so much. She didn’t want to put him through being left here alone, and selfishly, she didn’t want to lose him, but it was looking like she’d eventually have to (even if it was just temporary). She felt so many conflicting feelings at that moment that it was all she could do not to cry. She didn’t know what to do with this sudden surge of emotion, and gripped by it as she was, she found she was no longer content to lie there losing herself in pleasure as he thrusted into her. 

“Ah- Wait, stop for a second,” she managed to say, finding it incredibly difficult to speak coherently with the insanely pleasurable way he was moving in and out of her. He had been half out of her when she spoke and he let out a little noise of acknowledgement, burying himself in her completely and stilling his hips. 

“What’s wrong?” he asked, and the way his breath ghosted her ear as he spoke made her shiver. 

“I-I just want to do it a little differently,” she said, squirming slightly under him, the feeling of his cock stretching her open like this beyond distracting. 

It was so big inside her, it was difficult for her to accommodate its full size without him actively moving it. Just when she thought she couldn’t deal with the feeling anymore he thankfully pulled out, and despite the borderline discomfort taking his whole length had left her with she immediately missed the fullness once it was gone. 

“Do you want to turn around?” he asked, and she felt his hand on her shoulder, urging her to flip off her stomach. She allowed it so she could face him, and he brought their mouths together as soon as she settled. She had thought it was a kiss of passion, but she realized a moment later he had just been tasting her. “Did you not like it like that? It tastes like you did.” 

“I did like it, a lot actually,” she said, there being no point in denying what he had confirmed for himself. “I just… want you to lie back.” 

He didn’t appear to understand what she was after but he complied and shifted off her to rest on his back. He watched her curiously as she got up to crawl over, tensing up slightly when she threw a leg over his hips to straddle him. One of his hands closed around her forearm as she climbed on top of him, his grip fast and tight as if instinctive. 

She didn’t know if he was keeping a hold on her in anticipation or as a precaution in case the need would arise for him to quickly pull her off. The thought was almost unthinkable with how much stronger than her he was, but she got the sense that he felt somehow vulnerable with her on top of him like this. She cupped his jaw, her hand ghosting down his neck to rest on his chest, feeling the strange rhythm of his undead heart rapidly beating below his skin. 

The thought struck her that it would be… extremely easy to stake him like this. Perhaps this was the position he had seen most vampires end their lives in, flat on their back with someone on top of them. It wasn’t that he was afraid of touch, his hands had been on her body in some capacity since the moment he had found her and claimed her as his, but she realized now he had always maintained a semblance of control over her through their physical contact. 

He was without that control now, and although he appeared apprehensive, he was allowing it to happen. By letting her on top of him like this, he was willingly handing that control over to her, and she was deeply touched by the thought. 

“I just want you like this,” she said, reaching between them to take his cock in her hand and, holding it steady, positioning herself on top of it. 

His hand left her arm to grab at her hips, and he moaned as she began rocking her body down, slowly enveloping him inside her. She worked her way down his cock until she was fully seated on his lap, and she ground her hips down, experimenting with how it felt to be penetrated like this. As it turned out, being able to dictate the depth and speed in which he entered her body was something she absolutely loved, and with the noises he was making beneath her as she tested it out, it sounded like he liked it, too. 

She braced herself on his shoulders, keeping him nearly completely inside her as she rocked her hips just the smallest bit up before grinding back down, lavishing in teasing herself with taking the fullness of him. His hands dug into her hips and he faintly tried to thrust up into her to get more friction, but she already had him as deeply inside her as he could go. 

He let out a groan that was so pathetic she couldn’t help but ride up to the tip before bringing herself back down, his moans encouraging her to set a pace. She shifted her hips to try a few different angles until she found one that felt so good it literally made her see stars. She picked up her speed, her thighs beginning to ache. 

It was a lot of work, but she found she liked the exertion, it felt almost like she was showing him the depth of her feelings by the work she was putting into giving them this shared pleasure. His hands moved from her hips to grasp her breasts, and she cried out as his fingers began playing with her nipples. She was panting and moaning, feeling without a doubt the best she ever had in her life despite the burning in her thighs as she bounced her body up and down on his cock. 

She was rapidly approaching orgasm, the pleasure coiling in her, feeling like it was winding up so tight it was going to explode. He asked her something then, she could hardly hear his words through her haze of pleasure but attuned as she was to him she didn’t need to hear him to understand his question. 

“Yes, g-go ahead,” she managed to say, unsure how he would even bite her like this but too lost in pleasure to spare it any thought. 

She was so close, she only needed a little more, and she brought herself up and down again on him seeking out that amazing release that felt as though it was right before her, just barely out of reach. He turned his head to the side then and sunk his fangs into her arm, the sharp pain cutting through her pleasure like a knife, but also, strangely, making his next pass into her feel all the better in comparison. She collapsed down on him in a moaning, pulsing mess as the intense wall of pleasure from her release finally hit her. 

The feeling of her body seizing up around his cock felt so unbelievably good, and the way he sucked at her to pull out a mouthful of her heavily pleasure-infused blood only added to it. Laying on him like this instead of how she had been sitting gave him more room to maneuver his hips, and he took full advantage of his, thrusting his cock in and out of her somewhat erratically until she felt the rapid flood of warmth inside her as he came. 

She pressed a few kisses against the point of his ear as her body settled down, but she was too out of breath to do much more than that. She felt like her head was somewhere up in the thick clouds that were blotting out the sun and would need some time to return to her body. He didn’t seem to mind her staying on top of him, as he was still somewhat sucking at her latest bite. 

His rhythm of sucking and swallowing had slowed significantly, almost as if he was more so indulging himself in the taste of her blood rather than actually feeding. She thought maybe he wasn’t quite ready to separate yet, either, and the thought made her smile. She kissed his ear again, her face heating up slightly as she felt her body flooding with powerful feelings of love. 

A few heartbeats later he gave a little moan of appreciation, his sucking picking up again as her love hit her blood and he tasted it for himself. This caused her to somehow love him even more, and spawned the start of a dangerous feedback loop that would have ended with him draining her dry if he didn’t separate from her with a pained little smile. 

“You taste so good, but, that’s probably enough for now,” he said, and she cupped his jaw, finally bringing their lips together. She had grown impatient for this while he fed off her, finding herself wanting nothing more than a kiss in the drowsy, post-orgasmic haze her mind was currently in. She tasted her own blood on his tongue, but, strangely, she had grown used to it. She had even expected it. 

“I love you,” she said when they parted for air. 

“I love you too,” he said, his words surprising her for some reason, and then immediately saddening her, but then their mouths were back together again, and nothing else mattered but the feel of his lips moving against hers. 

The room was dark, it was warm and comfortable in The Star’s arms, and yet, Fionna couldn’t sleep. They had stayed up for a long time after their lovemaking, touching and cuddling and kissing and just enjoying the emotional and physical closeness of each other’s bodies. Being with him like that, with no barriers or inhibitions, only an instinctive push and pull guiding them as both of them gave each other pleasure in whatever way they could had left her feeling closer to him than she had ever felt before with anyone else in her life. 

It seemed to affect him profoundly as well, it was difficult to describe but it was as if it had left him somehow less vampiric. She had seen his eyes darken from their typical red to an almost human shade before, but this time they had remained that way until he had fallen asleep. Dark eyes suited him well, he looked extremely handsome with them, and she couldn’t stop herself from shyly sneaking little glances to appreciate them. 

She knew it was probably not a good idea to indulge herself so completely in the feelings she had developed for him, but she couldn’t help it. The mystery was unraveling and she felt as though her time here was running out. She had already lingered in this universe far longer than she had intended. With a pang of guilt she wondered how Simone was fairing back home. Hopefully she hadn’t taken too long already. 

She thought of the crown and how it somehow granted wishes. She remembered the childlike drawing of it she had found in one of the Vampire Queen’s studies. There had been many sketches of it, but she had kept the first one she found. She wanted to look at it again. 

The Star was sealed up against her, so extracting herself was a bit of a challenge, but he was sleeping so deeply that her loss didn’t cause him to stir. She must have really worn him out. She relocated the drawing of the crown, it was sitting forgotten on a desk in his room where she had left it. It was dark, but her eyes had adjusted, and she was able to see it decently enough. 

She traced the points of the crown with her eyes before she settled on the gems. There were three gems and she wondered if they were what granted the wearer three wishes. She had never given it any thought before, but she supposed the gems in the prince’s crowns had power. She had never given the Ice Queen’s crown a second thought, but now she could see what an oversight that was. 

She wondered if Simone had been given three wishes as well, what she could have spent them on? Her ice power came to mind first. If the Vampire Queen hadn’t controlled ice and snow perhaps it had been purchased with a wish by Simone. Immortality may have been her second, she needed time to find her lost prince, whoever he was. 

Fionna had heard her rattling on and on about her missing prince before in the broken way she spoke, but it was hard to tell if he was someone who actually existed or someone fictional from those weird stories she was always working on. It was almost sad, the way Simone spent all her free time writing stories featuring people that didn’t exist. Fionna had even seen her cry over imagined situations she had put the people in. It was… very pathetic. Yes, immortality to pursue the probably fake man definitely sounded like something she’d spend her second wish on. 

That left Simone with a final wish, but she wasn’t sure what she could have spent it on. She was such a wildcard it could easily have been wasted on something stupid, like a silly hat for one of her penguins. Perhaps she had forgotten about it and never spent it at all. Her eyes were drawn to the scrawl on the page, specifically the words hive and clouds. She hadn’t known what it had meant at the time, she had just thought it was nonsense, but now she knew the Vampire Queen had been listing her spent wishes. 

There were other sloppily written things, and they were too difficult to decipher completely, but she thought she did see the word ‘throne’ in there. Did the Vampire Queen even have a throne room? The hive was like a maze, but she was slowly becoming accustomed to it. She was sure she could find her way back to this room if she wandered. 

She glanced over her shoulder at The Star’s sleeping form warily. He had never expressly forbade her from wandering away from him. He was typically so glued up to her side that she had honestly never before had a chance. He seemed willing to let her go wherever in the hive she wanted to while he was awake, but he always accompanied her, following her around like a ghost. She didn’t know how upset he would be if she did this without him. 

Besides… if there was a throne room… and the crown was inside it, somewhere… perhaps it would be better to be alone when she found it. She didn’t know how he would react to seeing it, especially knowing that it somehow granted wishes. She frowned as, for a moment, she debated just getting back into bed with him and distracting herself from this mystery with the comfort of his body. The thought was beyond tempting, the bed was comfortable, and warm, and there was someone who loved her inside it. It would be so easy to forget about her old life and just try to be happy here. She wouldn’t have to try very hard. 

Any happiness she gleaned from her life here would have a cost, however. That cost being… allowing Simone to die, which was not a price she was willing to pay. Simone’s kindness to Marshall by taking him in as a young child had saved not only her universe, but also, now that she had seen it with her own eyes, she could see it also saved that version of her friend’s humanity. A humanity that The Star was only now starting to regain by growing close with her. 

At great personal cost she turned her back on his sleeping form, disappearing from his room into the corridor of the hive armed with nothing but the Vampire Queen’s poorly drawn sketch of the crown. The hive was as maze-like as ever, but she had grown to somewhat understand the twists and turns of the tunneling pathways during her time here. 

She was able to locate the room with the strange computer, and regretted not bringing her pendant along with her. For the first time she realized the pendant was an object from another universe, and perhaps with it the computer could allow her to view her home. 

Now that she knew the exact wording of the wish that had spawned the computer’s existence she wondered if she could use it to check on Simone (and, selfishly, her friends, who she missed very, very much). She decided if she were unable to locate the crown tonight, that would be the first thing she did the next time the opportunity of a solo nighttime stroll arose, and she left the room. 

She found herself in the entryway with the skylight cut out overhead so she could see the dark clouds. She hadn’t been here since she first arrived in the hive, what felt like a lifetime ago. She looked around at the many pathways she could choose from, her eyes honing in on one that seemed to slant downward. She recalled with a jolt something the Vampire Queen had written, that she would ‘have to go down there again’ to make her final wish. 

Excitement filled her and she picked up her pace as she hurried down the path, feeling as the air around her grew colder as she descended what must have been deeper into the ground. This corridor didn’t seem any more ornate than any other in the hive, but perhaps it was a bit wider. She crossed a threshold into a room and saw that the Vampire Queen did in fact have a throne room, and she was inside it. 

For some reason the simplicity of the room surprised her. She had been expecting something grand and lavish, not this place of necessity. Then, she realized, the Vampire Queen would have likely rarely used such a room as she barely had a kingdom to rule over. She had only seemed to interact with her subjects when it was time to eat them, and she had The Star to easily dispose of any vampire not under her rule who gave her trouble. With him on her side, she was sure there had been no real opposition. 

There was a big, ornate throne in the center of the room that looked more than a little menacing, doubly so when she noticed there were no other chairs for anyone else who would be present to sit in. There really wasn’t much in this room except for… her eyes were drawn to a portrait on the wall. It appeared to be of the Vampire Queen’s inner court. Her eyes glazed unknowingly over most of the faces, but she smiled when she saw The Star. He appeared to have already obtained the power of flight, as he was depicted as floating on the Vampire Queen’s side. 

She wasn’t wearing the crown in the portrait, and they were clearly already in the hive, so at least one if not two of her wishes had been used up at this point. Fionna got closer to the picture, reaching out to feel it. She traced The Star’s face, feeling the uneven layers of paint. It was strange, and she wondered who had painted it. 

The frame, too, was strange, and her hand was drawn to that next. There was something bumpy on the underside, and it took her a moment to realize they were hinges. She found a handhold on the opposite side and pulled, the portrait swinging off the wall to reveal the Vampire Queen’s crown, sitting on a shelf recessed into the wall, its red gems glinting faintly. 

Fionna blinked a few times in surprise, her mouth going somewhat slack as she gazed deeply and all-consumingly at the crown before her. She felt paralyzed by the beauty of it, even though it looked identical to Simone's, this one seemed different, somehow. Maybe because it didn’t have a living wearer, its power was somehow reset and ready to be used by somebody new. She could feel it almost calling out to her to pick it up, and she did so, depositing the Vampire Queen’s sketch on the shelf so it wouldn’t be empty in the crown’s absence. 

She put her hand back on the portrait to swing it shut but stopped, crying out when something clamped down hard on her wrist. It was The Star’s hand, and her gaze flickered from his hand on her to travel up the length of his arm, coming to a rest on his face. His eyes had regained their red pigment, and he looked angry. 

“I woke up and you were gone,” he said, and she nodded stiffly. 

“Yeah I… I couldn’t sleep, and I had an idea about… where to find the crown,” she said, her mouth uncomfortably dry. She swallowed to try to get rid of the unpleasant sensation. It didn’t work. “So I got up and I went looking for it, and, uh, I found it.” 

“And, what are you trying to do with it?” he asked, the question having an ominous air in the dim, quiet room. His hand was still on her, and his grip was like iron. It was almost as if he were trying to hold her in place… When she didn’t immediately reply he gave her arm a little shake and repeated, “What are you trying to do?” 

Did he think she was… trying to use the crown herself? Was he holding her so tightly to prevent this?  

“I’m not going to wear it,” she said quickly, wanting to be sure he understood she had no interest in such a thing. “I only wanted to find it.” He didn’t appear to believe her, and he tugged her wrist, making her stumble into the wall that was his chest. His arms were around her, holding her firmly against him in a grip she didn’t even bother trying to break. Her hand began to tremble with how tightly she was grasping the crown, trapped somewhere near her thigh. “I mean it, the whole reason I came here, to this universe, was to find this crown.” 

“Why do you want it?” he asked, and with her heart pressed up against him like this, she thought he would somehow be able to tell if she were lying, and so she chose her words carefully. 

“I don’t want it for myself, it’s for a woman named Simone,” she said, sucking in as much of a breath as she could manage with how tightly she was being held. “She’s… Well, she’s not your mother, but she’s the woman who raised you in my home universe. She wears the crown, but hers broke, and she’s going to die without this one. She really… did a lot for you, and for everyone, I just didn’t know how much until I saw what would happen to the world without her.”

 “Are you planning to use one of the wishes to bring it back to her?” 

“No, I didn’t- I didn’t even know about the wishes when I came here! I don’t want anything to do with them!” she said, looking up into his red eyes desperately, willing him to believe her. He looked back down at her, considering her, and fear spiked in her as she worried what his next question would be. 

“N-Nothing about me coming here went right,” she said quickly, her words unsteady but honest in spite of her growing fear. “I wasn’t supposed to come by myself. This world was supposed to be dead. I didn’t know anyone would still be here at all… let alone someone I would fall in love with.” 

She tried to bring a shaking hand up to cup his face, but he was holding her too tightly to allow such movement, so despite her growing trepidation she tilted her face up, brushing her trembling lips against his cold ones. So far, he had been unable to resist kissing her back every time their mouths were brought together, but this time seemed to be the exception. She kissed him once, and then twice, his lips frigid and still until he spoke and they finally moved against hers. 

“How were you supposed to get back?” he asked quietly, and a jolt of panic ran through her even though she had been anticipating the question in one form or another. 

“W-What?” she asked to try to buy time, nervously looking down as if she would find step-by-step instructions written on the ground for how to word what she needed to say without uttering a lie. 

“You came here for the crown, and now you have it. How were you planning on getting back?” he asked, his voice sounding oddly magnified to her in her fear, and she felt as her heart traitorously started to race inside her chest. 

“I-I, I don’t,” she stuttered, having no idea what she was trying to even say. 

He shifted his hold on her, and she felt as one of his hands wound through her hair, and despite how much comfort she had gotten from him stroking and petting her hair in the time they had spent together the action did nothing to soothe her. His hand winding through her hair felt almost foreboding at that moment, although she couldn’t say why, and it distracted her from thinking up a quick lie. 

“Look at me,” he said, and his voice sounded… different. 

It was still quiet, but darker, and without any warmth; inhuman, even. The tone he spoke in could only be described as oddly vampiric, and it somehow invited her in and scared her off in equal measures. She nearly obeyed him just because it instinctively seemed like the right thing to do, for some reason, and then she realized what was happening. She had known the Marshall Lee from her universe had a measure of power over humans that he had never… would never use. Reason stood that this one had that power, too, and he was trying to use it on her now. 

“No!” she yelled, her voice harshly echoing around in the throne room, and she tried to thrash in his arms, wanting nothing more at that moment than to get far, far away from him. 

Almost as if he had been waiting for this, like a tension-ladened string finally snapping, his hand buried in her hair instantly tightened. She cried out as he wrenched her head back by her hair in an attempt to force her to look up at him. She kept her eyes screwed tight in as much defiance as was possible, which, admittedly was not much. She felt his eyes boring into her, the warmth of his breath on her face, and as the reality of her situation began to sink in her whole body began to shake. 

The seconds ticked on as he maintained his hold on her, and tears leaked from the corners of her eyes as she fought to keep them closed. The way he was pulling her hair hurt, she had always hated the feeling, and the way his arms were clamped around her made it difficult and uncomfortable to even breathe. Any lingering hope she had held onto of getting out of this situation drained from her body, and left with no other choice, she opened her eyes. 

He was looking at her intently, and she felt herself being sucked into his gaze. There was no emotion at all in his red eyes, it was like nothing was in them at all. They were like endless voids sucking her in, and she felt as her mind went blank, drowning out her every thought and feeling in an infinite sea of red. 

“How are you going to get back?” he repeated, his words echoing around in her empty head. Her mouth moved of its own accord to answer him. 

“A pendant,” she said, her voice sounding flat and lifeless even to her own ears. She felt more words coming out of her, and she tried to stop them, but she couldn’t. “I have a pendant with one jump left.” 

“Where is this pendant?” he asked, and again, she was powerless to staunch her response. 

“Hidden,” she said, and while she was aware he was looking at her strangely, she couldn’t read his expression. Her mind wasn’t working right, the redness she was gazing into felt like it was consuming her, but as the seconds ticked on she couldn’t bring herself to care. 

“Where?” he asked, and again, her response came out automatically, her words honest and unfeeling. 

“In my old clothes,” she said, only vaguely aware at this point that this was something she didn’t want to say. 

She seemed to be becoming aware of less and less. She felt his hand on her face, her brain registering it as some sort of secondary sensation, his touch almost feeling like nothing but a memory in this strange headspace. He urged her to tilt her head to the side and she complied, feeling her back bump against the wall as she was pressed into it. 

She stared up blankly at the ceiling as she felt a sharp pain in her neck followed by the wet heat of his mouth. Although she knew it hurt, it didn’t bother her in any way, and while she wasn’t really aware of the passage of time she felt like it didn’t last long. After a few pulls he separated from her with a wet noise, and his hand was on her jaw again, guiding her to face him. 

She felt the pressure of his mouth against hers, his lips working hers open, and she put up no resistance, even as his tongue entered her mouth followed by some warm fluid. If she had been more aware of what was going on she would have recognized his habit of sharing a bit of her own blood with her, but in her current state it was all she could do to keep her head from lulling on its side. The pressure of his mouth lessened as he pulled away, and she felt in a disconnected sort of way the blood he had shared with her drip from her slack lips. 

He wiped at her face and frowned, and for a moment she almost regained enough control over herself to faintly whimper, but then he looked at her fully, and she was again consumed by a sea of red.

“Go to sleep,” he said, and the red turned to black as her eyes drifted shut and she slumped in his arms, fast asleep. 

“You can go ahead and wake up now,” a voice said, and although Fionna was in what felt like the deepest sleep of her life, her eyes opened. 

She stared blankly at the ceiling, her body completely limp, waiting, for what, she was unsure, and frankly didn’t care. She was just waiting. It wasn’t a bad feeling, or a good one. It just was. She just was. And then, she felt as the red haze that had descended over her lifted somewhat, and gradually awareness came back to her. 

She was lying… on a plush, comfortable surface. The Star’s bed, she realized. He had put her to bed. Her neck hurt. Her hand stiffly moved up as her fingers sought out her injury. She winced as she felt the punctures on her neck. It was clearly a bite, he had bit her before, several times in fact, but it had never hurt like this. 

Tenderly probing at the site she realized it had never hurt this badly before because she had never been bitten this deeply before. Now she understood what he meant by calling the other bites he had given her little ones. This one felt massive in comparison. It was, she realized, her first big one. It hurt.  

Her hands sealed around her neck and she curled in on herself, trying to tuck her body into a ball as the full extent of her injury became apparent. She wasn’t able to complete the motion as his hands were on her a moment later, gently pulling her onto her back, and then softly covering her hands to guide them away. She let him uncover her neck and winced as his fingers brushed against the spot that was causing her so much pain. 

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to bite you so hard,” he said, and her mind was slow to process his words and their meaning, still groggy from the depth of her sleep. “I lost control of myself for a second there. I didn’t mean to hurt you.” 

Fionna’s eyes drifted open, she wasn’t sure when she had shut them, and she looked over at The Star. He was kneeling on the bed and looking back at her, so close she could almost see her reflection in his dark eyes. They were his human’s eyes, and they were handsome. She liked looking at them. As she gazed deeply into his eyes the events before her sleep returned to her, slowly at first, and then once the bandage was ripped off her mind rapidly, images and feelings flickering through her faster than she wanted them to. Faster than she could process them. 

She felt as the color drained from her face, her mouth going dry as she screamed. 

“Get away from me!” she screamed, sitting up and shoving him off her, prying her eyes away from his as a precaution. 

He drifted back a few feet to put distance between them, and rage and fear coursed through her in equal measure as she relived what he had done to her. He had… pulled her hair… took over her mind… bit her, hard. She had been vaguely aware at the time he had bitten her, but she had no idea how hard until now. It hurt so bad. 

“H-how could you?” she asked, her voice shaking with emotion. Angry, hurt tears welled in her eyes and dripped down onto the bed. 

“I needed to know,” he said, his voice almost sounding lost. 

“You could have just asked!” she yelled. “Do you… Do you even understand how messed up what you did was?” 

“I tried, you lied-” he tried to say more, but she cut him off. 

“You were waiting for me to lie!” she said, remembering how his hand had coiled in her hair in anticipation. “You took over my mind… You bit me…” and then she added, somewhat tearfully, “You even pulled my hair, and you know how much I don’t like that. I thought you… I thought you loved me.” 

“I do love you.” 

“You don’t do messed up things like that to people you love!” she yelled, keeping her eyes down low, and she heard him let out a noise of frustration at her. 

“I don’t know how to love you, I just know I can’t lose you,” he said, and she chanced a glance up at him to see he had taken his head in his hands, appearing beyond frustrated. “You just showed up, and you made me feel all these things, and then I woke up and you were gone. I was scared… and then I found you holding the crown, and I thought you were about to wish yourself away. I freaked out, I shouldn’t have pulled your hair, or bit you that hard. I just needed to know the truth.”  

“Making me say something I didn’t want to say hurt me worse than you pulling my hair or biting me ever could,” she said, sucking in a shaky breath, trying to hold back more tears. Knowing he had felt true fear at her absence that clouded his judgment did little to soothe her pain. “If you loved me, you would have trusted me enough to explain myself. Taking me over like that was… the most horrible thing anyone’s ever done to me. I couldn’t even hold up my own head, do you have any idea how powerless that feels?” 

“I don’t,” he said, and then, “Do you have any idea what being alone for hundreds of years feels like?” 

“I don’t,” she said. 

“I can’t go back to that,” he said. 

“I didn’t want you to,” she said. “I had the pendant this whole time, but I didn’t want to use it, not without you. I wanted to find a way to take you back with me, but there’s that paradox, and I can’t figure out a way around it by myself.” 

“I can’t risk you not coming back, or someone else taking you while you’re gone,” he said, and she groaned. 

“People don’t do that in my universe, I already told you this,” she groaned. “It’s messed up, can’t you see it? If you love someone, you can’t control what they do.” 

“But what if they try to leave?” he asked. 

“You let them go,” she said. “Even if it hurts.” 

“I can’t let you do that,” he said immediately, and she sighed. 

“Then you don’t love me.” 

“I do-” he began, but she cut him off. 

“That isn’t freaking love,” she yelled. “Whatever you feel is some messed up vampire junk. I actually love you, enough to not want you to be trapped here alone, even if you hurt me. I just can’t do anything to try to help you if you’re keeping me here against my will.” 

“I want to love you like that too, I just can’t, not like this,” he said before pausing, taking his head in his hands again and squeezing as if he were trying to… crush the vampirism out of himself, or something. It was a pathetic sight. “Even just hearing you talk about leaving makes me freak out. I… don’t think I can bring myself to let you go.” 

“Alright,” she said, and he looked up at her. She quickly looked away when he did to prevent their eyes from meeting. 

“Alright?” he asked, and she nodded. “You’re alright with me keeping you here?”

“I don’t have a choice,” she said. “You already showed me that. If I try to get away you’ll just take me over with your eyes again, won’t you?” 

“I don’t want to do that to you again,” he said quickly. “It… it made you feel awful, and I didn’t like it, either.” 

“You didn’t have a problem biting me like that,” she said, unable to help herself. 

“That wasn’t… I didn’t want to bite you then, I just couldn’t help it,” he said, clearly struggling to find the words to explain himself. “You’d have to be a vampire to understand, it wasn’t… the bite wasn’t good.” 

She hadn’t been aware some bites were better than others for him. She had assumed they were all the same. Perhaps the fact that she could hardly hold up her own head while he had done it had been what ruined it for him, or her distinct lack of any feeling had made her blood too bland. She wasn’t sure, but given the pain currently radiating from her neck, she was glad it hadn’t been something he had enjoyed doing. 

“You’re right, I’m not a vampire,” she said, afflicting her tone on the word as if it were a swear. “I don’t bite people, or try to keep them against their will, or take over their minds whenever I want.” 

“I already told you, I couldn’t help it. I don’t want to do that to you again,” he said.

“Then how will you keep me from leaving? Are you going to throw me in one of those cages?” she asked hotly. She almost wished she hadn’t said it, there certainly were plenty of cages scattered around the hive he could choose from, but thankfully he appeared just as repulsed by the idea as she was. 

“No, I’ve seen how much those scare you,” he said. 

“So then what will you do to keep me here?” she asked, and he made a frustrated noise. 

“Fuck, I don’t know,” he said. “Can’t we just go back to how we were and forget about all this?” 

“Even if that wouldn’t cause the literal death of a woman I have a lot of newfound respect for, no, we can’t,” she said. “After what you did to me things will never be the same between us. I know you’re a vampire and maybe some things you can’t help, but using your power against me like that isn’t something I can just forget.” 

“Okay,” he said. “I understand.” 

Fionna dropped back down on the bed in a depressed slump, wrapping her arms around herself protectively. It was nice to know he wasn’t going to try to shove her in a cage or something, but she knew that left only physical restraint to stop her from trying to leave the hive, and she couldn’t stand the idea of his hands on her. 

It was strange how just last night she couldn’t get enough of his touch, but now the idea of it triggered some sort of nausea response in her. Him taking over her mind had been a violation, and she meant what she said about not forgetting about it. Her only comfort was that he seemed to dislike doing it to her as much as she disliked being on the receiving end, and she truly didn’t feel he would do it again. This thought didn’t help to quell the intrinsic fear of looking directly into his eyes that she seemed to have developed, however. 

She tried to keep her eyes closed or trained on her hands as she lay there on his bed in a miserable heap. He hovered nearby, clearly at a loss for what to do now that he had won. Eventually, he tried to drift closer, and disgust and fear reflexively rose in her in response. He backed off without her saying a word as if he could sense her feelings, which she figured he likely could. 

He had grown used to her love and warm touch. She knew it was what he wanted out of her, maybe even more than her blood. He only got her blood once a day, but he had kept his hands on her at every opportunity pretty much since he had brought her here. She wasn’t sure how greatly affected being deprived of this would make him, and honestly, she couldn’t really bring herself to care. Spite took too much energy, she was too depressed to feel anything close to that as the reality of her situation sunk in. 

He hadn’t truly loved her at all. He had hurt her, severely. Simone would die. Lying on this bed in misery would be her life now. She’d never see her friends again. These thoughts swirled around her mind as time dragged on, encompassing so much of her being that she almost didn’t notice he had spoken to her.

“Are you hungry?” The Star repeated, and she thought about it. 

“No,” she answered honestly, although she had no clue when she had last eaten anything. 

“Do you want to take a bath?” he tried. 

“No.” 

“Do you want to read? There are other books here than the multiverse ones. Better ones.” 

“No.” 

Fionna felt as he approached her, his weight settling on the bed somewhere behind her. She was so deep in her depression she couldn’t even bring herself to feel disgusted to try to ward him off. She wasn’t sure how long she had been lying here. It felt like it had been a long time. She felt his hand on her shoulder, touching her so softly she could have just imagined it. His fingers on her were featherlight, as if he were cautiously testing the waters. 

When this didn’t garner a response from her his hand grew more bold, siding down the curve of her waist and then dangerously low on her belly. His hand lingered there, threatening at the idea of touching her in a place that had previously made her delirious with feeling. She found she still… didn’t care. 

She wasn’t just pretending to discourage him, she really just didn’t care what he did. Her depression was all-consuming, and after a few moments his hand drifted up from her stomach. She thought at first he was going to try touching her breasts to see if that made her do something, but instead he curled his arm around her middle and pulled her back into his chest, sighing against her as if in defeat. 

“I’m sorry,” he said. 

“Will you let me leave?” she asked, her throat dry and scratchy from disuse. The hold of his arm tightened around her. 

“I can’t let you go,” he said. “And it’s not because I don’t love you. The problem is that I’m a vampire. I meant what I said, I can’t help it.” 

“Okay,” she said, unsure why he was reiterating this unhelpful point. 

“But, I’ve been thinking, maybe… maybe if I weren’t, I would be able to let you go.” Her eyebrows scrunched together, confusion rising in her to compete with her depression. 

“I don’t understand,” she said. 

“I don’t want to hurt you because I love you, but keeping you here is hurting you. I can’t let you leave because I’m a vampire. I know it might not make sense to you, but no matter how bad I might want something, the vampirism will still be there, there are some instincts I just can’t escape.” 

She recalled how he couldn’t seem to help catching her, on the two occasions she had run from him. First in the alley, and then again in the hive. How he couldn’t help but hold her close any time she struggled against him. The Marshall Lee from her home universe, as well, had exhibited these traits, but he had always spun them into some kind of game. She was aware now that perhaps he couldn’t help it, either. 

“Vampirism has no cure,” she said. 

“Usually it doesn’t, but we have three wishes.” 

“Maybe that could work,” Fionna said, chewing on her lip as she stared down into her hands. 

Despite his assurance he wouldn’t take over her mind again, she couldn’t help but fear meeting his eyes. The plan he had proposed had been a simple one. Use one of the wishes to rid him of vampirism, and then he would be able to let her use the pendant to bring the crown home. There was a certain amount of trust involved that she would be willing to come back for him after this. 

It was… almost touching to her. Maybe deep down he really did love her, under the vampirism infecting his mind. She didn’t understand why he couldn’t just hand over the pendant, but she supposed she wasn’t a vampire, and she would just have to believe him when he said it was different. 

“We would have to be very, very careful about how we word the wish,” she said. “All of the Vampire Queen’s wishes sort of did the opposite. Maybe you’ll stop being a vampire, and the magic will make you something worse.” 

“I’m not sure there is anything worse,” he said, but he appeared to think on this all the same. “Simone, the woman who used the crown in your universe, what did she spend the wishes on? Did they do the opposite for her, as well?” 

“I don’t know,” she said. “Like I said, I didn’t even know the crown granted any wishes.”

“The people who wear the crown don’t seem to advertise it, probably to keep other people from taking it,” he said, and she nodded. 

“Yeah, she never said anything about it, of course, but like the clouds and the hive there are two kind of obvious wishes Simone used. She was immortal and had ice powers. I sort of just thought both abilities were just because she had magic, but she was human originally, so I think she got both of those with wishes. I’m not sure either of them went poorly for her in particular, although she was kind of super crazy.” 

“I think magic just does that to humans, I’m not sure if it had to do with the wishes directly,” he said, appearing to be deep in thought. “It doesn’t sound like they went that badly for her. What about her third wish?” 

“I’ve been thinking about that a lot,” she admitted. “It may sound kind of weird, but I think she spent the third wish to keep you safe. The you in my universe, that is. She really loved you, but there came a point where she was too crazy to take care of you anymore. I think she might have spent the wish on you, and I don’t think it went bad, because a thousand years later I met you, and you still seemed to be doing alright.” 

“She really does deserve the crown,” he said, and she nodded. 

“She does, but knowing that isn’t enough to make you just give me the pendant, is it?” she asked. 

“I want to, I just can’t,” he said, and she gave him a sad smile, her gaze coming to rest somewhere at his chest-level, which was the closest she could bring herself to looking him in the eye. 

“I understand,” she said. “It might take time to think up the right way to word the wish, and I need to make sure Simone is still okay to wait. I know you won’t let me have it, but do you think you could put the pendant in that strange computer so I could check on her? I was thinking, you know, it’s an object from another universe, and if it would let us view my home universe, I could see how she’s doing.” 

“Oh, yeah,” he said, clearly interested in the idea. “I’d like to see the Aaa you came from.” 

The depression that had set in had been slowly lessening the more she understood where The Star was coming from. The idea of peeking in on her home made her excited, and she found herself almost smiling as she followed him to the room with the computer that was so much like a MO. She wondered if he would like to see her friends or if that would spark too much jealousy in him. Perhaps just checking on Simone would be safe to start. 

He placed the pendant on the shelf below the computer, where food appeared when she used the computer for receiving. She wasn’t sure how one would flip it into viewing mode, but it seemed to do so automatically, a little laser light shining out of nowhere to scan the pendant on the shelf. A thought ran through her of how easy it would be to nab the pendant and click the button to disappear, but his hand was on her shoulder as if to prevent this. 

Strange colors and numbers flashed across the screen and she watched with wide eyes, her breath catching in her throat as her Aaa appeared before her eyes. It was a bird’s eye view, as if a grainy camera was looking down at the familiar features from high above. It appeared to be right outside the science lab, which was where Gumball had given her the pendant, so she wasn’t surprised it had defaulted there. 

If anything it was even more convenient for checking on Simone, and she reached out to the keyboard, trying the arrows to see if that moved the camera’s view. It did, and she used the left, right, up, and down keys as if controlling a drone to bring the view through the doors and toward the closed curtains in the corner of his lab that she knew hid Simone’s unconscious form from view. 

She breathed a sigh of relief as she brought the view through the curtains and saw Simone lying directly where she had left her, connected to many machines that were keeping her alive in the candy coma Gumball had induced. From what she could see in the grainy camera feed Simone’s skin still had a bit of a bluish pigment, so although she looked more human than ever her condition appeared stable enough. 

“So, that’s her?” The Star asked, and she smiled. 

“Yeah, that’s her, and she looks like she’ll be okay for another day or two,” she said. 

The computer emitted a little sound as the curtains rustled and Gumball came into view, pressing buttons on Simone’s machines and jotting down numbers on a clipboard. A few beeps sounded through the feed but besides that all was silent except for the scratching of his pen. 

“Oh, and that’s my friend Gumball,” she said, excitement bubbling up in her. “Don’t make that face, it’s nothing like that, and he’s super smart. I’m sure if anyone can help it’ll be him. Oh! No way! There you are!” she gasped as Marshall Lee appeared, collapsing on one of the chairs next to Simone’s side. “Simone didn’t want you to know she was dying, but I guess you found out somehow anyway.” 

Fionna snuck a glance at The Star, careful to not meet his eyes. His eyes were glued on the screen showing the other version of himself, and he appeared completely engrossed in the view, so her gaze lingered on his face. Now that the image of the Marshall Lee from her home was fresh in her mind she was eager to see any differences between him and the man before her. 

“Who’s that?” The Star asked. “She looks just like you.” 

“Huh?” Fionna said, returning her attention to the screen. “Nobody looks like… me,” she finished, her jaw dropping as she saw an exact duplicate of herself on the screen sitting next to Marshall. 

She watched with wide eyes as he put his arm around her, and as his face came into full view it was clear he had been silently crying. The Fionna on the screen wiped his tears away before placing a little kiss on his mouth. 

“There’s no way that’s me!” she said, indignant. “This isn’t… Something is wrong with this thing!” 

“Shh, they’re talking,” The Star said, and her voice died in her throat. 

“Ah, good, now that you’re both here,” Gumball was saying, his voice barely audible and staticky as it came in through the computer. She almost heard the shuffling of his pages as he fiddled with his clipboard importantly. “I have a few more ideas on-” 

“Just tell me how much longer she has left,” the Marshall on the screen said, interrupting him. “She wouldn’t want Fionna, or anyone else risking their lives to save her,” he said, a certain amount of venom in his words as he glared at the pink man. Gumball gave an exasperated sigh.

“There was never any risk to Fionna at all,” he said. 

“Right, because traveling between universes is so safe,” Marshall retorted. “You’re just lucky it didn’t work.” 

“I still would like to know why that is,” Gumball said thoughtfully, giving the Fionna at Marshall’s side a skeptical look as if she had somehow messed up his ingenious plan of interuniversal travel. She threw her hands up. 

“I don’t know, I already told you, I followed your instructions and everything. All the pendant did was make a loud noise, whip the air all around, and make me feel weird for the rest of the day.” 

“Weird is an understatement, you were totally out of it,” Marshall said with a frown. “If I wasn’t right there when it happened you probably would have hurt yourself. I can’t believe he’d give you something so dangerous.” 

“Hmph,” Gumball said dramatically, sticking up his nose and turning his head away from the vampire, clearly highly offended. “I have an experiment to tend to on the other side of my lab. I’ll let you two visit Simone in peace.” The curtains rustled as he passed through them and out of the video’s frame. 

The Fionna on the screen leaned into Marshall’s touch as soon as they were alone, bringing their mouths together again in a light kiss. 

“I feel bad for saying it, but I’m secretly glad his pendant didn’t work,” the Fionna whispered. Her staticky voice was so faint coming through the computer it was hard to completely understand her words, but the guilt painting her face was apparent. 

“I’m not secretly glad about anything, I’d be fucking pissed if it had worked right,” Marshall said, and it was clear he was making no attempts to keep his tone down to not further offend Gumball as she was. “Look, Fi, you didn’t know her before she was nuts. The last thing she would want anyone doing is risking their lives for her. I wish there was something that could be done for her, but… I think she’d be cool with going out like this. I’m not going to say she lived a perfect life, but, uh, she lived a good one. Good enough, anyway. Maybe I should have visited her more…” 

“Her last words to Gumball were to not let you know she was dying, to not upset you,” Fionna watched herself say. “That means as soon as she wasn’t crazy anymore she remembered everything, and she still loved you.” 

“I still love her, too,” Marshall said with a sigh. 

“I know you do. I can’t imagine how hard this is for you,” the Fionna said, and he looked over at her with a fond little smile. 

“At least all this finally made you come to your senses about me,” he said, a slight air of his typical teasing tone poking through his sadness. 

“Yeah, only because I had just had my brains completely scrambled,” she said. 

“Maybe I’m not quite upset about that part, now that I think about it,” he said. “It at least made you willing to come back to my place with me and talk and… you know.” 

“Oh my glob, what’s wrong with you,” she hissed at him, her face growing red as she quickly covered his mouth with her hand. “Don’t bring that up right now.” Her face scowled in disgust as he snickered and licked her hand. He said something else then, but they couldn’t catch it, as the feed’s audio and video abruptly turned to static. 

“Oh my glob,” the real Fionna said (or at least, she thought she was the real one). Questions exploded inside her and her confusion was so great that she forgot she was afraid to look into The Star’s eyes. He looked just as confused. 

“So we were together in your universe, too?” he asked. “Did that show us the past?” She shook her head. 

“No, well,” her face grew hot as she remembered the heated movie night they had shared. “We kind of… did do something physical once, but it was super awkward afterward, and he never would have kissed me like that! Besides, that couldn’t have been the past. I don’t-” her voice cut out mid-sentence as the static on the computer ended as quickly as it started, a strange two-dimensional man peering through the screen at them. 

“Ah! There we go, heyyyyy guys,” the man said, moving slightly and turning into a thin vertical line on the screen just to stretch out again as the angle corrected. “So, quick introduction, I’m Prismo, and I don’t really know you directly but I’m so tight with another version of Cake, named Jake. We’re, like, this tight,” he held up two twisted fingers to demonstrate his alleged closeness to Cake’s counterpart. 

“I promised him I’d keep an eye on the lives of his little bro, yeah, that’s you, girly,” he said, pointing to Fionna, who blinked stupidly at him in response. “And I hate to say it but, uh, your timeline got totally donked up, and it’s actually hardly even my fault this time, so, yay for me!” He gave a little humorless laugh before adding in a hushed whisper, “I’ve actually kinda donked a few versions of you up pretty hard, between the two of us, but, uh, I usually fix it. Anyway, so, that’s what I’m doing, I’m here fixing things, so yay for you.” 

“I… don’t understand,” Fionna said, and Prismo sighed. 

“Okay, try to keep up, usually the Fionna’s are a bit quicker than the Finn’s,” he said, which made zero sense to her, but he was talking quicker and she didn’t have time to think about what that even meant. “I’m a wishmaster, I live in a timeroom, everyone who enters gets one wish, blah blah blah, this universe was spawned to fulfill the Vampire Queen’s wish to win the war on humans. She was… not nice when she wished for it, so I hit her kind of hard with the old monkey paw, I’ll admit. I made this universe for her wish to play out and killed the Simone who resided here so VQ would have the one tool she needed to win.” 

“The crown,” The Star said, and Prismo shook his head. 

“No, you,” he said. “Really, you were all she needed to win, and it wouldn’t have gone so bad for her if she left the crown alone. I knew she wouldn’t be able to say no to a bit of extra power, though, so I just kinda… Yeah. Monkey’s paw. You were never meant to end up here, though, Fionna. No versions of you were. I would have helped you sooner, but I knew what a flaming dumpster fire this universe was developing into and I didn’t want VQ’s rude self bothering me so I snipped its connection to my timeroom ages ago. I couldn’t access it again until you logged back on by using this thing.” 

“Okay,” Fionna said. “I’m following, but how did my timeline get screwed up?”

“Geez, you are smarter than the average Finn, okay so the multiverse is kind of a mess. You really shouldn’t tamper with it if you’re not a cosmic being. Your little friend Gumball didn’t know what he was doing when he made that pendant, or, at least he didn’t completely understand the theory. Really, he could have done more damage. It was like the best error he could have made. He gave you enough juice for two people, you and Cake, to do two multiverse jumps, did he not?” 

“He said he did,” she said, and Prismo nodded vigorously. 

“He did! It might have worked fine if you came with Cake, but you were alone, with too much essence. It was like a 750-horsepower engine powering a golf cart,” he said dramatically, and while she had no idea what a golf cart or a horsepower was, she felt she could assume this meant her wormhole had been overpowered, in a very bad way. “All that energy had to go somewhere, and as there wasn’t a second person, it made one. Like I said, the multiverse is messy. One of the Fionna’s traveled through the wormhole to this universe, and the other stayed in Aaa.” 

“But, which one of us is the real Fionna?!” she asked, her eyes wide in horror. 

“You both are,” Prismo said. 

“That can’t be true,” she said, and he gave her a piercing look through the screen. 

“Girl, you saw it for yourself, and besides, I think you already know it’s true,” he said, and she was silent for a moment as she came to terms with this. 

“I guess you’re… right,” she finally said. She had felt like something hadn’t gone quite right with the wormhole. It had felt at the time like it was almost splitting her in two. Now, she realized it had felt that way because it was. No wonder she had been so confused when she arrived in this Aaa. It sounded like her counterpart was similarly affected by the split. 

“Of course I am,” he said. “Now, on to how I can help you. You’ve got three options as far as I can see it. One, you can go back to your Aaa, but know either you or your counterpart will be drawn to touch and turn into a sword, and no, I don’t know which one of you will end up pointy. Just know, it’s happened before, there are plenty of Finn and Fionna swords floating around the multiverse. I tried to send you a warning to not use the pendant in the form of a dream. I casted it out to all versions of you to be safe because I couldn’t warn you directly.” 

“Yeah, I… I got your warning,” she said, remembering the nightmare she had suffered her first night here. She had misinterpreted it as a warning to not bring The Star home, but it had prevented her from activating the pendant, so it had done its job. 

“Two, you can try to be happy here. You’ve got the crown, and it’ll give you a few wishes to spruce this universe up. I promise to do my best not to donk them up, but, uh, it’s probably best if The Star here does the physical wishing for you. Humans don’t do well with magic, and he’s a hybrid, so his demon-half should protect him from going crazy as long as he doesn’t wear it long. Three pure wishes, no tricks, no strings attached. Then, you can just hook the pendant on the crown and send it home. I don’t want Simone to die. Her timeline in Aaa isn’t complete and I still feel bad for killing her off in this universe.” 

“What’s the third option?” Fionna asked, feeling The Star’s eyes on her and refusing to look his way. Despite all the shock and confusion of the day she was still very, very hurt at his actions and didn’t want to face his pleading eyes. 

“Option three is probably the easiest for everyone involved, I just click,” he snapped his fingers, which didn’t make a sound as they were two-dimensional, but he made a noise with his mouth to imitate snapping. “Delete this universe off the map. I’m not really supposed to do that, technically speaking, but I promised I’d look out for you. It wouldn’t hurt, or be scary at all. You’d just blink and stop existing, and so would all your problems.” 

“So, I can turn into a sword, never see anyone I love again, or die?” she asked, and Prismo frowned. 

“Hey, I’m trying here!” he said, crossing his arms. “I’ll let you know there’s plenty of versions of you who’ve been dealt much worse hands and still manage to carve out a good life. It’s kind of a thing among every version of you. You always seem to do alright for yourselves in the end. Well, except for that one,” he said, cringing, “and, the other… oof, that was bad,” he said, sucking in a pained breath at the memory. 

“Anyway, that’s all I’ve got, let me know if you want me to, you know, pull the plug. And, it’s her choice,” he added, turning his one visible eye to rest on The Star in a heated glare. “I don’t have any favors for you, I’ve actually got a pretty big beef with another version of you who did me dirty.” 

The screen turned to black as Prismo disconnected on that note, and Fionna was left staring at it with wide eyes, her own shocked face reflecting back on her where the strange, flat man’s image had been just a moment ago. 

Chapter Text

Fionna blinked a few times, feeling oddly numb as she struggled to make sense of what had just happened. If The Star hadn’t witnessed everything that had just flickered across the screen she would have sworn she had somehow just vividly hallucinated that whole conversation and the video feed that had come before it. 

She almost wished she had hallucinated it, but she knew even through her shock and confusion that it had all been true. She didn’t have the type of brain that could wildly invent something as crazy as what had just happened. She… was a copy. Or, maybe the other Fionna was. No. Prismo had said neither of them were copies. They were both the same Fionna, ripped in two by an overpowered wormhole gone wrong, she was just the one unlucky enough to have traveled through and gotten trapped. 

The Star’s fingers gently brushed the back of her hand, making her jump and pull away as if the light contact had burned her. 

“I’m sorry, it’s just, are you okay?” he asked, and she finally turned to face him, keeping her line of sight instinctively trained at his chest-level. 

“How could I be okay?” she asked, and he swallowed anxiously, appearing momentarily at a loss for words. 

“I guess that was a dumb question,” he admitted before his face settled into a frown, and despite everything that had happened between them she couldn’t stand to see him looking so upset. 

“I’m not going to delete you,” Fionna said softly, wanting to be sure there was no question on this. Even if she could delete this whole universe without also being erased in the process, she still wouldn’t. She couldn’t bring herself to do that to another person no matter what they had done to her. 

“I know,” The Star said, which surprised her. “It’s not who you are.” 

“Then why are you upset? You know I won’t hurt you or the other me, so you’ve gotten your way. I can’t leave.” 

“I’m upset because,” he began, his eyebrows scrunching together as he tried to think of the words to express what was going on inside his head. 

She knew he was still not used to his own feelings that had remained dormant for so many years, and so she waited patiently for him to find the words. 

“Because I want you to be happy,” he finally settled on, and she looked up from his chest to meet his eyes. They were his dark human eyes gazing back at her, and they appeared distraught. As she held his gaze any lingering doubts she still had that he truly loved her evaporated, because there was no purer desire a person could harbor for the one they loved than to want them, above all else, to be happy. 

“Hey, it will be okay,” she said, unable to stop herself from trying to comfort him, even though he had been the source of so much pain. 

“For me it will, but not for you,” he said, shaking his head. “You didn’t want to be trapped here. It’s what I wanted.” 

“You didn’t want it either,” she said. “You said it yourself, your vampiric instincts wouldn’t allow you to just let me leave, but you were trying to find ways around it. You were going to find a way to let me leave. If this didn’t happen, I think the plan you came up with would have worked.” 

“It doesn’t matter now,” he said bitterly, and she shook her head. 

“It matters to me,” she said. “You were willing to try to go against your nature for me. It… didn’t work out, but it still matters.” 

The Star fell silent as he considered her words, and Fionna hugged herself, wondering how they were ever going to find their way out of this. Prismo had told her other versions of herself had been dealt worse hands and still managed to carve out good lives. While it was hard for her to imagine anything worse than being forever trapped in a warped version of Aaa with nobody for company but a vampire who was nearly powerless to his own bloodlust, she would just have to trust Prismo that he knew what he was talking about. She hoped he was right, because, truly, she wanted to be happy. 

“What do we do now?” The Star finally asked, and although there were many possible ways to interpret his question, she chose to answer him in the literal sense. 

“We should go to bed,” Fionna said. 

“You just want to go to sleep after all that?” he asked, and she nodded. 

“It’s what my sister would tell us to do. We’re both exhausted, and we’ve had a… long day,” she said, unsure of how much time had exactly passed since they had last had a good night’s sleep. It felt like it had been at least a full day, if not two. The sleep he had compelled her to take had been deep, but not restful, and she found she wanted nothing more than the temporary escape only her dreams could provide. 

“Shouldn’t we figure out what to spend the wishes on? This is such an impossible mess-” 

“It’ll still be a mess after we wake up, and maybe it won’t feel so impossible when we’re not exhausted,” Fionna said, trying to give him a little smile, but the expression not quite making its way up to her eyes. 

“Are you okay with sleeping together after… after everything?” The Star asked, seemingly unable to bring himself to verbalize the way he had compelled and bitten her. 

“As long as we’re just sleeping,” she said. “I’m… still hurt, but that doesn’t mean I don’t care about you. I don’t want to sleep alone, and I don’t think you do, either.” 

“I don’t want to sleep without you ever again,” he said immediately, and she nodded, wiping at her tired eyes. 

“Then let’s just go to bed. We’ll deal with everything in the morning,” she said, slowly reaching out her hand and hesitantly offering it to him to hold. “Together.” 

If Fionna had been back in her Aaa the last place she would be spending her night would be in the arms of the man who had both loved and hurt her so completely over the course of the last day. She felt like they had gone from the highest high to the lowest low in a matter of hours, and now she was left somewhere in the murky gray area between these extremes with no one to turn to for comfort but… him. After the whirlwind of events of the day she needed comfort perhaps most of all, and so she couldn’t deny herself the solace of rolling over to wrap her arms around him nearly the moment they crawled into bed. 

Fionna buried her face into The Star’s chest to surround herself with his scent and breathed deeply, and after a slight hesitation he wrapped his arms around her in turn. She couldn’t help but be comforted by the closeness, and she relaxed into him further, wondering if she had been better off the last time they had held each other like this. 

Last time, before she had been ladened by the way he had hurt her and the weight of everything Prismo had told them. It had felt so much simpler then, they had just been two people in love holding each other in the blissful aftermath of shared pleasure. She wondered if she’d ever feel so unburdened again. While she was undeniably comforted by the closeness of his body, there was something indescribable there, almost like an invisible barrier wedged between them that hadn’t been there before. 

She snuggled in closer and tried to ignore the feeling, but she stiffened when one of his hands slowly crept toward her hair. While she was sure he only intended to comb through it as he often had, she was powerless to stop the sudden rush of fear that swept through her body. Her scalp prickled with the painful memory of that hand coiling in her hair and sharply wrenching it back, forcing her to look at him, to take over her mind, to-

“I don’t want you touching my hair right now,” Fionna said, and his hand froze in its path before changing directions to settle on her shoulder. 

“I’m sorry,” The Star said, and Fionna shook her head, not releasing the grip of her arms around him. 

“It’s okay,” she said, closing her eyes. “We’ll figure it out.” 

Just as Fionna had expected, the idea of repairing the broken, dead universe she was now forced to call home felt less impossible after a good night’s rest. In fact, it almost felt easier to fix this whole entire universe than it did to repair her relationship with The Star. The knowledge that he could theoretically take over her mind and him actually following through and doing it were two very different things, and now that he had done it once she could shake off the fear that he would do it again. 

The powerless feeling it had left her with had been the worst violation of her life, she couldn’t think of anything worse than losing her free will. It was strange how something that wasn’t even tangible held so much value to her, she’d rather lose an arm than go through something like that again.Thankfully, he seemed just as disgusted with himself over his actions as she was. 

While she understood he had lost control over himself when his vampiric instincts took over to prevent her escape she still couldn’t help but shy away when he tried to kiss her after they woke up. 

“Am I not allowed to do that anymore?” The Star asked, and Fionna gave a little shrug. 

“Just… not right now,” she said. “Maybe later. I don’t know.” 

“Does it still hurt?” he asked, eyeing her neck, and she knew he was referring to the extremely painful bite he had left there. 

“Yes,” she said, covering the spot with her hand, not wanting him to look at it for some reason. The inflamed flesh below her hand was hot to the touch, and she found the coolness of her own skin soothing against it. His face was troubled for a moment as he seemed to struggle with finding the right words to say. 

“I’ve felt… really awful ever since I did that to you,” he said, and she raised an eyebrow at him.

“That’s usually what happens when you hurt someone you love,” she said incredulously, before remembering that this was all new to him. It was probably the first time in his life he had ever felt such guilt. Feeling anything at all but hunger was new to him. It seemed unfair, for him to finally be able to access his own emotions just to be overwhelmed with regret. She sighed, wishing there was a magical solution to this problem, as well. “I’ve felt awful since it happened too, but it’ll be okay.” 

“It doesn’t feel like it’ll be okay,” he said, and she gave him a sad smile. 

“It never does at first,” she said, and then, “But, I still love you, even after you did that to me.” 

“I was worried you wouldn’t,” he said, and she shook her head. 

“Love is strange like that, it can make you forgive a lot,” she said. “I still love you, but I’m scared now, too.” 

“I don’t want you to be scared of me,” he said, appearing greatly troubled at the idea of this. “I don’t want to ever do anything like that again.” 

“Like I said, we’ll figure it out,” she said. “Let’s just decide how we’re going to spend the wishes.” 

This proved to be harder than Fionna had previously thought. Three wishes sounded like a lot until one actually went to spend them, as they quickly found out. So many things were wrong with this universe that it was hard to prioritize what was worth spending a wish on and what they could fix themselves over time. In addition, many things appeared simple at first, but would require more than one wish to make sustainable in the long term.

They eventually decided to make a list of potential things to wish for, and Fionna frowned as she looked down at it now. They had easily filled the front of the page, and now they were running out of room on the back as well, and her handwriting was tiny. 

“Do you think we can wish for more wishes?” The Star asked as he looked over her shoulder. 

“I doubt it, that’s like, the first rule of making wishes,” Fionna sighed. “They never let you wish for more wishes. We’ll just have to pick the best three from this list.” 

“I think you should be the one to pick,” he said. “Just tell me how to word it and I’ll wish for whatever you want.” 

“I can’t take all the wishes for myself,” Fionna said incredulously. 

“Why not? I’m one of the people who messed up this universe to begin with,” The Star said flatly. “After everything I’ve done you can’t pretend like I deserve a wish anyway.” 

“It’s… Well that’s not…” she faltered as she struggled to find an argument against this. It was true, he had done horrible things in the past, things she preferred not to think about for her own sanity, but still. “It’s just not fair,” she finally settled on. 

“It’s not fair for you to be stuck here with me,” he countered, and she frowned. 

“That doesn’t mean I can have all the wishes,” she said. “You’re stuck here too.” 

“Yes, in my own mess,” he said, and she opened her mouth to argue further, but before she could he quickly added, “Look, just pick whatever you want. I’ve never wanted anything as much as I want you, and you can’t leave, so really, I’m fine. I just want you to be happy here.” She was momentarily silenced by the unexpected selflessness of this, but still, she couldn’t imagine using up all three wishes on her own desires. 

“You want something other than me,” she said slowly. 

“What’s that?” he asked. 

“Not to be a vampire anymore,” she said. “I’m sure a wish could cure you. You want that, don’t you?” 

“I do, but I don’t think it’s worth wasting a wish over. Not if it can be used for something you want.” 

“I want you to use at least one wish for yourself,” she said. “Please, it’s only fair. You’ve got to live with whatever we wish for too, and for much longer than me.”

“What are you talking about?” he asked with a frown, and she gave him a little shrug. 

“You’re immortal, I’m not,” she said simply, and she would have said more, but she was silenced by the troubled look that settled on his face upon hearing her words. “What’s wrong?” 

“I’ve just… not thought about that,” he said, and she felt bad for bringing it up, but her mortality was something she knew he would eventually have to come to terms with. Just… maybe not right this second, she thought as she watched the evident pain this caused him flash across his face. 

“We don’t have to talk about that right now,” she said, and he didn’t reply. She hesitantly reached a hand out and took his in her own, giving it a little squeeze. “Just, please use a wish for yourself. For me.” 

“Fine,” he finally said, although he looked anything but. “I’ll use a wish.” 

“Thank you,” she said, and he sighed. 

“Tell me what you want for the other two so we can get this over with,” he said, prying his gaze off the sight of her hand on his to look her in the eye. “I’m sure Simone is missing her crown.” 

“Right. Well, I… don’t want to be the only human anymore,” Fionna said slowly, her heart giving a little thud of excitement at the thought. “I want to wish to restore life to this universe. I’ve been the last human my whole life, and I’m sick of it. I love you, but I need other people to interact with, and I think maybe… eventually you can make other friendships too. The Marshall from my universe didn’t have a problem with it, so maybe it just takes practice.” 

“Alright, but for that to work, you’d probably have to spend another wish to make the conditions right to maintain life,” The Star said. “Otherwise, everyone will just die again.” 

“Yeah, I’d have to get rid of the clouds with my other wish,” she said.  

“Are you sure that’s worth two wishes?” he asked, and she nodded. 

“To me it is. I’d give anything to not be the last human anymore,” she said. “Does that… sound alright with you?” 

“I told you, I’m okay with whatever you want,” he said, and she smiled. 

“That means a lot,” she said, feeling a bit giddy with anticipation as the realization of how close the deepest desire of her heart was to coming true. “Wow, so that’s it then, we’ve got it all figured out? We’re sure, right? Once we make the wishes, they’ll be forever.” 

“I hope they are,” he said. 

“Don’t worry, Prismo said he won’t mess them up. I really trust him, for some reason,” she said, standing up and offering him her hand, which he accepted automatically. “Are you ready to make the wishes?” 

“If you are,” he said, and her heart felt heavy with a sudden flood of emotion as she took in his face. 

“In a second,” she said, her face heating up as she held his gaze. 

He was really so handsome with his human’s eyes, and soon she’d never have to see them any other way again. She hadn’t kissed him since he had compelled her, she hadn’t felt like she would ever again want to, but looking at him now, she felt the urge. Before it left her she leaned in and pressed her lips softly against his. 

He kissed her back without hesitation, thankfully matching her pressure and not attempting to deepen the kiss. She wasn’t ready for something like that quite yet, her feelings surrounding him were still too complicated and seemed to shift moment by moment. In this moment, the soft kiss was perfect, and when they separated she rested her forehead against his, taking a steadying breath and enjoying his closeness. 

“Okay, let’s go make our wishes.” 

They went outside the hive to make their wishes, the pendant in Fionna’s hand and the Crown in The Star’s. For some reason it just felt right to do it this way, and as the thick clouds overhead again became visible Fionna realized it was her first time outside since coming to this strange universe that was now her home. She gazed up at the clouds, knowing she wouldn’t miss them once they were gone, her skin tingling as if in anticipation to again feel the sun’s warmth. 

“Do you want to wish away the clouds first?” Fionna asked, and The Star nodded, sparing them a quick glance up. 

“I’d say they’ve been here long enough,” he said, moving to place the crown on his head. 

“Wait!” she said, grabbing his wrist to stop him. 

“What?” he asked, but she was already gently pushing him back to the doorway of the hive. 

“When the sun comes out it’ll burn you if you’re not careful,” she said in explanation. 

“Oh,” he said. “It’s been so long I kind of forgot the sun did that. That’s going to suck.” 

“For all of five minutes before you wish to cure your vampirism,” she laughed. “I can’t wait to feel the sun again, go ahead and make the wish now.” 

The Star put the crown on his head, his face contorting slightly with discomfort as he did so. 

“Are you okay?” Fionna asked in concern, and he nodded. 

“Yeah, uh, it’s just really powerful,” he said, sucking in a shaky breath. “It’s kind of a rush.” 

“It’s not going to make you crazy, is it?” she asked, eyeing him warily. 

“No,” he said, and then he hesitated slightly before adding, “Er, maybe, if I left it on too long.”

“Hurry up and make the wish then!” she said, reaching out and grabbing his hands. 

“Okay, okay,” he said, closing his eyes. He gave her hands a little squeeze, his eyebrows knitting together slightly in concentration, and then…

“Oh my glob,” Fionna sighed, her eyes fluttering closed in bliss as she felt the sun’s golden rays beaming down on her for the first time in… she didn’t even know. There was a permanent chill in the air she hadn’t been aware of until it was gone, and for the first time since coming to this strange universe she felt true warmth. 

“How does it feel?” he asked, and she sucked in a slow breath, trying to think of the words to describe how amazing the sun felt after going without it for so long. 

 “Oh, Marshall, it feels so good,” she said before gasping, her eyes flying open and her face reddening as she realized her mistake. “I’m sorry,” she said quickly, and he shook his head. 

“It’s fine,” he said. “Now that everything is changing, maybe my name should, too.” 

“Would you prefer it, if I called you Marshall?” Fionna asked, and he nodded. 

“Yeah, I think I would like that better,” he said, and she smiled. When she had first met him, he had said he didn’t care what he was referred to as. She was glad he now had a preference. It made him a little more human, in her eyes. Speaking of… 

“Hurry up and make the next wish,” Fionna said, a giddiness bubbling up inside her at the thought of no longer being the last human. “This universe has been without life for too long.” 

Marshall closed his eyes again, and Fionna watched as he concentrated deeply on the wording on the wish. He kept a tight hold of her hands in his, and she squeezed back, hoping the pressure helped distract him from the crown’s maddening power. She kept her eyes trained on his face, trying to mentally give him as much strength as she could through the connection of their hands, not even noticing the wish had been granted until a little bird landed on his shoulder. 

“Marshall, look,” Fionna whispered, shaking his hands excitedly to get him to open his eyes and look. The little bird hopped a few times on his shoulder, glancing from Fionna to Marshall with a beady eye. Marshall opened his eyes and looked back at the bird curiously, and it fluttered its wings a little as it settled down to sit. “Aww, it likes you.” 

“I… think I like it too,” Marshall said, the corners of his mouth turning up as he took in the little bird nesting on his shoulder. 

Fionna’s ears twitched as they picked up on the many new noises erupting all around her. Like the cold, she hadn’t been aware of the eerie silence of this universe until it was gone. The hive was built on a cliff overlooking the empty, dead ruins of the city-cage used to hold humans for the vampire court long ago. She turned to look at it, and while the city was still in utter disrepair it was now brimming with life. 

Green ivy hung in sheets off the crumbling buildings, massive trees sprouted from the ground intermingling the piles of rotting garbage and rusted-out cars, fields of flowers were blooming in the streets, birds like the one who had made friends with Marshall filled the sky, animals of all varieties could be seen roaming around, but most importantly… 

“Oh my glob, there are so many people,” Fionna gasped, watching as men, women, and children seemed to wake up from their resting places scattered all across the ground, appearing markedly disorientated but otherwise unharmed. 

They stood up and looked around, some of them seeming to recognize each other on sight, families grouping up and reuniting before her eyes. A warm wetness dripped down her face as she watched a woman pluck a little baby up out of the patch of flowers she had been reanimated into. Fionna sniffed and wiped the tears away from her face. 

“Are you seeing this, Marshall? It’s absolutely beautiful,” Fionna said, turning to face him, her smile falling off her face as she looked at him. It was very clear he was not looking at the life blooming all around him, he was holding the bird in his hands and gazing at it fixedly, as if nothing mattered in the world but it. 

“I think I’ll name you Gunter,” he said to the bird, and Fionna squinted her eyes at him. 

“That crown is starting to make you crazy,” she said suspiciously. “Hurry up and make the last wish so we can get it out of here.” He glanced up at her in mild surprise. 

“Fuck, I think you’re right,” he said, shaking his head slightly. “I’ll make the wish now.” 

“Are you focused? Have you forgotten what you’re supposed to wish for?” 

“No, I remember,” he said. “This one is just for me.” 

“That’s right,” she said, watching closely as he closed his eyes and made his last wish. 

“It’s done,” he said a moment later, and she frowned. She could still see the bites marring the side of his neck, she had been watching them closely for the moment they vanished, eager to pull him out of the hive’s shade and into the light of the sun. 

“Are you sure?” she asked, and he nodded, already gazing fondly back down at his bird. 

“I think we should keep it,” he said. 

“The bird?” she asked, and he laughed, looking up at her, his eyes a bit crazed. 

“No, the crown,” he said. The sound of his laughter seemed to upset his new friend, and his face fell as the bird flew away. “Gunter, where are you going?!” 

“Okay, that’s enough of this,” Fionna muttered, making a sudden grab for the crown. 

Marshall was in such despair at the loss of his new friend that he didn’t even notice her snatching the crown off his head. She crouched on the ground and quickly wrapped the pendant around it, coiling the chain several times over around the crown’s three points. She hit the button on the side, taking a hasty step back the moment she did so to not get sucked into the wormhole herself, and then the crown was gone. 

“Gun- Oh,” Marshall said, the word ‘Gunter’ dying in his throat as the crown vanished away. He had an oddly blank expression for a moment, and Fionna hesitantly took his hands in hers, hoping whatever madness the crown had infected him with was sucked into the wormhole as well. 

“You okay?” she asked, and slowly he nodded. 

“Yeah, I’m cool now,” he said, taking a steadying breath. “That crown was just… a lot. I’m glad it’s gone. Oh, wow, Fionna,” he said suddenly, his eyes going wide as he took her in. “You look so beautiful in the sun. Your hair, it’s like it’s glowing.” Her face grew red as she held his gaze until finally she let out a little laugh, shaking her head. 

“Whatever, Marshall,” she said, brushing off his compliment. “I want to see how beautiful you are in the sun.” 

“Wait-” he said, but she was already tugging on his hands, pulling him out of the shade of the hive and into the golden light of the sun. Whatever he was trying to say morphed into a hiss of pain, and she watched in horror as his hands in hers sizzled and burned, his flesh melting away the moment it made contact with the rays of sunlight. 

“Oh my glob!” she cried out, letting go of his hands immediately so he could pull them back into the safety of the shade. New skin sprouted out of nothing the moment he was shaded, wrapping around the exposed bones of his hands until the injury vanished. “Marshall… What the junk?” 

“Fionna, I…” he began before hesitating, and she gasped. 

“You didn’t wish to cure your vampirism, did you?” she asked. Despair filled her as he shook his head in response. She couldn’t stop the tears from filling her eyes as she realized his one chance for escaping this burden had passed him by. “Oh no, oh my glob, that’s terrible.” 

“Is it a… problem, if I stay like this?” he asked, the question surprising her. 

“No, of course not,” she said, wiping at her eyes. “It’s just, I feel really bad. You didn’t get your wish. You were kind of losing your mind at the end, we should have done your wish first. I bet the crown made you wish for some crazy junk.” 

“No, well, it was making me a bit crazy, but I still got what I wished for. At least, I think,” he said. “It was strange, after I made the last wish I could hear Prismo’s voice in my head, but he’s gone now.” 

“What did he say?” she asked. 

“Threatened me, mostly,” he said. “He said it wasn’t a wish he’d normally let fly, but as long as I promised to keep you happy he would allow it.” 

“Well, what did you wish for?” she asked, finding this very bizarre. 

“To share my immortality with you,” he said, and although she heard him with perfect clarity his words made no sense to her. 

“Huh?” she asked before starting slightly. “You didn’t make me a vampire too, did you?” she asked in alarm, realizing the moment she voiced the question that this couldn’t be so. She was in the light of the sun now, and blood didn’t sound appetizing to her in the least. 

“No, I’ll carry the burden of the infection, I’m just sharing some of the good parts with you,” he said quickly. “I asked if you could have the power of flight as well, because I thought you’d like it, but Prismo said that would have to be a separate wish. The healing and immortality go hand-in-hand though, so you were able to get both of those.” 

“Really?” she asked, her hand flying up to her neck to feel for the scabbed bites he had left on her. Although her fingertips brushed over nothing but smooth, unblemished skin where she knew several bites had been, she still found the idea of being immortal somewhat unbelievable. 

“Yes, really,” he said. “Prismo said he’d be checking in from time to time to make sure I’m keeping you happy but, yeah. You should be safe, even if you jumped off this cliff. Just, please don’t, I don’t think I could watch you do something like that.” 

“But, why?” she asked, her brain having trouble keeping up. 

“I felt… really awful, when I hurt you,” he said slowly, clearly still having trouble putting a name to his feelings. “I don’t think I can stand to see you in pain, and the idea of you dying is just… I can’t even think about it. When you brought up that it would happen one day I knew what I had to wish for.”

“But…” she said, too shocked by this news to really comprehend the depth of the love behind his actions. “But that wish was supposed to be for you.” 

“I told you, you’re the only thing I want,” he said before hesitating. “You’re okay with it, right? Prismo can probably take it back, if you don’t like the idea of it.” 

“I…” she said, having trouble finding the words to describe how she felt. 

She glanced over her shoulder at the new life all around her, watching the leaves of a massive tree sway in the distance as a wind blew through it, finding the general shape of it oddly familiar. She could almost see where the treehouse they had both lived in at different times could be built, and she realized they now had all the time in the world to build it exactly as she had remembered. Beyond that, they now had all the time in the world to enjoy the universe they had saved together. 

“Thank you, Marshall,” Fionna said, turning back to face him and entering in the hive’s shadow to wrap her arms around him. 

“So, you’re happy, then?” he asked, and she nodded. 

“I’m so happy,” she said, closing her eyes and nestling her face into his chest. “To have forever with you.”