Tainted Air +18 Ch.3

Chapter 3

  Opening her eyes Fionna yawned and stretched. She pushed Cake accidentally since she didn’t realize they were sharing a bed. Cake let out a surprised feline growl before looking at Fionna. “Hey Baby, how are you feeling?” She asked with a tired smile on her face.
  Fionna shrugged, “Pretty well rested, actually.” She yawned again, “I think all I needed was some rest.” Sitting up on the bed she scooted back to lean on the headrest of the bed.
  Cake nodded, with a smile. “That’s good.”
   “Yeah…so when can we go home?”
  Cake shrugged, “As soon as Gumball tells us it is okay.”
  “Well then since we are waiting. I would like to eat something.” Fionna said rubbing her tummy and licking her lips.
  Cake sprang up straight, “Of course! What would you like to eat?”
  “I…” She licked her lips again which felt dry. “Water? Milk and some cookies?”
  Cake took hold of her hand and gave it a gentle squeeze, “I’ll hurry and get them for you. While I’m out there I will tell Gumball you are up.”
  Fionna reached out to Cake in a rush, “Can you tell to call…” then she thought better of it. “Nevermind.” She said in a soft voice.
  Cake looked at her sadly, “Call Marshall?”
  Fionna looked at her hands on her lap and blushed as she nodded.
  “I’ll tell him sweetness, don’t worry.” Cake smiled, “Lay back and rest.”
  Fionna did just that. She leaned her head against the wall and thought of her ex boyfriend. The Hunter wizard that had broken her heart. And she remembered a song she had heard in one of those CD’s from before the Mushroom war. It was a song that she hadn’t understood at the time she had heard it, but now it made so much sense. So she sang it with tears in her eyes and her voice trembling.

“’All the pain and the truth
I wear like a battle wound
So ashamed, so confused
I was broken and bruised

Now I'm a warrior
Now I've got thicker skin
I'm a warrior
I'm stronger than I've ever been
And my armor, is made of steel, you can't get in
I'm a warrior
And you can never hurt me again

</blockquote>

  Her head started to hurt so she stopped and started to massage her temples. She had just realized that her hat was missing when a searing pain started behind her eyes which made her jerk and twist in bed to try to relieve it. Her head felt like it was about to blow up! Holding her breath and biting down on her tongue to keep from screaming like she wanted too.
  She started seeing blackness surround her vision once again like last time. This time she would welcome passing out, just to relieve some of the pain, but she wasn’t fainting. Dear Glob she needed Cake to help her. It hurt too much.




  Hearing that Fionna had been making a lot of noise in the other room; Marshall decided to go check it out and see if she needed anything. When he entered the room he found Fionna sitting up in bed motionless with her hands cupped to her breast blinking repeatedly. One corner of his lips twitched up.
  “Making sure they are still there?” he asked as he leaned his shoulder against the door frame.
  She jumped up and pulled the bed sheets all the way up to her neck, her face flushed red. “I-NO! I-uh-just…” She paused as she realized were her hands still were. So dropping her hand she went on the defensive, “Don’t you know it’s rude to enter a room without knocking?”
  He shrugged, unfazed.  “What makes you think I left?”
  She looked at him, her mouth agape; face flushing. “You perv-”
  He finally laughed, “I’m kidding…kidding.” He pushed the door closed behind him and moved closer, “How are you feeling, Bunny?”
  “Much better…thanks.”
  He nodded as his eyes roamed her face, “That’s good.” He said softly. He watched as she flushed bright red. It was funny how the color started slowly from her neck up to the top of her scalp. It was a very tempting color, but he stayed in place ignoring his nature.
  It would be awkward if he leaned down and gently kissed her neck before taking a taste. She didn’t even like him that way and it was so noticeable. He saw the way she had looked at Gumball, Flame Prince and even that Hunter wizard she had been dating. Her eyes grew so shinny and bright, her face flushed sweetly and she had been radiant…yet never for him.
  He sighed and looked away, “What was it you needed me for?” He finally asked.
  She jumped a bit, which was off for her to do. Without looking at him, she started twirling her thumbs, “I wanted to...thank you for bringing me in.”
  “Oh…” he replied sadly. “I-no worries; you’d do the same for me. We are friends after all.” He smiled and figured that was all she was going to ever be to him. A friend. “Well…it’s good you’re okay. I’ll come by and check on you again tomorrow.”
  “Aren’t you going to stay? You just got here.” She said, finally looking at him. “I mean…”
  “I’ll stay if you would like me too.” He replied with so much pent up desire to hear her ask him to stay.


  “Say it!” Cake said to herself, “Just ask him to stay.” She huffed as she pressed her ear to the door.
  “Cake? What are you doing?”
  Turning around Cake found Gumball and Peppermint Maid a few feet away from her watching her with curiosity. Looking at the tray Peppermint Maid held in her hand, she dashed forward. “Nothing really.” She said as she moved closer to the maid and reached out for the tray. “I can take those.”
  Peppermint Maid looked at her with distrust and pulled the tray to the side and away from Cake’s grasp.  Gumball saw this and nodded at Peppermint maid. “It’s alright.” And so the maid gave Cake the tray.
  “Thanks!” Cake took the tray with relief as the maid left, leaving her and Gumball alone.
  “What were you really doing?” asked Gumball with a faint smile.
  Cake pointed at the door, “Marshall’s in there with Fionna.” She whispered.
  A knowing look crossed his face, “That’s good.”
  “I should say. It’s about time. That boy has had the hots for my sweet sister for a very long time.”
  Gumball looked at her surprised, “He told you?”
  She shook her head, “But he told you.” She grinned.
  He nodded, “How did you know?”
  She smirked, “A cats got her secrets, baby.” She said taking a bit out of one of the cookies on the tray.



  “I still have more to say to you.” Fionna said softly. Marshall waited silently for her to continue. “I need to ask you…I need to apologize to you.”
  “Apologize?” he asked sounding confused.
  Looking at him he did genuinely look confused; making her feel even guiltier than before. He had probably forgiven her since the very first night she had treated him badly. Maybe he hadn’t even been angry with her in the first place.
  She held back a sob. He was such a good friend to her. Even when she hadn’t been one in return, “I wanted to apologize for that night you tried to warn me about…him.” Even trying to say her exes name was an ordeal. “I should have listened to you.”
 All he did was stare, his red eyes going through her like a hot blade. “You don’t need to apologize. We are all stubborn at times. Just like you helped me open my eyes with Ashley all those years ago…I wanted to do the same for you.”
  Fionna looked down at her hands, “You know Marshall…you are very nice to me and sometimes I don’t deserve your friendship. Both you and Cake are just so nice to me even when I know I’ve done wrong.”
  “You’ve not done wrong and I will forever be your friend. Until…the end.”
  She noticed his hesitation at the end and wanted to question him about it. “What-Oh!” Another massive headache started once again at the back of her eyes and it migrated all the way through her temples to the back of her ears.
  Marshall moved closer, his face scant inches from hers as his nose turned into a bats and he sniffed her forehead. “What the-” he started but he ended it abruptly as he exited the room.
  Still holding onto her head as if it might explode if she didn’t hold onto to it, she grinded her teeth and let out a painful sound as she tried to push the headache away. She heard Marshall return, but when she opened her eyes she could only see black and white spots, “I can’t see!” She cried.
   It was a while before she felt and heard Marshall talking to her. “Drink this, you’ll feel better.” Feeling a cool rim on her lips she opened her mouth and swallowed down what was in the contents of what felt like a cup. It didn’t taste bad for being medicine. It was actually the best tasting medicine she had ever had. It almost tasted like…strawberries?



  Marshall looked at her waiting to see if anything changed, but after a couple of seconds she lowered her hands from her head and looked around the room. The look in her face looked disoriented until she looked up at him, blinking a couple of times. “Where are we?” She asked.
  He looked at her stunned. What had happened? “Don’t you remember?”
  She shook her head, “No…should I?”
  Looking at her he felt a very bad feeling, “Fionna, stop messing around. How are you feeling? Is your headache gone?”
  She nodded, then she smiled playfully like she used too, “Did we do something fun?” she looked around, “Is it Bro’s night?” She grinned, “I don’t remember coming here though.”
 Marshall looked at her incredulously, “Don’t you remember? I brought you in yesterday cause you fainted.”
  She narrowed her eyes and leaned her head to the side in thought, “I didn’t see you yesterday. I was adventuring with Cake in the dungeon all day yesterday.” She said completely convinced.
  Marshall stared at her for a second. A bad feeling in the pit of his stomach, “When I found you, you were alone…you had just broken up with your boyfriend.”
   She blushed, “Don’t be crazy. I broke up with Flame Prince Months ago.”
  Marshall’s heart sank, “You…what?”
  “We broke up months ago…you know that. I told you soon after he broke up with me.”
   Marshall swallowed down the lump in his throat was she messing with him? The look on her sweet innocent face told him she wasn’t. Which meant: she had broken up with Flame Prince when she was fourteen and now she was eighteen. She had four years missing.
  “I…I’ll be back.” He started turning around to go look for Gumball, but her voice stopped him.
  “Don’t go.” She said with a hand stretched out before her. “Not until you tell me why I’m here. Please Marshall.”
  Marshall couldn’t leave. Not when her big sapphire eyes were pleading him to say. “Okay bunny.” He floated closer and sat at the edge of her bed. “So how are you feeling?” he asked as he searched her face up close. The whites in her eyes looked red and tired; there was even a tiny film of sweat oh her forehead.
  “I’m doing okay. My head was hurting when I woke up, but it’s gone now.” She smiled and playfully bumped his shoulder with hers. “So you were worried about me, huh?” She asked shyly before he could even answer.
  “Of course bunny.” He said with a smile, she was just like the old Fionna. All blushes and shy smiles, “You know you’re my one and only.” He replied with a wink, making her blush even more. He stared at her, committing every detail to memory. This was the girl he had started to fall in love with all those many years ago. She felt him staring at her and looked at him through the corner of her eye, before quickly looking away. He laughed and messed with her hair.
  Fionna smiled in a goofy way before pushing his hand away, “Oh stop it you!” She laughed, but as soon as her laughter subsided she asked the same question as before. “What am I doing here Marshall?”
  “We don’t really know yet, but Gumball is working on that right now.”
  She looked down at the bed sheets and then looked up at him, “So that means I can’t leave yet?”
  Getting a loose strand of hair out of her face, he tucked it behind her ear; slowly making his way with his thumb to her cheekbone. “That’s what it means bunny.”
  Fionna shuddered and closed her eyes, leaning into his touch, “I’m glad you’re here then.” She replied in that same shy voice.
  Marshall could almost feel his heart thud inside his chest as he saw the way she responded to his touch. Had she always responded to him like this before? He didn’t think so, what had he done?