Anonymous

48

"You make me feel like I'm living a teenage dream, the way you turn me on," Marceline sang, fingers sweeping across the piano's keys, "I can't sleep, let's run away and don't ever look back, don't ever look back."

She thought of Bonnie as she played; all of those stupid, gooey, fluffy feelings coming out. Intrusively, her brain reminded her of what her dad had said. I don't care if you have to convince her you are some violent layabout, I cannot have Bonnibel suspicious. Marceline scowled and focused on putting her fingers on the keys, singing the right lyrics. After a lot of sleepless nights and pushing away a lot of fear at actively disobeying something her dad had told her to do, Marceline had decided that he could go fuck himself.

She didn't care what he did to her. He'd taken so much from her, and she wouldn't let him take Bonnie.

"Okay, seriously," Keila interrupted her playing by sitting down on the piano bench next to her and stilling her hands by putting her arm over them, "When did you get all sappy? Usually when you're playing piano it's some sad song, but you're singing Teenage Dream?"

Marceline knew she was blushing, but she didn't meet her best friend's gaze. She played the Teenage Dream chord progression again and muttered, "I don't know what you mean."

"Oh my god, you've met someone," Keila poked her in the arm and repeated, "Tell me!" until Marceline finally got annoyed and flicked her on the cheek. "Oh my god, dude, I'm your best friend, so tell me why you're being such a sap. Ooh, did you change your mind about Tom?"

"Nope," Marceline popped the 'p' sound and went right back to playing, "I would tell you, but because you're being so annoying about it, it'll be funny to watch you stress out."

Keila grumbled, "You're the worst, you know that?"

Marceline laughed, and her hands paused on the piano keys. "Actually, I think you'll find that-"

The bell rang to indicate that someone had walked into the shop, and she shut her mouth and turned around on the piano bench, actually rather grateful for the customer. Keila jumped up and walked over to help, but then Marceline realised who the customer was and wasn't sure if it was a good or bad thing that she was here. Especially with that fading hickey quite obviously visible on her neck.

Bonnie smiled, looking around the store, seeing how Marceline was sat at the piano. "Hello, you two. Hard at work, I see."

There was a sarcastic musicality to her voice, and Keila just laughed. "No customers means jam time. Sometimes we conveniently forget to put the open sign up. But I am hard at work, actually. Trying to figure out why Marceline's singing sappy songs."

Bonnie's smile turned into a smirk, and when she met Marceline's gaze, she felt herself blushing. "She's singing sappy songs, is she?"

"Yup. Totally sappy." Keila looked over at her triumphantly, because apparently having Bonnie's smarts on her side was a win for her. "Like, she sang Teenage Dream. You don't get sappier than that. Has she told you anything about this mysterious person she's singing about?"

Bonnie feigned thought; she even went as far as to rest her hand on her chin in the classic 'thinking' look. Marceline glared at her. "I can't recall her mentioning anything. Although..."

"What are you even doing in here?" Marceline interrupted her, shooting daggers across the room. "Turning over a musical new leaf? Because if you are, buy that acoustic guitar over there, so I can steal it when you inevitably get bored and stop playing, it's been on my wishlist for a while."

"I came to see you, you big grump," Bonnie laughed, and she crossed the room to sit next to her on the piano bench, and then looked at the keys expectantly. "Go on, then. Play your sappy songs."