They all sat through dinner. Simon watched as Lucy and Bonnie were deep in conversation as they all ate. He noticed the way Lucy crinkled her nose when she gave a rich laugh. Lucy then started to braid Bonnie's hair, smiling softly. It brought a warmth to Simon's cheeks. It was something about seeing this interaction that made his heart flutter. He just couldn't understand why.
"Mmm! This soup's got such a deep flavor," Fionna complimented.
"It's been simmering for years," Jay explained. "It's the soup mom was cooking the day she died. We just keep adding to it."
"Like a veritable 'soup of Theseus,'" Simon joked.
There was an awkward silence as everybody looked at him.
"No. My mom made it," Jay replied confused.
"No, see, because it's a reference to a famous though experiment by British philosopher Thomas Hobbes..." Simon droned on, in an attempt to save his joke.
Lucy couldn't help but notice Simon's smile as he tried to explain. She could tell he was trying to fit in. Reminded Lucy of when she was younger...or of when Bonnie first found her in the cave.
"Dude, what are you talking about?" Fionna asked.
"Cake?" Bonnie asked.
"Yes?!" Cake responded a bit startled.
"Can all kitties talk where you're from?"
"No, but maybe they will once we find that magic crown, and plop it on Simon" Cake told Bonnie.
This caught Finn's attention. He stopped buttering his bread to glare at the group.
"You're looking for a magic crown?"
"That's actually why we're here," Simon explained as he cleared his throat.
"Jay tells us that you know something of its past and –"
"You're a damn fool!" Finn yelled slamming his hands on the table.
"Not cool, farm boy," Fionna remarked.
Lucy covered Bonnie's ears and glared at Apocolypse Finn.
Finn glanced at his kids and got up with a sigh.
"You can sleep out in the hayloft. Be gone at first light."
Cake slid closer to Fionna.
"Now you two should kiss."
Lucy grabbed her cup of water and dumped it onto Cake.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Fionna and Cake were the first to fall asleep, leaving Simon and Lucy awake.
Lucy sat there, fidgeting with her finger and lost in her thoughts, staring off into space.
"You okay, Lucy?" Simon asked, genuine concern etched on his face.
"Perfectly fine. Why wouldn't I be?" Lucy replied, trying to brush off any signs of distress.
Simon scooted closer to her, his concern deepening, and let out a sigh.
"Because you only fidget with your hands like that when you're close to a mental breakdown."
Lucy looked at Simon, her eyes widening with surprise as his words struck a chord within her.
Simon, feeling a bit flustered, quickly looked away and felt his cheeks flush.
"It's just something I noticed during dinner. T-That's all," he stammered.
Lucy stopped fidgeting and felt her eyes grow heavy with fatigue. The weight of her emotions seemed to catch up with her.
Unaware of Lucy's sudden exhaustion, Simon continued speaking. But as he turned to look at her, he noticed that she had fallen fast asleep, her head leaning against his side. A warm smile formed on his face as he realized how tired they both were. He allowed himself to relax as well, feeling his own eyes droop with sleep.
Simon felt a hand go over his mouth, waking him up.
"Shh," It was Jay. "My dad has ears like a bat.
Simon shook Fionna and Cake awake before looking at Lucy's sleeping form for a moment.
"Lucy, my dear," Simon said softly to wake her.
"I remembered something important," Jay told them. "Dad doesn't speak of the crown, but one time he drank cider that had gone hard and he let slip where he found it."
Lucy gasped.
"A big crater a few miles from here. Come on. I was heading to the crater anyway," Jay told them.
"Can I come?" Bonnie asked excitedly from atop the latter.
"Bonnie!"
"Pleeeeeeease?" She begged.
Lucy got up from where she was sitting and picked up Bonnie from the latter.
"I'm afraid you can't Bonnie," Lucy explained. "It might be dangerous and I don't want you to get hurt."
Lucy stuck Bonnie in a hay pile before following Jay, Simon, Fionna, and Cake to the crater.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The group had made it to the crater. Jay jumped down into it, quickly followed by everybody else.
"This is the spot," he told them. "Be quiet when you dig around for the crown, okay?'
"I don't even know where to begin," Simon said aloud.
"Hey, Simon, what does it smell like?" Cake asked. "I can sniff it out with my cat senses."
Simon pondered the question for a moment.
"Huh. I guess I kinda associate it with the smell of freshly cut grass?"
"Grass, grass, grass," Cake chanted sniffing the air.
"Work that thang!" Fionna cheered.
"Hey, I think I got something!"
"You guys go check it out," Jay said. "Imma go keep a lookout."
They followed Cake to the center of the crater. In the very center laid a metal scrap piece.
"Under here," Cake told Fionna, Simon, and Lucy.
"Good kitty!" Fionna praised lifting the metal piece up.
What they saw was the crown shattered into tiny pieces.
Lucy picked one up and the piece turned to dust in her hands.
"This is dump trucks, man."
"That's not fair!" Cake exclaimed.
"Looks like the crown was annihilated by some very powerful magic or something even worse."
Simon frowned.
"Aw, man."
"We'll have to try another universe," Simon said grabbing the remote.
"Give it here!" Cake exclaimed.
"Let's think about this!"
Fionna shrugged.
"What's there to think about? There's for us squat here."
Fionna looked up towards Jay to See Little Destiny sneaking up on him.
"Crap, it's that evil mullet kid! Jay! Behind you!"
"Run kid!" Cake yelled.
Jay turned around to see Little Destiny and walked over to her. They kissed before sliding down into the crater holding hands.
"What?" Fionna and Cake asked amazed.
"I knew something was going on!" Lucy exclaimed.
"It's cool. She's with me." Jay explained.
"Oh, I love a forbidden romance." Cake gushed. "I wanna hear how these two lovebugs got together."
Fionna took the remote from Simon and turned to the young couple.
"Tell us everything."
Jay started to talk about his and Little Destiny's first encounter and how they got together.
(The next part is gonna be really short because we are so close to the end of the Destiny episode but it's not enough for a full chapter. So the next chapter will be shorter, but it also means the Winter King episode is gonna come up closer! :D)