Anonymous

42

It was quite nice, having Marceline as some kind of temporary roommate.

Bonnie didn't like to dwell on the temporary status, because she knew sooner or later, Marceline would go home. To her dad. The thought was terrifying, and she knew she'd be sick with worry, but she didn't want to show it. Marceline had asked her not to be weird about it, and Bonnie was sure that texting her every fifteen minutes to ask how she is would be classified as weird.

Right now, she was just trying to enjoy her company, regardless of the reason she was there in the first place. It probably wasn't healthy – having Marceline around so much felt like she was entertaining some delusion of a faux relationship – but she didn't care. Her schoolgirly feelings towards her best friend weren't as important as keeping said best friend safe.

If someone had zapped back in time a decent number of months and told then-Bonnie that Marceline Abadeer was a considerate house guest, she'd have laughed in their face. But it was the truth. She made Bonnie tea without her having to ask, which was basically the indication of a perfect person. When Bonnie got a little burnt out from socialising and wanted to do some revision, Marceline occupied herself by playing pretty music on her bass and humming little melodies. It was extremely soothing, and sometimes Marceline would sing lyrics along with whatever she was playing and Bonnie's pen would pause on the paper, her attention well and truly grabbed. That was just how it was; when Marceline sang, Bonnibel listened.

(Granted, Marceline pretty much always had her attention, but still.)

The nights were her favourite part of it all. Because Bonnie only had a tiny little single bed with no room for personal space, she'd spent the past three nights sleeping with Marceline pressed up against her, feeling the gentle rise and fall of her chest as Bonnie held her while the older girl held Hambo. Bonnie always made the point to hold her and tried her best to be gentle, because she wanted to reinforce positive touch. There was probably a scientific journal she could hide behind if Marceline ever questioned that.

(Really, though, she just wanted to cuddle her.)

On the fourth day, despite Bonnie being certain that she'd packed Marceline enough clothing for a week, she walked back into her bedroom after making a cup of tea to find that Marceline had thrown one of Bonnie's jumpers on over the red turtlenecked crop top and extremely short shorts she'd been wearing. It was one of Bonnie's favourites; the white one with the two red and yellow stripes and blue stripes on the sleeves.

Marceline was casually strumming on her bass and humming a melody, and she didn't stop playing when Bonnie asked, "Is that my jumper?"

"Not anymore," Marceline sang it along with the bassline she was playing and then looked up at her with a sheepish grin, "I would apologise, but you stole my t-shirt, so..."

"So..." Bonnie continued for her, "you decided to take your pick from my closet?"

"Yeah, pretty much," Marceline said, plucking the lowest string on her bass. The note rang out and she asked, "Wanna hear this thing I've been playing around with?"

"Always," Bonnie sat down on the bed next to her, and she had to admit that Marceline looked good in her jumper. Actually, she should probably be annoyed, because she thought that Marceline pulled it off better than she did. Because she was a little bit slimmer and Bonnie had already bought the jumper a size up, it had a fashionable oversized look and revealed the light brown shoulder and red crop top underneath. It didn't help that Marceline was just hot, too. "Play for me."

Marceline played a bassline she recognised slightly – she'd been toying around with it, tweaking the notes for the last few days – and hummed a melody along with it. When the last note rang out, she said, "I don't have lyrics yet, just the general melody, but sometimes the music comes first. I'm thinking that for the verse, though. Then switching to this," Marceline played a slightly shorter, altered version, "for the pre-chorus."