Nightmares (FioLee)

Chapter Twelve

The nightmares soon returned, worse than ever. Fionna woke up screaming almost every night, and when she managed to get to sleep again, the cycle would just repeat. 

"I don't get it." Yawned Cake in the light of the next day. "I thought you and Marshall fixed all of that by getting rid of the Lich." 
"I thought so too." Fionna agreed, blinking at her cereal bowl before tipping forward. 

Cake hurriedly moved the bowl so that her sister wouldn't accidentally drown, then placed a cup of hazelnut coffee near Fionna as she jerked awake. 
"So what are you going to do about it?" Cake asked. 
"I'm going to go see Gumball and the Lich, and see if she's causing this, or if he can help again." 

"He didn't help much the first time. But hey, you need a ride?" 
"No, s'okay. You should take a cat-nap, or something." 
Cake looked worried. "You can barely sit up straight, let alone walk all the way to the Candy Kingdom." 

Fionna waved her off. "A few nights without sleep won't hurt. Remember when we went two whole weeks without sleep, and nothing bad happened to us?" 
"Besides the Ice Queen popping up out of nowhere." Cake grumbled. 
"That was definitely weird." Fionna agreed. "Anyway, the coffee should help. I'll be fine on my own." 
"No way. I'm coming too." 

"Alright, if you're sure. It'll go much faster."

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"...was there any special circumstances that the nightmares did not return?" Gumball inquired. "Did you talk to anyone? Listen to anything? Eat anything out of the ordinary?" 
Fionna shook her head slowly. "I don't think so." 
"Wait, Marshall popped up and played her a lullaby." Cake pointed out. 

"Yeah, but that's not... do you really think that helped?" Fionna asked her sister. 
Cake shrugged. "That's the last time you didn't wake up screaming in the middle of the night." 
"Where is Marshall Lee, anyway?" Gumball asked. 
"He said he had to go down and rule his kingdom, and he'd be back in a month." Fionna explained. 

"A month?!" Cake and Gumball repeated in unison. 
"We can't wait a month. If you two are sleep-deprived that long, who knows what will happen to the rest of Aaa?" Gumball fretted. 
"But if we force him back, his kingdom will collapse." Fionna pointed out. "Or something like that." 

"Then can you go down there?" Gumball demanded. 
"I want to, but he said I'd probably die." Fionna shrugged. 
Gumball massaged his temples gently. "Alright... you said he played you a song? Could that be the problem? Perhaps he still has the music for it in his house. We could make a recording of it. That might help." 

"What if his house is locked?" Cake pointed out. 
Gumball looked at Fionna. "Don't you have a key?" 
"No." She replied. "Why?" 
"Because you're dating! ...why didn't he give you a house key...? Stupid vampire..." 

"We just started dating." Fionna pointed out. 
Gumball sighed. "Yes, but it would just be so convenient... never mind. Just check if he locked the door." 

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Marshall slouched deeply in his throne, bored out of his mind. What was this, another economics meeting...? Someone prodded him which their pencil, causing him to recoil and glare at the person. 

As he moved, he heard the crinkle of paper in his shirt pocket. Glancing around and noting that no one was paying attention to him, he retrieved the piece of paper, and smiled softly. Fionna's song. How was she doing? Probably she was happier than he was... oh, wait, the dillweed was speaking again. Yeah, she was almost definitely happier than he was. 

Marshall tuned out the dillweed to think about Fionna instead. Said dillweed was probably just going to blabber on about how he wanted the government to let him do whatever he wanted with his business. As if. Even if he wasn't a total wad, he'd never get that much power. 

Someone cleared his throat at Marshall pointedly, and Marshall sighed before folding up Fionna's song and slipping it back into his shirt pocket. 
"Yes?" He asked. 
"Puppet." The wad muttered. 
Marshall shot him a glare before paying attention to the meeting again, as boring as it was. The sooner he got all this stuff over with, the sooner he could get back to Fionna. 

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"Why did he just leave his door unlocked...?" Fionna muttered. "Anyway, remember what happened last time we went into his house without his permission...?" 
"It's not like we're stealing anything. We'll put it right back." Cake promised. "Besides, how are we supposed to save anyone if we keep falling asleep halfway through? He'll understand." 

Fionna frowned. "Fine..." 
After a while of flipping through his papers, Fionna sat back and sighed. "It's not here. He must have taken it with him. We're going to have a new solution." 

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"Coffee?" Cake proposed. She, Gumball and Fionna were sitting in his lab, thinking up new ideas to keep the two awake.

"Coffee will only work for so long." Fionna sighed.
"Well, we don't need a longterm solution. He'll be back soon. ...why is it specifically him and his music...?" Gumball muttered to himself.

Fionna fidgeted a little on top of her stool. "Do you have any sleeping pills? That might help."
"Nuh uh. We are not drugging her." Cake said firmly. "What if she accidentally overdoses and never wakes up?"
"Cake, I'm eighteen. I'm pretty sure I can figure out how to read the instructions on a pill-bottle." Fionna pointed out.

"Fionna does have a point. It's not as if she's taking them recreationally, after all. And again, this is not exactly a longterm problem. Doctor Prince or even Nurse Poundcake should be able to write you a prescription, Fionna. Why don't you go pick it up today?" Gumball suggested.