"Alright Finn, Lady and I will be back from our date in a couple hours." Jake said this while adjusting the fancy black bowtie that was around his neck.

He was taking Lady Rainicorn out to a super fancy restaurant that night and had done his best to look his best, wearing a bow tie, combing the fur atop his head (Finn thought it made him look like a total dork), and even spritzing himself with a little cologne so he would even smell fancy.

Holding a bouquet of roses in his left hand, Jake headed towards the front door and opened it. But before he walked out into the warm summer night he turned back towards his little brother.

"Don't wait up, little bro."

"Have fun on your date, Jake."

…

Finn was now left standing alone in the front entry room of the tree house; a warm summer breeze flowing in through the open door. The young human shut the wooden door and locked it before climbing back up the ladder to the living room of the tree house. He sighed as he sat down on the old couch; somehow, he was already bored. He was glad his brother was going to have fun spending time with his girlfriend, but he still disliked spending the whole night alone.

It was times like this that he really missed Flame Princess. She was always willing and happy to spend time with him, and even if they didn't end up going on some crazy dungeon crawling adventure, they always ended up having fun together.

Finn shook his head, trying to get rid of any thoughts of the fiery dame. They had broken up over a year ago, they had both moved on. It had hurt for a long time of course, but he was eventually able to get over her… However, on nights like this…

"Finn, would you like to play a game?"

Finn was brought out of his boredom induced reverie by Beemo, who was currently standing on the table in front of him, an expectant smile displayed on his screen.

"Uh… Sure, Beemo… What d'ya got"

He actually wasn't really up for video games right now, but he figured that he would at least humor the little guy.

"Well Finn, today I have a game called- BATTERY LOW, GOING TO SLEEP MODE."

Finn face palmed as the little game console's screen faded to black and he fell onto his side. He had apparently forgotten to charge his battery last night.

Even though he hadn't been dying to play one of Beemo's games, doing that would have been preferable to sitting alone in the tree house completely bored out of his mind.

The hero shrugged his shoulders and grabbed Beemo's little blanked and draped it over him before grabbing his phone off the table. He scrolled through his list of contacts, hoping that he could find someone to call and potentially hang out with. However, he didn't really have much hope of finding anyone, not at 8:30 P.M. anyway.

On top of his desire to escape from boredom was his desire to leave the tree house, he really didn't want to be around if Jake decided to bring Lady Rainicorn home tonight. Wearing ear plugs and tying a pillow around his head was rarely enough to keep out the sounds they made…

'Tier fifteen… Yuck'

After another minute of scrolling through his contacts, he was about to put his phone down when he spotted a certain vampire's name.

Over the years that Finn had known Marceline, they had become great friends, but recently he was beginning to feel as if there was more between them. Maybe he was still lonely after his break up with FP and just had a bit of a crush on his old friend, but the more he was around her and the more he thought about it, the harder it became to dismiss it as such.

It wasn't like his crush that he had on PB, it felt much stronger than that, somehow. That was quite a feat, since he had believed for the longest time that he was legitimately in love with Princess Bubblegum. He also wasn't constantly fawning over and worrying about what Marceline thought of him, he just felt right when he was with her; their relationship felt natural.

Finn shook these thoughts from his head, selected her name, and began walking around the living room as his phone dialed her number and rang, his ears perking up when he heard her voice.

"Hey, Marceline here… What's up?"

Finn smiled and responded to her calm voice, "Hey Marcy, I was just calling to see if-"

He was suddenly cut off by her cackling and saying "Just kidding, this is my voice mail. Totally fooled ya, didn't I? Anyways, I'm busy right now, so stop calling me."

A short beep played after the recording ended, Finn once again face palmed.

'She would have a voice mail like that…'

It was just like Marceline to play pranks on other people, but this was a joke he didn't really get. It's not like she could see his reaction to it…

"Uh… Hey Marceline, I was just calling to see if you wanted to hang out or something… Jake's out on a date and I'm kinda bored so-"

An almost inaudible sound in his ear suddenly caused him to stop his message mid-sentence.

"Boo."

The hero slowly turned, dropped his phone, and nearly wet himself when he saw a certain vampire queen's face a mere inch from his.

"Aaaaigh! M-M-Marceline, what in the flub are you doing here?!"

The Vampire Queen let loose a stream of uncontrollable laughter after hearing this and seeing the hilarious look etched onto his features.

Pointing to his shocked expression, she said "Hahaha, you should see the look on your face right now! You're such a dweeb, Finn!"

'How long has she been waiting to do that? How long was watching me? Why was she in the tree house, anyway?!' These thoughts raced through his mind as Marceline continued to laugh at him, though she did eventually calm down.

After wiping a few tears from her eyes, The Vampire Queen began speaking again, still slightly out of breath from laughing so hard.

"Oh man, that was great. I seriously wish brought a camera, so I could show everyone in Ooo Finn the Human's 'O' face!" She mocked him further by putting her hands to her cheeks and making a silly face, forming her mouth into a perfect 'O' shape.

It was at this point that Finn began to get a little annoyed, and while blushing madly he asked, "What the hay, Marceline? Why'd you do that?"

Marceline rolled her eyes, still with a fairly large grin on her face, and said, "Because I thought it would be funny… And guess what? I was right! I got you so good."

Finn sighed and said under his breath, "I wanted to hang out with you before… Not so much anymore though…"

The Vampire Queen placed her arm around Finn's shoulder's and smiled, causing his blush to severely deepen.

"No need to get you undies in a bunch about it, Finn. I'm a pretty scary lady, as you know; I scare lots of peeps, no need to get all embarrassed and uptight because of one little 'boo'."

Finn smiled but a light blush still remained upon his cheeks. She was right; it was just a joke after all, but… He was awfully close to Marceline at the moment…

"Okay, you're right… You did get me pretty good."

Marceline smiled, nodded, and floated over to the couch, making herself comfortable by crossing her legs and floating just above it. It wasn't until now that he really took in her appearance.

She had her long raven-black hair up in a messy ponytail, and she was wearing a simple black shirt with the words "BITE ME AND I'LL BITE BACK" written in runny, blood-red lettering, a pair of dark blue skinny jeans and a pair of black and white shoes that he had once heard her call "converse". Overall her appearance wasn't anything really out of the ordinary for her, but Finn still found himself staring.

'No, bad Finn! Marceline is JUST a friend, stop looking at her like that… But… She does look really pretty tonight…'

The young hero was brought out of his thoughts by the sound of Marceline's melodic voice.

"So Finnegan, aside from screaming like a little girl, what're you up to tonight?"

Finn scratched the back of his head trough his hat and said, "Well, Jake went out to dinner with Lady Rainicorn and I was trying to call you to see if you wanted to, I don't know, hang out or something."

Upon finishing his sentence, Finn noticed that Marceline had a rather… Mischievous look on her face.

'Uh-oh…' he thought.

"So, it's just me and you here… All alone?"

The hero raised an eyebrow suspiciously at this question and replied, "Um… Yes?"

"Alright then… I know exactly what we can do together."

The Vampire Queen the floated over to Finn and took his warm hands into her ice-cold ones, causing his cheeks to once again flush a deep crimson color. Her previously mischievous grin was now replaced by a small, gentle smile.

Closing her eyes and pressing her forehead against his she said, "I've been waiting to be alone with you like this for a long time, Finn…"

It was at this point that Finn began having a miniature panic attack. He began breathing heavily, his cheeks were now burning and were as red as could be, and he felt like his heart was threatening to burst from his chest from beating so hard.

'Marceline… Does she… What?!'

This situation was, obviously, very confusing for the young human. Millions of thoughts were racing through his mind, and he found it impossible to speak.

'Does Marceline… Like me?' he wondered.

The prospect of Marceline actually being attracted to him filled him with a plethora of emotions, the most prominent being shock and most of all, happiness. He found himself not only surprised at the current situation, but his own reaction to it.

Finn had always felt very strongly about Marceline, she was one of his best friends in the world after all, but her sudden advances (they seemed like advances to him, at least), were starting to bring certain feelings to the surface of his consciousness… Feelings that he didn't want to acknowledge for fear of them being rejected. It was becoming more and more difficult to think of these feelings as being a crush, and not something more.

'Woah, woah, slow down Finn, you're getting WAY ahead of yourself…'

The hero attempted to calm himself down as he stared at Marceline's uncharacteristically calm and peaceful face.

'She's just holding your hands, so what? That doesn't mean she likes you or anything… This is Marceline, after all… But her face is kinda close to mine… And her lips look so soft…'

Finn was finally broken out of his confused reverie as Marceline slowly opened her eyes half-way and drew her face back, but still leaving it mere inches from his.

She now spoke in a quiet, gentle voice, saying something that Finn never even imagined he would hear come out of her mouth.

"Kiss me, Finn… Now…"

The sixteen year-old human's eyes widened in shock, he must have misheard her, there was no way Marceline would ask him to…

"Please, Finn… Kiss me."

There was no doubt about it, he had heard her correctly, and he was now frozen in place with an absolutely dumbstruck look etched upon his features. He tried to speak but only a few words came out of his mouth; it was now impossible for him to focus on putting his words into coherent sentences now.

"I-I-I, but… You… Hubbiba- Wha?" was all he managed to choke out.

After he said this Marceline's serene expression wavered, and a maniacal grin broke out across her face before she burst out laughing.

"BWAHAHAHA, you should see the stupid look on your face right now! I can't believe I got you twice in one night!" she let go of his hand and floated a few feet away from him, laughing the entire time

The Vampire Queen spoke between fits of laughter and wiping tears from her eyes, "You're WAY too easy, dude!"

Finn simply stood, glued to the same spot with a flabbergasted look on his face.

"I- But you… Huh?"

This look of surprise eventually morphed into one of anger and annoyance, although he was secretly disappointed that she wasn't serious when she told him to kiss her. A tinge of sadness pricked at Finn's heart and his eyes burned a little; he was used to Marceline playing pranks on him, but this one legitimately hurt. He didn't really understand why it hurt, though.

Maybe it was because he actually WANTED her to feel that way about him. Finn had thought that the recent developments in his feelings for Marceline had resulted in nothing more than a bit of a crush, but at the same time… Maybe he had been telling himself that it was "just a crush" because he knew she would never feel the same about him, and labeling his attraction to her as "just a crush" would help him forget about it and move on.

'That prank probably wouldn't hurt so much if I "just had a crush" on her…'

Regardless, he found himself embarrassed by the whole situation. He couldn't believe that he had let Marceline play two tricks on him, and in one night! He was about to say something when an idea formed in his head: he was totally going to get her back for this.

'I'll embarrass her just as bad as she embarrassed me, then we'll see how hard she's laughing!'

Finn then nodded with a determined look on his face, and strutted over to the still laughing vampire. He took a deep breath as he stood in front of her; she was still too busy laughing to notice that he had approached her.

"Ahem" he said, his arms crossed and a serious expression on his face.

Marceline finally calmed down a bit and opened her eyes, "Hahaha, oh come on, Finny-boy, it was just a little joke! Lighten up a bit, would ya? It's not like I-"

The Vampire Queen was suddenly interrupted by the young human walking up to her and grabbing hold of both her shoulders.

"Finn, what the heck are you- Mmph!"

Her sentence was abruptly cut off by Finn smashing his lips into hers.

'Wait… What?!' Marceline thought with wide eyes and burning cheeks as Finn held her lips against his.

Her body eventually relaxed though, her eyes slowly closing as she floated closer to the hero.

Finn couldn't believe he had actually done that. He could feel his heart pounding, surges of warmth were pulsing through his body with every second and his cheeks were the deepest shade of red they had ever been. Marceline's lips were soft but cold, creating a truly unique sensation for him. It felt amazing, and for a moment he forgot he was doing this to embarrass her.

After what felt like an eternity, Finn finally released her shoulders and pulled away, and for no other reason than his desperate need to breathe. As their faces separated, Finn finally realized what he had just done, and also realized that Marceline was absolutely going to kill him for it.

"Uh-uh, I… I-I…"

Finn tried in vain to form his word into an apology, but the adrenalin pumping through his veins caused his sentences to simply come out as unintelligible babbling. The reaction that Marceline had, or rather lack thereof, was actually frightening to him. She was now just staring at him with a blank expression and a light blush upon her face.

…

Marceline didn't really know what to think of the current situation. Part of her wanted to punch him in the face for doing that (without her permission, anyway…), but another part of her enjoyed it… A lot. Eventually, the part of her that had enjoyed it won out, and she was about to open her mouth to speak but couldn't really find the words.

'What am I supposed to say? "Hey dude, I really liked that, so let's make out some more"? He was probably just doing it to freak me out or something… There's no way he actually enjoyed it… Right?'

Eventually, Finn was finally able to come up with something to say, something other than frightened babbling that is.

"I-I'm really, really, really sorry, Marceline… I just…" he was looking away from her as he said this, far too frightened to look her in the eyes.

"Finn, I-" Marceline tried to interrupt him but he just kept speaking at an incredibly fast pace, effectively preventing her from getting a word in edge-wise.

"I was just mad at you for embarrassing me, and I wasn't thinking right and…"

"Finn…"

"… I really liked it, that's why I kissed you for so long… and…" he audibly gulped before he continued.

"… I think I actually… love you… Even though I know you don't feel the same-"

"FINN, SHUT UP AND LET ME SAY SOMETHING!"

Upon hearing this, the blue-clad hero instantly shut his mouth and looked to the vampire in front of him, totally shocked when he saw a small smile on her face accompanied by a tiny hint of a blush.

"I never said I didn't enjoy it…" she said this with a hint of amusement in her voice, completely catching Finn off guard.

He thought she would've been furious with him…

"So… You're not mad at me?" he was still a little nervous, for all he knew, she could be planning a super evil pay-back prank right now.

"Nah, I'm not mad. You're actually not that bad of a kisser, y'know…"

The embarrassed and shocked expression that appeared on his face made her laugh.

"Also, I don't recall telling you to stop…" she said, another grin spreading across her face, "… I wasn't finished… I didn't get to show you the awesome things I can do with my tongue, after all."

Finn was too stunned to respond when Marceline suddenly closed the little distance he had created between them when he pulled away from her.

Once again, his warm lips were being crushed against her cold ones, however, she was the aggressor this time, and she was determined to show him just how great kissing her could be.

At first, Finn was too shocked and nervous to move, but his reluctance slowly melted away and he relaxed as he felt Marceline's arms wrap around him. The kiss was electrifying and vastly different from the first kiss, or any other kiss that he had experienced for that matter. While their first kiss of the night was short and chaste, this kiss was so much more. Finn had never "made out" with anyone before, not even Flame Princess (her fiery lips prevented any such contact), and he was definitely enjoying his first time.

Their bodies were practically magnified to one another; her's fitting perfectly against his. She wrapped her arms around his neck and deepened their kiss, pressing herself as close to him as possible. Eventually, Finn was able to work up enough courage to place his hands on her waist, before slowly moving them about and resting them comfortably on the small of her back.

After a bit, Finn felt Marceline's snake-like tongue probing at his lower lip, asking for entrance. He slowly moved his tongue to meet hers, and thoroughly enjoyed the feeling of their tongues dancing together and vying for dominance inside of his mouth. Marceline's powerful tongue eventually one out, however, and she took her sweet time slowly and methodically exploring his mouth, eliciting a small moan from the hero.

In the midst of their "tongue-wrestling match", Marceline adjusted herself so that one of her arms was once again wrapped around her hero's torso, and she began to sneak one of her other hands up under Finn's hat.

He could feel her cold hand sliding under his hat and into his shaggy blonde hair. She played with his ear a bit, tugging on it and tracing her index finger around it. The human rather enjoyed the feeling of her playing with his hair and ear; her cold fingers sent shivers down his spine and caused him to hold her tight and pull her closer to him, if that was even possible.

Finn felt like he was flying; never in his sixteen years of existence had he ever felt so good, so alive, so… right. The world around them seemed to be in perfect harmony at that moment, nothing else mattered except for the girl in front of him.

All good things must come to an end, however, and they eventually had to pull away from one another for oxygen.

Their lips separated, and they opened their eyes slowly as they parted. They stayed in their embrace, though, Finn's hands coming to rest on Marceline's waist and her arms wrapping themselves around his shoulders.

They stared into each other's eyes for a moment, both breathing heavy from their rather lengthy make out session.

After a bit, a smile broke out across Marceline's lips, and she buried her face in her hero's chest.

"Not bad, for a kid."

Finn smiled and laughed a bit, kissing and nuzzling the top of her head.

"Heh, thanks, Marcy…"

After a short comfortable silence, Marceline looked up at Finn and said,

"By the way, I… I love you, too."

Finn's heart soared after hearing her confession. No words could truly describe the amount of happiness that had just surged through him like a bolt of electricity.

"Y-You do?"

The Vampire Queen nodded slowly before giving him a little peck on the lips.

She then rested her head on his chest and closing her eyes, making herself comfortable.

"Yeah… I think I have for a while now." she sighed and continued, "Since you and Jake saved me from ruling over the Nightosphere… I knew I had a bit of a crush on you…"

Finn listened in shock, 'She's liked me for this long… And I never noticed?!' He desperately wanted to slap himself across the face for being such a clueless fudge bag.

Finn was brought back from his thoughts by the sound of Marceline's voice.

"At first…" she sighed again, a tinge of sadness present in her tone as she continued.

"At first I tried to ignore it, tell myself that it was just a stupid crush, that you're just a kid… That we would never work out…"

Finn felt a slight wetness appear on his shirt, and was about to speak up when she cut him off.

They separated a bit and looked at each other, and Finn was surprised to see Marceline with a calm smile on her face, and the tiniest hint of tears present in her eyes.

"But I guess I just said that because I… I was scared… That you could never feel the same way about me."

Finn couldn't believe it; Marceline was opening up to him in a way that he had never anticipated, he knew how much she hated letting her guard down, how much she hated feeling weak… And yet, she trusted him enough to open up to him, to let him know what she was truly feeling.

He also couldn't believe that she had feelings for him for so long but was just too scared to admit it, because she was afraid of being rejected… By him…

The very idea of that was absolutely hilarious to him, and he couldn't stop himself from bursting out laughing.

Marceline pulled back and glared at him, her eyes turning red and menacing "You think that's funny, huh?!"

Finn instantly mentally punched himself for allowing that laugh to slip. She thought that he was laughing at her!

"No, no, no, it's not funny! I wasn't laughing at you Marcy, I promise!"

'Oh Glob, what've I done?'

Finn gulped and said, "I was just laughing because you were afraid that I would reject you… How you, a sexy, radical, vampire lady ever thought that I would reject you is just silly to me. That's all."

"Oh… Sorry for, flipping out on you like that…"

"It's okay, Marceline…" As Finn said this he took hold of Marceline's chin and brought her face close to his.

"…I love you, remember?"

"You're such a dork." she said this with a smile on her face before pressing her lips to his.

…

Finn eventually broke their kiss, slowly separating himself from Marceline and taking a seat on the couch, closing his eyes and smiling. The Vampire Queen "took a seat" next to him (she was actually just floating right above the couch), and sighed contentedly. They sat comfortably in silence for a few minutes before a question popped into Finn's brain.

"Hey Marcy…?"

"Hmm?" she responded.

"Why did you just show up to my house in the middle of the night?"

…

"…Marceline?"

Finn opened his eyes to see that Marceline was no longer there, empty space being all that was next to him. The human shook his head and rubbed his eyes in confusion, eyes then darting around the room as he stood up.

"What the hay, Marceline? Where'd you go?!"

Confused and a little irritated, he sat back down with a "humph".

He then noticed a note on the table, it simply read:

"See you tomorrow, hero.

- Marceline"