Smile

"Do it."

"No." Fionna shrugs him away with a shake of her shoulders, purses her lips tighter, and buries her head farther in her hands. The tips of her ears are poking out from beneath her rabbit hat and they are bright red and heated.

"Fi, do it."

"I said no." Her tone is calm, but the ending drips with warning. She's mentally counting the seconds he has left before she totally flips her beans. She'd really rather not be bothered at the moment, but of course her thick-skulled vampire companion will not listen.

"Come on, please?"

"What part of 'no' do you not understand?!" She erupts like a volcano, , and she doesn't need a mirror to know that her face has gone tomato red.

Marshall Lee is hardly fazed, however, and continues to hover only inches away from her face, something that has always annoyed her for as long as he can remember. But if it will get her to stop being such a turtle and get back to her normal, adventurous self, well, then he'll just take that chance.

"Fi," He outstretches one hand and pokes her in the side. "Smile."

She swats him away without looking up. "I don't feel like it."

Around them, children are shrieking like wild banshees, running and charging, laughing and playing about merrily. There's a group of teachers not too far away from them, but they're too busy gossiping to realize that Fionna is hurt.

It's up to Marshall Lee to make it all better. He's always gotten A's in health class, this should be a piece of cake.

"C'mon, you know you want to."

"Stop, Marshall Lee."

So stubborn.

"You have a great smile." "Why would you wanna waste it, being all frowny and stuff?"

"Because I don't want to be all smiley." Two watery sapphire eyes peek out from Fionna's fringe, and she watches with a broken heart as, from across the school yard, a young boy with skin as pink as poppies balances on one knee and serenades a girl with hair that runs down her back like a chocolate waterfall. "Not when Gumball thinks I'm 'frumpy'."

Marshall Lee's top lip curls in sight of the bright blob of sugar in a sea full of beige and brown. He's never cared for the kid, especially when he marched into Miss Sunshine's classroom on the first day of school demanding everyone called him 'Prince' and referred to everyone else as 'peasants'. "What do you care what a stuck up sugar pop like him thinks, anyway?"

There's no response from the blonde girl, and just looking from Gumball, the pretty girl and Fionna repeatedly, it doesn't take him long to realize the problem. Touching both feet to the ground, he lets out a low sigh as his heart bumps in his chest.

"You like him, don't you?"

"It doesn't matter." Fionna has unfolded from her curled position and is wearing her bloodshot eyes like a badge of honor. She's using the pad of her finger to trace over the scribbly drawings of chalk on the asphalt. "He doesn't like me. I'm too 'frumpy' for him."

"Well, I don't think you're frumpy, Fi." Marshall Lee states, biting on the inside of his lip. He'd been waiting to say that for a while now, just to see how she'd react. If she'd feel the same way. "You know, if that counts for anything."

But it doesn't count for anything apparently, because Fionna falls silent again, casting her eyes downward in a look of defeat. But she flicks them upwards briefly back in the direction

On the inside, Marshall Lee is fuming. He couldn't believe someone could make his best friend feel this way. Why would anyone even want to? Fionna the Human is one of the greatest people he knows, and he's not just saying that because he has to.

He has to do something. He has to make it all better. He's gotta see that smile.

Curling both fists at his sides, Marshall Lee pulls his eyebrows down and draws out an angry breath to get his adrenaline pumping. He takes hasty steps across the playground before he is hovering directly behind the little 'prince'.

His heart is knocking hard against his ribcage, but he silences it with a quick thought of Fionna being upset because of the creep before him.

Swallowing, and to get Gumball's attention, he says, "Hey."

The candy boy turns, magenta orbs hard. The girl he was just swooning shoots Marshall Lee the same disgusted look. "Can I help you, peasant?"

"Yeah, Fionna asked me to deliver a message."

"Oh?" He crosses his arms over his shoulders, and raising a challenging brow. Some other kids have sensed the shift of tension in the air, and are standing behind the little 'prince', mimicking his stance. Of course they'd take his side. He's rich. "And what might that message be?"

It happens so fast, Marshall Lee barely has time to catch his breath. The next time he opens his eyes, Gumball is on the ground writhing and swearing, clutching his nose that is spewing red liquid that matches almost perfectly with his skin tone.

The surrounding children have all been put on pause, and their tiny mouths are opened, in the shape of an O. After a moment, they all snap out of their trances and fly across the pavement to the cluster of teachers, screaming their little heads off about how "Marshall Lee just socked Gumball dead in the nose!"

And as Miss Sunshine dragged him along while holding onto the fabric of his T-shirt, Marshall Lee looked over his shoulder, over all the heads of the nosy children, over to where Fionna is sitting and there it is.

It's small, at first. But then the kissable corners of her lips keep turning up and up and up, and she's smiling all big and white and beautiful.

Even though he's being hauled to his doom, Marshall Lee's chest warms up knowing that he actually did it. He made her smile.

Smile, baby. Smile.