Domesticity

In which Marshall gets a crush

The car pulled to a stop in front of the apartment building, and Dessie, along with a princess doll and a coloring book, tumbled out onto the pavement, looking up at the building in front of them. With a glance back at her mother, she stepped inside. It was darkly lit, yet the place had obviously been grand once, since the wood was finely finished and the now threadbare carpet was clearly once a regal and bold red. 

"Look out!" Someone called, before they crashed into Dessie. Dessie rubbed her head, sitting up to see a brunette girl in roller skates and a blue helmet about her age in front of her. "I told you to watch out." The girl said crossly. 
"I didn't have time." Dessie replied. 
The girl looked around nervously. "Okay, are you hurt?" 

"No, why?" 
"I'm not supposed to roller skate in here, but the roof was locked up!" The brunette confided, helping Dessie to her feet. "If you tell my daddy, I'm going to be in big trouble." 
"How much trouble?" 
The brunette looked Dessie in the eye. "So much trouble. Promise not to tell?" 

"Dessie?" Fionna called. "Where are you?" 
The brunette held onto Dessie's arm with an iron grip. "Promise?" 
"I promise." Dessie sighed. 
The brunette smiled and released her captive. "I'm Jazz, but my daddy calls me Blues sometimes. He's a rock star." 

"A real one?" Dessie asked, surprised. 
Jazz nodded proudly. "Well, my real name's Jahzara, but Jazz is a cooler name. What's yours?" 
"Desdemona, but everyone calls me Dessie." 
"Dess-iee?" Jazz repeated. 
"Dehz-ee." She corrected. 

"There you are." Fionna walked in with evident relief. "Get your stuff out of the car, Dessie." 
"This is Jazz." Dessie said. "She is my friend now." 
"That's great." Fionna said, bending down to Jazz's height. 

"...you remind me of Power Heroine." Jazz finally said. 
"She does, doesn't she?!" Dessie exclaimed excitedly, pointing to her coloring book and then at her mother. "She even protects good people!" 
Jazz looked interested. "Do you have a sword?" 
Fionna laughed. "Sorry, no. I used to, though." 

Jazz looked starstruck. 
"Jazz! Hey, Blues, where are you? Are you roller-skating in the lobby again?" Marshall called, walking down the stairs. 

"Are you really a rock star, like King Fang?" Dessie asked him excitedly. 
Jazz nodded proudly, and Marshall laughed awkwardly. "Yeah, but I'm not famous... you're the new neighbors, right?" 
Fionna nodded. "Yeah, nice to meet you. I'm Fionna and this is Dessie." 
"I'm Marshall, and you've already met Jazz." 

"Wait, if she's Power Heroine, and he's like King Fang...?" Dessie looked at Jazz, who scoffed. "That episode didn't count. Besides, she punched him." 
"He did fake his death." Dessie pointed out. 
"...you know, I'm going to start looking into that show you're watching." Marshall said. 
Fionna smiled at him. "I'm sure it's fine. Dessie watches it all the time too, and I've never heard of her punching an innocent." 

Marshall smiled back. "So, where's your husband?" 
Fionna closed her eyes briefly, before saying in a carefully measured tone, "I'm not married." 
"Oh, sorry." Marshall said instantly. "I-I'm not married either, if it makes you feel better." 
Fionna smiled. "Thanks. I guess the other tenant is a single parent too?" 
"Hedgeford? Nah, his wife just lives in Florida 'cause he's old and cranky and mean. Olivia is though, just as a heads-up." 

Fionna smiled. "Well, I hope the girls can see more of each other. Maybe they can watch their show together?" 
"Yeah, sure!" Marshall looked down at his daughter. "Wait, is this King Fang guy a good influence?" 
"Yeah!" Jazz and Dessie said in unison. 
"I mean, he's kind of mean to Candy Man, but Power Heroine always stops him before he goes too far." Dessie pointed out. 

"He rejected his mother, who wanted him to become ruler of her kingdom which looks a lot like hell the way that  priest made it sound that one time we went to church!" Jazz added happily. 
"Wait, what?" Fionna asked, caught off-guard. 
"And Power Heroine and Cat Sister had to save him!" Dessie smiled. 

"Hmm... well, anyway, wanna come up to my apartment for a drink or something sometime, Fionna?" Marshall asked. "I promise we'll have a much better conversation than about Power Heroine and her sidekick." 
"He's not her sidekick." Jazz hissed, despite people disregarding her
Fionna laughed. "That sounds great. Right now we have to get our stuff and move in, though." 
"Oh, I don't mean now!" He said immediately. "But whenever you're free...?" 

"Saturday?" She asked nervously. "Um... Dessie goes to bed at eight, so...8:30, maybe? Or 9?"
"It's a date!" He exclaimed. "Well, I mean, not a date, but... heh, sorry. I'm a little off my game at the moment. My powers really manifest at night when I become the suave bass guitarist." 
Fionna laughed. "I'm looking forward to it. Come on, Des. Let's get our stuff." 

As they left, Jazz looked up at her father. "That was lame." 
He snorted. "You're five. You haven't even seen me put the moves on a girl." 
"You told me to tell you if you were ever lame like that..." Jazz pulled a piece of paper out of her overall pockets, and read off slowly, "Is it the full moon? 'Cause you're a were-dork." 
"What was that?" Fionna asked, carrying in a box. 

"Nothing." Marshall said, trying to keep from dissolving into laughter. "Jazz, go play with Dessie while I help Fionna unload." 
"I can't wait for you to meet Flint and Colby!" Jazz announced. "Mostly Flint. Colby's a wimp who doesn't want to play stuff like pirates or Power Heroine" 
"Don't bully Colby!" Marshall called after her as the girls ran off. 

Fionna chuckled a little, before handing the box to him. "Let me get my key out of my pants, and I'll take you and the movers up. Thanks for carrying that, by the way." 
"Thanks for not believing that I'm a total dork." Marshall grinned. 
"You really play the bass?" 

"And the electric guitar on occasion." 
"Really? That's amazing." She beamed at him, and he almost dropped her box. How long had this dry spell been...? He was guessing... sometime around the entire Jazz situation started, give or take a few one night stands. She noticed, though. "Look... I can't have just a relationship based in tier 15, okay? I can't do that to Dessie." 

He grinned. "I'll try my best. ...wait, tier 15?" 
"I have a sort of code." She admitted. 
"Oh, for the kid?" 

She didn't answer, and he chuckled. "That's adorable, Fi." 
"Hey!" She laughed. "That's not my name!" 
"But it's cute enough for you." He smirked. "C'mon, I have a feeling that if I leave Jazz unsupervised for more than ten minutes, she'll accidentally set something on fire."

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*Author's Note* 

I'd like to think of Power Heroine as a really badly translated, low budget children's anime that somehow made it big in America. Is it going to pop up again in future fics? Probably, sort of like a Magical Strike sort of thing, maybe. Except again, low budget and badly translated.