Domesticity

In which Dessie upsets Jazz

On Sunday, when they were home again, free from everyone else, Dessie excitedly asked her mother, "Are you and Marshall the rock star going to get married?!"
Fionna blinked at her, before laughing awkwardly. "What gave you that idea?"

"'Cause you're always kissing and he calls you 'Fi', and you like him!" Dessie bounced excitedly in place. "And--and you act like Power Heroine and King Fang, 'cept you're more responsibubble and he really likes you! I can tell! He's your Prince Charming like in all the fairytales."
Fionna laughed. "Well, I don't know about that, but I do like him."

"You better marry him soon." Dessie said. "'I don't want to unpack all of this just to repack it right after."
"I doubt that's going to happen." Fionna smiled, before ruffling her daughter's hair. "But thanks for the heads up."
"Are you going out to fight bad guys now?" Dessie asked.
Fionna looked up at the wall. "Nah, my shift starts in two hours. What do you want to do until then?"

"Play princess!" Dessie screeched happily.
Fionna grimaced. "Can I... save the princess?"
"No! It's a princess tea party!" Dessie insisted. "You will be Princess Mommy."
Fionna sighed, then pasted a smile on her face. "If that's what you want."

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"...and then Mr. Cuddles and Princess Flower had tea with us, except it was juice tea!" Dessie described to Jazz.
Jazz nodded, interested. "Can Mr. Cuddles and Princess Flower drink tea, or is it just pretend?"
"Just pretend." Dessie replied, in a manner that suggested that she was confiding a large secret in her friend.

She picked up her Power Heroine coloring book, and said, "I think Mommy and your daddy will get married. I hope it's a pretty wedding..."
Jazz froze. "They're not getting married."
Dessie stared at her friend. "Not yet, but yeah!"
"No they're not!" Jazz screamed.

Surprised at her friend's outburst, Dessie was left speechless.
"Daddy would have told me." Jazz continued in a more subdued tone. "And we don't need anyone else. Not you, not your mommy. We don't even need my mommy! We don't need anyone! And no one should be able to take my daddy away from me."
Jazz rose from where they were sitting, and Dessie tried to follow her, but Jazz pushed her back down. "No! We're not friends, and we're not going to be sisters!"

Jazz ran off crying, while Dessie looked at her doll. When Jazz was gone, Dessie began to sob onto her toy, clutching it to her chest.

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"What's wrong?" Marshall asked Jazz as she stormed in. "I thought out were playing with Dessie outside...?"

"We're not friends anymore!" Jazz snapped. "Leave me alone, I don't want to talk about it!"

Marshall frowned and started counting on his fingers. "That is... eight years too early for that kind of talk. What happened?"

"I hate her! And I hate Fionna!" Jazz sobbed.

"Whoa, okay. Why?"

"I do! I hate her!" Jazz screeched.

"Okay, but again, why?" Marshall demanded.

Jazz began to sob uncontrollably, and clung to Marshall, making his shirt wet. "I hate her, I hate her... she's going to be mean and wicked to me and-and..."

She trailed off into unintelligible sobs, and Marshall rubbed her back. "Hey, we're going to get through this, okay? It's going to be fine."

"No it's not!" Jazz screamed. "You can't talk to her, you can't... nothing!"

"Okay, Jazz, you're not three anymore." Marshall reprimanded. "You're too old for tantrums."

"This is not just a tantrum!" Jazz insisted, tears streaming down her face. "Please believe me! She's going to tear our family apart! Please...!" She clung to him. "You're going to replace me."

"Jazz, that's never going to happen."

"Just not her. Just not yet." Jazz begged. "Please? Please, Daddy? I don't need a mommy. I know what people say, but you're good at raising me, I promise! Please, just don't try to replace Mommy yet!"

Marshall was taken aback. "How much do you know about your mother...?"

"She left." Jazz hiccupped. "Just like Granny did with you, and Grandma Simone... they all leave, Daddy. Why is Fionna different? She cares now, but she's not always going to. She's just not. And the she's going to turn into a wicked step-mother, and-and..." Jazz dissolved into sobs again, and Marshall held her, thinking hard about her words.

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"What's wrong, Dessie? Where's Jazz? I thought you were playing out here together?" Fionna asked, hurriedly checking her sobbing child for injury of any kind.
"She said-she said we weren't friends anymore, that she didn't need us...!" Dessie bawled, holding out her arms for Fionna to pick her up. "I didn't even say anything! She just started yelling at me!"

"I'm sure it's just a misunderstanding." Fionna helped her daughter to her feet. "I'm sure she'll apologize soon and you'll both be best friends again, okay?"
"No, no." Dessie sobbed. "No, she's mean and she hates me, and I want to go home."
"We are home." Fionna answered, gesturing to the concrete building in front of them.
"No! Our real home!" Dessie sobbed. "In Vulture Gulch! With Aunt Cake and Uncle Mochro and the cousins and-and..." Here she dissolved into unintelligible shrieks.

Fionna shifted awkwardly. She'd always hated it when Dessie did this because she had barely any idea of what to do. She led her daughter up to their apartment, where she ruffled her hair and kissed her head. "Hey, sometimes the bad guys trick you and bad stuff happens. Don't let it get you down, okay? That's not algebraic."

Dessie stared at her mother, wide-eyed. "Jazz is a bad guy?"
"No, no, no!" Fionna hurriedly tried to backtrack. "She just... she was tricked by a bad guy. And evil wizard put a spell on her, okay? And... the truth is.. sometimes people are just going to be mean, even if they're good people. But you can't let it get to you, 'cause that's what they want, okay? This will go back to normal soon."

Dessie looked up at her mother with large eyes. "Promise?"
Against her better judgment, Fionna nodded. "Promise."