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"Hey, be careful!"
Simon doesn't like letting Marceline out of his sight for a second but she seems to possess boundless energy.
Especially on good days like this when everything seems to be in the clear. Simon doesn't need to put on the crown (although he still keeps it close by), the weather was nice.
A little cold for September.
Perhaps this was why he was currently chasing her to gently or not so gently convince her to wear a jacket.
"You could slip and fall! And you can't run from me forever, Missy!"
Marceline of course, took this as some form of game and only continued running faster ahead of him. The chill of autumn was ever present. Actually, chill followed Simon everywhere he went.
He tries to forget why that is and focus on getting Marceline bundled up in that damn jacket so she didn't get sick again.
Simon doesn't think he could handle something like that again. Not so soon.
"I'm being serious! Get back here!"
Marceline looks over her shoulder.
"Why? I don't wanna wear that stuffy old thing!"
Why, he never complained when his mother made him bundle up in his winter clothes!
He never once ran away. Or disobeyed her directions. Even that time the fabric gave him an allergic reaction and he broke out in so many itchy hives they had to send him home early.
Or when the sensation of the fabric made him so uncomfortable, he started pulling out his hair from the anxiety.
And sure in the beginning it made him flail, and scream when he was too young to know any better. Because it hurt. And they wouldn't listen, and he didn't know, why.
Why if he acted like this when he was Marcy's age then surely his mother would've...
She would've...
Well, later when he was too old for his mother to properly punish, she would have sent him to his room without any dinner until his father came home.
But there wasn't a room he could sent Marcy to, and food seemed too precious a luxury these days to deprive anyone of.
He had such an easy life back then, he thinks.
Except for all of the bruises and disappointed looks. And the way they never listened to him. Because they never listened. Noone listened.
Simon blinked. All of his energy was zapped away, Marceline continued rushing on ahead of him.
She would have certainly not allowed him to run away laughing this far.
His mind blanks. Only two disappointed eyes remain. And the feeling of only ever being a disappointment returns. He wanted those eyes to love him, to make them happy and pleased. But they were never going to be...
He was never going to be.
"Simon..."
Marceline stops running. She seems confused, in her mind perhaps he has stopped playing their game for some unknown reason.
"You didn't?..."
She looks him up and down, seeming relieved at the sight of the crown still clasped to his belt and not seated on top of his head.
"Marceline," Simon repeats this time more evenly.
He holds the coat out as if in offering. But mostly he just feels desperate, "why don't you want to wear the coat?"
"I don't like the way it feels on my arms!" Marceline blurts out, "it makes me feel!... Weird! And I don't like it, and I don't know why it makes me feel like that but it hurts!"
Simon hears an echo of a smaller imitation of his own voice begging to be understood.
"It hurts. It hurts, it hurts. Mommy, please don't make me put it on again. Please, it hurts. No, I'm not trying to be difficult-"
He wasn't trying to be difficult and neither was she.
"Oh," he breathed, "that's okay Marceline."
Her eyes drift toward him and the smile she gives is priceless.
"Really?"
He nods and opens his arms as she falls into a hug.
"You can borrow my coat when it gets cold until we can find you a different one in your size, does that sound good?"
"Yeah! Anything is better than that coat!"
"I wouldn't want to force you to do anything that hurts you like that, Marceline..." He tries to keep anxiety from seeping into his voice, "you tell me if something itches you that bad, okay?"
Simon may not have a room to send her to, or a house to give her it all. But he can try his hardest to give her what he needed more than anything.
"Okay..."
They reach a compromise in the end. Marceline wears the jacket around her shoulders without slipping her arms through until the holes. It isn't perfect but at least it's something.
Her laugh makes it worth it more than anything.