Loud grunts filled the stairway. "Urrgh… Are- are you SURE you want this to go ALL the way up those stairs?" Fionna asked, struggling to hold up the extremely heavy candy couch. "'Cuz, you know, Gumball, this candy couch isn't as light as I thought it would have been… before we started carrying it. All the way from the other side of the castle."
"Oh, come on, Fionna! I know you can do it! If anyone could, it would be you!" Gumball patted her shoulder, enthusiastically. "Now, just 98 more stairs to go!"
Fionna blushed a bit as Gumball's hand patted her shoulder. "W-well, I think I can do it. Come on, Cake! Let's do this!"
Cake nodded and together they carried it up the stairs, one heavy step at a time.
"Hmmm… Yes. It does look good but… I'm not sure it wasn't better where it was before…" Gumball paused.
Cake's fur stood on end. "You have GOT to be kiddin' me!"
"Well, I'll leave it there for a while and decide what to do about it later. Please, join me in the kitchen for a treat!" Gumball said, brightly, heading down to the kitchen.
"Urghhh… Fionna, you okay, girl?" Cake walked over to her.
"Yeah, Cake, I'm fine! I'm totally tough! I can handle it," Fionna bragged. "Come on, we'd better get moving or Gumball will get suspicious."
They headed downstairs and met Gumball in the kitchen. Gumball had his pink apron tied around his waist, whipping up a batch of something… Fionna wasn't sure what. I don't really like sweets all that much… but I guess I could try some… I don't want him to feel bad, after all! He IS making them for me…
Cake watched Gumball seriously. "What're you making? What is that? Are those cookies? Oh I hope they're catnip cookies!"
"No! They're even BETTER," Gumball said, excitedly. "I am making my super special red velvet cookies! You will love them!"
"Oh. … okay." Fionna looked around. "Pssst, Cake, what's a red velvet?"
Cake shrugged her shoulders, looking up at Fionna. "I'm gonna find Lord. You have fun with Gumball, now…" Cake winked, elbowing Fionna. Fionna grew bright red.
"Aghhh, get on, Cake!" Fionna scowled.
Cake laughed and left the kitchen to go talk with Lord Mo-cro.
"Oh, no, Cake left?" Gumball noticed, a few moments later, spooning the cookies onto the platter.
"Um, yeah, I guess she wanted to go hang out with Lord Monochromicorn," Fionna shrugged, shifting awkwardly on her feet.
"Oh, that's disappointing," Gumball looked sad. "I was hoping she would enjoy my cookies."
"Oh, well, um, I'll… enjoy them!" Fionna tried to reassure him.
"Well, I'm glad you say so," Gumball gave her a smile. "They're about ready to go in the oven now!"
"They're so red!" Fionna remarked, surprised.
"Yes, they are!" Gumball agreed, excitedly. He put them in the oven. "You are going to LOVE them."
"Oh I … I bet I am," Fionna made a face.
"Oh, Fionna? I'm having a party this weekend and I was wondering if I could get your help decorating?" Gumball requested.
"Of course! Anything for you!" Fionna promised.
Gumball laughed. "I genuinely appreciate your willingness to help, Fionna. My guests always enjoy the parties that much more when you help decorate them."
Fionna blushed and grew silent. Once the cookies came out of the oven, Gumball handed one to Fionna. "Here! Tell me what you think!"
Fionna took a bite. It doesn't even taste like anything… ugh. Yuck. "I like them! They're delicious!" she said, enthusiastically.
"I'm glad you like them! Here, have several of them to take with you! Make sure you give one to Cake as well!" He put them all in a pretty pink bag, twisting and tying it off. "Here you go! Thank you for your help today!"
Fionna stored them in her bag. "Um, yeah, no problem! See you, Gumball!" she left the house and headed outside. Let's see… I think I'm going to go on an adventure now! I don't MIND Gumball's missions but… she wrinkled her nose. Sometimes I want to FIGHT something! She took off running across Ooo, looking for something fun to do. Up ahead, she spotted a few children throwing rocks inside a drainage tunnel.
They were laughing and shouting. "I think I hit it! I think I hit it!"
Fionna rushed over to see what was going on. Inside the tunnel she heard a hiss. "You kids are lucky I can't get outside this tunnel!"
"Hey! Leave him alone!" Fionna yelled, facing the kids. "Get home! Your mothers would be seriously disappointed in you!"
The kids seemed annoyed. Muttering complaints under their breath, they dispersed, everyone going their separate ways. Fionna leaned inside the mouth of the tunnel. "Hey? You alright in there?"
"What do YOU think?" the voice scowled. "I just had a bunch of kids throw rocks at me…"
"Hey, I'm gonna come in, alright? Stay where you are! I can carry you somewhere safe."
"NO!" the voice blurted. "I can't go out in the sunlight..."
Fionna crawled inside the tunnel. Sitting there on the floor of the metal culvert was a young man with grey skin and black hair. He had bruises on his arms and a cut on his forehead. "Oh no, it looks like they really got you!"
"Yeah, they did. Hey kid, you got anything red?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Oh, yeah! Yes! I have some red cookies! But they're not very good…" Fionna dug in her bag, pulling out Gumball's cookies.
"That's okay. I'll take them." He opened the pink bag and drained the color out of the cookies, one at a time, throwing them down the culvert. He got to the pink bag and he drained the color out of it too. "Thanks for the cookies." He dropped the bag, uncaring. "That'll help me heal faster."
"Oh, no problem. I wasn't going to eat them anyway. What kind of creature are you?" Fionna questioned.
"I'm a vampire," he flashed his fangs at her. "Ever seen one before?"
"No!" Fionna shook her head. "Cake tells me that vampires are evil and scary, but you don't seem very evil or scary!"
"Well, CAKE would be right about that," he grinned. "I'm pure evil!"
Fionna just laughed. "That's really funny. Hey, though, it's too bad you couldn't shrink yourself down and then I could take you somewhere safe from the sunlight, or something like that. Cake can shrink herself down… That's why I thought of it!"
Marshall raised an eyebrow before turning into a vampire bat. "Like that?"
"Yeah!" Before he could change back, Fionna grabbed him and stuffed him into her hat. "Stay there! I'm gonna take you somewhere safe!"
She took Marshall to her house and took her hat off. "Tada! Here we are! Feel free to hang out here until the sun goes down!" she nodded.
Marshall flapped off before turning back into his human form. "Way cool. I like what you did with this place," he flew around it. "This used to be one of my old pads awhile back. You can have it though. I got my own place."
"Oh, well, thanks," Fionna said, confused.
Marshall floated around her house, looking it over. By the time nighttime came, they were fast friends.
"So that was the story of the time I found myself lost in the cloud kingdom and met with the Party God." Marshall finished.
"Wow, you must be SUPER hardcore. I've partied with the Party God before but it was never that intense!" Fionna said, surprised. "That's amazing!"
"Yeah well, story of my life." Marshall floated towards the door. "Sun's going down now, time for me to float out of here. I'll see you around, Fionna." He clicked his tongue at her before flying off. He passed Cake who immediately flipped out. Marshall didn't even acknowledge her, just kept flying.
"Who in Glob's name was THAT?!" Cake panicked once she got inside. "Fionna, that was a vampire!"
"I know, and he's totally cool!" Fionna nodded. "Anyway, welcome back, Cake!"
"Mmm. Fionna, you're makin' friends with some DANGEROUS people!" Cake wagged her finger at her. "You need to be more careful!"
"I know, I know!" Fionna laughed. "Don't worry, Cake! Hey, we have to go back tomorrow to help Gumball with some of his Pretty Perennial Party Preparations. Is that okay with you?"
"Mmm. Yeah. I guess so. I just… I think Gumball's Pretty Perennial Parties are kind of…" Cake made a face. "Boring."
"Well, we don't have to attend the party, we just have to make sure Gumball's Pretty Perennial Party Preparations are perfect!" Fionna nodded.
"Yeah alright," Cake yawned. "But for now, this pretty kitty is pooped."
"Me too!" Fionna leapt to her feet. "First one to climb in their bed is a party pooper!" she raced for the stairs.
The next day, they were doing the party preparations, and Gumball was watching over them. "You guys are doing a great job!" he was pleased. "Oh, Cake, can you hang more streamers over there? Oh, and Fionna, you need to raise the banner over the food table about four inches higher."
"Sure thing, Gumball," Fionna nodded, embarrassed. Cake made a face but started hanging more streamers.
"You two always do such a great job!" Gumball nodded. "Fionna, you're absolutely the BEST!"
Fionna blushed. "Thanks, Gumball. I try really hard…"
The doors burst open and to Fionna's surprise, a certain grey vampire floated in, a large hat on his head and gloves on his hands. "Hey, there's my girllll. Fionna, what's up? What are you doing?" he floated up to where she was.
"Oh! Hey, Marshall!" Fionna brightened up. "I'm just helping Prince Gumball set up for his party!"
"Excuse me?! Who are you? How did you get past my gumball guardians?" Gumball crossed his arms.
"Pfft. Getting in here was so… eas-y~" Marshall taunted. "Fionna, hey, it's totally boring here, ALREADY. Pink boy here is boring the crap out of me. Let's go do something fun."
"I… I don't know… I'm… it's really important to Gumball that I do this for him," Fionna was embarrassed. "Or I totally would!"
"Excuse me?" Gumball repeated again, his voice getting higher. "How dare you burst into my house and… say that I'm boring…?"
"Fionna, come on, let's just GO! This bag of air can put up his OWN decorations, right?"
"Wellllllllll…" Fionna hesitated.
"Come on!" Marshall tugged her off the ladder and onto his back and he rushed out of the castle.
Gumball looked more and more annoyed by the minute. He crossed his arms, a pout on his lips. I can't BELIEVE this! Fionna just takes off with some unknown strange man… He seemed more and more annoyed. When she's supposed to be helping ME!...
Cake climbed down the ladder. "Um… Gumball, I'm gonna go too… Sorry!" Cake took off out the doors too and Gumball sighed to himself.
A few days later, Fionna went to Gumball's to see if he had anything for her to do. "Uh… Hi, Gumball…" Fionna waved, seeing him.
Gumball gave her a cold look, but just kept walking to the kitchen.
"Um… Gumball? Hello?" Fionna asked, again.
"Oh. It's you. Hello. Fionna," he said in a cold voice.
"Um… hi," Fionna made a face. "Gumball, are you okay?"
"Hm? Yes. I'm FINE. I managed to finish the decorations by MYSELF the other day… thank you for taking off,"
"Oh! I'm sorry about that," Fionna was embarrassed. "I didn't mean to do that to you, Gumball…"
"Oh it's fine. No PROBLEM," Gumball continued, coldly.
"I… I'm sorry you're so upset!" Fionna blurted. "I felt really bad but then there was some trouble in a nearby kingdom and I didn't make it back by here until today. I'm super sorry!"
"I just didn't like seeing you with that guy, that's all," Gumball crossed his arms.
"Really? How come?" Fionna looked puzzled.
"I… I just don't!" Gumball blushed a bit, looking away from Fionna. "He had better not come around you again when I'm around. I don't want him anywhere NEAR my castle."
Fionna was confused but she blushed just a little bit as well. "Well… I'll tell him not to do that next time I'm helping you with stuff."
"Well, good. Thank you, Fionna." Gumball sighed, heading toward the kitchen. "That guy just really annoys me."
Fionna followed after him, embarrassed. Sure enough, once they got to the kitchen, Marshall was sucking the color from a bowl of batter that Gumball had whipped up earlier. He dropped the bowl of now-white batter onto the counter where it splattered all over the walls. "Whoops ~" Marshall said, smugly.
"Argh! You ruined an entire bowl of batter!" Gumball rushed over, looking distressed. "And you've made my kitchen a MESS!" He turned towards Marshall, looking threatening. "How dare you! Get out of my kitchen!"
Marshall just laughed. "Hey, Fionna. What're you up to?" he asked, blithely.
"Oh, nothing much… You really should go, Gumball is getting really upset…" Fionna trailed off.
"Oh please, like I'm scared of what this powderpuff would-" Marshall stopped short when the bowl of batter splattered against his shoulder, dripping all down his shirt and down onto the ground. "… Oh no. You did NOT just do that," Marshall turned to face Gumball, his eyes narrowed.
"I said get OUT of my kitchen! And get AWAY from Fionna!" Gumball stood his ground, full of fire and fury, his eyes glowing daggers into Marshall. "Get lost!"
Marshall glared at him a moment before shrugging fluidly. "Well… whatever. I guess I'll leave you two to whatever you're doing… Later, Fionna…" he floated off.
Gumball paled when he realized that Marshall was dripping batter all through the house. "Agh! No! He's making my castle a mess!"
"That was… was really cool of you. I mean, it wasn't cool that you attacked Marshall like that! He's my friend," Fionna said, sternly. "But it was cool how you… got all protective of me like that…" she blushed.
"Y-yeah well… It's… it's nothing. Now! How about I whip up a fresh batch of creampuffs?" Gumball glowed, fighting down the blush on his cheeks.
"Sounds great!" Inwardly, Fionna made a face. Eugh… creampuffs.