Marzipan Crown and Garlic Dreams

by sonofwolf

My take on how Marshall Lee, Prince Gumball, and Fionna the Human all met. And the Ice Queen too. And of course, the relationships between all three.

For all accounts, it was a beautiful day.

The sun was shining on all of Aaa, the grass was green, there was a slight breeze, and the scent of flowers perfumed the air. On a day like this, Prince Gumball would be happy. He might've gone out for a ride with Lord Monochromicorn, his faithful unicorn friend, or held a fair, last minute, to which all his subjects would be ecstatic to attend, , or, if all his princely duties had been attended to, would have gone exploring. There was much to the land of Aaa he hadn't seen yet, and now as the sole ruler of the Candy Kingdom, he had the freedom - as long as his duties were taken care of, of course - to see what Aaa had to offer.

And on any other day, there wouldn't be a line of female mutants, candy people, trolls, whatsits and whathaveyous stretching out as far as the eye could see from the gates of the Candy Castle.

Prince Gumball groaned and ran a sugared hand down his sugared face as he stared out at the line from him royal bedroom window. 'And how many of them are actually princesses?"

"Two, your highness," Peppermint Maid, his most trusted servant, said. "The land of Aaa is sorely short on princesses. But oddly abundant on lesser princes."

"Some don't even have kingdoms," Gumball murmured. "This is ridiculous. I'm only sixteen. I'm too young to get married."

"You're old enough to rule, thus marry," the maid piped matter-of-factly. "However you aren't required to marry. It would just be nice. And would further assert your claim to the throne. Do remember, you are a cousin of a cousin who died before he could inherit the throne. You're not even pure candy."

Gumball glared at Peppermint Maid. "Don't remind me. I know. Everyday I know. I could have been a gumdrop, or even a gumstick. But instead some silly ancestor of mine happened upon a human and thought that it would be a wise match, and now I'm…I don't event think there's a word for it. Good thing humans are as good as extinct."

"You don't know that, sire."

"Have you ever seen a human?"

Peppermint Maid was silent, only crossing her arms in indignation.

"Well," Gumball straightened the crown on his head and made sure his tunic was free of wrinkles. He hated royal garb. It was scratchy and stiff, and shiny. He missed his pajamas already. "Let's get this over with."

He and Peppermint Maid retreated to the throne room, where he sat upon a royal looking chair made of all sorts of licorice with a gummy sugared pillow. He cleared his throat as Peppermint Maid went to the door and looked to him. He nodded, and she opened the door, calling forth the first suitess.

A gangly mutant of a creature, which he thought was female, shambled in and gave her best toothless grin.

Gumball hid his desire to gag with a fake cough and rewarded the poor creature with a winning, albeit fake, smile.

…..

"Gloooob, being the queen of ice is so boooring," The Ice Queen screeched, gazing out at her throne room upside down as she tried to get comfortable on her ice throne. "What is there to do? Rule over ice? Alright, I've done that about a bajillion times. What can you do with it? Make things? Okay, how many ice sculptures can a queen do in a thousand years before it gets boring? No one ever comes to see them anyway!" She slid off the throne to her knees on the floor and glared at the throne room doors. "Gretel! Have we got any mail?"

The door pushed open and a squat little penguin shuffled in, an envelope tucked under one flippered wing. The penguin quorked with each step until she was at the impatient Ice Queen's knees, and let the letter drop to the floor.

The Ice Queen snatched it up. "You could at least hand it to me!" She tore it open with her ice claws and read it, then glared down at the penguin. "When did we get this?"

The penguin shrugged.

"What do you mean, you don't know? It's for today, you idiot! Hurry up and get a bath ready, I'm not about to step into Aaa smelling like Penguin poo. Go! And get the blue dress ready." Gretel grunted. "No, not that blue dress, the other blue dress! I'm going to impress, not scare the living daylights out of him! Get going!"

The penguin waddled off, grunting little penguin insults under her penguin breath, as the Ice Queen got off her knees and turned to her reflection in the polished ice walls.

"Hmm, not bad. Might be a bit old for him but…it's not like he has many choices. He should be happy that I even care to attend! I am a queen, after all." She turned from her reflection with a toss of her snowy white hair, and exited the room.

…

"…and even though I'm not a princess, and I'm not even alive, I'm sure I'd make you really happy," the ghost girl warrior wailed at Prince Gumball, who was trying his best to look polite and not bored out of his mind. The ghost girl did a little floating curtsey.

"Thank you," Prince Gumball stood and reached out for the ghost girl's hand. She held it out, and when he tried to grab it so he might kiss her knuckles, his hand passed right through it. "I uh…"

"Don't worry, I get that a lot…"

"Well, I will keep you in consideration my dear." He smiled charmingly at - or through, he didn't know - the ghostly girl and waited as she giggled and floated back out of the room, right through the throne room doors.

Gumball sat back down on the throne wearily. Even the plush gummy pillow was beginning to become uncomfortable. "How many are left, Peppermint Maid? It seems as if I've seen a thousand."

Peppermint Maid peeked through the doors and shut them again. "Three more, sire."

"Are any of them even alive?"

"Yes sire, although one is but an arm and another is some sort of woods wizard. The other is a worm."

"Oh dear glob," Gumball slouched in his seat and rubbed his face with his hands. "This is a nightmare!"

"Surely your highness liked one of the fair maidens?"

"No, not really," Gumball sighed and removed his hands from his face. "Let them in, I suppose."

"Um…sire?"

"What?"

"Your face. You've mushed it out of place."

Gumball frowned and turned to a tray of cakes that had been placed there mid day. The cakes were eaten but the tray remained. He picked it up and stared at his mushed gum reflection. Groaning, he poked his features back into place and lowered the tray. "Thank you. I hate it when that happens."

"Of course, sire. It happens to the best of us," Peppermint Maid smiled and returned to the doors. However, before she could open them, they blasted open with a gale of ice cold air that knocked anything not gummed down to the ground. Gumball held onto his crown lest it fall off his head, and when he dared crack open his eyes from the frost that had settled on his gummy lashes, he saw an icy blue figure standing before him, hands on hips, her face glaring.

"I would think that you would have sent the notice earlier," the figure screeched, her voice not matching her cold yet pretty exterior. She held out a frosted piece of paper, the same notice that was mailed out to all of Aaa letting everyone know that the Candy Prince was looking for a bride. "Besides, you wasted your time with all that riffraff."

"That riffraff are my subjects! Well, most of them," Gumball stood and straightened his tunic. He cleared his throat and gave his most princely smile. He gave a bow and extended his hand for hers, "I am Prince Gumball, my lady. And you are…?"

The icy woman only looked more affronted. "I am the Ice Queen, Gummy, I thought you'd know what by now!" She harrumphed and stepped forward, ignoring his hand to look about the throne room. "I suppose this place would do. A bit too cheery and pink for my tastes, but you guys deal in ice cream right?"

Confused, Gumball straightened, retracting his hand. "Well, erm…yes, but…"

"And as long as you keep those pesky candy freaks away it'd be fine."

"Those pesky candy freaks are my subjects!" Gumball glared. "Look, erm…Ice Queen…"

"Well," The Ice Queen turned to him. "Are we going to do this or not?"

"Do…this?"

"Get married. I've got the whole ceremony planned out. But we gotta do it at my castle, just because it's nicer. And we might have to live there most of the time. I'm a busy girl, I need to know."

Gumball stuttered, affronted. "I…my lady, today I am just seeing who would be suitable to court. I am making no decisions today."

"You waste my time?" The Ice Queen scowled, motioning to herself. "I came all the way down here, putting aside my busy schedule, for you to not be able to make up your mind? I'm a queen, Gum-face! I have subjects too! And a real kingdom, not licorice and candy corn!"

"I like candy corn!"

"No one likes candy corn!" The Ice Queen screeched. "Look, buddy, yes or no. Time is money. Or after dinner mints. Whatever you people deal in."

Gumball straightened, putting on his most stern, I'm-a-prince-expression. "If you cannot wait until I have considered everyone, my lady, then the answer is no, I'm afraid."

The Ice Queen's eyes went wide. "You dare deny me? I am a queen, you sugar coated ingrate!" She flew at him, her hands flashing before jetting icy hail his way. The prince yelped and dodged behind his throne. The icy hail imbedded into it, causing it to shudder. This further enraged the Ice Queen. "Come out and face me like a man, or is your center that annoying goo they put into fruit snacks?" She ran around the throne, but he ran too, so that he effectively dodged her with the chair betwixt them at all times.

"Natural or artificial flavors?" Gumball asked, dodging a hail-ball.

"Doesn't matter! It's sticky!" The Ice Queen threw another volley of ice his way. The gummy cushion was knocked off the chair, and the back of the chair splintered from the force.

Gumball straightened, angered. "I assure you, my lady, my center is all but annoying."

The Ice Queen growled and raised her hand, a deadly looking ice ball forming in her palm and quickly growing to a dangerous size. Gumball grimaced and cringed at what he was sure was to be the end of him, the blow splattering his gum self across the wall, which his servants would have to sadly scrape off with large, oversized coins later…

"Mreowl!"

The sound was as terrible as it was a relief. The dangerous ice-blow never came, and Gumball opened his eyes a smidge to see a cream and buff colored furball go flying past. When he opened them fully, the Ice Queen was wrestling a furry something with pointed ears which seemed intent on being attached to her face and shredding her hair and clothes with sharp claws.

As soon as it had happened, it ended, with the Ice Queen flying against the far wall and the furball arching angrily between her and the prince. "Now, I told you not to be showing your slushy ice filled face 'round here!"

"You stupid furball! Who even told you I was coming?"

"Gretel and I are still friends on myspazz, remember? Now get your icy butt outta here before I sic my human on you!"

The Ice Queens eyes went wide, and then she was gone in a flurry of ice flakes and cold wind, as fast as she had come. Gumball peered at the furball from behind his throne, then at the door. The furball smiled at him with wide eyes. "C'mon out from behind there, Gumball. She ain't gonna bother you no more."

Gumball stood and brushed the ice flakes from his tunic. "Thank you very much. I don't think I could possibly ever repay you. You…saved my life."

"Oh, it was nothing'. Ice Queen and I go way back, she knows not to mess with me."

"Did you come all the way here just to stop her?" Gumball reached for his crown to straighten it and saw that it wasn't on his head at all. He knelt and picked up the gummy cushion to see if it was under there, but it wasn't.

"No, ha! We got your notice in the mail and decided to see what all the hubub was about. Ain't everyday you meet a prince."

"We?"

"Hi!"

Gumball started, moving to his side as a little pale peach creature with a white hat adorned with floppy ears piped up from neck to him. The little creature held up his crown to him. He smiled at her sweet face and wide blue eyes. "Well, thank you, sweet thing!" He took up the crown and set it back on his head and glanced at a moaning Peppermint Maid who was barely coming to after being knocked aside by the doors from Ice Queen's entrance. He smiled down at his two champions. "Come now, I must learn the names of my heroes for the day!"

"I'm Cake, the Cat!" The furball said. She motioned to the little creature looking up at Gumball. "This is Fionna, the Human, and my best friend!"

Gumball gawked down at the little creature. "A human? A real, full blooded human?" Could it really be? "I thought they were extinct!"

"I don't stink!" the little creature exclaimed indignantly. She turned to Cake. "Are you sure he's a prince?"

"Yes, I'm sure. This is Prince Gumball, Fionna, ruler of the Candy People!"

The human looked up at him, and made a face at his pink coloring, fancy tunic, and jeweled crown. "I thought he'd be tougher."

"Fionna!" Cake hurriedly wrapped herself about the human child, covering her mouth with furry paws. The human fought to get her away, but still a child, wasn't strong enough. "'scuse her, Prince Gumball! She is only eleven."

"It's quite alright," Prince Gumball laughed, amused. "I've always been about three things, dear Fionna. Ruling my kingdom justly, making the most awesome cake that has been or ever will be created, and the speed at which a body can safely travel through intergalactic wormholes."

"They can't," piped a weary Peppermint Maid from the floor by the door.

"I say they can and I will prove it one day," Gumball retorted. "But being tough is not one of those things. Which is why I'm glad there are folk like you and Cake to help me out."

Cake released her hold on the child. "So you want to make another cat…to eat it? That's gross."

"No, Fionna, he wants to make a cake you can eat, like a birthday cake," Cake replied.

"Not just any birthday cake," Gumball raised his hands. "But the most awesome, most delicious, most diabetes inducing cake that has ever existed, a cake so delicious you will never remember any cake you had eaten beforehand, and will never need to eat another cake for as long as you live!"

"Uhh…okay," the human seemed less than impressed. "I plan on exploring and beating up bad guys and creating the most awesome high five that has ever existed."

Gumball chuckled. "Very high goals, indeed. I have a proposal for you both."

"Uh, I thought you could only marry one of us," Cake said, scratching her head between her pointed ears.

"Marry?" Fionna looked up at Gumball. "But he's a boy!"

"Well, that remains to be seen," Gumball said.

"That you're a boy?"

"No…no…I mean, who I will marry remains to be seen. But I was wondering…would you two like to become knights for me?"

Fionna's eyes went as wide as they could possibly go, and for a second Gumball was afraid they'd pop right out of her head. The girl went giddy, jumping up and down, and poor Cake had to clear away lest her tail get stomped on. "Please? Pretty please? I could be the best knight ever! No one would ever hurt you, and you could send me on quests, and rescue damsels in distress, and slay dragons, and whatever, but yeah!"

Gumball turned to Cake. "And you?"

"How about I just be the knight's BFF until she's old enough to knight on her own?" Cake eyed the still jumping and babbling human girl. "She is still a child, after all."

"Even so," Gumball turned to Peppermint Maid, who staggered over to them, trailing peppermint crumbs. "Peppermint Maid, fetch my royal scepter."

"Right away, sire," the maid staggered out of the room, and the trio began to set the throne room to rights as much as they could. Gumball was sweeping the now melted ice out of the throne room doors and smiling out at the setting sun when Peppermint Maid returned, carrying a grand peppermint stick topped with a shining gumball, powdered in sugar crystals that glistened in the light. Gumball went back to his throne, holding the scepter, and smiled down at the two.

"C'mon, Cake, you're supposed to kneel," Fionna sank to one knee and pulled on the cat's tail, causing her to yowl and fall to her knees. Fionna looked up at Gumball and beamed.

"I now knight you in the name of Prince Bubba Gumball," he paused as the human girl giggled. "In the name of the Candy People of the Candy Kingdom, to serve and protect, do heroic deeds, and to help dash off the dastardly deeds of the dangerous. Rise, uh…Sir Miss Fionna the Human. And Cake. The cat."

The two rose. "Cool! I'm a full fledged knight! Do I get a sword?" Fionna grinned.

"A sword?" Gumball frowned and turned to Peppermint Maid. "Do we have any swords?"

"Not at the moment, sire. Unfortunately the trolls who were supposed to make them…ate them."

Gumball hid his disappointment and turned to a visably disappointed human girl. "Never you mind, Sir Miss Fionna. I will have a sword commissioned, a most grand sword that has ever been forged."

"Okay, but it better not be made of candy," Fionna wrinkled her nose. "It might break."

Gumball laughed. "I'll see what I can do."

The three parted ways, with Cake stating that it was time for Fionna to go to bed, and Fionna stating that she didn't want to go to bed, but even then Cake was half carrying a sleepy human girl out the throne room doors, leaving Prince Gumball and Peppermint Maid alone.

'Well, that was an eventful day," Gumball handed his scepter to Peppermint Maid. "I for one am exhausted. Ready my pajamas, Peppermint Maid. The ones with the feet."

"With or without the hood?"

"Without."

'Yes, your highness," Pepeprmint Maid bowed and left the room, leaving Gumball to observe the wrecked licorice throne, and to ponder the events of the day. Smiling, he left, intent on going to bed and having a dream about the most awesome cake that had ever been baked.

…...

It was late, or early, depending on how you looked at it, when the dark figure silhouetted against the moon, staring through the open window into the Prince's room. Neverminding that the Prince was sound asleep, tucked into marshmallow blankets and pillows and twisted in his blue feety pajamas featuring marshmallow chicks and bunnies, the figure floated in through the window and over the bed, observing the prince.

"You're not that much to look at, are you?"

The Prince started from his sleep - and his dream about cakes - to look up at the grayish dark figure floating above his bed. With a yell he launched himself out of bed to the floor and scrabbled away to the light switch, and then flooded the room with light.

The figure was of a gray green boy, around his age, with dark brown hair and pointy ears and teeth. The boy wore black leather pants, a white knit shirt with no sleeves, and large black boots. His hair was shaved but for a wide stripe down the middle, which hung in his face. Gumball's eyes widened. "A vampire!"

The figure shrugged. "Guilty," he pulled a slip of paper from his pocket. "Got this," he tossed it at the Prince. "Hope I'm not late."

Gumball snatched up the paper. It was the summons for the previous morning. "Well, yes, you are late, and you're also a boy," Gumball frowned.

"That hasn't really stopped me before," the vampire boy flew down before Prince Gumball until he was face to face, and smirked at him as the poor prince tried to smoosh himself into the wall. "Hmm," the boy hovered too and fro, taking him in. "Aren't you a little old for feety pajamas?"

"They're comfortable."

The boy reached out and brazenly pulled the zip of the pajamas down to Gumball's low navel. Gumball hastened to keep the front of his pajamas shut. "You're too shy, too…pink…" the boy hovered closer. "And you smell like almond paste."

"Marzipan," Gumball zipped up his pajamas again. "It's marzipan. Royal marzipan created with only the finest ingredients imported from the far reaches of Aaa."

"Whatever," the boy leaned forward and before Gumball could stop him, flicked a forked tongue against his lips. Gumball scrambled away and the vampire boy made a face. "You taste like rock candy."

"I am candy," Gumball frowned, rubbing his lips. Little candy flakes fell to the floor.

"Oh, pardon meeee," the vampire boy rolled his eyes. He looked about the room. "Well, I'm Marshall, by the way. Marshall Lee. And I like this place, even though it smells like a sour fruit roll up." He looked at Gumball. "You're okay. I guess."

Gumball frowned. "You should probably leave."

"What, have a thing against vampires?" Marshall Lee floated closer to the prince, enjoying how uncomfortable he made him.

"I have a thing against intruders in the middle of the night," Gumball stated. "Now leave before I call my knights." He hoped the bluff would work. He only had one knight, a human girl aged eleven, and she was at her home, wherever that was, sound asleep.

"Oooh, scary," Marshall Lee held up his hands in mock fright. "Shaking in my boots here." He laughed and floated to the window. "Enjoy your pajamas."

And then he was gone, floating out into the night.

Gumball let out his breath and rubbed his face, then frowned down at his pajamas and tore them off, and suited himself to spend the night in his boxers. "Stupid feety pajamas. Stupid Ice Queen. Stupid…vampire boy…" Gumball drifted to sleep, the last thing he saw before doing so being a dark purple rose perched between the spires of his royal crown on his bedside table.