I shrugged my military boots on and went outside to help the others prepare for the awful drive we had to make, so others could have supplies. When I got to the truck, my lover was there. He was our resident doctor which had always been funny to me because he'd always wanted to be a scientist. Then again, I never expected to get drafted; I wanted to be a rock star. The military knew nothing of our relationship, and that was something we wanted to stay constant.

I smiled at him before I began to load some boxes of bullets. When we all finished, everyone climbed in the truck. We drove off into the sand dunes. On the way, we were shot at several times, making the trip even more difficult than it already was. I stayed near Bubba as much as I could to make sure he wasn't hurt.

Then, a kid got in the way of our dune buggy. I had known from the beginning it was a trap. I gave Bubba a quick, sweet kiss filled with all my emotions before I called to the rest of the group.

"I'll get him."

"Marshall… Are you sure?" a boy younger than me, named Finn asked.

"No he's not! Marshall Lee, what are you thinking?!" Bubba yelled at me.

"Listen, baby, I love you."

There was no turning back now. I got out of the truck and walked over to the little boy. It's funny how the only thoughts in my head were about wishing the child peace in death. As I approached him, just as I suspected, he ripped his shirt open and ran to me.

I didn't feel any pain except for the loud ringing in my ear. I didn't have to feel pain, however, to know that I didn't have my legs. I opened my eyes and was met with the deep blue of my lovers. His beautiful eyes were red and puffy. I smiled at him. I could see in his eyes something I already knew. I was going to die.

"Hey, Gumbutt, don't cry," I called.

"Marshall Lee, you complete imbecile! Why?!"

"I couldn't have let him run to the buggy and kill you too, now could I?"

"You should have! I would have been better off! I want to die with you!"

"Don't say those things." I reached up and put my hand on his cheek. "I love you so much, you know that?"

"Y-Yeah… I love you, too, Marshall." He held my hand in both of his and let his salty tears run down his cheeks and snot come from his nose.

"I just have one more request. I was going to save it until after we had gotten out of this hellhole and moved to California, but it has to be done now. Bubba Maximillion Gumball will you marry me?"

"O-Of course, Marshall. H-How could I say n-no?"

I pulled a silver ring from my pocket and put it on his finger. The last thing I remember was telling him I loved him. I had used up my last minutes, but I couldn't have asked for a better way to spend them.

(This one almost made me cry while typing it.)

Marshall Lee was a prick. No one could deny that. In fact, he only had two friends, me and our mutual friend Fionna. By the way my name is Bubba Maximillion Gumball. Let's get back to the topic at hand. I don't even know why I consider him a friend of mine. He is my exact opposite! He likes rock, I like classical. He likes black, I like pink. He likes being a douchebag, I like being a nice person. He barely gets by; I always make straight A's.

Maybe, it's because he has a softer side. It's a side that only I, to my knowledge, have seen. When he shows his real self, when he's vulnerable, is when I find him most attractive. I won't deny the fact that I am attracted to him. I think everyone is at least a little bit. That's why there are two days in my life that I will never forget. Let's start in chronological order.

It was the first day of my sophomore year in high school. We had been dismissed to head to classes, so I grabbed my pink backpack, sat up, and pulled up my pink skinny jeans. I grabbed my hot coffee and turned around to leave. Right in front of me was the very same Marshall Lee we've been talking about.

I jumped before holding my chest to calm my erratic heart. I glared at Marshall through my brown rimmed glasses. He grinned at me before making what appeared to be a bashful face. He handed me a little note before giving me some space.

"What is this Marshall?"

"Just read it okay, Gumbutt?"

I pouted at him, but opened the paper anyway. Inside was an absolutely beautiful song he'd written. At the bottom were the seven words that would change my life forever.

'Will you go out with me, Bubba?'

My jaw dropped. Marshall looked at me before making a sorrowful face. He was trying to say something, but I cut him off with a gentle kiss. He grabbed my cheek and deepened our kiss. He tasted like minty fresh toothpaste and chocolate cereal. I'm sure I must've tasted like bubblegum toothpaste and white chocolate French vanilla coffee.

We dated until the second semester of my senior year. Monday, March 17, 2003, started off a wonderful day. It was Marshall's and my second anniversary, so we had given each other special gifts. I'd bought him the acoustic guitar he'd been wanting, and he got me a super expensive science kit.

We went to our shared first period where we partnered to read Beowulf. I was explaining to him that Grendel had a sore ear when we heard gunshots. My teacher locked the door, turned off all the lights and commanded us to hide. Marshall and I climbed under the large desk, and Marshall held me close. I sobbed quietly into his chest until I heard them break down the door. I stopped everything and held Marshall close to me.

From our spot in the middle of the class, it was hard for them to see us, but easier for us to see them. They pulled our teacher up by her hair and screamed at her. I was too scared to understand what they were saying. Then, they put a gun to her head. Marshall whispered two words that I don't think I'll ever forget.

"Don't look."

I shoved my head deeper into his shoulder and the bang resounded through the room. I heard a classmate sob and then I didn't hear anything. Everything was silent. Marshall tugged me and looked in my eyes. I knew we were going to make a break for it. He grabbed my hand and laced our fingers together. We crawled from under the table, quietly got up, and ran like hell.

My brain heard the gunshots but didn't process them. I heard one of them call to leave us. We ran into the first boys' bathroom we found, and I locked the door. I turned around, and Marshall was already sitting against the door. His plaid shirt, my favorite for him to wear, was off of him and rested crumpled up in his lap.

I took off my own magenta jacket before sitting next to him. Our hands found each other's again and they interlaced. My heart was beating so erratically I thought I would drop right then and there of a heart attack. I just held Marshall's hand tighter.

"Were you shot, Bubba?"

It took me a second to process everything before I looked my body over and realized my face was bleeding. "N-No, just grazed me. What about you?"

"Nah, same here."

Marshall flashed me a genuine smile and my heart calmed a bit. Marshall just leaned in to kiss my wound delicately. He then moved to my lips giving them a soft kiss before apologizing for his chapped lips. I smiled and kissed his nose. I was so awfully tired. I think Marshall noticed because he pulled me closer to him and put his arm around my waist, resting his hand on my hip.

"Baby, I love you."

"I love you, too, Marshy."

"Bubba Maximillion Gumball, will you do me the honors of never letting anyone else have that sweet ass of yours?"

"Marshall!" I blushed from my neck to my ears. "I'll always be yours. No matter what happens, you will always have my heart."

He kissed me lovingly. "I just wanted to make sure that this was all real. I wanted to make sure that, when you leave this room, you had truly loved me." He smiled. "You're tired, Maxi. Go to sleep. I'll wake you up if something happens."

The next thing I knew I heard a man unlocking the door and pushing it. He managed to push me and Marshall some before sticking his head in the door. He stated he was a cop and pushed us farther into the bathroom. I got so excited!

I shook Marshall happily. "Marshall! Marshall! Wake up!" I was grinning. Then I noticed he wasn't moving. At all. My heart sank. "Marshall, come on! This isn't funny! Marshall, please!" I cried. His arm fell from his lap and I grabbed his plaid shirt. I looked down into his white t-shirt stained red by his blood.

"You liar!" I screamed in his face. "You were shot!" I pulled him to me and pressed a kiss to his cold lips praying that all the fairytales and stories were true. I even prayed to God. The cop grabbed me by my wrists and tried to drag me from Marshall's body. I turned my anger on him.

"It's all your fault! You are fucking swine! You bastard! I should kill you! Because of you he's dead! My Marshall is dead because of you! I fucking hate you!"

I saw them bring out Marshall in a black body bag, but before I could go to him, Fionna had me in her arms. She sobbed into me, and I could nothing but let my hot tears run down my face. It seemed like years we stood there clinging desperately to each other wishing Marshall was back with us, where he belonged. Now, every year on our anniversary I go to the Abadeer family graveyard with Marshall's acoustic and play him the very first gift he'd ever given me.

I snuck into the hospital on a whim. Unfortunately, it was infested with the mutant zombies. With my aluminum baseball bat in one hand, I searched the first floor. I was in a particular room when I heard shuffling behind me. I turned and saw a boy probably a year younger than me staring at me like I was the first animal he'd ever seen at the zoo.

I should have been the surprised one. I mean the kid had pink hair for God's sake. I cautiously reached out a hand to him. He backed away slowly from me.

"I won't hurt you. My name is Marshall. What's yours'?"

"G-Gumball."

I tried hard not to snicker. Jeez, this kid was weird. I smiled and grabbed his hand before he could run. I kissed his knuckles gently and smiled. Oh yeah, he had the hots for me. He was good-looking himself. He pink hair matched well with his… magenta eyes. He mumbled that his eyes were a birth defect before he blushed bright red.

We made a great team together. We fought many zombies and claimed a lot of land. Everything around us was wrong, but we were so right. We loved each other deeply. I had even gone so far as to steal a pair of silver wedding bands for us to wear. That all changed to day we tried to go back into the hospital.

I had lead and Bubba was supposed to watch my back. We had acquired guns and a few bullets, but we didn't want to alert the creatures to our presence. We made it to the second floor and that's when everything went to hell. There was another group upstairs and before we knew it they had thrown a cellphone, with an extremely loud ringtone, at us. The zombies took note and came after us. I grabbed Bubba's hand, interlaced them, and ran with him. We made it out the doors, and I told him to run.

I let go of his hand and watched him leave, as he left I smiled to the zombies, put the gun to my temple, and pulled the trigger.

I really hadn't planned on being out of the castle that day, but Fionna dragged me anyway. I mostly didn't want to be around Marshall Lee. There was something about the vampire king that felt so familiar. It was one of the weirdest things I'd ever come across. I wasn't even sure if the vampire felt the same about me.

Anyway, we were all supposed to go the Exploding Mountain of Doom for some "safe" adventuring. I only came because I needed some lava rocks to finish the antidote for the Water Kingdom. After I had collected my rocks, I sat next to Lord Monochromicorn and talked to him. Then, Marshall Lee floated to me.

"What's up Princess? Are you too much of a pussy to come with us and see the lava?"

"I would appreciate it if you didn't say such crude and vulgar things in my presence. I would rather not see the lava anyway."

"Tch, whatever."

He makes me so globbin' angry sometimes! I had no time to think about him though because the Ice Queen had snuck up behind me, frozen Lord's hooves to the ground, and carried me into the sky. Then, something else happened suddenly. Marshall Lee kicked the Ice Queen in the gut and grabbed me. He held on to me tightly. He was trying to fly over the volcano when Ice Queen let out a last snowball that hit Marshall in his head.

As we plummeted towards the lava, I remembered everything. I remembered holding his hand as he died, I remember holding Fionna the second time he died, I remembered being married to him when the mushroom wars had ended. Every time I survived, but he didn't. I felt my tears roll down my cheeks. I held him close and kissed his lips,

"I love you, Marshall Lee! No matter what time it is, where we are, or what life we're in, my heart will always be yours!"

"You remembered too, huh? I love you too, Maxi. I guess my place has always been by your side."

He kissed me tenderly and neither of us broke it. Even when we felt the volcano's lava heat our bodies, we didn't stop. Only when we felt Lord's soft fur under our butts did we break the kiss. Our hands laced together though, and this time, I was determined to never let his hand go again.

Owari