There is a moment when your heart breaks beyond repair and no matter what happens in your life, there will always be that little part of you that is shattered. Prince Gumball was experiencing this moment and Fionna was to blame. She dumped him, making excuses to justify her actions by saying that she needed to focus on her adventures and that maybe she wasn't ready for a relationship in the first place. It was obviously a lie, and that fact hurt Gumball the most, that his own girlfriend, best friend, couldn't honestly say she no longer had feelings for him. After he had left that dreaded tree house, Gumball had spent the day trying to figure out why the passion they had for each other had disappeared. He certainly still felt it but Gumball suspected Fionna had grown bored of him. Or maybe the passion wasn't there to begin with. It had taken them nearly two years to get together and even then he had to initiate everything. . . it wasn't meant to be.
There was a knock at the window. Gumball ignored it, figuring it was a candy tree brushing a delicious limb against the glass. The knock returned, this time with increased volume. Gumball angrily tossed his mathematics book on to his bed and walked towards the window. To his surprise, Marshall Lee floated outside with a box in his hands filled with junk food and soda. Gumball rolled his eyes and reluctantly opened the window. Marshall Lee floated in and placed the box on the bed, smirking at the pink haired prince.
"What do you want? Come to rub it in my face that Fionna broke up with me?" Gumball spat, losing all of his typical "nice to everyone" demeanor. Marshall laughed and lowered himself to the ground.
"Oh come on, I'm not that cruel. I'm gonna help you get over her," he said as picked up the box he had brought. Gumball crossed his arms in disbelief.
"How are you going to do that?" he grumbled, walking across the room. Marshall Lee glided across the floor, spinning his body around the candy boy.
"I've been through my share of break-ups in my time. And what you're doing," Marshall paused, pointing an accusing finger at Gumball, "is not going to work. Oh no, not at all." Gumball took a step closer to the vampire.
"What should I do, then?" he asked. Marshall grinned mischievously at the prince as he drifted towards the bed, snatching up the book of math. Gumball's eyes widened and he leaped towards the vampire king, trying with all his effort to jump high enough to catch the book. Marshall Lee chuckled and summersaulted gracefully back out the window. After showboating a little with back flips and rollercoaster turns, he dropped the book in to the trees below, hovering until he heard the thud of the massive work hitting the forest floor. Satisfied with his job, the undead teen swooped back in to the candy castle, sliding to a stop in front of a very angered Prince Gumball.
"Well, that's a good start but we definitely have a lot more work to do," Marshall said with a clap of his hands.
"Do you realize how rare it is to find any type of mathematics book is in the land of Aah?" Gumball yelled. Marshall Lee patted him on the shoulder.
"Calm down, Pinkie. We have bigger issues to deal with," Marshall whispered as he forced the pink teen, much against his will, to sit on the bed. Gumball huffed and collapsed into the fluffiness of the bedding, closing his eyes.
"I really think that throwing myself into my studies is the best solution here," he muttered from under a pillow. Marshall burst out in laughs, adding a few backwards circles in the air.
"You're so boring!" Marshall said in between fits of giggles. Gumball sat up, adorning a quite defensive look.
"I'm not boring! Fionna and I go on adventures all the ti-" he started before Marshall interrupted him.
"No, Fionna goes on adventures. You sit on Cake until the beast is killed and your precious little candy subjects are okay. You never do anything with your life!" Marshall shouted. A long, awkward silence followed, both of the boys looking at the floor and ceiling as if it held the key to life itself.
"Sorry, that was taking it too far," Marshall Lee stammered at his feet, breaking the pause. Gumball shook his head.
"No, you're right. Fionna was the last meaningful thing in my life."
And with that, the oh-so-noble prince began to sob. Marshall sighed and sat next to Gumball.
"I know bro, girls are bitches, she broke your heart, all that jazz. How bout we get some soda in you?" asked the vampire. Gumball sniffled and wiped tiny tear drops from his pristine pink face.
"Yeah, and the chips, too," he whimpered, pointing weakly at the box. Marshall Lee smiled widely and stood up.
"Now we are getting somewhere!" he cheered as he tossed some potato chips towards the candy prince. He gently poured fizzy rainbow drink into each cup and handed one to the boy on the bed. Marshall lifted his cup to toast.
"To being single and hating girls!" he exclaimed as he clinked a plastic cup against Gumball's. The teens chugged down the odd, carbonated, multi-color drink, coughing when they finished. Gumball grabbed a cold arm of Marshall. The vampire felt a small smile creep on to his face from the touch, although he would never admit why.
"What was that?" croaked the gummy prince. Marshall's expression became quite quizzical.
"I don't really know, to be honest," he said. The prince glared, which turned into a smile, which turned into chuckles. The boys feel back into the bed together, laughing. After the laughter stopped, they turned towards each other. Marshall found himself caught in the wonder that was Prince Gumball's cotton candy eyes. The crystalized eyes sparkled under the florescent lights, almost pulling the vampire king in.
"You have beautiful eyes," Marshall Lee muttered quietly. Gumball raised a perfectly plucked fuchsia eyebrow.
"Excuse me?" he said, pushing himself off the pink comforter. Marshall shook off his daze of embarrassment and looked at the prince.
"Oh, nothing. We should, uh, move on part two of getting over Fionna," stated a slightly frazzled vampire teen. Gumball nodded eagerly and followed Marshall to the box. The king picked it up and turned towards Gumball.
"We need to get rid of everything that has to do with Fionna," Marshall Lee explained. The candy prince frowned at his feet and then took in his room. The vampire followed his gaze, talking in the sheer amount of pictures, memorabilia, and knickknacks involving Fionna.
"I . . . well, that's quite a lot of things," Gumball said solemnly. Marshall shrugged his shoulders.
"Eh, I think we can handle it," he said as he placed a photo of Fionna and Gumball hanging off the side of Cake in the box.
After two hours, the room was stripped almost clean of Fionnaness, leaving only one more frame containing the adventurer. Marshall prepared to grab the frame but was stopped by the pink boy.
"No! That one . . . it can't be moved," the prince said hurriedly. Marshall snatched the frame and levitated on the ceiling.
"What are you hiding, Pinkie?" chuckled Marshall playfully. Gumball bit his lip nervously as the vampire drifted down to the desk. Hiding in the corner was a dusty picture containing picture of the day they had stopped the door master. Gumball held his face down, trying to hide a smirk and wore a punk rock shirt given to him by Marshall. Next to the candy prince stood the grand vampire king, his arm draped loosely around Gumball. Marshall turned to the prince in surprise and happiness. Gumball blushed ferociously.
"You don't hate me?" he chuckled. Gumball was taken back. Had Marshall actually thought they weren't friends, that he hated him? Sure, they had always had a little bit of war over Fionna but that wasn't enough to cause hatred.
"Of course not. Marshall, you're one of my best friends," Gumball said gently.
"I just thought that because of Fionna and me hitting on her ... you didn't like me," Marshall Lee whispered. Gumball shook his head vigorously.
"You know, you can date her if you want. You've won," he said, throwing his hands up in a sign of surrender. The king looked out the window, as if searching for something he had lost and spun back to Gumball.
"What if I don't want to date her? Who should I date then?" Marshall questioned, pushing himself closer to the candy prince. Gumball's face filled with confusion as he was lifted off the ground. Protective arms wrapped around him as the pair flew out the window. For a second they stopped, Marshall keeping both of them safely afloat.
"I think we should go somewhere special," the vampire king muttered into the sweet-haired teen's ear. Once again, they floated off, slowly passing the darkened hills of the candy kingdom. Marshall drifted himself to a stop over the forest. Gumball feared he faced the same fate as his book. But what happened next was incredibly more shocking. Marshall moved Prince Gumball so they were eye to eye. He tilted his head to the side, trying to cover his bite marks and pressed his lips against the candy ones of Gumball. The prince's immediate reaction was to pull away but decided against it when he tasted the warm apple pie and strawberry flavor stuck on the vampire's lips. The kiss was deepened, by which party, they couldn't tell. The king licked at the gum on the surface of prince's lips, almost begging for more, but realized he was pushing it. Marshall withdrew, preparing to be pushed away or exiled from the land of Aah.
"W-wh-what?" Gumball managed to exhale, blinking a few times. Marshall felt his lips quiver and he turned away from his prince. Vampire Kings don't cry. They flew back to the castle in silence, faster this time. They entered the window and Marshall dropped Gumball on the bed.
"God, I'm so sorry," Marshall whimpered floating back towards the window. Gumball was at a loss for words so he did the only reasonable he could think. The prince grabbed the vampire's shirt and tugged him back. With a forceful press to the king's shoulders, they were level again. This time, Gumball pushed forward, embracing every red taste he could find on the other teen's lips. The door cracked slightly and giggles were heard. Gumball jerked away, leaving an unhappy king. Peppermint Maid smiled at the teens.
"Peppermint!" the candy prince yelled. The sweet covered her mouth and chuckled some more.
"Sorry sir, I'll leave you two alone," she said giddily. Gumball turned back to his king.
"Does this mean we are dating?" he asked, tracing his fingers along the vampire's face. Marshall shrugged.
"If you want to be so official with it," he said arrogantly. Prince Gumball smirked and continued the kiss that was cut off all too abruptly.
Prince Gumball would tell himself and anyone else who asked that the only reason he was with Marshall Lee to get back at Fionna and nothing was really going on. But to be honest, The Vampire King had stolen his heart and he only hoped that he would suck the red out of it.