Marshall Lee was intoxicated. His home had Fionna's scent stapled all over, like little burning reminders that she had been here, that she had been equally excited to see him, that she had the sweetest red candy smell.
The vampire was exhausted with himself and his needs.
When Fionna had stopped speaking to Prince Gumball, she filled the void he had left by hanging out with the idiot Flame Prince and himself, a king. He always had thought Fionna deserved a king, not a little cocky prince.
At first, Fionna's visits were tame. Marshall had always liked Fionna, so he found himself floating in a little state of heaven. Not that he would ever admit that to a single soul.
But…
Then Fionna changed. The visits grew incredibly hard to withstand.
She hit the stage all female mammals hit eventually, where the female's glands secrete pheromones, calling for a mate. Marshall Lee's vampire senses picked up on her pheromones and something else… Blood.
Fionna. No longer the little bouncy bunny adventuress. Now she was a woman. How could he possibly resist her now that she smelled like cinnamon and apple and pure ecstasy? It drove the vampire king wild, made him hungry in so many ways, made his dormant domineering side rip all the thousands of years of self-control to shreds in a matter of one inhalation.
He stopped letting her into his lair unless her sister cat accompanied. Cake had known what had happened to Fionna, though she remained silent on the matter. Though mute, she watched the vampire shrewdly, her eyes holding the promise of death if he hurt her sister. Fionna was safe on these visits.
There was only one way to get her scent out of his nose. He took the quickest shower possible, changed his clothes, and left the cave in a hurry, holding his breath the whole time. He gasped for air as soon as the cave was far below. Too far to smell the apples and cinnamon.
He flew the direction of the candy kingdom.
Ever since Fionna had stopped speaking to Prince Gumball, the kingdom showed cracks in its normally perfect veneer as the prince dragged his land down with his depression. Many rulers Marshall had seen rise and fall over his long lifespan were unaware that their darkness in their hearts spread like a sickness to their realms.
Knowing how much Fionna treasured Gumball's friendship, and knowing that one day they would make up and be friends again, Marshall went often to the candy kingdom to try and distract the candy prince from himself. The vampire king knew all too well the feeling of cutting off contact with the beautiful adventuress, though his was his own decision.
Marshall Lee glided easily and silently through Gumball's window. Despite the late hour, the prince was working diligently on some new chemical or antidote or whatever the fluff the liquid was.
"Boo!"
"The stuff?!" the prince cried out.
Upon seeing the vampire king, the surprise drained from his goggled eyes and was replaced by annoyance, animosity, and a little jealousy.
The prince held a vial in his hand and looked around at the floor and lab tables, presumably to check if any liquid had spilled, as he asked, "Haven't I asked you to stop showing up uninvited?"
Marshall hovered in the air, twisting upside down and resting his arms behind his head as if he was completely at ease. "I invited myself… Besides, don't you want to know about my visit with Fionna?"
Prince Gumball stopped and Marshall could see him shiver once at her name. Some animalistic instinct turned the vampire a little rude, wanting to rub in the prince's face that Fionna's candy crush saga had ended.
"You saw her?" Gumball breathed quietly. "H-How was she?"
Marshall Lee grinned, baring his gleaming fangs as he rolled over through the air. "Oh, y'know. All blushy and girly and off to see the Flame P—"
Gumball snarled, "I also remember asking you never to mention his name again."
Marshall Lee bowed deeply from the waist. "Your majesty," he mocked, then muttered, "Sheesh. Someone is mega jelly."
Now Prince Gumball was really mad. Marshall could almost see the steam rolling out of his ears. He turned full on to face Marshall, ripping the goggles from his face to glint angrily at the vampire.
"If anyone here is jealous, it's you," the candy prince's voice hissed and emphasized every other word. "Everyone knows you're in love with her. She's too young and too immature for a relationship, for you. And, besides that, I have in my hand a serum to forget Fionna."
Gumball brandished the bottle with a sick green liquid inside. Marshall was stunned and actually landed on the ground in front of the prince.
His voice was sharp as he said, "'K. Couple things: first, I am never jealous of anyone. Ever. Second, whoever I am in love with is no one's bizz. Third, Fionna is going to be eighteen later this year. That's ring stage in the CK. And fourth, why would you want to forget her?"
Having gruffly reprimanded PG, Marshall Lee lifted his feet off the ground and turned his back on the prince. He meant to fly out the window, one hand already on the sill, when the prince spoke.
"No. You're mistaken. The serum isn't for me, I have no desire to forget Fionna."
The vampire halted at the window sill and looked over his shoulder with an eyebrow raised. Gumball's thick pink brows were drawn down in a dark mass that was his stare. He was twisting a spray bottle top onto the potion.
"Who then?" Marshall questioned. "I can't think of anyone else that would want to forget her."
Prince Gumball smiled sinisterly with such chill that Marshall Lee gripped the window sill behind him to steady himself.
"You."
And with that Marshall Lee felt a liquid fire burn through his muscles, skin, atoms as the liquid dripped down his skin and he inhaled the fragrant stuff. He held his head and closed his eyes tight.
"Gob! What the stuff?! I felt like someone just conked my nog," the vampire grumbled.
When he opened his eyes, he was in PG's lab. How in the nightosphere did he get to the candy kingdom? What were they even just talking about? He must have hit his head pretty globbin' hard.
"What were we just talking about?"
Prince Gumball's laugh was all belly. He wiped a candy coated teardrop from his eye.
"We definitely weren't speaking of a girl named Fionna," the prince announced casually, looking at a bottle in his hand as if it were liquid gold.
Marshall Lee felt all weird, like his brain had gotten watery. Something about what Gumball had just said struck in him a sense of déjà vu. "Do I know a Fionna?"
"If you did know a Fionna," PG replied, carefully locking his potion in a cabinet, "and you don't remember, it probably means she isn't important. What is important is my new serum works!"
"Yippee," Marshall Lee muttered, the hammer still going to town in his temples. "So in that case, let's paint the town red!"
"I've already told you the red candy is off limits," Gumball chided him as if he was a child.
"You're no fun, Gumbutt."
"Perhaps I will be again. Soon."
