Awaiting Fionna's arrival to take on an adventure that will go easy on their battered and bruised bodies, Marshall Lee and Flint begin talking about their histories, sharing some of their biggest childhood mysteries and painful memories.
"Y'know, your girlfriend takes forever."
Marshall Lee's words jerked Flint from his thoughts and made the prince look up to see the Vampire King lounging in midair with his guitar slung across his back while he absently braided long leaves of grass together and tied them into chains. He already had about a foot of linked braids. Had Flint really been lost in thought that long?
"She'll get here when she gets here. You know Prince Gumball had an errand for her tonight. It might've taken longer than she expected." Flint's tone was not an amused one. Since his last outing with Marshall Lee along, he'd been deep in thought about his own life. He'd begun talking more often with Gumball, using his advice to learn how to direct the fiery, volatile anger that Flint dealt with in more productive- or at least safe- ways. He'd also spent some time talking to Marshall while the vampire healed from his hurts two weeks prior. They never really talked about anything important, but Flint found that, in the right mood, Marshall could be fairly serious and thoughtful. Both put more effort into talking to one another for the sake of Fionna whose favorite adventures were those that included both her favorite boys. Things would be a little different tonight, however, as Marshall was still hurting and just barely healed enough to go out and Cake wouldn't be coming. Fionna had told the boys that she had heard of a ruined castle that sounded tame enough for Marshall's weaker state but seemed to still be a great place to explore. As she so often did, she'd gotten the lead from Choose Goose who'd traded her the castle key for an old keystone from a dungeon she'd cleared a year before.
"Hopefully she didn't get held up by a bunch of goblins again," Marshall grunted, earning a piercing and slightly guilty glare from Flint.
"That's not funny. That was a horrible situation and we all got hurt because of it. If you were human, you'd have died for sure."
"If I was human, I would've died a heck of a long time before now. Probably wouldn't have lived past seven," Marshall muttered absently, even if it was frightening to think about. Flint glanced at him again, worried but curious.
"Gumball told me you weren't a Vampire back then... that you were trapped in this world. He said the Ice Queen took care of you. Is that true?"
"She was Symone back then... that was before the crown made her crazy. I got pretty sick, and she saved me..." Both averted their gazes from one another. Flint knew it was a very tender subject, just like his own past which Marshall had shown some interest in but had been fairly respectful of the painful memories.
"What about you... and... Asha, wasn't it?"
"The fire lion, my mother... yes. I told you my birth mother sent me away because she was told I'd overthrow her, but the servant who was supposed to kill me couldn't bear to do it. I don't really know the whole story, but I ended up outside a fire lion den and Asha... she stopped the male lions from eating me, and raised me as her own. I'm afraid I never forged a new relationship with my birth mother like you have, though."
"Mom's got a good heart for a demon... but I know your mom. I don't blame you. But... what about your dad? I've never heard of a Flame King."
Flint's breath caught in his throat. "There... there never was a Flame King... my mother married a trusted servant and just made him a royal consort. She wanted a daughter to raise. I've heard... that it was my father who was supposed to take me away and kill me. But when my mother found me years later, apparently she tried to kill my father for his betrayal. I don't know if he's still alive. All I know is that he ran away the day my mother brought me back home and she had attacked him. I never saw his face, but people told me while I was there that I look just like him." He glanced up to Marshall. "What about you...? I never heard anything about your father after the Mazirion, only that he'd left a challenge in it for you. Fionna told me that ring was his," he nodded toward Marshall's hands. On the Vampire King's right middle finger was the aquamarine-jeweled ring he'd received from the chest of the stone battle golem in the Mazirion. Marshall glanced to it, recalling his vague memories of playing with it on his father's huge hand while the tall man wrote music and played on a keyboard one-handed and the two of them sang tunes together for hours at a time. It was why one of Marshall's favorite colors was aquamarine and why he hadn't taken it off since he'd opened up its box.
"His name was Marcel... and he was my best friend. There aren't really a lot of families in the Nightosphere, and there weren't any kids when I was still there. I spent all my time either playing by myself, exploring with our housekeeper watching after me, or following my parents around. They loved each other to death and they loved me... we were really happy, even if they were gone too often looking after the Nightosphere. When I was six, Dad started getting really sick and he couldn't go out and about with Mom anymore, so I got to spend most of a year with him all to myself and we loved it. He was already my best friend, but we got closer in that year than I've ever been with anyone else... almost anyone. The only person I've ever been close with since is Gumball, and more recently Mom again. When I was seven and I went with Mom to see her close a portal some stupid human had opened, I got trapped on the mortal side and I never saw Dad again."
"... He was human?"
"Yeah..."
"I... I'm sorry, Marshall Lee," Flint nearly whispered.
"For what?" Marshall raised an eyebrow with a bit of concern.
"For bringing up these memories for you."
"I brought them up for you too. Let's just say we're even." Marshall offered him a weak half-smile, unable to summon the effort for a real grin. Flint returned with a soft smile of his own.
"Deal."
I thought I'd give you guys a little something to tide you over til the next big chapter. I think it's important to illustrate that these guys don't hate each other, even if one is jealous and the other is terribly temperamental. Come to think of it, Marshall can get a pretty bad temper when he's having a bad day. It doesn't seem like a good mix, but I genuinely think that they could be damn good friends. And yes, I avoided the genderbent version of Bubblegum being the person who found Flame Princess. I wanted a conduit through which to introduce a little snippet about Flint and I figured I'd address the question of where his father is or at least who he was. I may or may not bring him in later. I'm thinking this particular season could look into our characters' parents a little bit. ALL the emotional drama!
-Taiylor Wallace
