Pair of hearts: Fionna's dilemma

Chapter 10

My friends

It was getting late and Gumball figured he'd have to stay here for the night while Cake was still gone. Fionna told him that she would be fine; she has BMO here to keep her company and to check up on her. Gumball hated leaving her but it was her wish so he kept it. He gave Fionna a list of foods she should eat when she get hungry, how to deal with any cramps she feels, how to make a relaxing tea to help with it; before he could say more, Fionna told him bye and close the door on his face.

He stood in silence for a while before leaving. He walked all the way home since Monochromicorn was still busy with Cake. He hummed along the way, feeling the warm rays of the sun as it started to set in the distance. He reached the Candy kingdom before nightfall; his guards greeted him and let him pass by. He greeted his citizen as they went to their homes to go to bed, giving them his wishes for them to have a good night sleep. He sighed and entered the castle, going through the throne room and up the stairs to his room.

He was humming a soft tune, putting his things away. He went directly to shower himself off before getting dressed and going to bed; he brushed his teeth and re-entered the bed room.

"Why does your room have to be an awful pink color?"

Gumball almost jumped when he saw Marshall floating above his bed, poking and prodding at the drapes above his bed.

"Why on Aaa are you in my bedroom, how did you get in here anyways?" Gumball crossed his arms.

"I'm part demon remember? I can go invisible when I want too." Marshall grinned, floating down on top of his bed.

Gumball glared at him, going over to the door; opening it. "Get out now. I am in no mood to see you at the moment."

Marshall laughed; he floated over to him, shutting the door. "Oh I didn't come here just to antagonize you like usual. No, this is entirely different." Marshall's eyes shifted from yellow to red as he glared at Gumball who stepped away.

"What were you doing at Fionna's house?" Marshall lifted himself slightly off the floor to lean over Gumball.

Gumball cleared his throat and crossed his arms. "I was merely there on the account that Fionna hasn't been exercising like she should be."

"Oh yeah, then why'd you lay your stinky hands on her then?" Marshall leaned over him a bit more.

"Oh honestly, I was just showing her the proper position as she was doing it wrong so I helped her readjust herself." Gumball leaned back.

"Nice try creep but Fionna's mine, I don't want you touching her and going anywhere near her." Marshall leaned over more, his glare darken.

Gumball nearly fell back but he kept his balance. "You can't ban me from seeing Fionna, she's my friend and I am doing everything I can to help her through her pregnancy."

Marshall growled. "Stay. Away. From. Her."

Gumball glared at him. "No."

Marshall roared, shifting himself into his enormous bat form, grabbing Gumball in one arm. "If you do not leave her alone then I will kill you." Marshall said in a demonic voice.

Gumball never showed fear. "I will not, Fionna needs me and besides, she calls me over."

"What makes you so much better that she would call you?" Marshall shifted an eyebrow at him.

Gumball glared at him, closing his eyes. "Because I'm there for her."

Marshall's glare soften, he transformed back to normal. He didn't know what to say, he stared at the ground. Gumball opened his eyes, seeing he was back on the ground before continuing.

"She calls me when you don't come over in days or even weeks. When you disappeared for three months, she called me to comfort her. She was hurt because of you. She blamed herself for everything when it clearly wasn't her fault though. Her mood swings were unstable when she made that outburst at you, her words were untrue but you took them to be true because that was what you thought of yourself. You aren't angry at her. You're angry at yourself." Gumball harden his glare.

Marshall was staring at the ground, wide and teary eyed. He didn't know if he was telling the true but it hit him hard. He shook.

"I-….I didn't mean to, it just hurt so much to hear those cruel words. I trusted her but she hurted me. I was angry with her but now, I see it's not her, it was me." Marshall brought a hand to his face to wipe away the tears. "I didn't mean on hurt her; I just wanted some space from her."

Gumball heard the sincerity in his voice, he soften his face. He lead Marshall to bed, he sat them both down. "Is this true?"

"Yes, what she said to me felt like me spatting at myself for being a complete failure in my thousand years of living." Marshall allowed himself to cry.

"Marshall, that isn't true-"

"No!" Marshall cut off Gumball. " I was crowned the vampire king, king of an entire clan of vampires, head of every individual coven across Aaa but- I ran away from my responsibilities because I felt like was too important to run an entire clan. I pushed all my responsibilities to the grand council; I made them do all my work." Marshall's tears streamed down his face more and more.

"And now my mother wants me to be the king of the nightosphere, I can't do that though, I ran away from my king duties to the Vampires. I'm only going to run away from the nightosphere duties. I'm an irresponsible king; being with Fionna was nice but then I started to think of our future, would I just run off with someone else and leave her alone? Or just spat at her no reason."

Gumball stared at him, seeing a man that was known to be fearless, a prankster, and a scary hybrid among all of Aaa; but all Gumball saw was a scared child. He put his arms around him, pulling him into an embrace.

"I was so scared but now that Fionna's pregnant, with my child, it just made me thing about what would happen in the future when that kid this older. All I saw was that I would leave Fionna for someone else and dump the kid on her to take care of or that I would be an irresponsible dad, letting my kid get into every possible danger there is or just not caring." Marshall's voice was barely readable.

"I'm scared that I won't be a good father to my child, and if I am, the kid is always going to hear about me, they're going to hear about me being a failure of king. Nothing scares me more than my child being embarrassed to have me as a father."

Gumball felt tears come down his tears, staring at the broken king and listen to everything he had to say was heart tugging. He never knew Marshall had so much problems, he always kept them well hidden. He wondered how many times Marshall has cried alone, thinking about his life and all of his mistakes.

"Shh shh, it's going to be okay, you're not a failure; you just make bad decisions. It happens to all rulers of every kingdom. Everyone makes mistakes, big or large, but we don't take it as a symbol of failure. " Gumball cupped Marshall's face, bringing it up to his.

"We see it as a lesson. Mistakes are not failures; they are lessons to help us learn so we can prevent it from happening again. It's a sign of promises; no prince or king in all of Aaa has never lived and ruled without making mistakes. It's a part of being a prince or a king, we learn and learn from our mistakes; not dwell on them." Gumball wiped Marshall's tears with his thumbs.

"You've made a lot of mistakes but that's alright, it means their lessons you can learn from, you can build a strong nation by learning from them. You can be a great king; all you have to do is get back up and take your rightful place among your people."

Marshall listened to everything he had to say, he words were the truth. He felt a huge weight that kept him down about his kingdom lift, he felt lighter.

"As for your child problem, don't feel bad. Just be there for Fionna, be the one she loves and stay with her. When the kid is born, don't think of anything that might happen, think of your child and Fionna. Do your best to make them happy, if you think that you might collapse then don't fall, call us to help you out. We can help you through every step when you need it." Gumball smiled, leaning his forehead to Marshall's.

"We're your friends; we're always there when you need us. We'll be there to help you through everything; we'll pick you up and support you. Never for one second forget that you have people that care about you because we never think of you lesser then a friend." Gumball closed his eyes, letting Marshall sink this in.

Marshall stared at him, feeling every problem and doubt he had lifted. Everything that weighted him down was gone; his mind was no longer clouded with dark thoughts. Nothing was hurting him now. Marshall smiled, hugging Gumball tightly.

"Thank you, my friend."

this was a very emotional chapter to write

i started crying when i wrote this but i stayed strong

this may be the last chapter for today

it depends on if i want to write the next one today or leave it for tomorrow

-A