Fell For Her Song

Chapter 12

Confrontation

Three days later at sunset, Gumball was still in the hospital. The doctors took gentle care of him with Princess Bubblegum at their side. All of his friends have been patient with his recovery, showing up with gifts and soft smiles. Most of the time he was asleep because of his pain medication, so his friends only visited for a short time. After looking at his X-rays, the doctor told him he had two broken ribs and his left shin was fractured. He had bruises everywhere, and his black eye was still visible, though the swelling has gone down dramatically.

The only person to not visit him in the entire Candy Kingdom was Marceline. She was either helping rebuild the kingdom or hiding away somewhere. Not many people have come in contact with her, but they understood her grieving, so they let it slide. She couldn't even think about visiting Gumball, or Gumball at all, without feeling her heart sink down to her stomach. The image of him bruised and battered made her lip quiver. She just couldn't face up to him. But she planned to. Eventually.

She absentmindedly played a few chords on her bass as she slumped in mid air. Marshall's house has been a great makeshift place for everyone to stay in for a while. The dragon kind of destroyed the entire guest bedroom wing of the palace. Marceline would have usually loved this peace and quiet she was receiving from the empty house, but today it just drover her mad. It reminded her that everyone else was out at the hospital with Gumball, while she was on her cowardly ass and playing some depressing tune on her bass.

Gumball probably hated her anyways. It's thanks to her that he wound up in that mess. Being dragged to the Nightosphere wasn't Gumball's fault, it was Marceline's. She knew something bad would happen to him, and she didn't do anything to stop the relationship from happening.

Marceline grunted and planted her feet on the ground. She gently placed her bass down and made her way over to a window. She moved aside the dark purple curtains, flinching as the sunlight hit her skin but not moving, and stared out to the sun set. She let the sun burn her a little longer before she closed the curtains. She felt herself slowly healing as she flew back over to her bass. Everyday she'd open her window in mid-daylight, thinking about visiting Gumball. All she had to protect herself from the sun was an umbrella with a lot of holes in it. Her gloves and hat were burned to ashes during the dragon attack.

Picking up her bass she made her way to the ladderway that led to the second floor. She heard the door open, and felt the sunlight hit her skin and kept her cries in, as she heard PB's laughter and Lady's voice.

"Marceline! I'm sorry!" PB cried, pulling Lady inside and shutting the door quickly. Marceline pursed her lips tightly as her skin healed itself before replying, "It's fine."

"Okay..." PB said, watching Marceline's every move. She knew Marceline was sad for Gumball, but Marceline refused to talk to her about it. "Hey, you wanna talk?" She asked for the thousandth time in three days. Marceline actually considered her offer this time, but decided against it.

"No... I'll be okay..." Marceline replied, beginning to float up to the second floor.

"Wait," PB said. Marceline turned to her friends, looking down at PB as she came closer. "Gumball's been asking for you-" Marceline's face hardened "- He wants you to visit him."

Marceline stayed quiet, staring straight through Bubblegum's forehead. She turned back around and continued floating upwards to the second floor.

"You know you can't avoid him forever, right? He'll be well enough to leave the hospital in a few days and he'll come looking for you!" PB shouted before huffing and crossing her arms. She couldn't wrap her head around why Marceline was avoiding Gumball so much. She knew their mutual feelings, but didn't understand the separation Marceline has forced on themselves.

At nightfall, Marshall and Bubblegum rolled out all the extra sleeping bags for everyone like they did every night. After everyone had situated themselves happily in their assigned sleeping bag, Marshall began setting up the cot again for Marceline.

"Marceline!" Marshall shout-whispered so he wouldn't wake anyone up. She slowly descended from the second floor to see Marshall proudly showing her the cot she had ditched last time. "You can sleep here. You were supposed to last time. Y'know it took me awhile to get it up again because last time I broke it because you slept in my bed so I just thou- and... you're gone... DAMMIT!" Marshall shouted, kicking the cot over.

Marceline zipped out the front door while Marshall's back was turned. In the night sky, Marceline flew quickly towards the Candy Kingdom Hospital. Luckily, it was probably the least damaged building in the whole kingdom. Her face contorted in regret as she looked at all of the building with a missing roof, or missing walls, doors and windows. She could see some kids sleeping in their rooms because half of the building was torn apart. She sighed. This was all her fault.

Looking through Gumball's window, she immediately began to regret visiting him. The whole reason this chaos began was because they were seeing each other. Yet, she was tired of the nagging in the back of her head, so she unlatched the window and pulled it up. She quietly slipped in and closed the window again, re-latching it.

Marceline floated over to Gumball. Just an hour before, all of the wires connected to Gumball were removed. He was supposed to leave tomorrow morning. He lay with a cast on his left leg and in a hospital gown. In the hospital bed, he slept peacefully.

He's probably peaceful because you haven't been around. Glob I'm such an idiot.

Marceline put a hand to her mouth as she felt her cries beginning to erupt. She trailed her free hand down the side of his face, avoiding his bruised cheek bones and black eye. Marceline collapsed on a nearby chair and rubbed her hands over her face before staring at Gumball.

"I'm so sorry..." She whispered to him. A tear trickled down her cheek, but she quickly swiped it away. She shook her head, trying to shake the cries away as well. After a minute she didn't feel the need to cry anymore and gave him a stern look.

"You never should have been so persistent, Gumball... Now look where you are..." Marceline grasped Gumball's hand tightly, surprised when she felt him squeeze back. She looked over at his face, which was smiling joyfully at her. She didn't return the smile, but retracted her hand from his grasp. She wrapped her arms around herself uncomfortably.

"You came..." Gumball said happily. He shifted, pulling his body up so he could have a better look at her.

"No, no, no! Don't move!" Marceline said, reaching out to him. She could see the pain in his eyes even though he was smiling at her.

"Oh, I'm fine..." Gumball said, settling himself. Marceline clenched her jaw and returned her hands to her sides. She knew every move he made probably hurt like hell. Breathing probably hurt. There was silence between them. Marceline didn't know what to tell him. She didn't plan for him to wake up. Gumball just lay happily, staring at her.

"You're... you're beautiful..." Gumball said, laughing. Marceline raised an eyebrow.

"Did they... did they give you something?" Marceline asked, the corners of her lips rising.

"Oh yeah. They gave me... everything."

"Oh, really?"

"Yawh. Y'know... you could be... you could be a butter-fly. What if you were just a stick of butter. But you're a vampire and you could fly." Gumball gave her a look that told her that he thought he was genius. She shook her head laughing. She stood up, getting a better look at him.

"I'm sorry this all happened, Gumball..." Marceline said, coming closer to him.

"It's okay, Marcy," Gumball reached up and put both hands on her shoulders, "because you... you're still my girlfriend. I think you're awesome. So it's okay..."

"No Bubba... It's not. You're kingdom is destroyed because of... It's because of me..." Marceline removed his hands from her shoulders and held them in her hands.

"No! I heard a dragon came around here and just demolished everything! You're not a dragon!"

"That dragon was sent from my dad, though..."

"You're not your dad either!"

"But my dad came here because of me! Gumball don't you see? I knew something like this would happen..."

"You knew? Why didn't you say anything?"

"I tried to before... When I first came here and you were, heh, chasing after me or whatever. I was trying to stay away from you, remember?"

"I remember. You were still pretty, so don't be sad... Remember the ball? And I danced with you. I liked that..."

Marceline smiled. "So did I..."

"Then why did you run away?"

"Because I was trying to stay away from you."

"Oh... I get it now! You were trying to stay away from me because you knew the dragon would come if you were close... to me..." Gumball looked down at his hands, frustrated.

"What's wrong?" Marceline pulled the chair closer to Gumball and sat down closer to his bed.

"I see why you tried to stay away from me now..." Gumball said, his voice cracking as tears formed in his eyes.

"Oh, Bubba, don't cry!" Marceline floated so that her body was in the air, but her head was level with Gumball's. She wiped the tears gingerly away. Gumball pushed her hands away from his face and wiped the tears away himself. He sniffed and looked away.

"You tried to stay away from me because you don't really like me, do you?"

Marceline stared at him for a little while with her jaw dropped. "Gumball, where did you ever get that idea? Of course I really like you!" Marceline asked softly, patting his hair comfortingly.

"It's just... You... You stayed away from me..."

"That was a long time ago. Before we were even together, though."

"No! I meant in these last few days," Gumball pushed Marceline's hovering body away from him roughly as more tears came and he wiped at them furiously. She hovered at the foot of his bed, staring sadly at him. "Y-You didn't even visit me... I saw everyone else, but you never came! Marceline did you not even care I broke my ribs and my leg?"

"Oh, Gumball. Of course I di-" Marceline started, her breath hitching.

"Shut up, Marceline... You're a liar." Gumball crossed his arms, letting the inevitable tears drip onto his hospital gown. Marceline left her mouth open, not knowing what else to say. A tear trickled down her cheek. This was her worst fear and it was coming true. She knew it. Gumball hated her. She bit her lip, feeling it quiver between her teeth. A whimper escaped her mouth before the rest of her tears began gushing down her face.

"I'm sorry, okay?" Marceline looked up calmly, wishing the tears would just end so she could talk clearly, "I know I'm a screw up! Okay? Is that what you wanted to hear? Gumball, I'm so sorry! I was scared that you'd... that you'd..." Marceline looked around frantically. "I gotta go..."

"No, Marceline, wait!" Gumball reached up and grabbed her hand before she could get away, before thinking it would hurt, and he cried out in pain. He pulled back his arm quickly, his broken ribs keeping him from moving to much.

"I-I can't..." Marceline stared at Gumball sadly, "I'm so sorry..." she whispered before retreating out the window and flying away.

"MARCELINE!" Gumball shouted after her.