"You… really killed her?" Marshall nodded in response. Gumball hadn't really seen Marshall's dark side before. "Why would she do that?" Marshall wasn't sure if he was ready to tell.
"I guess she just snapped." Gumball moved on to the next gash.
"Well, that's one less supernatural being to worry about, then." Another joke, but one that only incited a small amount of laughter from either of them. Marshall didn't find killing funny anymore. In fact, he felt kind of bad about it. He wondered what the other vampires would think of him. Then he wondered about another thing that had been bugging him for a while.
"So, I barely saw Fionna at the party. Where was she?" Gumball squeezed more blood out of the cloth.
"Well, she rescued me from Ice Queen." Marshall figured that the Queen had a hand in this. "Then I asked her out." Gumball sensed that Marshall wasn't happy about that fact. "I came downstairs and you weren't there. Cinnamon Bun started talking to me and I had no idea what it was about."
"Yeah, neither do I. Sometimes I think she's half-baked."
"Don't be rude! It's a serious condition." Gumball looked displeased.
"Sorry. I didn't know." Gumball moved to the next gash, and handed Marshall a towel to wipe the blood from his hands and face.
"So, why were you curious about the party?" Marshall inhaled slightly at the dull pain of the wound cleaning. Gumball added another drop of tonic.
"Uh…Well…" Marshall didn't know for sure, but he thought maybe it was jealousy.
"She refused me, you know."
"Why would that matter? That doesn't matter to me. It's not my business."
"Don't kid me." Gumball saw right through the act. He always did. "I know you've got a thing for her." Marshall was at a loss for words. "You know, however this works out, at least one of us is going to be unhappy. She might not choose either of us."
"Pinky… I-"
"No, you're not sorry. You're going to steal her from me."
"I'm not going to steal anything!" Marshall interjected. He hated when Gumball thought he knew everything. Which he usually did, but it made Marshall feel inferior.
"You already have. You stole my heart, and never gave it back." Two whole centuries ago.
"Seriously? That wasn't my fault. My mom took me to the Nightosphere." And Marshall was always the one being called childish. Sheesh. Gumball stood up and walked away a few steps, back turned to Marshall.
"And you didn't do a single thing about it." Gumball could be a real pain in the ass, especially when he was all pouty.
"I never told you why. There's two sides to every story."
"Well, tell me then!" As he swerved to face the vampire, Gumball's supressed anger came to the surface.
"I am royalty, you know. My subjects were angry about our relationship, and they decided to make their own government."
"You mean…" The prince's eyes widened in an extreme sense of realization.
"Yeah. That war was about you." Marshall stood up slowly, masking his pain. "I'm just glad that you survived." Gumball felt terrible. He was mad at Marshall for such a long time, but it was his own fault. He always made fun of Marshall, but now he realized that Marshall had made some extremely tough decisions, even though he hated it. The vampire headed toward Gumball's room to grab a clean shirt. Gumball followed.
"How could you let them revive The Lich? She killed my family! My subjects!" Marshall slipped on the Rock Shirt he had given Gumball. "I had to hire an Adventuress to put her back in captivity." The legendary Buffy, to be exact. Didn't Cake have a girl-crush on Buffy?
"Do you think my mother even let me go outside? She cared enough to keep me alive, but not enough to let me do what I wanted." He faced the pink Prince again. "Never has, Never will." Gumball remained silent. Marshall thought that the Prince only loved what people could do for him. That's why he was gunning for Fionna… She was the toughest living person in Aaa.
"You better not bleed all over that shirt." Gumball wasn't really sure how to handle this situation, emotionally.
"Why? Am I… frustrating you, Pinky?" Marshall made a mock serious face.
"Really, you can stop calling me pinky any time now." Gumball fumed at the vampire. Marshall choked on a laugh.
"Would you rather I call you… Bonamy?" Marshall tried as hard as he could to supress a laughing fit. The prince rubbed his temples by spreading his right hand across his face. He spoke through clenched teeth.
"No! Can't you just call me 'Prince' or 'Gumball' like everyone else?"
"No can do. You know, pinky, you haven't changed a bit." Marshall returned to his casual float, mocking his high-strung acquaintance.
"I could say the same for you." Marshall could physically see the prince trying to keep composure. Gumball inhaled, keeping his cool. "Well, I'm going downstairs to see if Fionna is alright. You need to stay here." Marshall crossed his arms, saying nothing as the Prince exited the room. He became invisible and followed quietly.
Not sure where to go from here. I wanted to get Marshall and Fionna together sometime soon so I could start working on their 'togetherness', but I wasn't sure how to get them there. I also still needed to get a confrontation with Cake. And I also still didn't know how long this story was going to be. Again, I was surprised that no one else had found my hideout. Only Gunther. I stopped writing and looked at the jot notes covering the walls. They were all hastily chiseled, as if I would forget my ideas if I didn't write them fast enough. I munched on another fish that I grabbed from one of the shelves. Another difficult part. Maybe if I just wrote, it would carve its own path. I decided to take a nap. Sleeping on it would help me figure it out.
[Originally, Ashley was a vampire. But someone pointed out the fact that her official species was declared "wizard" so I had to go back and change it. If you find any mistakes regarding Ashley's species, please let me know so I can fix them.]