Author's Note: Guys, words cannot describe how sorry I am that this update has taken so long. For those of you still following this story, you are nothing short of the most patient and tolerant readers I could ever ask for. Thank you!
I don't have much of an excuse as to why this update is so late, other than the fact that both college and work have been crazy busy, and I've had some personal stuff going on too.
But anyway, I want to finish this story in the next two weeks or so.

Welcome new readers and to those who kept the faith in this story during this long, long hiatus? Thank you so much, this chapter is dedicated to you. :)

Happy reading!

Only three weeks had passed since the incident in the hospital room but it felt like much longer. A lot had changed after all.

Philipinna and Duke had returned home after several more days of staying in Advent Tides to make sure Gumble was going to be OK.
Both twins still felt like their mother's presence was hanging around them though, reflected in the uneasy tension that now existed between them and their father.
Perry Boehm had become colder and more stern since in the past twenty-one days. He demanded to know where his children were at all times and when they'd be coming back. Mention of either Abadeer twin caused his face to twitch into a frown so their names had left the vocabulary Gumble and Bonni used around their father.
The change in him was drastic (and upsettingly reminiscent of Philipinna), causing both twins to badly miss the old Perry.

As much as their father had changed in the past three weeks, Bonni was much more concerned with a prominent change that had taken place in Gumble too.
He was much quieter – more reserved – less likely to engage in conversation with anybody if they didn't start it first. He was also crankier these days – angered more easily by the smallest things.
And distant. Very distant. Especially from her.
Perhaps it was a reaction to Perry's censuring of his relationship, perhaps it was fear about Lich still skulking around somewhere out there, perhaps it was just a livid helplessness at the situation in general.
But no matter what the reason, Gumble had changed into an unhappy shadow of his former self.
Truth be told, Bonni didn't like living with either Boehm man these days.
As much as she missed the old Perry, she missed the old Gumble even more.

So she spent most of her time either seeking sanctuary with her friends or finding comfort in Marceline's waiting arms.
Both forms of escape were extremely therapeutic and accommodating – but neither one did anything to fix the problems in her own family.
It was on a late July evening that Bonni first verbalised how she felt about everything.

"Have you ever just wanted to go back?"

Marceline looked down at her girlfriend.
They were lying on the bassist's bed, Bonni resting her head on the taller girl's chest, just above her heartbeat.

"Sure," she answered after a moment. "We all do. To change junk and whatever."

Bonni shook her head.

"Not what I meant," she said. "I mean, just go back and live it all again. But appreciate it this time, value it. I feel like everything was perfect just a month ago and I didn't appreciate it enough. I just spent all my time worrying about stupid little things. I never took the time to realize how good it all was."

Marceline let out a small chuckle.

"I don't think that's a problem exclusive to this scenario Bon," she observed. "I think that's life. People worry, people lose sleep over stupid things, people fixate on tomorrow instead of enjoying today. And then we get annoyed because we weren't thankful for the fun times when we had 'em. It's the human condition yo."

Bonni sighed, and then nodded.

"You're right, I guess – I think – urgh, it was all so good and now everything's just messed up," Bonni shook her head again. "Everything's gone to shit."

Marceline frowned and sat up on the bed, causing Bonni to sit up too.

"You don't think we're gone to shit, do you?" she asked quietly, and Bonni was touched by the troubled look on her girlfriend's face.

"Nein," she replied, with a small smile. "I didn't mean us. We're the only thing that's keeping me afloat right now, you're the only thing that's keeping me sane."

Marceline couldn't help but smile at that one.
She reached out and gently pulled Bonni back on to her, kissing her temple gently and settling back on the bed as she did so.

"Glad to be of service!" she grinned. "But seriously Bonni, things will get easier. I think everyone's just in the healing process right now. What happened to Gumble was a big shock to everybody's system after all. Give it time baby, things will be back to normal soon."

The redhead cuddled closer to Marceline and managed a small smile.

"I hope you're right," she said, not realizing what was happening at that very moment just across town.


Marshall felt pissed off. He had felt pissed off a lot these past three weeks but he felt especially pissed off now.
Gumble was an hour late to meet him at Starbucks and he hadn't even got so much as a courtesy text to say he wasn't going to be on time.

The tall, black-haired young man snatched his coffee back up from the table and drained the last of it, wondering if sending yet another 'Where are you?' text would be helpful at this point or just clingy.
He slammed the now-empty coffee cup down on the table and let out a small grunt of frustration, prompting two patrons nearby to give him a quizzical look.
Marshall didn't care. He was pissed the hell off.

If this had been four weeks ago, he would have been worried by now, apprehensive that something could have happened to Gumble or that there had been some sort of emergency.
But his boyfriend had been so remote from him recently. He was late for everything, didn't talk much when he got there and was impossible to get a laugh or a smile from.
And if the black-haired boy brought up the incident at all, Gumble would shoot him a disgusted look and sharply tell him that he didn't want to talk about it.
So they didn't talk about it.
They didn't really talk about anything these days.
As much as Marshall hated to admit it, Gumble just wasn't as much fun as he used to be anymore.
And that made him feel incredibly depressed. Not just for him and his relationship but for Gumble too. Lich must have hurt him a lot more than just physically if he had changed this much in the past three weeks.

Marshall was just about to go back inside the café and ask for the wi-fi code to see if he could contact Gumble via Facebook when he saw a tall, red-haired man round the corner and walk towards Starbucks.
The male Abadeer twin felt his heart sink when he saw the moody expression on Gumble's face.
No change in demeanour then.

"Hey, sorry I'm late," the gloomy-looking guy said as he came closer, his tone matching the dull look in his eyes. "I got into another argument with my dad."

Pushing back his irritation at being left waiting for sixty minutes, Marshall gave Gumble a sympathetic look and reached out to take his hand.

"Aww candy, I'm sorry to hear that, wanna talk about it?"

He hoped the use of his boyfriend's pet name would spur a positive reaction but really, it did quite the opposite.

"Nah," Gumble replied indifferently, jerking his own hand away from Marshall's. "What's the point? Nothing's going to change."

As the redhead sighed heavily and took a seat at the table, Marshall searched his brain for something comforting to say.

"Dude, your dad's still shaken up about what happened," he began gently. "Maybe if you just wait a while, you'll see-"

"Or he's just a homophobe," Gumble cut him off abruptly. "And it took this thing to bring it out in him."

Marshall shook his head softly.

"Nah man," he said. "Your dad doesn't hate gay people, he-"

"You don't know anything about my dad," Gumble cut him off again, his voice calm and non-confrontational but still antagonistic. "Let's talk about something else Marshall."

Slightly irritated, Marshall felt his eyebrows go up in surprise.
But then he swallowed his agitation and nodded.

"Sure, yeah, alright," he waited for a beat. "How do your bruises feel now? They seem to be healing really well, do they-?"

"I don't want to talk about that either Marshall," Gumble cut him off a third time. "Let's just not talk about anything to do with what happened at all, OK?"

The black-haired boy had to fight to stay cool now, but he still nodded and forced a smile.

"Sure," he said, then gestured towards the café. "Do you want a coffee?"

"Not really," Gumble replied. "I don't feel well today. I don't think caffeine would help very much."

"Oh. Right."

A short silence followed, the Abadeer man wondering if the conversation would get any easier from here.
Unfortunately, it wouldn't.
Gumble exhaled slowly as he removed his shirt to reveal a cherry pink T-shirt underneath.

"The argument started because of this T-shirt," he informed Marshall. "My father claims that it," he held up both hands to make air quotes, "makes me 'look gay'."

Marshall blinked.

"Whoa, that's pretty close-minded of your dad!" he cried incredulously. "He really said that?"

Gumble squirmed uncomfortably in his chair.

"Well...in so many words," he muttered. "He saw me in it and asked if I shouldn't be staying low-key these days, what with Lich still missing."

"Oh," Marshall said, relieved. "Well maybe your pop just meant that because it's a loud colour, you stand out more. I bet he didn't really mean anything about it making you look gay, he just-"

"Oh, taking his side, are we?" Gumble let out a small, mean laugh. "Thanks Marshall, I'm glad I came to you with this problem now!"

Marshall frowned, feeling the frustration inside him come to a head.

"Fucking shit man, I'm just trying to help!" he snapped. "And it's pretty hard to do anything to help you when you just keep biting my head off all the time!"

"I don't need your help!" Gumble immediately countered. "I'm not some poor, helpless weakling who needs everybody else to tell him what's fucking best, I can look after myself!"

Marshall looked disbelievingly across the table at his boyfriend, totally bewildered at this point.

"What the hell are you even talking about?" he asked, as perplexed as he was agitated. "I'm not telling you what's best, no one is! After what happened, we're all just trying to be there for you and-"

"I told you I didn't want to fucking talk about that!" Gumble spat.

"Well I do!" Marshall barked so loudly and forcefully that Gumble's frown turned to surprise and a woman walking by stopped briefly to give Marshall a puzzled look.

Gumble blinked in shock, and then regained the heavy frown that had taken over his features countless times in the past three weeks.

"You do? Well I don't and since it happened to me-"

"It happened to all of us!" Marshall shot. "You, me, Bonni, Marceline, Finn, Jake, Logan, Fionna, Carla, Lada, BMO, LSP – everybody! Sure, you went through the most physically painful part but you think it wasn't emotionally fucking agonising for the rest of us? You think we weren't scared and hurt and terrified? Because we were. And it'd be nice if you were considerate of that instead of just being a moody asshole all the time now."

The taller boy didn't think his frown could get any angrier and more ferocious but Gumble proved that it could.

"Well excuse me but you'd be moody too if a lunatic with a vendetta against you was running around free out there!" he retorted angrily.

"Yeah, sure, I get that part," Marshall said, in a much colder voice than he meant to use. "But this all happened because you wanted to fight for us and now you seem like too much of a coward to even do that!"

As soon as he saw the hurt in Gumble's eyes at the use of the word 'coward,' Marshall was brought back to reality and opened his mouth to take it back.
He opened his mouth to apologise and tell his boyfriend that he didn't really mean it.
That he was just scared of losing him and the fear had come out as anger.
He opened his mouth to tell him that he was sorry and he loved him.
And he would have done all that if Gumble hadn't opened his mouth first.

"Maybe you're right," the red-haired man said, looking down at the table instead of at Marshall. "Maybe this has gotten way too hard."

The black-haired man felt his words die away before they even left his mouth, shocked into a panicked silence by what he had just heard.

"W-what?"

"Yeah," as Gumble stood up, he still didn't make eye contact. "Yeah, maybe that's best. I'm sorry Marshall."

The male Boehm twin went to walk away but Marshall jumped up and grabbed his wrist.

"No Gumble, you don't mean that!" his words came out in a turbulent frenzy, he felt so frantic and desperate. "Please, no! You don't want us to break up dude, you just-"

"I don't want us to but we have to!" Gumble's voice wobbled as he snatched his hand away, still not meeting Marshall's gaze. "It's what's best, I'm sorry, I-"

"Gumble," Marshall's voice was tinged with more seriousness than Gumble had ever heard in it before. "Look at me."

"I have to go."

Marshall reached out immediately, blocking Gumble's path with both his arms and urgently trying to make eye contact with the redhead.

"Gumble, look at me!"

"No," the word was just a weak whisper as he shoved Marshall's arms away and stormed down the road, turning the corner sharply out of sight.

As tears filled both their eyes, both men failed to realize how badly they had broken each other's hearts in that moment.


Music blared from the radio as Lich lifted the heavy weight on the old, tattered bench press.
Steve Lich trotted down the stairs to the basement where all his exercise equipment lay.

"Hey Rob, I want to see you at the gas station in a half hour! Don't be late this time!"

"You got it!" Lich replied, puffing slightly from the weight of the dumbbell.

Unconvinced that his nephew wouldn't be late for his new job again, his uncle rolled his eyes and walked briskly back upstairs.
After a few more bench-presses, Lich placed the weight back in its hold and sat up, exhaling deeply.
He liked the amount of work-out stuff he could use for free here.
Turns out running away to his uncle Steve's house in the neighbouring town to Advent Tides had been a good plan! He needed a place to crash, Steve needed an attendant at his gas station.
Plus, his uncle and father hadn't spoken in years and the sunglasses and bandana he wore on the job stopped him from being recognised by anybody.
It was the perfect set-up!

Lich stood up and stretched, ready for the day ahead.
And it would be a fairly good one until a familiar face showed up at the gas station.