"Oh, my baby girl! Daddy missed you, yes he did!" Gumball cooed at Lacey who, just minutes being home from their 'honeymoon' picked up the infant who reached to him whining surprisingly for a one month old. He watched Gumball nuzzle his face against Lacey's who accepted the nuzzling and sighed as she was irritated that they kept her waiting so long but it made Marshall smile and turn that smile to Fionna.
"Thanks for watching her for the weekend and dropping her off here, it's seriously much appreciated!" Marshall thanked the blonde who just waved her hand like it was no big deal and smiled widely. She looked adoringly at Lacey, seriously living up to the Auntie title she'd been given while also remaining an amazing mother. Most women Marshall could think of would crush and crumble under the stressing adoration of three babies but here she was, happily soaking up all the attention from the twins and Lacey.
"She was adorable and well behaved! I freaking love watching her! She's only a month old but I have the feeling you'll be beating the boys off with sticks soon enough, Marsh~" Fionna joked nudging him with her elbow playfully, grinning widely at the vampire who just grinned right back. He had said it before but he didn't have a problem with his daughter dating when she was old enough to do so.
"Psh, the only one beating the boys away with a stick is Bubs there." Marshall replied with a shrug then grinned at the blonde. "If anything I'll have to keep her away from the boys with a stick. A pretty dang long one. She'll be that way, especially if she has an aunt like you~"
"Awwwe, thank you!" Fionna smiled brightly at this compliment while Gumball walked off, cooing to the scarlet eyed baby. She smiled a bit wider. "I wasn't as bad as Gumball in the beginning, was I? Cause that seems so excessively..."
"Excessive?" Marshall offered making her laugh softly at the overuse of the word and she then smiled at him. "Yeah, you were pretty gushy gushy over the twins, especially Kaitlynn. I don't know what it is with baby girls that brings out a strange side of gushing that's completely different over the cooing about baby boys. Is there really such a difference?"
"Not really but as a parent you'll figure that out when you guys have another bun in the oven~" She replied winking when he scoffed at her and she laughed rather loudly. "Trust me, Marsh. Once she starts walking, talking, you'll want another baby to replace that missing void most parents get when their babies all grow up~"
"Don't you worry, you'll only be auntie to one baby." Marshall replied firmly then smiled giving her a half armed hug and she replied to it, wrapping her arm around his waist. "I'll see you later, okay?"
"Okay! I'll call you a little later, after your little monster has gone to bed and mine have as well~" She replied happily and was then brushing past him to the front door, pulling it open and sliding out easily enough. He smiled at the sight of her reaching for her phone already, probably to call Flame King to tell him she was on her way home and that strangely made him smile fondly.
He then turned to move his hand through his hair and go confront his own little monster. He walked in the direction, still being on the first floor thankfully, of the sound of Gumball cooing over their daughter in the living room. He smiled then at the sound, how gushing, how fond he sounded and she had him completely wrapped her tiny fingers completely and totally. He'd be lying if he didn't admit she also had him wrapped around her tiny fingers as well, with her bright scarlet eyes that already held such infectious laughter, he just couldn't help himself with the tiny baby.
So far, since the time of her birth, Lacey had remained in the humanoid form she'd come out as and has yet to shown any sort of bat or vampire, even demonic side to her at all. But then again, she was one month old, so that side could probably take some time to come out of her as she got older. He didn't exactly have a guide or a mother to ask when his own demonic traits came out so he wasn't sure when she'd start behaving like a vampire. That is until he walked into the living room, spotting Gumball's surprised face, did he looked down only to blink himself.
Laying on the floor, Lacey no longer held her humanoid form but was instead an oyster pink, light gray version of herself but as a bat! He blinked, like he was trying to clarifying what he was seeing when the tiny bat wriggled, much like his daughter did, did he feel his jaw drop slightly. Gumball looked up then smiled happily him like there was absolutely nothing wrong when he picked up the tiny bat baby, who fluttered her tiny wings curiously. She rested against Gumball's chest, her scarlet irises looking in Marshall's direction curiously as well and he nearly lost it and held back laughter.
"She's so cute!" Gumball squealed softly rubbing his cheek against the top of her little bat head and she wriggled in response to it. Marshall had the deep, almost instinctual feeling that his daughter would not take to any kind of coddling from Gumball unless it was on her terms, and that made him smile.
"That she is. But be careful, baby, she is still tiny." Marshall replied smiling at the baby who looked up at her father and he plucked her rather easily from Gumball who blinked at the lost of his fuzzy, soft pink bat baby only to pout upwards at Marshall. "She'll be such the fighter, you know. With Fionna as her Aunt and me as her father, you're going to have your hands full with her when she's older."
Gumball sighed then, rather dramatically, if Marshall had to describe it at such. "I don't even want to imagine her bigger, older, than she is right now. She's so cute! I just want to hold her and never let her go." Gumball replied staring at his daughter then tilted his head to the side. "You know, she's a lot different than I thought she'd look like."
"Really? Who did you think she'd look like?" Marshall asked looking up from planting a kiss on his daughter's little bat head. She made a tiny chirping sound that made him want to weirdly squeal. She nuzzled into his chest, much like Gumball did, and settled in yawning rather cutely in his opinion.
"I thought, at first ,if it was a girl she'd look like me. A boy would look like you. But towards the end of the pregnancy I kind of imagined her looking more like You than like me." Gumball replied blushing lightly like it was embarrassing to say out loud. Marshall blinked then smiled as his daughter finally fell asleep in her nap of the day and it made him smile, her fuzzy fur and her warmth was so pleasing to hold. Like a living stuffed animal.
He then walked over sitting next to Gumball on the floor, smiling lovingly at his husband. "Baby, you should have known as a scientist babies are always half and half of their parents. Sure, everyone thought the twins would be more like their father back when we all though it was one baby. But look at them! They're like Fionna and Flame King mixed together."
"Still, I thought she'd take after you more in the genetics department." Gumball protested then played with his fingers like he was nervous saying it out loud and his cheeks burned like he was embarrassed still. "I just think a daughter who looks more like you would be more appealing to the eye, you know?"
Marshall looked at his husband, widening his eyes gently, then laughed. Lacey didn't wake, the baby already being a heavy sleeper like her father, he grinned and kissed Gumball's cheek happily. "Oh, baby, a child from you that looked like me wouldn't be impossible! But a baby that looks like you and me, well that's the perfect balance isn't it?"
Gumball blinked a few times then stared at his pale pink baby bat daughter and then smiled at Marshall then and chuckled. "I guess she is the perfect balance, isn't' she." Gumball then leaned his head against his shoulder and smiled looking at his sleeping daughter. "It's hard to believe that she's even here after eight months in the womb and then one being alive. On the outside, I mean."
"I know, right? She's so quiet, so adorable and she's easy to please half the time. And she's quiet, half the time." Marshall kissed Gumball's head softly and then Lacey's, the baby twitching then resting in place sighing. "She's the perfect balance but as a little princess she's quite the brat already, ain't she?"
"She wouldn't be your daughter if she wasn't quiet, impatient and a brat, now would she?" Gumball asked which got him an affectionate nip on the cheek and he laughed pulling away smiling widely. "She's half of you, is she not? Then she's got half of your impatience and being a brat!"
"She could get the brat half from you, you know!" Marshall protested when Lacey opened her eyes, having woken up from her parents play squabble and lifted a tiny bat hand to her eye rubbing it. "She's adorable, from you, but she can be just as bratty as you can be!"
"Oh look at that! You've gone and woken her up~!" Gumball playfully scolded with Marshall beginning to laugh in response and Gumball plucked his daughter from Marshall this time and smiled. "Hi, baby. Did Papa wake you up?"
"Or was it Daddy that woke you up?" Marshall asked smiling widely at his daughter while the baby just blinked and yawned the way a one month old could. Marshall cracked up laughing, rolling away and Gumball laughed with him, not loudly, but laughed all the same making Lacey's eyes widen at the sound. Gumball squeezed her gently, but not rough, just enough for her to feel the heat and he smiled when Marshall's arms snaked around his waist.
"We're not the perfect family, are we?" Gumball asked on a sigh when he finished laughing and Marshall nuzzled the small dip of his lower back. "Do you wanna take Lacey to your place this weekend? Do you have the baby room all finished yet?"
"Ah, in fact I do! Fionna finished it up, claiming a princess needs different nurseries but the same toys in each one." Marshall replied when he sat up and poked his daughter's little bat nose which she crinkled up in response and he smiled widely. "She'll absolutely love my place, who knows maybe she'll even inherit it from me one day!"
Gumball then smiled at that, finding it strange he should smile but also not surprised at all. Lacey was a Princess, yes, and could become Queen of both the Nightosphere and the Candy Kingdom but strangely enough Gumball could see his daughter doing something completely different and just as outrageous as Fionna or as her father would. That's honestly what made him smile, holding her a little tighter as she sighed out lightly, he could see that one day his daughter would choose adventuring over the crown but he'd be just fine with that. Maybe. Of course, he'd prefer it if she chose to be the Queen one day if she wanted to go off and adventure then fine be, she can do it as she will. But until that day, he'd raise her to be a proper Princess the only way a King can.h
"What're you thinking about so intensely?" Marshall asked rubbing the wrinkles between Gumball's eye brows, startling the King who blinked. "You always get those wrinkles when you think too long about something. Whether it's bad or not, you always get the same thinky face, you know? So what're you thinking about so intensely?"
"Our daughter." Gumball replied then smiled standing up with the baby still and firm in his arms when he grinned widely. "She'll be just as wild as you, won't she?" He looked down at Marshall, holding his hand out to help him up off the floor from where they'd been sitting.
Marshall blinked a few times then smiled taking the pink King's hand and squeezed it softly, their wedding rings lightly winking in the light of the room like secrets. He then kissed Gumball's cheek and laughed lightly. "Oh without a doubt she'll be a wild child, my dear Candy King~"
"And hopefully she'll be just as smart as I am however~" Gumball replied playfully when Marshall laughed then poked Lacey's nose again, making it wrinkle up cutely like Gumball's did from time to time and it made Marshall smile. He loved that his daughter had some of the same quirks as her Daddy and it made his heart warm at the sight of it.
"Oh she'll be just as smart. She's your daughter, after all~" Marshall replied playfully then kissed the top of his head. "Now, let's go get some food, I am rather starving~ And I bet this little bat here wants some food, huh?" She made that same tiny chirping sound that made his heart warm.
"Let's go then," Gumball replied sighing lightly then smiling, squeezing Marshall's hand. "Let's get some food, shall we?"
Marshall smiled, holding the one month old in the crook of his arm, squeezed his husband's hand back and laughed lightly. He lifted his hand kissing the back of it softly and then rubbed his thumb over his knuckles while Lacey made that same tiny chirping sound that made him smile wider. "We shall~"