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The first time the prince had a run in with Marshall Lee, it was in the middle of the woods late at night. He was searching for a magical cherry tree for his latest experiment when he heard a rustling in the bushes. He swore he could see a flash of movement out the corner of his eye, but he brushed it off as some kind of animal. It was probably just a deer, and he couldn’t be wasting any time checking. He came here for something and he wasn’t going to leave until he found it, no matter what happened.
He continued to walk down the path, noticing how the plants were becoming further overgrown the more he trekked on. He pushed through the foliage, eventually entering a meadow that was surrounded by trees. There were flowers everywhere all bathed in moonlight, but no magic cherry tree. He didn’t understand, it was supposed to be here! That’s what it said on his map. He walked to the centre of the field, wondering if he really was lost this time. Before he could start to freak out he heard a twig snap behind him. He whipped his head around to see if there was anything there, and found that there was no one to be seen in the whole meadow. This was starting to freak him out. He turned back to where he’d entered from and found that the path seemed to have disappeared entirely. All that was left were densely packed trees and bushes, which he doubted he’d be able to get through. His eyes darted around the edges of the meadow, searching for the way he’d come in, but there was no opening in the trees. It was like they’d shifted around, he was definitely going to have to call Fionna to get him out of here. He took his candy cell phone out of his pocket and went to phone her, but before he could press the button his phone was snatched right from his hands by some unseen force.
Gumball frantically looked around, trying to see who’d taken his phone “Who are you? I command you to reveal yourself!” He said in a confident tone, trying to cover up his fear. Princes weren’t supposed to be scared.
The only thing he got in response was a menacing laugh. It was low and uncaring. Whatever this thing was, it was mocking him. He felt a hand on his shoulder push him to the ground, shoving him into the forest floor. He fell on his face, attempting to fight off whoever was pinning him down but in the end his struggle was futile. He heard the person laugh, sounding less evil this time. They eventually let go of the Prince, letting him turn to see who his attacker was. Gumball rolled over, looking up at the man who was hovering over him. He was silhouetted against the moon, causing his features to be harder to make out. Despite this Gumball could clearly pick out a pair of bright white fangs. His breath hitched and he moved to get up and run away but he was stopped by the man’s foot on his chest, pinning him to the ground with his vampiric strength.
“Prince Gumball…what’re you doing out here? I didn’t think this was your scene.” The strangers voice flowed like hot lava. It was sweet and soft, but there was a threatening edge to his tone.
Gumball’s breathing was frantic as he tried to push the man off, but the more he resisted the further he dug his heel in. Eventually he gave up and the man stepped off of him, letting him catch his breath. “Who are you..?” He said nervously, staring into the vampire’s dark eyes. He snickered at him in response.
“You think I’m gonna tell my dinner what my name is?” His voice was still cool and smooth. “Sorry your majesty, but I don’t care about your status.” He ruffled Gumball’s hair, messing it up and giggling when the Prince protested.
“If you hurt me, Fionna will kill you.” Gumball said through his teeth, attempting to seem threatening but coming off as fearful.
“I don’t know who Fionna is, but I don’t think she could kill me.” The vampire mumbled, reaching down to brush his hand across the princes face. “No one is coming to save you, prince. You’re stuck with me.” He smiled down at him.
“G-get off me..” Gumball attempted to shove the man off one more time, to which the vampire responded by holding him down with one hand on each shoulder.
“My name is Marshall Lee, by the way.” Marshall leaned forward and pulled gumball up, pushing him against a tree and forcing him to sit upright. Prince Gumball’s eyes widened as Marshall pushed his head to the side, exposing his neck.
“No- stop, wait-“ he said breathlessly, trying to pull back from Marshall’s touch and pushing himself against the tree.
“No more waiting.” He said, moving towards Gumball’s neck and building the anticipation. Marshall grabbed both of his wrists and held them together tightly to stop him from squirming. Gumball shut his eyes tightly, he couldn’t believe this was how he’d die. He felt cold lips against his skin and braced for the pain of the bite, but it never came. When he opened his eyes Marshall was gone, and he saw a clear path out of the meadow had opened up. He frantically got up and sprinted towards it, running out of the forest as fast as he could. He took a moment to catch his breath before making his way back to the candy kingdom. He didn’t stop thinking about Marshall, wondering why he hadn’t finished him off.
The second time the two of them met, it was at one of Prince Gumball’s infamous parties. Marshall had decided to crash it. He showed up late and once he got there he’d made it his mission to scare the shit out of any candy person that got too close. It got even more fun for him once he realized the candy people exploded when they got scared. He watched them die with little to no remorse, waiting for the Prince to show up to his own party. Eventually one of the banana guards caught on to what he was doing, so he subtly left the main hall and headed down one of the corridors of the castle, peeking through every door he passed. Eventually he came to Gumball’s chambers, to which he slowly pushed the door open.
There he found his Prince, sitting in his bed looking worried. He was wearing a fancy pink suit and looking all dressed up, it was hard to resist tearing him to pieces. Marshall quietly floated into his room, making sure he didn’t notice he was there. He moved so that he was directly above gumball.
“Boo.” He said, causing Gumball to jump. He looked up with fear in his eyes, and once he realized who it was he narrowed his eyes at Marshall.
“What are you doing here?!” He said, sounding angry.
“I wanted to see you. I didn’t know candy people died when they were scared.” Marshall taunted, floating over to the door and closing it so that Gumball couldn’t escape.
“What did you do?” Gumball asked nervously, not liking the implications of what he said. Gumball took another step back as Marshall hovered in his direction.
“I crashed your party, Gumball.” He giggled to himself as he took the princes hand and planted a kiss on the back of his palm. “And I’m not leaving.” Gumball tore his hand away from Marshall. “Feisty, huh?”
“Shut up. Go away, I don’t want you here.” Gumball pushed him away and got up from his bed, keeping his tone firm. Marshall put his hand to his heart, pretending to be offended.
“Ouch. you’ve got thorns, don’t you Gumball? I feel hurt.” He sounded genuine, but one look in his eyes could reveal how little he actually cared. There was no emotion in them, he looked dead. Gumball supposed he was dead.
“If you’re going to kill me, you should just get on with it.” Gumball stared at the floor, feeling small.
“I’m not going to kill you, you’re too pretty to die.” Marshall stated as if it was obvious. He placed his hand on Gumball’s cheek, lifting his face to look him in his eyes and using his thumb to wipe off some of his pink lipstick. He stuck his thumb in his mouth and sucked the colour out of it, keeping eye contact. Gumball’s face got slightly pinker than it already was. He couldn’t take his eyes away from the monster standing before him. This man who’d almost killed him, who still could very well do so if he changed his mind, was making his heart beat faster than a train.
“You’re staring.” Marshall said, smiling sickly and purposefully showing off his fangs. He shoved Gumball into his bedroom wall, putting a hand around his throat and holding him there as he planted his feet on the ground. He wasn’t using enough force to do any damage to him, but it was enough to give him a scare. Eventually he let go, instead taking both of his hands and pushing them up against the wall. He moved closer to gumball, kissing him on the cheek. Gumball’s breathing was heavy as he relaxed for a moment, closing his eyes before realizing who was doing this to him and pushing Marshall off.
“M-Marshall, stop it-“ Gumball sounded vulnerable. He knew that Marshall could do anything he wanted and he wouldn’t be able to stop him. He wasn’t sure if he wanted to stop him. To Marshall Gumball was an open book, so easy to read. He could pick apart his every emotion, thought and feeling. Marshall took a step away from him, observing his body language. He lifted his feet off the ground, hovering a bit closer to Gumball to see his reaction. He held his ground. He got closer and closer and closer until he was close enough to bite and suck all the colour out of his bright pink complexion. Gumball felt one of his fangs drag across his skin, leaving a small scratch. Marshall pulled back and laughed mischievously, he clearly enjoyed teasing Gumball. Marshall flew over to the window and left, not even saying goodbye. He left Gumball with a cut on his neck and an ache in his chest. He felt dizzy.
The third time they saw each other Gumball had been out for walk in the castle gardens when he heard someone cursing to themselves. It sounded a lot like Marshall. He quickly went to go check it out and found the vampire sitting against a wall in the shade with scrapes and burns all over, coughing up a bit of blood too. “Oh my glob, what happened to you?” He reached down to touch Marshall but he hissed in response, flinching away from Gumball. “You’re all messed up…”
“Yeah, I think I know that already Sherlock.” He winced as his hand accidentally made contact with the sunlight. It was almost midday and soon the sun would be directly over the two of them, which meant Marshall would no longer have a place to hide.
“We need to get you inside. Any ideas?” He said nervously, sitting down next to Marshall. He didn’t say anything back, this was his first time not having any power over the situation. He avoided Gumball’s worried gaze, staring in front of him and ignoring the prince’s presence as the sunlight slowly crept closer.
“You can’t just ignore me. You’ll die.” Gumball tried to reason with him.
Marshall scoffed. “Why would you care about whether or not I die?” His voice was weak. He didn’t sound as confident.
“I don’t know. Can you just cooperate with me? I can get an umbrella.” Marshall nodded in response, still not making eye contact. He watched the Prince leave and return just in time. Marshall was now practically glued to the wall, narrowly avoiding being exposed to the sun as Gumball passed him the umbrella. It was going to take a while for the burns to heal. Gumball led him by the hand back indoors, bringing him to his bedroom. Marshall had flashbacks from the other night being back in there.
Gumball sat him down on the bed, and started asking him questions. “Why did you come here?” He said, taking a spot next to Marshall. The cool silk sheets felt nice on his damaged skin.
“I had a run in with a vampire hunter. I got pretty scraped up when making my escape, and the kingdom was the safest and closest place I could think of.” Marshall laid back on Gumball’s bed.
“Hm..how do I fix you up..?” He said a bit worriedly. He didn’t know how vampires worked, but he still wanted to help Marshall for some twisted reason. Even after all the stuff he did.
“Oh my god, you really care that much?” Marshall rolled his eyes, smiling a bit.
“Yeah, I guess I do. Now tell me how I can help you.” Gumball sounded determined.
“There’s only one thing that can help me get better.” Marshall said, smirking slightly. He sat up on the bed, turning to Gumball and whispering something in his ear. “Even a drop of blood and I bet all of this would heal up right away~..”
Gumball looked Marshall in his eyes, looking a bit irritated. “…fine.” Marshall’s eyes widened.
“Seriously? Are you being for real?” He said, getting a bit excited at the idea.
“Yeah. Just don’t drain me or anything.” He said nervously, tilting his head so that Marshall could bite him.
“Wow, I didn’t think that would work.” Marshall put his hand on Gumball’s shoulder and leaned in, placing his lips on his skin. He bit down as gently as he could manage, trying not to hurt him.
“Oww…” Gumball’s eyes were shut tightly as Marshall drank his blood. It hurt a decent amount, but it wasn’t unbearable. He could get through it. Marshall let go after about a minute, a bit of hot pink blood dripping from his mouth as he pulled back. Gumball thought he looked pretty with it. The burns and scratches healed over almost instantly and Marshall had his strength back. “Are we…friends?” Gumball asked, seeming unsure of himself. He looked in the mirror that was across his bed, seeing how his pink skin had significantly dulled. It didn’t really matter to him, it would go back to normal the next day.
“If you want to be, sure.” Marshall brushed a stray hair out of Gumball’s face, hesitantly reaching down to intertwine their fingers.