It Started With Tears

Sometimes in life even the strongest of people break, it is then we find who our truest friends are, and even more than that it is when we find who has been there all along and what they're willing to do for those they love.

Marshall Lee The Vampire King sat on the couch in the tree house leaving a pile of gray shriveled strawberries in his wake. Currently he was waiting for Fionna and Cake to return and was there for two reasons. One, because he hadn't really bothered the blonde lately or threatened to eat the feisty feline… and two, because she had completely and utterly ignored him a few hours ago as she raced from the candy kingdom and that wasn't like her to do so. Normally that wouldn't bother him because everyone ignored him, but this was Fionna we're talking about, and Fionna never ignores anyone ever. Especially not him.

'Maybe Bubba got kidnapped by that crazy ice cougar again.' The thousand year old teen look alike thought with a smirk as he tossed another drained berry into the container, and floated throwing it into the trash. The smirk soon fell as he scowled, his mind reminding him of a very irritating thought as he now floated around the house. Not only was Fionna going to save Pinky, but she was actually saving her boyfriend of almost a year. The thought made him mad too, he had no idea what the awesome, wicked cool, and totally algebraic Fionna saw in Gumball. He was so….feh…. The Vampire King didn't want to think on it anymore because the more he did the angrier he got.

His anger was soon forgotten when the sound of the door opening down stairs met his ears. Oh he had a plan and turning invisible he floated just high enough for the blonde to walk right under him, he was gonna scare her big time to teach her not to ignore her best friend, intentionally or not. He smirked watching the door open and preparing for his trick, however the sight that met him made his heart drop, and any thought of pranking the blonde flew straight out the window as she rushed past him and entered the bathroom locking the door behind her, Fionna was crying.

"What the glob?" Marshall muttered, but before he could think to make himself known to his best friend Cake quickly entered the room.

"Baby-Cakes? Are you all right?" she asked softly to the door. There was a moment of silence and after several beats Fionna responded sounding happy as ever.

"I'm fine! Perfectly fine, just getting into the shower!" the blonde said convincingly to her kitty-sister who didn't look too convinced.

"Are you sure Sugar?"

"Yup! I'm gross and after I'm going to bed, go see Mo-chro, I know you guys will want some alone time and all now that you're…" The sound of the shower turning on cut off Fionna's sentence, however Marshall being the very smart guy he was easily put two and two together once he spotted the shiny ring on Cake's paw. He'd been around the block a couple thousand times and knew exactly what that kind of ring meant. Cake was engaged.

"Ok Baby…if you need me…" Cake said softly through the door leaving the offer hanging in the air as she was steadily ignored by Fionna. Turning the cat suppressed a shiver and smoothed out her suddenly poufy tail before walking from the room.

O0o0o0o

Marshall waited watching the door until finally the sound of the shower stopped and he could hear the sound of the blonde slowly getting into her pajamas. Still he waited for almost a half hour until finally the door knob jiggled as Fionna slowly walked from the bathroom.

"Cake? Cake you home?" she called out peering around for her sister and released a sigh pulling her towel from her still wet head. "I guess I'd better get used to this…being alone…first Cake, now Gumball…" just saying the pink prince's name was enough to send the girl into tears once again, she couldn't believe it. Next week would have been a year for them, and those dreams were dashed though when he brought her onto his balcony tonight after being saved from the ice queen, right after Lord Monochromicorn proposed to cake, not the best way to break up with someone.

Marshall watched with a pang in his heart as Fionna cried, she was Fi, his Fi who was never scared of anything, who never cried and kicked all sorts of butt, and she was crying because of Pinky?! Oh he was gonna melt his sugary butt into a puddle of goo when he finds out exactly what happened. Shaking away those thoughts as the girl fell to her knees he finally decided to show himself, and becoming visible he floated over to where the adventuress was sitting and wrapped his arms around her sitting behind her and rocking the human girl slowly back and forth.

O0o0o0o

Fionna was startled when she felt the arms wrap around her, pulling her close, but immediately from a mixture of the cool skin, his familiar smell, and the sound of his humming voice she knew who it was and relaxed as she tried so hard to stop crying. She couldn't cry in front of Marshall, he was the flippin' Vampire King, the next in line to rule the Nightosphere for globs sake! She couldn't let her liquid weakness show that was so not math. Now he'd just pick on her for not being tough, and call her a weenie. However much to her surprise he didn't, he just continued to hum as he held her tightly. Finally Fionna recognized the tune he was humming softly.

"Marsh, is that….are you humming the fry song?" Suddenly the Vampire King realized that that was exactly what he was doing, he hadn't even noticed but as he continued he too recognized the tune.

"Yeah, I guess I am. Why are you crying Fi?" The blonde shook her head.

"If I tell you you'll just laugh at me, you always laugh at me."

"I always laugh because we're usually doing something stupid. Besides, I won't laugh at you; especially since whatever it is has made you so upset. So tell me what's wrong." He said shifting the blonde in front of him so he could look at her face, wiping away the stray tears she had tried so hard to stop.

"Gumball broke up with me." Fionna said dissolving into tears once again. "He said he tried to love me but we're just too different, and….and he's right, Marsh he's so right and I knew it…from the very first kiss I knew it and I tried too. I was just so happy and he made me so happy but I knew it wouldn't last…I love him Marshy, I love him I really do."

As much as he was ashamed to admit it, the news that Gumball had broken up with Fionna lifted his heart incredibly; however the effect that it was having on his Fi was more than enough to make him feel guilty for being happy about it.

"Hey, hey, hey no more crying." He said pulling the blonde onto his lap as he wrapped his arms even tighter around her as he pulled her closer feeling as she snuggled her head under his chin.

"I don't know what to do Marsh, he was my everything." Never had Fionna sounded so defeated.

"No he wasn't, if he was your everything, then you would be his as well...Fi he never deserved you."

"But I deserve him! He's a prince! He's sweet and caring and nice-

"And he is weak, and afraid of fighting, and always getting kidnapped by some crazy ice cougar! Fionna would you truly want to spend the rest of your life with someone who you always need to save? Relationships are a partnership where two people put their all into everything they do and you put in more than your fair share, you deserve someone so much better than him."

'You deserve a king not a prince! You deserve me…but do I deserve you Fi?' he thought desolately.

"It hurts so much; I tried so hard for him." She said softly letting his words soak in, the fact that he had used her whole name and not her nickname was enough to let her know that he was speaking seriously.

"I know you did Fi, I know."

"I wore stupid dresses, and went to more balls and on adventures less, and took two flippin' baths a day! I wasn't even allowed to hang around you…" This news caught Marshall off guard and he looked down at her in surprise.

"What?"

"It wasn't PG who said it but I heard it around the castle enough. They said that if I hung around you while dating PG it would reflect poorly on him because of who I associate with. But you're my best friend I couldn't not see you Marsh, I couldn't."

"Well that explains the serious cut in hang time." He mumbled, but Fionna caught it.

"I'm sorry."

"Love makes people do stupid things." He said simply remembering all of what Ashley put him through and how he put up with it. "Are you ok now?"

"Yeah." The blonde said climbing from his lap, Marshall reluctantly letting her go as he floated from his spot on the ground. "What are you doing here anyways?" she asked curiously. Turning to face him after grabbing a brush and sitting on her bed raking it through her hair and wincing at every pull and tug. With a sigh he took the brush from her hands and sat behind her again as he slowly brushed through her tangled golden locks, the thought made him smile just a bit, it kind of reminded him of the little things he would do with his mom before his dad died and she went off the flippin' deep end. For a moment Fionna thought he was going to ignore her question as he gently ran the brush through her hair easily taming the vicious knots, but finally he spoke.

"Well I came here with the intention of scaring your pants off because you completely ignored me when you ran out of the candy kingdom, so after a while I came here to enact my evil plan and saw you crying." He said simply, it wasn't the entire truth but she didn't need to know he'd eaten all of her strawberries while waiting. "I don't like seeing you cry." He said softly as he continued brushing the blonde's golden hair in silence as they both sat quietly.

"I just want someone to love me…" Fionna muttered her eyes glued to the ground.

"People do love you Fi."

"Cake doesn't count Marsh, she's family she's obligated to love me. I want someone who wants to spend time with me and wants me to be the same way I always am. I want someone who wants all these things with me because they love me. And if so many people love me name one, name one person in all of Aaa who loves me like that Marsh." Fionna said softly listening to the silence, she didn't expect to hear the words from the Vampire's mouth and he was just as surprised to hear them too.

"I do." Silence rang through the room and Fionna turned to face the raven haired vamp. He had actually heard her heart skip a beat.

"W-what did you say?"

"I said I do. I love you. I want to spend time with you because you make me happy, I never want you to change because who you are is who you've always been, the rough and tumble adventuress who likes to fight, get dirty, and go pixie hunting with me. I want so much to be the one person to make you happy but to you we're bros, we always have been and I never wanted to ruin that by telling you this but now I just can't flippin' shut up and I really need to shut up!" he said putting the brush down and climbing over the blonde as he floated towards the window.

"Marshall wait!" Fionna said quickly clambering from the bed however in the moments it took for her to rush to the window he was gone leaving her with the weird sensation of butterflies in her tummy.

O0o0o0

"I'm an idiot, a flippin idiot! What the GLOB was I thinking?!" Marshall thought as he hurriedly made his way home after his unintentional confession to the adventuress. "That was not something she needed to hear right now! Fi was upset about Hubba-Bubba-Bubble-Butt and now she's gonna be more upset over this!" He made it to his cave in record time and slammed the door shut behind him making his way to his room before flopping on his bed, he really didn't feel like floating at the current moment, and the comfort of flopping on a bed face first was exactly what he needed at the moment. Soon enough he fell asleep and let his dreams take him away.

O0o0o0

"Fionna, we need to talk."

"Sure what's up PG?" Fionna said happily following the bubblegum prince as he motioned her to follow. She had just witnessed Monochromicorn propose and seeing the happiness glowing around her big sister Cake was almost enough to bring the human girl to happy tears. Eventually he led her out onto a balcony where a large majority of the candy kingdom could be seen shining beautifully below them.

"Fionna, I need to tell you something very important." Suddenly she felt her heart skip a beat that was exactly how MoCro had started his proposal.

"Gumball?" she said nervously. Yes she loved him, but she definitely wasn't ready for this of all things!

"Fionna, you mean a lot to me, and you're one of my closest friends…

'Oh glob, oh glob, oh glob, I'm not ready for this!'

"I can't do this anymore. Fionna I know I said I'd try and I have, honestly I truly have but I… We're just too different. I think we should see other people, people who would be better suited for both our needs." Gumball said softly. Fionna could feel her heart wrench at his words.

"But I…but I thought we were working…PG, I-

"Fionna, when you're with me you're different, you're quieter, more resigned and it's not you. To be with me you'll have to become someone you aren't, and I never want you to change. I care about you deeply, you're one of my very best friends and as a friend I do love you, but not in the way you want me too, I'm sorry." Fionna was speechless for a long while and to fill the awkward silence Prince Gumball began speaking once again.

"I know that this hurts, but it's best because if we wait it will only hurt more. I am sorry Fionna, I'll give you some time alone…I do want to still be friends if that's at all possible." He said softly leaving the blonde on the balcony. Her heart had been broken and torn to shreds; she couldn't be here, not here, anywhere but here. Running from the balcony Fionna ran from the castle and raced home. She needed to be alone right now and raced through the grassy fields until she entered the tree house making her way to her room.

"Hey, what're you crying for? You're free now." A familiar voice said making the blonde look around the room.

"Marshall? Where are you?"

"I'm right here." Fionna turned still unable to find her best friend.

"Marshall Lee quit playing games! Where are you?"

"Jeeze you're blind. I'm right here." She turned around once again looking above her and even below her under the bed and the Vampire King was nowhere to be seen.

"If you're invisible you're just being mean. And what do you mean I'm free now?"

"You're free." He said simply as if that should explain everything. Fionna sighed and plopped onto the bed.

"I just don't understand." She said softly and suddenly felt as a weight pushed her down onto the bed as slowly the form of the Vampire King appeared on top of her as her heart raced, though not in a bad way. "I knew you were just being mean." She said softly making him grin a devilish smirk as he lowered his face stopping mere centimeters from hers.

"You really are dense you know. You Fi are free now." He said brushing his nose against hers as her breath hitched. "You're free to be you again, to go out and hang out with whoever you want, to do whatever you want and feel no guilt for it. You're free to be happy." He said murmuring the last part into her neck and giving the blonde goose bumps as he gently kissed along her neck.

"H-how do I do that?" she asked softly blushing at the contact between his lips and her neck.

"Easy, do what you've always done; just do what your heart desires, no regrets, no holding back, live for you." He breathed as his lips connected with hers molding them to his will as quickly she responded to the kiss biting his lips with little nips as he did the same to her, brushing his tongue along her lower lip he was granted access as the kiss deepened. He held her body tightly to his breaking the kiss and giving her a moment to catch her breath before crashing his lips against hers once again. He could hear her heart racing and finally pulled back leaving the blonde underneath him with swollen lips and a pink face.

"You need to wake up now." He said softly. "I know you're afraid, I'm just as afraid as you are, you know? You should find me before I go do something stupid."

"All this is just a dream?" Fionna asked.

"Is it?" he asked with a smirk. Winking at her he vanished into a black cloud of mist. "Dream or not I do love you, now stop being a lumpin' weenie and get out of bed for glob's sake, like I said I'll probably go do something stupid!"

Fionna opened her eyes and looked around her room blinking slowly then she suddenly remembered last night in vivid detail, her crying, and Marshall's sudden but very welcome appearance, him brushing her hair, his confession and how he panicked after. Then his voice from her dream ringed in her head.

"You should find me before I go do something stupid."

'Marshall…'

O0o0o0o0

"I knew you'd come to your senses and want to rule the Nightosphere!" Queen Abadeer said beaming at her son; she just knew he'd get over the fry business one day.

"Ma that's not why I'm here…" his eyebrow twitched in annoyance as she ignored him.

"Well of course we'll have to redecorate, I'm sure these curtains won't inspire such fear for your rule…"

"Mom…"

'Curtains?! She wanted to talk about curtains!?'

"But then again I heard somewhere that retro was in…" she said quietly crossing her arms and tapping her chin in thought.

"WOMAN! I am not here to take over the Nightosphere! I was requested to be here by you! What do you want!?" Marshall snapped glowering at his mother, he was still pissed about his fries, who the heck was she to eat his flippin' fries?!

"Marshall Lee! You will not speak to your mother this way!" she growled partially transforming into a giant creepy squid-like monster before reverting back to normal as she smiled at him. "You see I know we haven't gotten along so well since the whole fries business but I wanted to give you an offer. I want you to rule the Nightosphere for just one weekend, and if you don't like it you never have to do it again, no questions asked." Marshall stared at her in annoyance, there had to be a catch and no way was he sticking around for it, especially since last time had almost gotten Fionna and Cake killed.

"Nope, later." He said turning and walking form the room leaving his mom fuming as he closed the door behind him. Who did she think she was? What did she think that offering him a job he didn't want would make up for all the stuff he's gone through? Because of her he was pretty much in exile from his home world, he was seen as weak and a freak by the vampire community because he fed off of shades of red and not flesh and blood, and even his title, 'The Vampire King' that was more of a mockery than anything else. Sure he had definitely proven his dominance because of his demonic strength earning him the title, but because he didn't want to even be in the Nightosphere it was more of a taunt, even if it did sound cool. And the fries…the fries were the straw that broke his back! They were going to be the last real food he tasted before his mother brought him to be turned, and what did she do? SHE ATE HIS FRIES! Not cool. As he made his way to the exit of the Nightosphere a familiar voice called out to him that annoyed him more than anything.

"Hey Marshy-baby." His narrow eyes landed on a familiar woman as he turned his head glaring at her, today was just not his day.

"I'm in no mood to deal with you."

"Well well, someone's in a bad mood." The red head purred as she made her way towards him.

"What do you want Tess?" he growled. She was well known in the vampire community and even as a kid he was never fond of her with all of her stupid pet names.

"Can't I come and say hi to my 'King'?" she asked smirking at him, her pointed teeth showing as he continued to glower at her. "I hear you're slumming around in Aaa now, that true?"

"What's it to you?" he snipped making to walk around her, however with a firm palm to the chest he was stopped in his tracks as he let out a low growl.

"You really shouldn't talk to your creator like that." Tess hissed with flashing eyes.

"You aren't my creator and you mean nothing to me, now get your hands off me…" he said pushing her hands away from him. "And go find someone else to bother." Marshall growled walking away however he froze in his tracks upon hearing Tess's words.

"We all know about your human girl, the last human in all of Aaa, am I wrong?"

"Leave her alone Tess, don't even think about it." He said whirling around to face the red headed Vampire before him.

"Marshall, Marshall, Marshall." She said tutting as she did so. "Some of the vampires here think you're weak, that you're going soft and have lost your touch. It's nothing new that you've befriended the human, after all as a child you always had the bad habit of playing with your food."

"She's not my food, but she is mine. If anyone even thinks of touching her, I'll kill them and prove to the rest of you just how much I've 'lost my touch'." Marshall said giving Tess an icy glare.

"Well you'd better go find her, after all I'm no Vampire Queen, so naturally they wont listen to me. Better get to Aaa fast, it's almost sundown. I'll see you around Marshy-Baby."

'I cant wait to see the outcome of this, they have no idea what their getting themselves into.' She thought watching as a look of shock came across Marshall's face before he quickly fled the Nightosphere.

O0o0o0

Fionna hadn't seen Marshall all of yesterday and today and had been actively searching for him too, first she had visited his cave, and several other of his known residences, then she had checked several of his secret spots, all which were empty, she had even checked the graveyard, candy kingdom and the strawberry patch, Marshall was nowhere to be found and Fionna sighed as she sat on the top of a hill as the sun sank below the horizon. She didn't like that she couldn't find Marshall, sure he'd often vanish out of the blue, but he'd usually show up by sundown, that was just his style. The plus of this whole situation was that while being busy looking for Marshall Fionna had no time to think about Gumball. Standing from her spot she turned only to gasp and jump back quickly for four cloaked figures had been standing silently behind her.

"What the glob is wrong with you people, you don't just stand behind someone all creepylike with out making any noise or something like that!" she snapped. One stepped forward and removed the hood from their black cloak revealing it to be a woman with dark colored hair.

"Are you Fionna the adventuress? The last human of Aaa?" Fionna wasn't too comfortable with these people as she looked at them wairly.

"It depends, whose asking?"

"My name is Ana, in the blue is Simon, in the white is Jess, and in the gray is Marc. We are vampires from the Nightosphere, our king Marshall Lee sent us to find you." Hearing this Fionna's eyes widened.

"Marshall, you guys know where he is?!"

"Yes." Marc in the gray cloak said. "Our king is in grave danger and he needs your help, he is having a battle with Queen Abadeer."

"WHAT!? Where is he?!" Fionna asked in a panicked voice.

"Come, we'll take you to him human." Jess in the white said.

"Yes, come with us, our king is in need of your assistance." The one in the blue, Simon said holding out his hand and motioning for her to follow.

"Ok, how do we get to the Nightosphere from here?" the blonde asked keeping her hand on her retractable sword at all times.

"There is a cave for emergency access, we'll be gaining entry from there." Ana said leading the group with Fionna in the middle, Simon in the back and Jess and Marc on both sides.

"Why are we walking like this?" Fionna asked. Being surrounded by all these strangers, friends of Marshall or not was making her nervous.

"To protect you human, King Marshall was very insistant on your protection." Ana said.

"Yes, he rarely lets his guard down." Marc commented.

"Mmmm, that is true Let us hope that is not his downfall one day." Simon said ill disguised amusement in his voice as they entered going deeper into the cave.

"Enough of this charade, can we just eat her already?" Jess snapped snatching Fionna's arm with her fangs bared making the blonde shriek as she pulled her sword from her pocket and slashing at the vampire who growled jumping back. Spinning around Fionna noticed how all of the cloaked figures now had their fangs bared and surrounded her on all sides with a good distance between them and the sword.

"What the glob do you guys want?!"

"Why we're here for you human girl, while that weakling Marshall Lee may have never known, we always were aware. Human blood allows our powers to reach their limit! When we kill you and drink your blood we'll be strong enough to kill the mighty 'King Of Vampires'."

"You'll never kill me, and you'll never hurt Marshall either! You'd better let me go or he'll kick the stuff out of you when he finds me!" Fionna said warningly, she was hoping that what they said earlier was a lie, she was hoping that Marshall wasn't fighting his mom, and more than anything she hoped that he had heard her scream from earlier and was on his way to save her, because honestly, she knew that she couldn't do this by herself.

O0o0o0

He'd returned back from the Nightosphere and already it was dusk, he needed to find Fionna now. Flying through the woods he headed to her house hoping with every fiber of his being that she was safe at home. As he made his way to the tree house the sound of a scream echoed through the woods and he watched as birds fluttered away from the trees, with a pounding heart he raced towards the scream hoping that Fionna could hold her own for the few minutes it would take to get to her. Hurrying through the woods he paused listening hoping for any kind of sound that would lead him in the right direction. Turning his head slowly he picked up the sound of muffled scuffles to the north east, and knowing the area well he raced to the cave he knew was there.

O0o0o0

It hadn't taken them long to over power her and remove her weapon, though she did find it odd that they avoided causing her harm, though she immediately understood why after she was bound, gagged and held in place with her head pulled back revealing her throat as the vampires discussed what was to be done with her.

"Just rip her throat out." the white cloaked vamp said with a sadistic smirk as she listened to Fionna's heart rate skyrocket.

"Slit her throat." Simon in the blue said. "We have cups, we only need so much and we don't want to risk turning her."

"Forget about turning her, if we bleed her dry she'll just be dead and we won't have to worry." Marc said leaning against the wall.

"Jess's plan is too messy and we'll risk losing her precious blood." Ana said walking towards Fionna and pulling a dagger from her pocket making the girl struggle to get away. "Slitting her throat and taking our fill is certainly a more dignified apporach, especially since we wont run the risk of turning her, and although your idea of bleeding her dry is good Marc if we leave her alive to die here Marshall will be too busy trying to save her rather than find us. You know how easily he gets attached to creatures below him." She said in disgust slowly dragging the dagger down Fionna's cheek making the girl wince as she froze in place and trembled, tears collecting in her eyes. She was afraid, no more than that, she was terrified, they were going to kill her and after drinking her blood were going to just leave her here to die while they hurt and killed her friends.

"Have you any last words you filthy weakling?" Ana asked walking , and crouching down she removed the gag, keeping her knife pressed firmly against the girl's throat. Opening her mouth to speak a male voice was soon heared echoing in the cave.

"If you touch her…"

"Marshall." Fionna gasped recognizing his familiar voice

"I'll kill you where you stand." He growled in a low voice, his eyes now blood red as he glared at the woman who held her dagger to his Fionna's throat.

O0o0o0o0

"Marshall Lee the Vampire King. How wonderful to see you again." Ana said with a smile as Marshall completely ignored her.

"Fi, you need to listen to me, you have to calm down, you have to get your heartbeat to slow down because the faster it goes the more excited and unpredictable they'll get, do you understand?" he asked looking at the four vamps who were staring at her as her heart raced. Slowly very slowly he could hear her heart beat slowing down to a calm and steady rhythm. That was good, because if he had to go into his sensory overloaded hunting mode to take them down, and with it being 4 on 1 he was sure he had to, the last thing he wanted was to attack Fionna, there was always that danger.

Fionna stayed perfectly still and was in shock, the pure anger and killer intent he radiated at this moment was massive.

"Simon. Let. Her. Go." Marshall growled and soon enough Fionna's arms were released from his grasp as he let go of her hair as well. "Get lost old man, unlike these freaks I actually respect you. It'd be a shame to die at the hands of your best student wouldn't it?"

"My lord." The man in the blue robe said vanishing into a black mist before fleeing the cave.

"Coward!" Jess yelled at the retreating mist before turning to attack the Vampire king. Fionna watched surprised at the ease in which Marshall took her down. Soon enough she was pinned to the ground with her arm bent at an awkward angle as he applied pressure to it making her shriek her surrender, and once she was released she too took off in a swirl of dark mist leaving only Marc in the gray and Ana in the black who still had the knife to Fionna's neck.

"Marc, get him!" the woman snarled, her nervousness quite obvious as two of her four man group was already gone. The man was quick to attack and soon Marshall was in a vicious fight which much to Fionna's relief he was winning, then suddenly she felt an incredible pain in her side as she was kicked in the ribs making her gasp loudly in pain and distracting Marshall who narrowly avoided being struck as he dodged keeping an eye on Fionna and his opponent. The Vampire King had his arm in a hold and was just about to break it when once again he heard Fionna's scream of pain, his grip loosened and he was knocked to the ground as they continued fighting viciously, Marshall shifted into his wolf form and slashing away at the man without mercy and finally tearing out his throat. Suddenly he heard Fionna scream once again, but this one was far more panicked making him race deeper into the cave.

O0o0o0o0

They watched as the battle between the two men progressed and suddenly the man named Marc was being torn to shreds by Marshall's claws, and growling in fury Ana tackled Fionna baring her fangs with every intention of sucking the blonde dry of all her precious human blood, Fionna however reacted faster than she thought she would for her foot halted the vampire in her tracks as she kicked her in the chest keeping her only so far away.

"MARSHALL!" Soon her leg was knocked away as her head was pushed to the side revealing her neck, just as the fangs grazed against her skin Fionna felt a sudden gust of air and watched as Ana tumbled back from a kick to the face and was soon pounced upon by the angry Marshall Lee. Fionna watched fearfully at the exchange of raw power coming from her friend, and crawling back her hands touched the dagger which she used to cut away the bindings on her wrists and soon enough she was free.

Fionna looked up hearing the sound of a body hitting the ground and in seconds she was face to face with blood red predatory eyes. Already she was on the ground and backed up against a wall, there was no where to run, though instinctively she had a feeling that running would be a very bad idea, there was a look in his eyes and she knew that if she ran it would be an open invitation to be hunted down. Her heart raced in pure panic as he leaned forward towards her neck with his very sharp fangs bared.

"Marshall." She choked out in a strangled whisper feeling as her body trembled in fear and nervousness. He paused once again pulling back however after only a moment his eyes focused solely on her neck as her heart pounded. It was then she realized that he could hear her heartbeat as she tried to calm down. Once again he drew close, his fangs bared prepared to bite, and this time Fionna pushed him back slightly.

"Marshall please." She was pulled roughly towards the raven haired vampire the moment she resisted and she tried so hard to quell her rising terror as he pushed her to the ground giving him better access to her neck as she began to cry out of pure panic.

"Marshall STOP!" she shrieked crying hysterically and expecting to feel his razor sharp fangs bury into her neck at any second, however he stopped pulling back the moment his face grazed against hers feeling the salty tears against his cheek. Fionna watched the bloody red color slowly fade from his eyes leaving only the black irises as he blinked blearily.

"Marshall?" Fionna said in a small voice hoping that he was now back to normal. He blinked again before his eyes widened as he immediately pulled her close wiping the tears from her eyes.

"Fionna! I'm sorry, I'm so so sorry."

'I made her cry, I hate seeing her cry and she's crying because of me.'

"It's ok, you're back now, you are back now." she said softly wrapping her arms around his neck as she held him tightly as they sat on the ground quietly for a few minutes.

"That was craaazy son." He mumbled breaking the silence and smirking slightly when he heard her giggle into his neck lightening the mood considerably around them.

"You know…If I was still with PG, I think I would have expected him to save me, but he wouldn't. He would have tried in his own way sure but…it would have been nothing like this, I don't think he would have even won." She said softly feeling his arms tighten around her.

"So, Bubble-Butt would never do something like this?" Marshall asked feeling as she shook her head No. "Ok, would he have some something like this?" he asked tilting her head back, kissing her cheek, and forehead, and even the tip of her nose making the adventuress blush.

"Yes." She said softly.

"Well it's a good thing I'm not Gumball then huh?" he breathed against her lips before crashing his to hers. It took a moment but after deciding she didn't care what he thought about her inexperience Fionna began copying him, kissing him back as best as she could, her hands in his dark hair. Marshall puller her tightly to him pressing her body firmly against his as he broke the kiss allowing her to breathe. "Would he have done something like this?"

"No." Fionna whispered feeling as his lips brushed softly against her neck and moaning softly. He was making her feel very different things compared to what PG would make her feel, it was never this intense and her body was reacting strongly to it. Finally he kissed her forehead and rested his on her's.

"I know you're still hurting from what happened with you and Gumball, and I know you're scared of how you're feeling now, but I don't want you to be scared of being with me because I would never, ever hurt you. Fionna you mean more to me than I could ever say and I do love you, it's not just a love between friends, it's more than that, and I'll wait for you. I will wait for however long it takes for you to be comfortable, and for however long it takes for your heart to heal, because I want your heart, all of it, I want it to be mine and mine alone, and I want you to want mine because, my heart beats only for you…figuratively speaking and all but the point is I love you." He said softly burying his face into her hat and letting the blonde absorb his words.

Fionna opened her mouth to speak and sensing this Marshall leaned back just a bit still holding her tightly as he watched, waiting expectantly for her to speak however before she could the sound of voices was heard calling out the blonde's name which distracted her as she looked from Marshall lee behind him to the mouth of the cave. He pulled away from her quickly recognizing the two voices, one belonged to her sister Cake, and the other belonged to-

"Fionna! Are you all right? We were so worried, Cake said she hasn't seen you in almost two days!" Gumball said lifting the blonde from the ground and holding her tightly, kissing the top of her head. Marshall looked on feeling nothing but pain.

'Of course he'd be the one to find us, it's always Gumball…I'd prefer cake trying to rip my face off than to watch this.'

With a silent sigh Marshall looked away he knew if gumball asked, Fionna would immediately accept to once again be his girlfriend, and if that happened he couldn't be around to wach, it hurt too much. Floating from the cave he was tackled and clawed by a very angry Cake.

"What did you do to my baby! ?" Angrily he hissed at the cat making her shriek and run into the cave looking for Fionna. Marshall stopped after several feet and looked up through the clearing of the trees at the moon.

O0o0o0

"Fionna, we were so worried about you-

"PG, I-

"And we were looking everywhere-

"PG-

"And when Cake heard your scream-

"Gumball-

"We came to find you and-

Finally having anough the blonde pushed the candy prince away from her.

"Will you just listen to me?" she snapped.

"Please Fionna, just hear me out first, then you can say everything you need to. I was wrong, you're exactly what I need, everything I could have ever wanted and almost losing you like this, that was so hard for me to handle, and I don't think I could ever do it again, please, even if you just consider it, please be mine once again?" Fionna was in shock to say the least, and glancing past Gumball's shoulder she could see Marshall looking up at the moon with his hands dug into his pocket.

"Gumball?"

"Yes Fionna?"

"I can't take you back, you broke up with me. I realized that we just don't work together, I want to be friends, but just that. Even if you don't know it, you have a bad habit of yanking on my heart guts dude, and it's not cool and I'm tired of it. I'm sorry but I just cant. I cant go through that again if you decide or choose that I'm not right for you." She said placing a hand on his shoulder and stepping out of the pink prince's personal bubble before walking past him and out of the cave.

Marshall was looking up at the moon when she walked over to him.

"So uh, when's the wedding?" He asked jokingly Fionna could hear the pain well masked in his voice.

"There isn't going to be a wedding. I turned him down Marsh, and I think I made the craziest…but best decision of my life." The black haired Vampire blinked and looked at her in shock before grinning.

"Wanna go strangle some pixies?" he asked offering the blonde his hand.

"I'd like that, I'd like that a lot." Fionna said smiling as she took his hand and was quickly pulled into his arms as they flew off together into the darkness.