Demon Eyes For You (Gumlee)

The Party Scene

~Marshall~

My vision closes in on Gumball who is staring at me, looking terrified, and I can't help but walk towards him. I look over to my arm and notice that Fionna is holding on to it walking me towards Gumball, even though my body was naturally doing it on its own. I know he hates me after the last time we spoke several years ago. Shit, why am I letting Fionna bring me over to him?! I don't know what to do or say, maybe i'll just play it cool like I always do and pretend like everything is normal. I haven't seen the dude in years and he is already playing mind tricks on me. 

Before I have time to decide to be nice or my normal Marshall self I am already standing in front of a terrified- no not really terrified, he looks kind of disgusted at me now- Gumball. 

"M-Marshall Lee? What are you doing here?" Gumball manages to spit out at me.

I'm staring at him, totally zoning out of the situation before Fionna punches me in the shoulder and butts in-

"Glob has blessed us by bringing back the bass lord from the Nightosphere so he's gonna jam with us tonight!!"

Gumball moves close to Fionna, trying to exclude me from the conversation. "Umm, Fionna, I-I'm not really sure if-if he should play with you I mean it's your band and he's...well he's Marshall Lee, he'll just...he's gonna...ughhh whatever." He covers his face with his hands and walks away pretending to adjust the mic stand. 

Fionna just stands there looking at him mumble to himself and I can't help but feel bad for turning Gumball into a nervous, fuming wreck. Of course no one can tell I feel even a bit bad because of the huge smirk over my face. What can I say, I like having an effect on people, especially on that pink goody goody. 

Fionna punches me in the stomach, " Yo Marshall, cut it out with that neurotic smile, PB's upset now and I can't have my bass player and my band manager fuzzing shiz up right before the show!" She walks away to go talk to Cake.

~Gumball~

Ughh out of all people to show up tonight it had to be that glob damned Marshall Lee. He's gonna ruin everything after I just started to think my life seemed pretty okay right at this moment in time... I could just ignore him, but that won't work because Fionna thinks he's cool and fun and will most certainly invite him everywhere. Why does he have this effect on me even after so many years? He knows just how to bother me, to make me lose my princely cool that I have spent my whole life perfecting to a science. And yet, even as much as I think-no desire to hate him, I can't seem to find actual hate inside of myself towards Marshall Lee. 

As I pretend to get things ready for the show, I glance over to see that he has moved over to the kitchen and is already charming over everyone. They all laugh at his jokes, jump at his attempts to startle them, then laugh again because they thought that was funny. What's with all these idiots? Are they seriously falling for that act? Just because his piercing ruby red eyes are captivating, and his long, flowing ebony hair is perfectly messy as it hangs over his face, and he stands in his tight jeans and partially unbuttoned flannel with an effortless confidence, and-and...whatever...it doesn't mean everyone should just worship him. I certainly don't fall for any of it and I intend to express that to him. 

Marshall sees me looking at him and abandons his conversation, starting to walk towards me, flashing me a crooked smirk. 

"Saw you staring at me over there, did you miss looking at all this while I was gone." Marshall gestures to himself and winks at me. 

I'm fighting my emotions to avoid blushing and manage to find words.

"Sorry about staring, I didn't expect you to be here tonight is all." Too nice. "It was more like looking at an accident on the road, morbid curiosity." 

Bad idea. Marshall's face turns to fury and he grabs me by my shirt, eyes boring holes into me. I can feel him breathing hard, his sharp fangs only inches away from my neck. He looks ready to kill and I'm losing control over my self. I can't even tell what i'm feeling at this moment, terrified, or something different. I'm shaking, but underneath of that is a tingling chill up my spine, an overwhelming heat coursing through my body. I close my eyes and wait for my fate when we hear a distant "Marshall!!! Come on we're about to perform!"

Marshall releases my shirt and stomps away. Thank you Fionna, your bossiness has once again saved my ass. Okay, next strategy, before I get killed, kill Marshall Lee with kindness. Yeah that's sound better. 

I try to compose myself and I go to the stage to make sure they have everything they need. Fionna is too eager to go on so she nods her head yes at everything I list before i've even said it.

"Are all of the instruments hooked up-Yep...have you sound check-Yep...do you have enough picks and drum sti-'Yes PG, come on we just want to play NOW!' she pleads and pushes me lightly over to the side of the stage.

Fi shouts into the mic "Yeah, how's it going everyone?" The crows cheers and starts clapping. 

"We'd like to thank you for coming out to the treehouse to have a rockin' night with us!" more cheering

"Before we play our first song, we are Fionna and The Varmints and we'd like to welcome a new varmint to the band tonight, Marshall Lee the Vampire King, the baddest of them all!!" The crowd goes crazy and with that Flame Prince hits his drums sticks together counting, "One, two, one two three four!"

The whole performance is a blur of people singing and cheering, Fionna and Cake chucking all of their picks into the crowd, and me having to give them more, and Marshall sending me confusing glares every song, and me trying to figure out how to respond. Sometimes he looks pissed, sometimes he winks at me, I don't even know if it's real or my imagination, I just know I want this night to be over.

When the show is over, everyone slowly makes their way out of the treehouse, and I help the band clean up, even though they made most of the mess. Halfway through the show Cake decided to pour grape soda over the audience, forgetting that this was her own house, not some scuzzy bar that they used to go watch Marshall play in. Now we're sitting on a sticky, purple stained carpet, eating chips and drinking more of said grape soda. 

I can't take being in the room any longer so I get up and announce that i'm leaving. I'm about to call for Lord Monochromicorn when Fionna suggests that Marshall should bring me home to "sort our shiz out" seeing how we almost ruined the show. 

I sigh and walk out the door into the cool night air. Surprisingly, I hear the door shut behind me and see Marshall standing there, silent, and illuminated in the bright moonlight. His grey skin looks even more otherworldly than it normally does, and the light makes the sharp lines of his face contrast so that he looks like a god carved out of marble stone. 

"You're staring again Gumwad." shit. "I can't really ignore Fionna so I guess i'm bringing you home even though I don't think either of us are happy about it so hurry up and hop on my back."

Before I can answer he is close to me and making gestures to climb on 'you space cadet!'

I get on, and within seconds we are flying into the abyss. I just realized that I am terrified of heights...