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It started small.
A lack of appetite.
A lightness to his steps.
The sun stinging more than usual.
But Marshall Lee did not pay it any mind. His life was normal, it was good. Fionna was back, and she had saved their world. He had Gary, and he was helping him start up his very own food truck for his Pastry Menschen. Ellis P. joined him and Fionna to picket his mother and her obscene rent prices.
Life was good.
But…
Things were changing.
Marshall Lee stared apprehensively at the window, a beam of sunlight streaming through a break in the curtains. He had walked through it when he was getting ready, and a large red burn appeared across his arm.
Examing the puckered skin, Marshall Lee pulled out his phone. Pressing one, he put it to his ear, speed dialing Gary.
The phone clicked as he answered, “Oh god, uh yeah? Hello?”
“Hey. What’s wrong?” Marshall Lee asked, his own problem pushed to the back of his mind as he heard the frustration in Gary’s voice.
“Its…weird. I’m not sure. What’s up with you? You okay?” Gary said, a muffled shuffling coming through the line, as if he was struggling to open something with only one hand.
Marshall Lee frowned at the evasive question, but answered him. “I think I have a skin condition.”
“Tell me about it!” Gary groaned.
“Little rude, Gar.”
The other man stuttered on the other end of the line, and Marshall Lee could see the exact shade of pink his face must have turned. “No, no! That isn’t what I meant, Marshall, I’m sorry-”
“Don’t worry about it.” Marshall Lee said, a soft smile coming over his face as he started getting ready again.
“I just meant, well, I think I do, too.”
“Why? I’m headed over as soon as I’m done getting ready, but do you need anything?” Marshall Lee asked, hastily pulling his shirt over his head and shoving his feet into his shoes.
“No matter what I do, my hands are just so STICKY! It is driving me insane, Marshall!” Gary said, the tension evident in his tone.
“Alright, we will figure it out, okay?” Marshall Lee said, grabbing his keys and heading for the door. “I’m heading to you now.”
Gary sniffled through the phone. “Okay. Be safe.”
“I will. Love you.”
“Love you.”
The line went dead and Marshall Lee pulled open his apartment door, pausing before he crossed the threshold and glancing back down at his burn. If the sunlight hurt…
Before he could overthink it, Marshall Lee grabbed his umbrella and locked his door.
*
The umbrella helped. Marshall Lee found he had to hold it at a very specific angle to make sure it covered the entire length of his arms, and began to wish he owned some jeans without so many holes. The umbrella did not protect his legs and he just knew he had a bunch of tiny burns where the sun peeked through the rips in his jeans.
He found Gary hunched over on the steps leading up to his building. His phone was in one hand and…a can of spray whip cream in the other.
“Hey you.” Marshall Lee said, coming to a stop in front of him. He nudged Gary’s knee with his own when he didn’t look up.
Gary mumbled something into his arms that Marshall didn’t catch. “What?”
His boyfriend looked up at him, his face distraught. “I can’t let go!”
Gary held out his hands and Marshall Lee tried to tug the can of whip cream away from him, but it wouldn’t budge.
“Whoa.”
“I know, I don’t know what-why do you have an umbrella?” Gary stared up at the black mass hovering above Marshall Lee’s head.
Shifting so his arm faced Gary, and making sure he was still covered by the umbrella, he pointed at the burn. “Like I said, I think I have a skin condition. The sun…hurts.”
Gary’s eyes widened. “You don’t think-”
“I don’t know what to think.” Marshall Lee said. “Can we go inside, the umbrella doesn’t actually cover all of me.”
Standing, Gary reached for Marshall Lee’s hand and groaned when he remembered the cell phone stuck to his palm.
“This sucks.”
*
In the cool safety of Gary’s apartment, Marshall Lee gripped the objects in Gary’s hands and pulled, putting his entire body weight behind it.
The phone and can of whip cream ripped away like a bandaid, and Marshall Lee flipped backwards onto the bed from the force of it.
“Whoa!” He said, flat on his back against the pink silk sheets. “You weren’t kidding when you said they were stuck.”
“Marshall, what is happening?” Gary asked, his hands held out away from his body.
Sitting up, he unlocked Gary’s phone. “I think we should call Fionna.”
Gary nodded, not moving.
Marshall Lee glanced up at him. “You should sit.”
“I don’t want to be stuck to my sheets.”
Marshall Lee set down the phone and stood, moving into Gary’s space. “Hey. We’re gonna figure this out, okay?”
He reached for his hand, following when Gary pulled away and wound their fingers together. Marshall Lee tilted his head up and gave him a soft smile. “You’re stuck with me, Gary Prince.”
Gary’s cheeks pinked and he shook his head, smiling. “That was bad.”
“I’m pretty proud of that one, actually.”
“Hello~?”
Both of them jumped at the sound of Fionna’s voice, static-y through the phone Marshall Lee had left on the bed, forgetting he had already dialed.
Whoops.
“Hey Fi!” Marshall shouted, dragging Gary over to the bed. “Can you come by Gary’s, we could use your help?”
Cake’s voice issued through the speaker and Marshall Lee grinned. “Be right there, hunky bun!”
“Cake!”
*
Fionna narrowed her eyes, one hand on her hip, while her shiny metal prosthetic scratched the top of Cake’s head. She listened to Marshall Lee explain what had been happening to them and frowned.
“Sounds vampire-y to me, Marshall.” She said. “And gummy for you, Gary. But I don’t understand, I talked to Simon yesterday and he definitely hasn’t put on the crown.”
“Oh yeah, totally.” Marshall Lee joked. “I am slowly turning into a vampire and Gary is turning to gum. Fionna, you can’t be serious.”
Fionna crossed her arms. “I thought you said being a vampire was ‘sick’, Marshall Lee.”
Marshall Lee threw up his hands, dragging Gary’s up too, as their hands were still stuck together. “Yeah, but remember how we all agreed we didn’t want it to happen?”
“It’s not like I did this, Marshall!” Fionna said.
“Yeah, remember how Fionna saved your sorry butts?” Cake said, stretching around Fionna in comfort.
Gary sighed. “Can we not fight? I just want to know how to be un-sticky.”
Marshall Lee leaned against Gary’s shoulder. “Any way you know how to make all this stop, Fi?”
Fionna hummed in thought, flopping down to sit on Gary’s fluffy pink rug. “I guess I could call Simon and he could talk to Princess Bubblegum and Marceline.”
A thrill went through Marshall Lee’s chest. “Our counterparts? Any way you got video call?”
“Marshall.” Gary grinned, admonishing him.
“What! I bet we’re hot.”
Fionna sighed dreamily, digging her phone from her pocket. “They really are, I am a little in love with Princess Bubblegum.”
Gary’s cheeks pinked, and Marshall Lee wrapped an arm possessively around him. “You making a move on my man, Fi?”
“Very funny, Marshall Lee.”
Fionna called Simon, and Marshall Lee couldn’t help but think she looked happy as she spoke to the man on the other line.
“Yeah, so could you maybe ask Princess Bubblegum how she keeps her hands from being sticky? Gary, my world’s her, is having a bit of trouble unsticking.”
Cake curled up on Fionna’s lap, rubbing her head affectionately against Fionna’s metal arm.
She had a gardening accident a few months back, some mishap with a piece of machinery that took nearly her whole arm. It was some of the scariest days of their lives, and Marshall Lee knew Hunter blamed himself. But Fionna survived, even if her arm didn’t, and honestly, she seemed kind of into the whole fancy metal arm thing.
If Marshall Lee really thought about it, everything weird started happening after her accident.
“Really? Okay, if you’re sure. Yeah, yeah, you too Simon, tell Finn I say hi, okay bye.” Fionna dropped the phone on the ground and scooped Cake into her arms as she stood. “Okay! I have a solution.”
“Let’s hear it.” Gary said, anxiety dripping from his every word.
“So Princess Bubblegum made an elixir that allowed her gum skin to harden when she was younger, but she said you probably won’t need that, since the gum stops being sticky post puberty!” Fionna grinned. “Isn’t that great?”
Marshall Lee and Gary stared at her.
“Fi, are you serious?” Marshall asked.
“Fionna, I went through puberty a long time ago, and-” Gary raised their stuck-together hands and shook them. “-I am still sticky.”
“Well…okay, he gave me the elixir recipe, but I don’t exactly think we’re going to be able to find all the ingredients.” Fionna said. “They’re pretty weird, probably things you can only find in Ooo.”
Marshall Lee ran a hand over his face, wincing when he shifted and his burns rubbed against the fabric of his clothes. “What did he say about the magic, has something happened with the crown?” He said, thinking about the stories Fionna told them about her adventures.
Fionna stared at him, her face slack.
“Fionna?” Cake said, waving an enlarged paw in front of her face.
“I forgot to ask about the magic.” Fionna whispered.
Gary groaned and fell backwards, dragging Marshall Lee with him.
*
It wasn’t long after that Simon called back, his voice loud through the speaker as he shouted.
“What do you mean Prince Gumball is sticky, Fionna?”
*
The rest of their day was spent stuck together, listening to Fionna and Simon theorize, with occasional input from voices on Simon’s end that stirred something in Marshall Lee’s chest.
“Has the me eaten anything recently?” A woman’s voice said through the phone.
Fionna looked at Marshall Lee.
“What, me?” He said. “Uh, no I don’t remember eating today.” Or in the past few days, if he was being honest.
“Okay, you have apples in your world right? Those are plenty red.”
“What is she talking about?”
Jumping up, Fionna rumaged through Gary’s kitchen, returning triumphantly with a bright red apple. “Vampires can drink red just as well as blood, apparently.”
“Oh yeah, I am totally a vampire.” Marshall Lee said, his voice heavy with sarcasm. Gary snorted a laugh next to him, and Marshall kept going. “If they drink red, how come I can’t just drink Gary?”
“Hey!” Gary said, laughing and rolling as far away as he could with their hands still connected. “I paid a lot of money for this hair!”
Fionna tossed him the apple. “Chew on that, Marshall, just try.”
He sighed, staring at the fruit with apprehension. Biting into the bright red skin, they all watched as the red drained, replaced with a dull gray.
Marshall Lee dropped the apple, his eyes wide.
“My god.” Gary said, staring at the grayed fruit.
“Huh.” Marshall Lee sat, stunned, as voices chattered through the phone line, asking what happened.
*
They didn’t get any answers. Simon seemed to have no idea how this could happening.
Days passed.
Marshall Lee and Gary had managed to separate their hands by dunking into a bowl of ice, and Gary vowed to wear gloves until they figured something else out.
“It must be magic.” Gary said, looking at him from across the room. “I don’t know how but, something must have-have triggered it somehow.”
Marshall Lee stared at him, not processing a word he said, distracted by the way his lips moved, by the heat flushed under his skin, and his heartbeat.
God, his heartbeat.
He had avoided drinking the past few days, uncomfortable with the sensation and seeing the dulled husks of the things he drained.
And it was…effecting him.
“Marshall?” Gary walked closer, his eyebrows puckered in concern, letting out a yelp when Marshall Lee grabbed him around the waist.
He pulled him closer, pressing Gary against the wall and kissing him, hard. Teeth clashed in the bruising kiss, and Marshall Lee felt Gary go as soft and pliable as gum underneath him.
Pulling back to let Gary breathe, Marshall Lee trailed down his jaw, nuzzling into his throat, feeling the quick beat of his pulse under the skin.
“Marshall.” Gary gasped out, his hand on the side of his face, pulling Marshall’s lips back to his own.
His mouth opened, deepening the heady kiss, tongues sliding together, and Marshall Lee felt a fire in his chest, to press, for more, more, more-
“Wait, hold-hold on.” Gary said, breathless and pressing Marshall Lee back by his shoulders. “You-you’re teeth, Marshall. You have…fangs.”
Planting his hands on the wall on either side of Gary, Marshall Lee lowered his head till the top of his head was pressed into Gary’s chest, his own heaving. Everything was intensified, brighter, and he could feel his heart stuttering in his chest as he tried to restrain himself.
A cold hand swept over the back of his neck, stroking the overheated skin with a gentleness Marshall Lee was not sure he deserved in this moment.
He squeezed his eyes shut. “I’m sorry.”
“Have you eaten, Marshall?” Gary’s voice was soft, concerned, as he led him into the kitchen. “You can’t do this to yourself.”
Gary handed him a tube of dark red lipstick, and his determined look told Marshall he was not going to stop until he took it.
“Where did you get this?” Marshall Lee asked, turning the red tube over in his hands. “It looks…expensive.”
The kitchen was silent, and Marshall Lee looked up into Gary’s guilty expression. “What?”
“Your mom may have bought them for you.”
“What?”
“It wasn’t me!” Gary held his hands up in defense. “Fionna was talking to her about the changes in rent and it, um, slipped out.”
Marshall Lee frowned as Gary stepped back and pulled open his cabinets. There were rows and rows of dark red lipstick, all lined up neatly and organzied.
“Marceline said her friends did something like this for her, too.” Gary whispered, watching him.
His eyes stung and he brought the red tube to his mouth, drinking the red from the lipstick and feeling strength flow into his limbs.
“Thank you.” Marshall Lee whispered back, setting the lipstick down and reaching out for Gary.
The other man stepped smoothly into his arms, pressing a kiss to the corner of his mouth and wrapping his arms tightly around Marshall.
“I guess this is normal now, huh?” Marshall Lee muttered into Gary’s pink sweater covered shoulder.
“I told you I’d love you even if you were a vampire.” Gary replied.
Marshall Lee laughed. “And I love you even if you’re made of gum.”
“That’s all I ask.”