Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

-Chapter One-

The blankets were warm and comfortable around him.

The dark sky was filled with stars illuminating the streets, like every other night. The only sound that could be heard was his sister's soft breathing.

She looked so comfortable as she slept on the small bed that was on the left side of their bedroom. It was dark, but it was okay. After all, he could see in the dark.

He was a blue cat, and he lived with his mother Nicole, his father Richard and his younger sister, Anais. His mother was a blue cat just like him, and his father and sister were pink rabbits.

Some people might think that was strange to see, but it was nothing compared to the other families.

They were all colorful, literally. Everyone was so different in so many ways, it made them feel out of place.

The Watterson's used to lived in a small apartment, but since Anais was born, Nicole decided that it was time for them to live in a house they could call their home.

And that went on living in different houses year after year, which meant he didn't get to make any real friends. They will forget him after a while, like always.

He tried to talk to his mother about it, seeing that his father is pretty much useless in everything, but she was very busy with her job that the only source of attention he could get was from his father.

They talked, and the final result was moving once again. This time they had to move into the little town of Elmore.

The cat yawned after several minutes of just sitting there in the dark, and quickly gave up on staying awake.

---

"Gumball, come on it's time to go to school!"

The voice of his mother woke him up after a good few hours of a dreamless sleep. He groaned.

"I'm coming!" Gumball yelled, rubbing at his eyes. He jumped off the bed, and then began reaching out for his usual clothes that were a brown turtleneck shirt and a pair of jeans.

As usual, his sister woke ages before Gumball did. She was six years old, but Anais and Nicole were the most intelligent beings in that house.

Gumball showered silently. He didn't like water that much, but he did like showers. It was peaceful.

After a few minutes, he was all showered and dressed.

"Gumball, hurry up! I don't want to be late on my first day of school!" Anais took his hand and both of them hurried downstairs.

Nicole was serving their breakfast on the table. The eggs and bacon with orange juice looked delicious, and the smell was all over the dining room.

Nicole smiled at her kids, "Good morning, guys. Ready to go to school? " She asked, sitting in the table with them.

Anais swallowed the orange juice, "Of course I am! It's my very first day at school!" She exclaimed excitedly. Anais loved learning, she always read books that were definitely more advanced than the ones she read at preschool.

Nicole laughed. "I see you're happy about it. How about you, Gumball?"

Gumball finished chewing the bacon, and then he drank a few gulps of juice, "School stinks. I just want to sleep all day like dad does." He said, gaining an sigh from his mother.

"Gumball, you can't spend the day like your father, I told you that."

Gumball groaned, "Fine." He gave up, taking the last bite of his food.

"Well, I'm going to take you to school today. Tomorrow you'll be taking the bus, okay?" Nicole said, taking all the empty plates and vases so she could put them on the dishwasher.

Gumball and Anais took their backpacks from the floor and they walked to the living room, passing by their sleeping father. Nicole opened the door of the car, climbing inside.

---

"See you two later! Love you!"

Gumball saw his mother's car leave them both on the front of the Elmore Junior High.

Gumball didn't have time to react when Anais pushed him inside the building. "C'mon! I don't want to be late!" She exclaimed, not wanting to hear any whining sound coming from her brother.

"Calm down, Anais. It's not like you won the lottery." Gumball said after a few seconds. Anais rolled her eyes.

"Just because you don't like school it doesn't mean I have to dislike it as well. I enjoy learning and I want to be intelligent, unlike you." Anais explained matter-of-factly. "And if you excuse me, I'm going to the library." She told him before vanishing through the halls.

"Uh... okay" Gumball said, more to himself because his sister was no longer to be seen.

He stood there like an idiot, not knowing where to go; however, Gumball was not alone there. There was tons of people, all of them were different and-

"Oh my God, that's a T-Rex."He murmured, trying to make his panic less obvious. A dinosaur? He had never seen one on his entire life, and every teacher told him that those things were extinct and blah blah blah.

Oh well. Logic can suck it.

'Cause there was a friggin' dinosaur right there!

"She's scary, right?"

Gumball screamed and jumped amazingly high but in the instant he fell on his feet he was ready to attack whoever scared him.

"Woah, woah- easy! Are you okay, man? I didn't mean to scare you. The name's Banana Joe, by the way. What's your name?" The guy asked without skipping a beat. Gumball took a deep breath and managed to cool himself down.

"Gumball Watterson." He answered simply. After a few seconds of awkward silence he knew that this Joe wasn't making any effort in the conversation. "So... how old are you?"

"I'm twelve, and you? No, no, let me guess... you're also twelve." The banana guy said, Gumball nodded with a smile.

"Yeah. I'm turning thirteen in a couple of weeks, though." Gumball told him as they walked to what seemed to be Joe's locker. Funny, Gumball didn't realize they were walking.

"That's cool, that's cool. So you're new, huh?" He stated the obvious, Gumball nodded once again.

"Yeah. We moved here three days ago. By the way, do you know where's the principal's office?" Gumball asked Joe, who started walking down the hall.

"Of course I know! Follow me."

As they walked, Gumball saw a something that looked like a ship from Space Invader, a female cloud, a ghost, some sort of talking chin, a guy covered with tons of colors and lots of unknown people that Gumball has never seen.

Luckily, they all looked friendly.

... Perhaps with the small exception of the T-Rex.

"Here." Joe said, opening the door of the principal's office.

Inside the room there was this thing covered with brown hair. Gumball didn't know what he was, but he was a male, and his name was-

"Principal Brown! This is Gumball Watterson, he's new." Joe informed, elbowing Gumball.

Principal Brown lifted his eyes from the magazine he was reading, until he realized what he was doing and dropped the thing to the floor. "Oh. Yes! Yes, Gumball please sit down." He told him. Gumball obeyed, sitting on one of the chairs that were in front of the desk.

"So, Gumball... is that your real name?" He asked, Gumball nodded.

"Yeah, I had another name but my parents changed it." He said.

"I see, Gumball's a cool name. Anyway, here's all you need to know about the school." The older gave him a piece of paper that had the number of his locker and other stuff that had to do with the class that Gumball didn't really care about.

"Well, Gumball I hope you get along with all the students here and if you're lucky you'll have good grades. I don't wan to see that you're making any troubles, understood?"

"Yeah, sure." He said, and then the older allowed him to leave.

"So, what did he say?" Joe asked him. Gumball didn't notice that he was waiting outside until now.

"Oh, nothing. He just wanted to make sure that I wasn't gonna make any troubles. Nothin' important." The cat answered.

"Cool, you're not a bully. Gotta be glad that there's no one here that's a bully, but Tina." He told him. Gumball raised an eyebrow.

"Who's Tina?"

"The T-Rex." Joe answered calmly. Gumball laughed at that. "What?"

"Nothing. It's just a weird name for a T-Rex." He laughed, and Joe stared at him.

"Gumball's a weird name for a cat too. You're name should be Tom." He smirked.

"Well, Joe is also a weird name for a banana."

"It's Banana Joe. And that's an awesome name for a banana."

"Gumball's an awesome name for a cat too!"

They stared at each other with a great deadpan for a few minutes without even blinking... until they burst out laughing.

"Alright, Alright. Can we all agree that our names are weirdly awesome?" Banana Joe said, putting his hand in front of him. They high-fived.

"Agreed."

Chapter Text

-Chapter Two-

Gumball and Banana Joe talked about videogames while they were walking to the classroom. They were becoming friends rather quickly, seeing that they had a few things in common.

They reached the classroom, Banana Joe sat beside this ghost girl whose name Gumball didn't know yet. All the kids that he had seen earlier where sitting with an annoyed look on their faces, some with a bored one, a very little were happy to be there.

Everyone was talking since any teacher were in the room. Gumball wished he had someone he could talk to. Sure, he had Anais, but it wasn't the same as being around a friend.

Everyone seemed to have at least one best friend, even Banana Joe was talking with a guy apparently named Tobias.

Gumball -seeing that his family was always moving- never made any best friends. Non of the people he knew had talked to him ever since he left. It was always like that.

"Alright, alright! Silence!" An angry voice shuted down his thoughts. Gumball gulped loudly.

She just had to be his teacher.

"Everyone, close your mouths and pay attention! We have a new student here, his name is Zach Watterson and he's twelve years old. Do try not to corrupt him so quickly." Ms Simian ordered, and then began to look around the classroom.
"You'll have to sit beside... beside Penny. And move quickly, Zach. I don't have time to waste on this."

Gumball scratched his arm, "Ms Simian, my name is Gumball-"

"I SAID I DON'T HAVE TIME TO WASTE! MOVE!" She growled angrily, fire almost coming out of her eyeballs.

Oh, she seemed lovely.

Gumball ran as fast as he could to sit beside this Penny girl, his heart literally pounding out of his chest.

"Good. And now, Gumball, I'm going to tell you my rules here." She said with a calm voice that Gumball found really scary. Ms Simian apparently saw that and smiled, but that smiled vanished and instead of that there was a dark look on her face as she pointed to the board.

"Rule number one, don't talk. Rule number two, don't disturb the class. Rule number three, PAY ATTENTION! Did you hear me?! Always. Pay. ATTENTION!" Ms Simian demanded hatefully, adding a big emphasis in every word, as if she were speaking to retarded little kids.

The class said nothing and just nodded furiously at what their teacher said, fear was slowly drowning them. Gumball just sat there quietly, not even trying to seem tough.

Ms Simian smiled again, "There. Isn't this nice? I love it when you're this quietly." She told them with that dark smile of hers as she turned around and began writing on the board.

Gumball took his book from his backpack and began writing down everything, only to be interrupted by a hand poking his shoulder.

He turned around, only to be dumbfounded by the most beautiful girl he had ever seen in his entire life.

"Excuse me, do you have an extra pen? I can't find mine." Her voice was a soft whisper. Gumball tried to say something, anything, but words were nowhere to be found. She was so beautiful and delicate it made him speechless.

Who was she? What was her name? Does she have a boyfriend?

Those were the question that Gumball wanted to ask her, but for some reason he couldn't manage to say one single sentence.

The beautiful face seemed confused now, which made her look even more cute than she already was. "Is everything okay?" The female asked. It took Gumball a few seconds to nod stupidly.

"Uh huh..." Gumball shook his head, as if trying to shake the nervousness away, but it wasn't working. "I'm- I'm- I'm okay. What was- what was your first question?" He managed to ask.

His heart was racing and his palms were getting sweat, which shouldn't happen unless he was running. But it did felt like running. It was her, she mas making Gumball feel like this.

And when she smiled, Gumball felt like smiling too.

"I asked if you had an extra pen." She repeated, and Gumball nodded even though he had absolutely no idea if he had one.

"Sure, just... wait a second." Gumball began reaching blindly inside his backpack and, thankfully, he did have one. Gumball smiled as he gave her the pen.

She smiled back and said nothing else.

Before she started writing Gumball took a big breath before asking, "What's your name?"

"Penny." The girl answered. Gumball nodded and went back to writing.

So that was her name.

It was beautiful.

---

Twenty-five minutes later, everyone was on the cafeteria, either eating or talking with each other. Gumball was sitting in the table with Banana Joe, they were both eating hamburgers while talking about nothing really interesting during a while, until Banana Joe decided to change the subject.

"So... Penny, huh?"

Gumball raised an eyebrow, "Hm? What about her?"

Banana Joe smirked, "Don't you dare play silly with me, I saw you two whispering in each other's ears during class." He teased, wiggling his eyebrows. Gumball slapped his own forehead at that.

"She just asked me for a pen. That's it." He explained, in hopes that Banana Joe would quit asking about it, but he seemed incredibly amused by the fact that Gumball was trying to hide his crush on the girl.

"Yeah right." He said, then pointed to the side, "Look! It's Penny!"

"Where?" Gumball turned around, finding absolutely anything. He groaned when Banana Joe started laughing at him. "Oh, shut up."

"I didn't thought you'll fell for that, dude. It's- it's hilarious. Hahahaha! You're total and utterly in love with Penny!" Banana Joe laughed. Gumball's heart almost stopped when Penny looked at him from the table she was sitting.

"Dude! Not cool, shut up!" Gumball covered the other's mouth with his hand so he couldn't make any sound. "I'm not in love with her, okay? I barely know her." Gumball muttered, then slowly removed his hand.

"Alright, fine. If that's what you say, I'm gonna believe you." Banana Joe said. Gumball sighed in relief. "It's sad, though. You two would have made a great couple."

Gumball's eyes lit up, "You think?" He asked, then instantly regretted it as Banana Joe looked at him with a Oh you do love her stare. "Shut up."

Before Banana Joe could make any response, someone stopped him. "Yo, what's up?" The guy asked him, then seemed to notice Gumball's presence. "Who's this?"

"Gumball, Tobias. Tobias, Gumball." He introduced them quickly, "Gumball's new here."

"Hi." Gumball said as they shook hands.

"Hello." Tobias said, then turned his attention back to Banana Joe. "Anyway... dude, are you going?"

"Going where?" Gumball asked Tobias, even though he wasn't talking to him.

Tobias smirked, "My house. My parents are traveling and my sister is at a friend's house, so that means..."

"Friday party!" Banana Joe finished for him, fists in the air.

"Wow. Sounds cool." Gumball commented, "I never had a Friday party"

"Wait, never?" Tobias asked suddenly, "You serious?"

"Yeah, man. Never" Gumball responded. Tobias crossed his arms.

"Well, if you want to be one of the cool guys, you gotta go to a Friday party." Banana Joe said with a serious look on his face.

"Yeah. You know what, Gary?"

"Gumball."

"You know what, Gumball?" Tobias corrected himself, "You can go to my party. Here." Tobias gave the cat a paper that said the address of his house.

"Cool. Thanks."

"Oh, and you gotta give me five bucks. Just the main cost of admission." Tobias added. Gumball raised an eyebrow and looked at him suspiciously.

"Admission to what?" Gumball asked.

"Look, do you wanna go to the party or not?"

"Of course I want to!" Gumball said, then searched five dollars from the front pocket of his jeans. "Here."

Tobias smiled, taking the five dollars. "Great. See you!" And with that, Tobias disappeared.

Gumball and Banana Joe stood there in awkward silence, until they decided to finish their hamburgers.

"... Where's my food?" Banana Joe asked after a few seconds. Gumball shrugged and continued to eat silently.

Apparently Tobias wanted both money and food.

---

"See you tomorrow!" Banana Joe said before he climbed inside the bus. Gumball waved goodbye, then just stood right in front of the school and waited for his mother to come and take him and his sister home.

Home... Hm. That sounded so... right, for some reason.

"Hey, Gumball!" Anais called happily. Gumball almost smiled at seeing his little sister, but stopped himself when he caught the sing of... her.

It was Penny.

Gumball's heart raced once again, his palms sweating and legs shaking. It was stupid for him to act like this, he barely knew the female, for God's sake!

"Uh... h- h- hi." Gumball barely managed. Anais gave him a weird look while Penny just smiled.

"Hello Gumball." Penny said in that enchanting voice of hers. By just hearing her voice, Gumball felt butterflies in his stomach.

No, not butterflies. Sharks. He felt sharks in his stomach.

"What's up with you? Have you been running or something? Oh God, what did you do now?" Anais asked, sounding a lot like her mother. Gumball shook his head.

"No, I didn't do anything." Gumball said, his eyes never leaving Penny's.

Anais immediately saw that and after a few seconds of awkward silence she asked; "You know each other?"

"Yeah, kinda." Penny told her, "I just wanted to give you this." She took out the pen he had given her earlier. Gumball stared at it for a few seconds, until he realized what he was supposed to do and he took the pen from her hand. "Thanks, by the way. I don't know why I didn't say it before."

Gumball smiled a bit. "You're welcome." Penny smiled back.

For some reason, every time Penny smiled made Gumball feel happy, and even more if he was the reason.

"... Yeah, this isn't awkward at all." Anais muttered to herself so no one could hear.

Not that they would, anyway. Those two were too focused on staring at each other's faces like hawks.

"Anyway, heh. I... uh, have to go. My dad's coming here to drive me home." She told them, "I guess I'll see you two tomorrow, right?"

"Of course! Bye Penny!" Anais said, waving. Penny then ran off to her dad's car.

"Well... mum's probably on her way here too." Gumball said as he pretended to be interested on his hands. Anais smirked.

"Yeah, I know. By the way, what's going on between you and Penny?" She teased, elbowing him. Gumball rolled his eyes.

"Nothing."

"Nothing? Yeah, right." Anais "tsked" as she crossed her arms. "I saw how awkward you were. It'll only be less obvious if you had a sign in your forehead that said "I'm in love with Penny". I know there's something." She stated.

"No, there's not. I don't even know her last name, and I doubt she knows mine--"

"She does."

"What?" Gumball asked. Anais shrugged.

"Oh, nothing. We just talked during lunch and I might have told her a few things. That's it." Anais answered casually, "But there's nothing going on between you two, so I guess you don't care about it."

"You're right. I don't care." Gumball said, even though inside he was aching to know every last detail about their conversation.

What did she told her? Did they talk about him?

"Alright!" Gumball finally gave up, "Fine! I do care!"

Anais clasped her hands together. "I knew it!"

"Just tell me!"

"Fine, fine. Okay, I'm just gonna go to the point. I have her number." Anais told him, taking out her phone.

"What? You- you what?" Gumball managed. Anais sighed and showed him the screen of her cellphone. Gumball took out his phone and began typing all the numbers he saw.

"That's her phone number. Call her, text her, I don't care." The pink rabbit said, but Gumball wasn't really listening to her.

Gumball just nodded stupidly, staring at the screen of his phone as if instead it was a bag full of diamonds.

"Oh look, that's mum's car!" Anais exclaimed, finally catching his brother's attention. "C'mon, mum is waiting for us, Gumball! Move!"

Gumball reacted after a few seconds, placing his phone inside the front pocket of his jeans. They walked to the car, climbing inside it.

"Hi guys. How's the first day at school?" Nicole asked as she began driving to their home.

"It was great! I made new friends and I'm already the best at the class!" Anais told her proudly. Nicole smiled sweetly.

"That's great, Anais. And what about you, Gumball?"

"It was... good." Gumball said, just looking at the road. "I made new friends too. One is a banana, his name is Banana Joe and I also met this guy... I don't even know what he is but his name is Tobias and he invited me to his party on Friday." Gumball told his mother. Nicole looked at her son quickly, as if not believing what she heard.

Gumball was making friends.

Ever since they left the apartment, Gumball didn't make any friends at school. Any friends at all. He would try and talk to someone, but it always ended the same, and his mother was worried about him.

Moving from place to place made one unable of making true friendships, and Nicole didn't want his son to be alone by himself every time she went to work, every time Anais was on the kindergarten, every time his father would fell asleep on the couch, not paying attention to him.

Nicole didn't want that.

And to finally hear that her son was actually making friends, on his very first day at school... it made her feel so happy.

"Really? That's... that's great, Gumball. I'm happy for you." Nicole said, smiling at him. She was so focused on what her son had said that Nicole didn't even notice that their home was right there in front of her.

Nicole stopped the car, but before she could take the keys she remembered something. "Oh, I almost forgot..."

"What is it, mummy?" Anais asked.

"I bought you guys something. Come on, it's inside. I'll show you."

They left the car and Nicole took the house's keys and opened the door, getting inside their home, walking to the dining room.

There were two boxes on the dinner table, one that had the name Anais in pink letters and the other said Gumball in blue letters.

"What's this?" Gumball asked, looking at his box. Nicole smiled.

"Open it and you'll see. Just don't shake it or put it upside down, okay?"

"Alright, I won't shake-"

"OH MY GOD!" Anais shouted, almost breaking the windows. She was holding some sort of a doll.

"Why are you yelling?! You almost made my ears bleed!" Gumball complained at his sister, but she didn't care about him now that she had that doll.

"It's Daisy! I love Donkey Daisy!" Anais exclaimed, running towards her mother. "Thanks mum!" She gave her mother a big hug.

Nicole laughed, "You're welcome, sweetie." She said, kissing her daughter's forehead. "Go and play with Daisy."

"Sure! I'll be in my room." Anais told her, hurrying upstairs.

Nicole chuckled, then looked at her son. "C'mon Gumball, open yours."

"Okay." Gumball said, then opened his box, expecting to see an action figure or a car toy, but instead he found something else. "You bought me a... fish?"

"Yes! I thought you needed more company so I bought you a pet. What do you think? Do you like it?" She asked hopefully. Gumball looked at the fish and it stared at him with big eyes.

Gumball was a cat, he ate what cats usually ate, and fish was one of those things. They normally looked at Gumball with fear, thinking he was going to eat them. But this didn't.

This fish looked calm right in front of the cat, as if it knew Gumball wasn't going to hurt him... or her.

While Gumball didn't know a thing about fishes, he had a feeling that he would take care of this one.

Gumball nodded. "Thanks mum."

Chapter Text

Thank you for reading! Please don't forget to leave a comment below and you'll get a box full with virtual cookies!

~.~.~

-Chapter Three-

Gumball stared at his new pet in complete silence, watching it swim around the fishbowl excitedly.

It was 6:46 in the afternoon and Anais and Richard were downstairs, both of them watching TV while Nicole was making dinner. Gumball just waited quietly, having absolutely nothing to do other than watching his pet.

Gumball was calling his pet "it" a lot, it made him think that perhaps the goldfish needed a name.

"But what kind of name is suitable for a goldfish?" Gumball asked himself, thinking of several names that the fish could have. But for some reason, he was debating whether to choose between three names.

Nicodemus.

Caspian.

And Poseidon.

"I think Poseidon would be... kinda cool." He said, then looked at his pet. "What do you say, fish? Is Poseidon a cool name?" He asked, but obviously the goldfish didn't respond to him and continued to swim.

"It'll be easier if you could talk. But you can't, can you?" The fish said nothing, Gumball sighed. "Yeah, I thought so too. It'll be so cool if you could talk, you know." Gumball told it, and a small smile appeared on his face. "But that doesn't mean I can't talk to you. You seem friendly."

The fish made little bubbles with its mouth. Gumball cocked his head, "Hm... you know, I can't tell if you are a she or a he. Poseidon wouldn't be a good name for a girl, would it? Anyway, I think you're male. But for all I know, you could be a female as well."

Gumball watched as the goldfish swum around the fishbowl in circles, then he came up with something.

"If you are a female, jump out of the fish tank once, and if you are a male jump out of the fishbowl twice." Gumball tasked and waited for the fish to do something, and after a few seconds it jumped twice. "Cool! You're a guy!" Gumball stated happily.

The fish-- Poseidon jumped twice again, as if to make just he did it right. Gumball laughed. "Awesome, dude. I didn't think you'll understand that." Gumball commented, as he continued to watch Poseidon.

They suddenly were on some kind of non blinking contest for no reason whatsoever. Gumball didn't blink and neither did Poseidon, but Gumball's eyes were beginning to water in a matter of seconds while Poseidon looked extremely comfortable without blinking.

"Gumball! Dinner!" Nicole called, making Gumball blink.

"Ugh- Coming!" Gumball yelled so his mother could hear him, then turned his attention towards the fish. "Okay, you won this time." Poseidon jumped out of the fishbowl once, as if celebrating his victory. "Oh, enjoy it while you can, Poseidon. Enjoy while you can."

Gumball then leaned down to the fishbowl, facing Poseidon. "Cuz it won't last long, ya hear me? It's not like fish can't blink, right?" Gumball said, "Anyway, I'm going downstairs to eat. Want me to bring you food, Poseidon?" It jumped out once. Gumball smirked. "I'll take that as a yes."

The cat left his room, walking downstairs. Everyone was sitting on the dinner table, eating spaghetti with meatballs and Coca-Cola.

Gumball sat next to his mother, who smiled at him. "What took you so long?" Nicole asked, before she took a bite of her food.

"I was talking with Poseidon." Gumball answered, gaining an odd look from his father.

"Who's Poseidon?" He asked.

"The goldfish mum bought me. I named him Poseidon." Gumball responded, then drank a few gulps of Coca-Cola. Anais chuckled.

"You named it Poseidon?" Anais wondered, "And it can talk?"

"Firstly, Poseidon it's a he not an it, and no, he can't talk, but he understands me. I told him to jump out of the fishbowl twice if he was a male, and he did it." Gumball told her then ate a bit of the pasta.

Richard gulped his food, "That's so cool! I wanna see it! Nicole, I want a fish too." He said, suddenly excitedly by the idea of having a fish.

Nicole chuckled a bit. "Alright, Richard. I'll ask that to Santa, okay?" Richard seemed to be pleased with her answer and continued to eat happily.

"Anyway, seriously? Poseidon? That's an awful name for that goldfish." Anais commented after gulping down her food. Gumball crossed his arms.

"Well, he liked it. And how else do you call a fish? I can't call him Jim or Steven."

"I don't know. Didn't you came up with another names? Like Neptune or something?" Anais asked, Gumball nodded.

"Caspian and Nicodemus were the other names I came up with, but I kinda liked Poseidon 'cause it's a cool name and--"

"Darwin."

"What?" Gumball asked, turning his attention to his mother.

Nicole smiled, "I said Darwin." She repeated, "I like Poseidon but I think Darwin suits him more."

"Yeah, I agree with mum. Let's name him Darwin!" Anais exclaimed, bouncing up and down in the chair.

"But I like Poseidon! Why can't we call him that? He's my pet after all." Gumball said, crossing his arms even more. Richard held up a finger, thinking for a few seconds until the light apparently appeared on his head.

"Oh I know what name we can use! It'll have our last name! The name Ahab and Raglan too It'll be like... Darwin Raglan Caspian Ahab Poseidon Nicodemus Watterson III." Richard suggested and Nicole and Anais seemed to like his idea too. Gumball hummed quietly, thinking if he should change Poseidon's name. In a few seconds, he finally made his decision.

Gumball sighed deeply. "Fine. You guys win, he's name is Darwin now." He announced, making his family beam at that, specially Nicole, who was the one to suggest the name Darwin on the first place.

"Great!" Nicole beamed happily, kissing her son's cheek. "I knew that name suited him when I saw him. Even though I didn't knew he was a male." She commented, taking the empty plates and glasses.

"Yeah..." Gumball said, then remembered something. "Hey, mum. Did you buy fish food?" He asked, getting off the chair. Nicole nodded, then took a plastic bag that was filled with fish food and gave it to Gumball.

"Of course I bought fish food. Little Darwin can't live out of hamburgers, can he?" Gumball smirked at that.

"No, but I can." He said, gaining a chuckle from his mother.

Nicole ruffled her son's hair, "Go feed your fish, Gumball." She said.

"Okay, thanks for dinner mum!" Gumball said, then ran upstairs so fast it was a wonder why he didn't fell off the stairs. Gumball opened the door of his bedroom, his eyes going directly into Posei-- Darwin's eyes.

"Hi you. I'm back, in case you didn't notice me." Gumball said, closing the door behind him, then showed Darwin the fish food. "I brought you dinner." He said, opening the plastic bag.

"You know, my mum and dad think that Poseidon it's not a good name for you. I thought it was great, but whatever, your name is Darwin now." Gumball explained as he began to feed his pet.

"Darwin Raglan Caspian Ahab Poseidon Nicodemus Watterson III. That's your full name, but we'll call you Darwin," Gumball said. "I want you to get used to it. I used to have another name too, but it didn't fit me, so I told my mum to change it and she did. That's why I'm Gumball now."

Gumball continued to talk about lots of things during several minutes that he got so lost in his speech. And because of that Gumball forgot he also kept feeding Darwin.

And when he finally stopped, the bag was completely empty.

"Oh, shoot. I was supposed to give you a small amount of this." Gumball mumbled, concerned that his mother would figure out that he wasted a week of fish food. "I better get rid of this." He said, throwing the plastic bag on the small trashcan that was on the bedroom.

Gumball yawned, "What time is it?" He asked no-one in particular as he took out his cellphone and looked at the time.

It was 9:37 pm.

"I was... talking to a fish... during three hours?" Gumball muttered, having a hard time to believe that he had been babbling alone during three hours, no less.

He yawned again, then decided it was time for him to go to bed. Gumball went to the small nightstand in the corner of the room and took out his pyjamas that were just a white shirt and a sweatpant.

"Goodnight, Darwin." Gumball said, and just when he was about to lie down and sleep Anais opened the door.

She was holding her Daisy doll tightly to her chest, pyjamas already on. Anais went straight to her bed, "Goodnight, Gumball." She said with a sleepy tone.

Gumball turned off the lights, then walked to his bed and buried himself in the covers.

"Goodnight."

---

The sound of glass being shattered to pieces woke them up instantly.

It was dark and Gumball had no idea what just happened.

"What's going on?! Gumball! Turn the lights on!" The panicked voice of his sister made him react. Gumball turned on the lights, the fear was abruptly replaced by confusion once he saw the apparent reason of the noise.

"What's that?!" Anais demanded in fear, covering herself deep inside the sheet so whatever it was couldn't touch her.

On the floor there was this... this orange thing bleeding in some parts that seemed to be its body. It apparently was asleep, since it didn't make any sorts of movement.

"I don't know..." Gumball muttered, more confused than scared, unlike his sister.

"What is it doing here?! What--"

"I said I don't know!" Gumball snapped, but didn't kept yelling at his sister as his attention turned towards the fish...

What happened to the fishbowl?

"Darwin..."

"What?" Anais asked, face still covered.

"Where's Darwin?!" Gumball panicked, searching with his eyes all over the room but he didn't find his pet anywhere. He was genuinely concerned for the goldfish and he couldn't find him since the fishbowl was broken in thousands of pieces.

Wait a second...

"That's Darwin." Gumball mumbled in an almost inaudible tone, as if having difficulties to believe it. "That thing... is- is Darwin." He repeated, this time more louder so Anais could hear him.

Anais poked her head out of the sheets, "What?"

"This is Darwin." Gumball tried to convince her, pointing at the orange thing. Anais swallowed, daring to get out of the covers so she could have a better view.

"That's... impossible. That's impossible! How can this be Darwin- are you insane?! That fish has the size of an eraser! This- this is almost as tall of you are, Gumball!"

"I know! But- but listen to me!" Gumball insisted, "Anais, this is Darwin. I know that because the fishbowl is broken and this is the only thing that's closer to it. And Darwin is a goldfish. This thing looks like a goldfish." He told her, trying to make his voice sound confident and secure so his sister would believe him, but it didn't work because Gumball didn't really believe what he was saying either.

Anais scoffed, "So what you're telling me is that this thing is a . . . fish with legs." She stated, then the rage was obvious on her face. "Are you even listening the words that come out of your mouth?! A fish with legs?! No. I'm gonna tell mum and dad to get this thing out." Anais said seriously getting out of her bed to walk hurriedly to the door but Gumball stopped her.

"Anais, please! Just listen! I know it sounds crazy and I don't believe myself either but I know this is Darwin." Gumball persisted, making Anais groan. "Please, just listen."

Anais sighed after a few moments of hostile silence. "Fine. Tell me how the hell does a fish grows magically both length and members. Try it."

"I... I think he grew like this because I overfed him." Gumball said slowly, preparing himself for the response he knew he was about to get.

"That's your story? You've got to be kidding me. A fish can't grew legs because of food, you idiot! No. You won't convince me, I'm leav--"

"Shh! Don't say anything!" Gumball cut her off, pointing at the thing. "He's waking up!" Gumball mumbled, indicating Anais to stay away from whatever it was laying on the floor.

He opened his eyes slowly, not saying anything as he sat up, rubbing at his eyes. He seemed to remember what happened, then began searching all the room until he stared directly at Gumball.

~.~.~

Yo! It's me again.

Did you guys like this chapter? What do you think? I wanna know everything that goes through all of your beautiful minds.

I think you already know that English is not my first language so it's very probable that I'll have some horrible grammar mistakes all over this fanfic. If you like this, please point out the grammar/spelling mistakes so I can make this fanfic as best as I can for you to read.

Anyway, I also wanted to say that JMH (JustMyHeaven if you're curious) is the name of my account on Wattpad. I have two stories ongoing there plus the two I'm publishing here, so I hope you understand if I ever update this later than I should.

But I guess that won't be a problem since I'm In love with this story for no reason whatsoever and I only hope you guys like this too.

Alright! Enough of my ridiculously long A/N. C U next chapter.

JMH

Chapter Text

Chapter Three - Part 2

Darwin's P.O.V

"Goodnight."

Those were the last words I heard from him before the lights went off.

Everything was dark and I couldn't see anything. Normally, I was afraid of dark, but I knew that I was safe.

Ever since I was on that pet shop I saw that there was animals of each kind. Cats, dogs, birds and stuff like food and accessories. I always stood there on a plastic bag filled with water, waiting to be adopted.

For some reason, fishes weren't adopted as much as cats or dogs were, so I just guessed that people didn't like me.

Something caught my attention earlier this day, a blue cat was talking to the woman on the register. I didn't knew cats were that big and much less that they could talk! This female cat looked friendly and beautiful, like most of the females that came here day after day.

She said she wanted a pet for her son, a quiet one and easy to take care of. Apparently, she didn't want any dogs or birds, and I was pretty sure that it was weird for a cat to have another cat as a pet.

This was my shot! I realized, then began to swam in circles in hopes to catch the cat's attention. I wanted to jump and do some tricks but I couldn't since I was inside the plastic bag.

Thankfully, she saw me. The register woman asked her if she wanted to adopt me. I was feeling so nervous. No-one didn't look twice at me, and now I had the chance to finally be adopted!

The female nodded, then the woman took the plastic bag were I was and she put me inside a fishbowl, handing me to the female cat.

I was so happy! I was finally adopted by someone! I was finally going to be a part of a family!

After a few hours of being inside the female's car, she finally parked in front of a small blue house. She climbed out the car, holding my fishbowl with her left hand, opening the door with the right one.

"I hope my son likes you. You seem friendly." I remember she saying that to me. I smiled to myself but that quickly vanished when she put the fishbowl inside a box.

It was dark.

I couldn't see anything.

I always hated dark. It made me feel uneasy and insecure, as if someone would pop out and attack me. My heart raced as I tried to find a place where I could hide, a rock or something, but the fishbowl had nothing but water.

I just swam slowly from right to left, trying to think about something that could make me forget I was engulfed by darkness.

Someone get me out! I don't like this! I don't like darkness!

Just when I started to panic even more, there was a sound that came from the box. Someone was opening it.

I thought the first thing I'll see would be the female cat, but instead I found what seemed to be the male version of her.

"You bought me a... fish?" The male asked, getting the fishbowl out of the box. Relief came to me since I was able to see things again, and now that I had almost a clearer vision I was able to see two people in front of me.

The female cat of earlier was standing there behind the male cat, who then I realized was her son.

While usually fishes were afraid of cats, they didn't look intimidating. I felt safe with them for some reason.

"Yes! I thought you needed more company so I bought you a pet. What do you think? Do you like it?" She asked and after a few seconds of silence, the younger male nodded.

"Thanks mum." He said, grabbing the fishbowl with both his hands. "I'll put this on my room."

I saw a smile crossing the lady's beautiful face. "Alright, Gumball. Go."

Gumball headed upstairs, then walked to what I guessed was his room. He opened the door, then placed the fishbowl on top of a small nightstand.

"Okay, hi. My . . . uh- name is Gumball. Gumball Watterson." He told me, sitting on his bed as he looked directly at me.

Gumball said nothing for a good few minutes and it was making me feel a little uncomfortable, but it was okay.

I instead focused on him. He was a blue cat, just like his mother, but he was smaller. He was wearing a brown turtleneck with gray jeans, and apparently that was the same outfit he wears everyday, excepting his pyjamas.

His name was Gumball. What an odd name for a cat. Most of the cat names I've heard was Snowball, Tom and ... well, those names were the only ones I've heard. I guess this family was creative enough to name their son Gumball, or they just like gumballs in a crazy way.

I smiled mentally as I continued to swim inside the fishbowl. It was a lot bigger than that plastic bag I've been inside during my whole life.

"But what kind of name is suitable for a goldfish?" I suddenly hear him ask.

That made me think of something, that I don't have a name of my own.

The register woman used to call me "Little Fish" but I guess that doesn't really count as a name. I wanted a cool one, like Livereus Memorias or Michael Jackson.

I didn't know how much my species lasted, so I kinda wanted a name that would make people remember me as a cool guy.

"I think Poseidon would be... kinda cool." Gumball said after a while, then he looked at me. "What do you say, fish? Is Poseidon a cool name?" He asked me, but since I couldn't speak I just continued to swim.

"It'll be easier if you could talk. But you can't, can you?" I said nothing to that, but I continued to listen to him.

"Yeah, I thought so too. It'll be so cool if you could talk, you know." Gumball told me, sighing. "But that doesn't mean I can't talk to you. You seem friendly."

Really? I wanted to ask. That was what the female cat told me earlier when she put me inside that box.

I made little bubbles with my mouth, something I like to do when I'm thinking. The cat cocked his head. "Hm... you know, I can't tell if you are a she or a he. Poseidon wouldn't be a good name for a girl, would it? Anyway, I think you're male. But for all I know, you could be a female as well."

What? Do I look like a female? I asked myself mentally. I was a male, I wanted to tell him. But how could I? There was no way he would understand what I'll say.

I tried anyway, swimming in circles as if that would tell him that I was a male as well, but that didn't seem to work.

I looked at him one more time, and he seemed to be thinking about something.

"If you are a female, jump out of the fishbowl once, and if you are a male jump out of the fishbowl twice." Gumball tasked, and I just waited a few seconds so he'll think I didn't understand him and I'll have the chance surprise him.

I jumped twice as he told me. He smiled. "Cool! You're a guy!" I jumped twice again and Gumball laughed. "Awesome, dude. I didn't think you'll understand that."

You solely underestimate me, sir. I wanted to say.

I stared at him and he stared back, neither of us blinking. I wanted to laugh at his face because his eyes were watering and he was opening them so hard I thought they'll came out of his head.

"Gumball! Dinner!" The voice of the female called, making Gumball blink.

"Ugh- Coming!" Gumball yelled so his mother could hear him, then turned his attention back to me. "Okay, you won this time." I jumped out of the fishbowl once, just to make him think that I was bragging my victory. "Oh, enjoy it while you can, Poseidon. Enjoy while you can."

Gumball then leaned down to the fishbowl, facing me. "Cuz it won't last long, ya hear me? It's not like fish can't blink, right?" Gumball said. Oh, I really wanted to laugh at that.

This cat didn't know a thing about fishes if he really thought he could beat me.

"Anyway, I'm going downstairs to eat. Want me to bring you food, Poseidon?" He asked me. I thought that jumping out of the fishbowl would respond to that so I did it. Gumball smirked. "I'll take that as a yes." He told me, then left the room.

Poseidon... It looked like that was going to be my new name, but for some reason I couldn't get used to it.

It's not like you can choose your name, anyway. I had to stick with it to the rest of my life.

Now that Gumball wasn't around, I felt kinda bored so I just looked around the room. It looked a bit sad, to be honest. The walls were painted in a white color that looked a little dusty, there was two incredibly small beds too and a bunch of boxes that had the names Gumball and Anais all written.

They just moved in, I realized.

That made me think, how does it feel to be new in a neighborhood? I guess I'll learn soon, though. I'm new here too.

And after what seemed like hours, Gumball came back with a plastic bag on his hand, it kinda reminded of the one I used to live in.

"Hi you. I'm back, in case you didn't notice me." Gumball said, closing the door behind him, "I brought you dinner." He told me, showing me the plastic bag.

"You know, mum and dad think that Poseidon it's not a good name for you. I thought it was great, but whatever, your name is Darwin now." Gumball explained as he began to feed me.

I ate my food quietly as I listened to him.

"Darwin Raglan Caspian Ahab Poseidon Nicodemus Watterson III. That's your full name, but we'll call you just Darwin," He said, "I want you to get used to it. I used to have another name too, but it didn't fit me quite well, so I told my mum to change it and she did. That's why I'm Gumball now."

I wanted to ask lots of questions about that. My name was supposed to be Darwin now? I really thought I had to stick with Poseidon for the rest of my life, but then... my name is Poseidon too, only that they were supposed to call me just Darwin now.

I liked it.

I didn't notice he was still talking since I was focused on eating. I hadn't ate something in what seemed like hours! So I made sure to eat every last drop.

"Oh, shoot. I was supposed to give you a small amount of this." I suddenly hear him say, concerned. Then why did you feed me that much? I wanted to ask.

"I better get rid of this." Gumball muttered, placing the plastic bag inside a small trash can.

He yawned, "What time is it?" Gumball asked himself as he took out his cellphone and looked at the time. "I was... talking to a fish... during three hours?"

Yes you were, I wanted so bad to tell him; the look on his face was hilarious, as if talking to someone who can't respond was a complete nonsense, but you still talked anyway.

He yawned again, then decided it was time for him to go to bed. Gumball went to the small nightstand in the corner of the room and took out his pyjamas that were just a white shirt and a sweatpant.

"Goodnight, Darwin." Gumball said to me, and just when he was about to lie down and sleep, the pink rabbit opened the door.

She was holding some doll tightly to her chest, pyjamas already on. It took me a few seconds to realize that this was Anais, who went straight to her bed, "Goodnight, Gumball." She said with a sleepy tone.

Gumball turned off the lights, then walked to his bed and buried himself in the covers.

"Goodnight."

I tried to keep myself calm.

Not because of the darkness, it was something else. I felt... something- something strange.

I felt sharp pain in my head, making my vision blur, nauseating me.

My heart beat raced and I felt pain in the back of my tail, as if there was a sword trying to rip it off. I tried to see what was going on, but I found it impossible.

An strange chill crept to me, something was happening to me but I didn't know what.

I wanted to scream.

Pain exploded in my skull and back, making me unable of moving.

I became disoriented, and the fact that it was dark didn't help me at all.

I felt like vomiting.

Am I going to die?

I did not want to die! Much less that I had a family now!

I felt something heavy in my eyes, buy I didn't pay attention to that since the pain in my head was getting even worse the more I tried to stop it.

My tail felt like shattering to pieces as my head was pounding with pain so hard that I had to squeeze my eyes shut.

In that moment I fell unconscious.

~.~.~

Woah. Hello there.

I honestly feel bad for making Darwin feel all this pain, I mean my poor bby doesn't know what happening to him.

Anyway, tell me what you guys think! Is this chapter good or was it boring? Did you ate pasta today? Who's your favorite character? Tell me everything!

Thanks for reading, by the way. It means a lot :)

JMH