Chapter 1

The sound of a familiar car engine starting tickled the curiosity of a certain seven-teen year old boy. After hastily shoving the last bite of his tuna fish sandwich into his mouth, he pranced over to the front door, swinging it open. Past the small wooden porch, and the fresh patch of green lawn, he saw his mother getting into the passenger's side of the family's yellow and brown mini-van.

Swallowing his food, Gumball called out to his mother while jogging down the small pathway, closer to the now running car, "Mom, where're you going?"

Nicole rolled the window down and handed her eldest child a key, "Your father, Anais, and I are going to the store. We're leaving you and Darwin here; he told me you have homework due tomorrow?" She said, raising an eyebrow at her son.

"Well, yeah, we do. But-" He began, sheepishly rubbing his neck.

"-No 'buts', Gumball." Her sky blue eyes narrowed. "I hope to hear from Ms. Simian that you have turned in your homework within the next parent's conference." Nicole paused, her light sky blue ears twitching for a moment as she thought. "Anyways, we'll be back at around…eleven. I'm trusting you and Darwin to keep watch of the house. Pizza's simple enough for dinner -don't you think, Richard?"

The large man answered with a warm laugh, from the driver's seat, "I'm sure it's fine honey."

"Thanks dad." Gumball thanked his father quickly, as the mans chocolate brown eyes turned back to the road.

Nicole nodded, "Yes, simple enough. No sneaking out."

"Okay."

"Eat, lock the doors, and make sure to finish your homework." She listed quickly, brushing a strand of cyan hair from her face.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know." Gumball said, slightly agitated now.

A sigh, "Alright, let Darwin know where we are if he asks, okay?"

"Sure mom." He answered, rolling his icy blue eyes.

"Mom, let's go. I think he get's it." Anais complained from the back, tugging on her pink rabbit ears. "Remember, he's not a little kid any more."

Nicole rolled her eyes in return, "But you are, so don't talk to your mother like that."

"Sorry." Anais apologized, her large doe eyes dropping, although a small smile tugged at her lips.

"Okay, I get it, bye mom. Have fun." Gumball spoke quickly, cutting into the small tension by placing a soft kiss on his mother's cheek. "I'll let Darwin know."

"Gumball, be good." Nicole said quietly. "Bye sweetie." And with that, she placed the house key in his hands and Richard drove off.

Once the mini van disappeared from sight, Gumball let go of the breath he hadn't known he had been holding. With a skip in his step, the boy turned on his heal and headed into the house, doing as his mother had said; locking the doors. He climbed the stairs to the room he shared with his "step-brother". He quietly opened the bedroom door, slipped inside, and in the same way, closed it, with a soft 'click'. At the sound Darwin looked up from the bottom bunk, where he sat cross-legged with few paper scattered around him.

Darwin wore simple, comfortable clothing, as he always did. It contained of a neon green T-shirt that seemingly matched the slightly darker hue of his eyes, and shorts -that resembled swim trunks the color of a dark violet that blended nicely with the yellow stripe on both legs. He smiled cheekily at Gumball, who in return, flashed his oh-so-famous cat grin. Darwin bore barely noticeable freckles that scattered across the bridge of his nose, he had perfect, un-touched (otherwise) sun kissed skin, and the most stunning fact, was his bright orange hair that was brushed over his forehead casually, yet fashionably, that had just a touch of wave to it. Just about everyone who had seen the sixteen year old boy shirtless, knew he had a set of gills on either side of his ribcage. It was really no doubt everyone noticed the golden-orange fins that were in place of his ears, and the tail that resembled a goldfish's.

After Gumball realized he had been staring, he shook the internal fawning from his head annoyed with himself. Walking over to his dresser, he slipped out that day's wear; his casual tan and brown turtleneck, and his blue jeans that rolled up at then ends to be a slightly darker shade of the shirts tan. Standing in his dark blue boxers, he contemplated of what to wear to bed that night. Shrugging, he grabbed a plain black tank top and put it on. He grabbed a pair of pajama bottoms, but the thought of actually putting them on and wearing them deflated as soon as it came.

He smiled deviously and pounced onto Darwin, earning a cry of protest. He nuzzled into the smaller teen's neck while a giggle escaped his mouth. Gumball's messy cyan blue hair tickled Darwin, and his large, fluffy ears of a darker hue twitched as he blew in them.

"Gumball! Get off!" He whined, though a laugh of his own slipped out. "I -no, we need to finish our homework. Get off of me you psycho cat!"

"Never! Homework is lame ass." Gumball laughed, curling his thin cyan tail around one of the boy's legs tightly.

"S-so? Does that mean w-we shouldn't do it?" Darwin stuttered at the closeness between the two.

"Yes. I don't do lame ass." The feline said with a small chuckle.

Darwin scoffed, "Right. No, s-seriously, off. Now."

A moment's hesitation was all the younger boy needed, he used the pause to push Gumball off of him and sit up, a deep red tinge now settled on his cheeks. A blue eyebrow raised, as he studies his room mates shaky movements, and 'lip-chewing'. Nervous. But why was he nervous? Gumball's curious conscious thought.

Apparently, curiosity got the better of him, "Hey, are ya' okay, dude?" He asked with a twitch of his ear, and a tilt of his head.

The ginger turned his large green eyes to the icy blue ones that were narrowed at him, "Uhh…yeah, I'm cool…dude." He said carefully, before tearing his eyes from Gumball's, and to the paper that was even more scattered around than before. And crinkled too.

That wasn't a good enough answer to the paler boy, who snorted to prove so, "Right…"

A pause.

"Aw come on, dude! I'm your best friend, your brother, you can tell me anything! Even a secret!" Gumball begged.

"No, not 'anything', Gumball." Darwin replied slowly, setting the now neat stack of paper on the nightstand. "Besides, who said I had a secret?"

The feline grinned, "You did."

"When?" Darwin sweat dropped.

"Just now. I never said you had a secret, I just said you can tell me if you do have one. Which you obviously do." He blinked, his mind slowly catching up with the words he had spoken so quickly. "So, what is it?"

Green eyes narrowed on ivy blue, "Well obviously I didn't catch that."

Gumball gave an un-amused expression, before blurting childishly, "Liar."

"Oh, whatever, finish you homework." Darwin said whilst rolling his eyes.

"You're stalling. Please tell me~!" Gumball pleaded, this time, giving him the…look.

Darwin stared weakly at the large, pleading eyes, the trembling bottom lip, the flopped ears, and the clasped hands beneath his chin, "Fine." He caved.

Gumball perked up immediately, "Okay! What is it!"

"Well-"

"-Wait, lemme guess!" He smiled cockily. "Hmm…a present? No, to boring. Uh…oh. Oh."

"What?" Darwin asked, a pinch of nervousness weaved in the one word.

Gumball's grin widened, "You've got a crush."

The tan boy's jaw dropped comically, "W-what? H-how did you-?"

"I used to do the same thing, remember?"

"Oh. Dang." Darwin blushed, turning his gaze down to his folded hands, which seemed to suddenly feel sweaty, just as his shirt seemed clammy.

"Who is she?" Gumball asked softly, sliding a finger under the other boys chin, tilting his face to look at him. He gasped silently when he saw a single tear slide down Darwin's chin, and brushed it away with the pad of his thumb, "What's wrong?"

"She-" He cleared his throat. "She is really a h-he." Darwin voice cracked as he said the last part.

Gumball was honestly shocked, though he didn't remove his hand from Darwin's chin. Since when did he like guys? Sure, Gumball had thought that maybe, maybe mind you, his step brother had a fling with their class mate, Tobias, at one point. Now that he thought about it, Darwin did seem to be more comfortable around guys. But which guy was it? If it was Tobias -he was going to personally rip the asshole's throat out with his claws, or teeth, either would complete the job-

Whoa. That was uncalled for. Why was he so…angry at the thought of Darwin liking Tobias? Sure, he and the rainbow-haired brat weren't on very good terms with one another, having a spat or a tussle here and there but…he had never thought about killing someone. Even if he was a former friend. Shock ran through Gumball's spine when he thought about all the other guys he knew; Banana Joe -even though he and Idaho had a thing for a year or two now- or Bobert, it brought a wrenching pain to his heart just picturing Darwin with anyone other than- him.

Did…he, Gumball Watterson, like Darwin like that? Perhaps, ever since Penny Fitzgerald was out of the picture, he hadn't really hung out with anyone much more than Darwin, Anais, and Carrie. He was more than one-hundred percent positive he didn't like his younger sister like that, if he did, it was slightly sick, besides the related part…the age gapping. Anais was now nine years old, almost ten, and he was nearly eighteen. An eight year age difference and related. Nope. Wrong. And Carrie, he was pretty certain he only looked at her like a Gothic best-friend. Darwin was the only one he could think otherwise with. Besides. Darwin had in fact, had a crush on him when he pretended to be "Gumballoopseggswobbleunderpants", and he faintly remembered the little fluttery feeling in his stomach when Darwin actually looked at him like that. He had only ever been looked at like that by Penny.

Penny. She was both a good, and bad memory. When he had just turned fifteen, he had brought her on a date, because he had finally grown the balls to ask her out. They had gone to a simple restaurant, Olive Garden, when she had…lashed out at him. First, it was with words. She didn't like it when he talked about his friends, Darwin and Carrie. She said he was cheating on her. Even though he had just asked her out that day at school, during lunch. He had tried to apologize, tell her she was wrong. That, was the wrong word use. She snatched a knife from the table and brought it across her wrist, then shoved it in Gumball's face, allowing the fresh blood to drip onto his lips.

"I do this to myself to try and get you attention, Gumball!" She had paused, pulling up her dark blue long sleeve up to her elbow, revealing several scars. She brought the knife across her forearm, "But no, you're always distracted by your petty boyfriend."

It had taken a moment for him to realize that she had called him gay, before he snapped, "Boyfriend?! I'm not gay! I-I love YOU! Besides-"

"NO! You love that fish boy!" She snarled, swiping the knife across Gumball's left cheek, leaving a clean-cut, "You're a bastard! I never want to see a whore like you ever AGAIN!" Her eyes had taken a strange…tint of dull green to the normally honey colored chocolate-brown.

The words had cut deeper into his heart than the knife that was then dragged crudely across his shoulder. She had gathered a crowd, but somehow had managed to barge through, and left in a rush. No trace of her ever since. She never showed up to school, she never called, she never…came around. It had honestly broken his heart. He blamed himself. He cried. He had began to bring the pain Penny had once brought to herself, to himself. Anais had found him in the bathroom tub, sobbing, his wrists cut in several places.

He had been broken for nearly a whole year then. And he had hated it. Darwin had hated it. Anais had hated it. His mom, Nicole, she hated it. His dad, Richard, he hated it. Carrie was the only one who had understood him. She had said that at some point in her ghostly life, she had done the same. But the scars never stayed, they would vanish over night. She was who had convinced him to stop. His scars wouldn't just "vanish", they would stay for life. That, was when Carrie had become his closest girl-friend.

"Oh? Alright, who's he?" Gumball asked gently, rubbing his thumb across Darwin's flushed cheek.

Darwin's eyes widened, "Y-you mean y-you're fine with it? Y-you're n-not disgusted with me?"

A small smile tugged at Gumball's lips, "No. It's perfectly normal for anyone to like the same gender, or opposite. It doesn't matter to me Darwin, just as long as you're still you."

At that, Darwin giggled softly, "Awe, Gumball I-" He paused, sniffling. "Thank you. I-I needed that."

Gumball shrugged half-heartedly, "Welcome."

"C'mere." Darwin said quietly, pulling Gumball against him, so his head rested on the feline's shoulder.

Gumball flushed, that once lost, butterfly feeling returning to his stomach at the warm contact. He carefully wrapped his arms around the warm waist of the younger boy, while Darwin wrapped his own around his neck. He turned his arms so his wrists were exposed, and he gazed at the crisscrossed scars that were always going to be there. He wanted them to stay. It was memories. Good or bad. He wanted to remember them all. How he had felt. Warm and fuzzy, or cold and hurt.

Darwin pulled away, a smile gracing his lips, "You're the first person I've told."

He raised a blue eyebrow, "Really? Wow, I'm honored."

"You're nosey." Darwin said, pointing a finger at Gumball, then gently poked his nose.

The feline chuckled, "Yeah, I know. Now, are you going to tell me who this is? So if he hurts you I can beat him up?" He asked with a cocky grin.

Darwin froze, "Uh…"

His grin fell, "What?"

"Well-"

"-Hey, I can guess, I know you like it when I do that." Gumball said.

Darwin licked his lips, suddenly dry, thinking it over. Besides, what was the possibility he would guess himself? "Sure."

Gumball smirked, "Okay, Tobias."

A thin orange eyebrow raised, "Tobias? Why?"

"Because, it seemed like you two had a fling in Junior High." The older boy said bluntly.

"Oh. Well, no." Darwin blushed, "No, this guys a lot sweeter."

Gumball grinned, "Really? What's he like?"

It shocked Darwin that Gumball was able to talk about guys this easily, "Well, he's super sweet, he can be jackass, hot."

That was rewarded with a laugh.

"Um…" Darwin looked over Gumball quickly, trying to figure out some more suggestions, "He can be a little too curious for his own good. Protective. Athletic, big time, whether he knows it or not."

"Keep going…I like this guy so far." Gumball grinned.

Darwin had to giggle at that, "Uhm, he's funny, lazy, friendly, moody, loud, talkative, and I suppose…he's pretty popular."

"Okay, does he go to our school?" The teen asked, rocking side to side much like a child.

"Yes, he's also, very childish."

"Hm." Gumball tapped his chin, "How old is he?"

Darwin grins, "Near seventeen and eighteen."

"Okay…uh, Darwin, will you tell me who he is?" Gumball asked softly, "I won't judge. I promise."

"Some promises are impossible to keep…" Darwin whispered, pulling his face away from Gumball's hand and burying it in his raised shoulder.

The feline's blue and white ears droop, "Oh, if you don't trust me…I get it."

Darwin raised his green eyes to Gumball's, only to see them watering slightly, "What? No, that's not what I mean- ugh, I-I…fine. I'll t-tell y-you."

Gumball's ears twitch slightly, "Really?"

"Y-yeah."

The feline smiled, "Go on…I swear-"

"-He's YOU okay?!" Darwin blurted, then his eyes widened. "Oops."

Gumball stared, wide-eyed at the smaller boy who just admitted he had a crush on him. His heart was beating rapidly within seconds, and his face was warmer than he had ever thought possible. But he never had blushed much. Darwin was mentally slapping himself, he had just planned to lie, and say it was Clayton or someone he wouldn't hate, and his "crush" would go away after some time.

"M-me?" Gumball stuttered.

A cracked sigh, "You."

Gumball smiled, much to Darwin's utter disbelief, "Whoa, never would've guessed that."

"This isn't a t-time t-to be joking, t-this is s-serious!" Darwin exclaimed, his face just as red.

The cyan haired boy slid one hand that tangled into Darwin's soft orange hair, and the other tilted his chin up. Gumball's sensitive ears could hear their breathing both hitch as Gumball brushed their lips together.

"You know, this isn't a joke. You should trust me more often." Gumball purred lowly, pressing their lips together.

So, I hope you guys like this Re-Write of Gumwin better than the original? I know I do. I'm sure it'll be longer, because by the looks of it...so far, it is. And I have the whole story more "plotted out", or thought through. I think that I'd count the original as the rough draft rather than the..."published" copy. What made me suddenly write this, you wonder? Well, by the looks of it...I got quite a few awards/votes in the "2013 AWOG Rewards (Re-Post)" from you wonderful people! Thank you, again! Really, I was so happy when I saw this last night, I vowed to re-write the first chapter of Gumwin today! I succeeded Now, let's see if I can upload a chapter each week shall we?

Question of the week: What do you think of the first Gumwin (Re-Write) chapter? Please tell me in your reviews! Also, the whole "Quote for each chapter" thing, would you?

~Stormy B