Chapter 9: Water
"Okay Gumball! You can take a shower now!" Darwin shouted before entering the room wearing his chosen outfit and white socks covered his feet.
"O-okay, thanks Darwin." Gumball said and pecked him on the check when he took his leave.
Gumball entered the bathroom and set his stuff on the counter. He slid his shirt off and looked at himself in the mirror. He still had the scar on his cheek and side from the first time Penny attacked, he had a large scar over his heart, where he was stabbed. He whimpered and touched the white scar, it looked like it happened a long, long time ago. But it only happened yesterday-wait. They don't do funerals that soon, they normally have a week or so between the death and the actual burial. So what day was it? He shook his head and turned and looked over his shoulder and saw the large scrape on his back from that one rock still there and just as much of a scar as the others. His ears dropped and he examined his ripped one. It looked so weird. He touched his stomach and felt yet another scar.
This one was from when he was stabbed before getting pushed off of the bridge. He shook his head and touched the one on his left hip, you could just look at him and see he had been attacked. No second guess, just that. He frowned as he grabbed his leg that had been broken and looked at it, no scar, only he had a small limp, a very small limp. Very.
"God, I sure am ugly." Gumball mussed as he looked him up and down.
He turned to the shower and let the water run on cold for a while. After a minute he stuck his arm under the faucet and a image of the river flashed before his eyes. He yelped and ran out of the bathroom, nearly knocking Darwin over. He found his way into his room and hid under him blankets. He curled into a ball and was whimpering as the images of the river didn't leave him mind.
Darwin was walking down the hall to get breakfast when he heard a yelp from the bathroom. He turned to it and got ready to knock when the door flew open and Gumball darted out, he hit Darwin's shoulder making him spin in a circle as Gumball retreated to their bedroom. Darwin steadied himself and walked into the bathroom. He turned the water off and looked around the small room, finding nothing threatening. So what had scared Gumball? He left the bathroom and went back into his room. He saw Gumball's fluffed tail sticking out from under the blankets, he also heard whimpering as the blankets…shivered.
"Gumball?" Darwin asked.
Gumball's head appeared from under the blankets before he jumped off of the bed and onto Darwin with a wail.
Darwin fell to the floor with Gumball shivering and whining on his chest. "What's wrong Gumball?"
"I-N-no-bridge-w-WATER!" Gumball screamed and his claws unsheathed.
"Stop Gumball! Gumball-" Darwin panicked, he was scared of the felines claws. It was his fish side that was.
Gumball dug his fingers into Darwin' s chest who yelped as the claws pierced his skin. "Gumball! Ow!"
Gumball jumped off and crouched on their desk, he glared daggers at Darwin's fish tank bed. His tail wavered behind him, his pupils were large. He arched his back and stuck his tail up, ears pinned back and a menacing hiss escaped his pulled back lips. "Mrow!"
"It's okay Gumball!" Darwin shouted as he stepped in Gumball's vision.
Gumball looked up at Darwin and growled and his tail flicked, he blinked then shook his head as his eyes and body went limp from energy loss. "D-Darwin? What, happened?"
Darwin shook his head. "I don't know Gumball."
"I…don't remember what happened…at all." Gumball said.
"Huh, well, you went to take a shower then yelped or something and came running out.
Anais came barging in with her backpack slung over her shoulder, "Come on guys! We're gonna be late!"
"Oh, right," Gumball muttered and jumped off of the desk and landed perfectly by his shoes. He slipped the black DC's on.
Darwin followed him immediately and was already slinging his backpack over his shoulders. Once downstairs, Gumball grabbed his backpack and slung it onto his right shoulder. Darwin looked around and saw his precious journal on the table. He quickly stuffed it into his bag and left the house. The two teens and the ten year old girl walked to their bus stop. They stood around and stood around for a while then the yellow bus made it's way to them. Gumball got onto the bus after Anais, who sat in the back, he went to sit down in his usual seat before freezing.
A cold shiver ran down his spine as he looked at the girl in front of him. She had a long white hoodie over a very familiar blue dress. She giggled quietly and yanked him into the seat next to her. He shot Darwin a apologetic look as the smaller boy sat next to the only empty seat, Tobias. Gumball glared at the rainbow boy, daring him to do anything. He didn't notice. Gumball turned back to the girl.
"What are you doing here?" He hissed quietly.
"I was sent here for…important business." The girl answered in a hushed tone.
"Why are you wearing that? It's not a memorial type thing, just school." He asked looking at her dress.
"What do you mean? It's pretty right?" She asked and pulled down her hood.
She had the same light gray wolf ears as he had seen when he died, but her hair was different. It was still a white-blue-gray, but it was long, it was braided to the side, reaching just below her elbows. Her light blue eyes sparkled as she smiled kindly. She still wore the tear shaped collar, but it was pure diamonds and a light blue, the tear drop still had the red and blue swirling in it. She also wore a tiara that matched the collar and the earrings she wore, all the crystals were swirling with the red and blue. She had pale pink lips and thin light brown eyebrows. She looked like a goddess.
"Yes, too pretty. Whatever, not my problem. Why are you here and…" he scanned her again, "Where's your male counterpart?"
"Too pretty? I thought it was perfect. Like I said, important business. You mean Universe? He'll show later." She smiled and tapped her collar with a small giggle.
"What about the…you know…gates to life and death? Who's guarding?" He asked.
"Oh, Universe is silly! Him and I will trade places every hour, so next hour he'll be here and I'll be guarding." She rolled her eyes at the next statement. "Don't mind him when he comes though, he is just that way, being the ruler of the death and hell gates. I guard the life and heaven gates."
"Huh, okay. Well then…" Gumball said and a thought reappeared. "What was it you were going to say before…you took my first life?"
"I can't tell you know. Against my will, I'd be burned for that, breaking the rules. Father doesn't like it when we disobey his rules. I've never gotten in trouble, Universe has though." She sighed and shook her head.
"So you're Galaxy right?" Gumball asked. She nodded. "Kay. What was it you were saying about being a mortal once?"
"Oh, that was a long time ago. I was the female counterpart of my twin brother. I was able to control the air, snow, water," She looked at Gumball sadly. "and plants. I could also revive the dead and heal the wounded. Universe was able to make fire with his hands, summon the dead, kill with a single touch and bend shadow's." She sighed.
"That's when my mother took me into training to take her place so she could rule the seas and not the life and heaven, it was too much for her. Father then took Universe into his training to help me with his place being death and hell while father moved to the earth. It was very chaotic at the time. You get my point right?" She gave him a small plead.
"Yeah, I think I do." He nodded.
"Great! We're at Elmore High now!" She smiled and didn't even look out the window.
"And that we are…" He sighed and stood when the bus parked, releasing the students.
~Darwin's Bus Ride~
I watched as Gumball got pulled into the seat with the stranger he gave me a apologetic look and I sat with Tobias. Boy did I regret that. He whispered things to me the whole time and even groped me. I was slightly relieved that Gumball was absorbed in his conversation with the strange girl who had a strange taste in clothes. It made me slightly jealous that she was talking with him. She was pretty from what Darwin could see. Tobias chuckled and ran his hand up Darwin's leg. Darwin shook his head and noticed Tobias's hand. He growled and grabbed his arm and twisted it.
Tobias yelped, "What was that for?"
"No one, and I mean no one, but Gumball can do that if they want to on free will. So back off Tobias, I'm tooken already." Darwin hissed with a small smile gracing his lips when Tobias trembled.
"Fine. But I still get to flirt with you." Tobias said and ripped his arm out of Darwin's loosening grip. He huffed and glared holes in the back of Gumball's head.
Gumball walked with Darwin on his right and Galaxy on his left. The girl was gaining lots of attention, but she just ignored it and walked with the two gay boys. She was happy they were happy, she could feel the love radiating from the two boys, it was true love. She'd seen their future and their past. She had a special fascination for the two boys. She'd seen many nice boys, in her long lifetime, but, she was pulled in by these two boys. One was a fish and the other was a cat, who can ignore that? They both had kind hearts and broken pasts. Soul mates. She even could read their mind if she wanted to, but she'd respect their privacy when on Earth. It'd been so long since she had her body all to herself and walked on Earth.
Gumball paused at his locker which was surrounded by hearts, flowers, candles, and much more. His bottom lip trembled and his body shook. These were all for his loss, they were giving him weird looks because of it, they'd thought he was dead. He felt Darwin looking at him with a worried expression and Galaxy stood there awkwardly, not knowing what to do. He walked stiffly to his locker and kneeled down to the small locker. He grabbed a random letter and read it was from Tina. He found all of his friends names somewhere in the pile and even found Tobias's on a small slip of paper. He stacked everything together carefully and set it on the shelf in his locker after pulling the books that were there and setting them in the bottom.
"That's…nice." Darwin said and added another card with pictures of Gumball and his friends.
"Hey, look at the bright side Gumball," Galaxy spoke up. "You're alive and you get to see who likes you and what they'll feel when you truly die."
Darwin turned towards her, "Yeah, so I can keep a watchful eye on them,"
Gumball looked at Darwin, "When have you been so…possessive?"
"No clue were that came from." Darwin shook his head.
"What do you guys normally do this time of school?" Galaxy asked.
"We normally go do sports and…I swim. Wanna see the pool?" Darwin replied.
"Sure," the wolf girl said with her hands wrapped together in front of her. "One minute please?" She said and held her finger up, her hoodie disappeared and you could see the white belt that was around her waist and the long droopy sleeves of her dress.
"Uh…okay. Can you poof us into our swimming trunks then?" Darwin asked, completely unaware that she was immortal and magic.
"Of course I can Darwin." She smiled and waved her hands at the two boys.
Darwin was now wearing green swim trunks and Gumball was wearing black ones. "Thanks…?"
"Galaxy," she offered.
"Yeah! Thanks Galaxy," Darwin smiled and pulled a shocked Gumball into the pool room across the hall.
It was a large pool with no one in the room at the moment. Darwin's smile lit up at the sight of the pool and he pulled Gumball towards the water. He held onto Gumball's arm and jumped, once at the edge of the pool. He hung above the glimmering water and looked up. Gumball had his arm sticking out so that Darwin hung by it over the water, and Gumball was as stiff as a brick. Darwin shook his head, dismissing his odd behavior and let go of Gumball's arm with a howl of laughter.
Gumball yowled when the water splashed his face and he tumbled back. He shook his head and looked at the water. Darwin resurfaced and spit a stream of water out and turned to Galaxy.
"Hey, you should come swimming!" He looked at Gumball, "You too Gumball!"
"N-no." Gumball paled.
Darwin cocked his head and left the pool and walked over to Gumball, "Come on,"
Gumball yelped when Darwin placed his wet hand on Gumball's lower back, "O-okay."
Darwin lead his "friend" over to the stairs and told Gumball to get in. He nodded his head and stepped in. He yelped and jumped out of the water with a high leap. He landed on Darwin, wrapping his legs around the startled boy's waist and arms, pinning them to his sides, and his arms wrapped tightly around Darwin's upper arms and back. He buried his face into Darwin's bare chest and his ears drooped. His hair stood on end and his tail looked like it belonged to a Persian, not a short haired cat.
Darwin turned to Galaxy and asked, "What's his problem-who are you?"
So, how'd you like this chapter? Good, Bad, let me know in a review!
Also, I'd like to apologize for the confusion with chapter 7 I had uploaded chapter 6 instead of 7 and...posted 6 in 7's place. I've fixed that know, so, if you read that, I recommend rereading chapter 6 and 7.
