Chapter 25: Burning

The two separate, Gumball rummages around, finding boxers, shorts, and a T-Shirt. He motions for Darwin to turn around, which the boy does, covering his eyes with his hands and rolling on his side. Gumball quickly slips off his wet jeans and boxers, replacing them with the clean ones and the shorts, he slips on the orange shirt when done, he grabs a pair of socks and tugs them on, along with his blue converses. Then he picks Darwin up, leaving the room, and heading to Penny's house, with the girl close behind them.

Gumball moves his arms to hover under the water slightly, letting Darwin slip out and into the pool. He goes underwater for a second before reappearing in front of Gumball, a sad smile on his lips. He reaches up and touches the shivering felines cheek. The blue eyed boy's eyelids droop as he presses his face into his hand.

"I-I wish you could join m-me." Darwin whispers.

Penny sighs, returning with her arms full of pillows, blankets, and a popcorn bowl balanced on the top, she pops her head around the side of the looming pile, "Hey guys! I brought some stuff. So we can sleep by the pool with Darwin! Does that…sound good?"

Darwin raises an eyebrow, "We?"

"Yeah!" She grins. "Well, I was thinking that maybe I could sleep here too…since this is my house?" She glances at the two.

Gumball shrugs, "Sure."

The younger boy rolls his eyes, doing a back flip into the water; splashing Gumball on purpose. The feline shrieks, running away from the pool and scampering up a tree, that was slightly hanging over the pool itself. Darwin resurfaces, looking around with a confused expression until Penny giggles, pointing at the tree.

Darwin scans it, spotting the shaking Gumball who was latched to the branch above the pool with claws and all, "Oh…my…god!" He cracks up, swimming over to rest under the branch.

The feline snarls, hunching up, "Thanks Darwin."

"You're welcome!" He grins, which soon turns into a frown. "Get out of the tree you weirdo."

Gumball shifts unconsciously, ears flattening as a dark blush covers his face, "I-I can't…"

"Why not?" Penny asks, walking over to the base of the tree.

"I'm stuck." He rolls his eyes, "And not moving."

Darwin shrugs, "Okay, you'll just be stuck up there forever!" He laughs, diving under the water.

Gumball flinches, "Stupid…"

Penny snickers, "Come on, let Darwin help you down."

The boy's ears twitch, glancing at the water, "Wh-what? How?"

"You'll see~! Darwin!" The antlered girl laughs, backing up.

"What-eek!" He squeaks as Darwin leaps out of the water -much like dolphins- and tackles Gumball from the tree.

Gumball jumps into panic mode, but that stops when Darwin presses his lips to his, giving him air. The two dive into the water, Gumball curled against Darwin's chest, as they continued to kiss. Gumball pulls away, making sure he had plenty of air before. He looks around with eyes squinted. All he could see was that stupid light teal-blue color pools had. It rather dark actually, considering the stars were out. It began to snow too. Great. He pushes away from Darwin, eyes widening when he didn't swim but rather sank.

"Gumball, just relax." Darwin's voice echo's in his head.

he feline relaxes, feeling the water keep him in place as Darwin watched him with concerned green eyes.

"Now, kick your legs like-" He glances at his tail. "Never mind that, just kick like this…" He uses his arms to show how to move your legs when you swim, smiling.

Gumball bites his lip, moving his legs like Darwin had shown him. He laughs, regretting it as gross tasting water fills his mouth. The scaled boy darts forwards, pressing his lips to the felines, giving him air. Gumball closes his eyes, ears twitching nervously, he wraps his arms around the others neck, deepening the kiss and pressing their bodies together. Darwin wraps his hands around Gumball's waist, eyes flickering up to where Penny sat, dangling her bare feet into the cool water. She must've figured that they were okay. Gumball's tongue runs along Darwin's bottom lip. The other boy opens his mouth, just as the felines tongue darts in. The fish runs his tongue over Gumball's teeth, or rather, canines. Sometimes, he wondered if Gumball would ever try to eat him…like actually eat him.

Darwin pulls away, grinning, "We better go up."

Gumball nods, letting Darwin swim the two up to the surface. Penny smirks, waving at them casually as Gumball clings to the goldfish. The cat buries his face into Darwin's neck, nipping it slightly.

The smaller boy shivers, nodding at the house, "Do you have any other clothes? He's gonna freeze his butt off if he doesn't get changed."

Penny taps her chin, "I…don't think so. My dad's clothes -but those are way too big for him. Um, no. I don't."

"Oh," He glances at Gumball, who had just started to quietly snore. "He…fell asleep."

Penny giggles, "That's adorable." she grins, "We could get him into a bunch of blankets, but he'd get them wet." She frowns.

Darwin shrugs, "He can just stay in the pool with me. I'll keep him warm I think, and…he's latched to me." He moves so that Penny can see clearly.

In fact, Gumball's head was nestled between Darwin's shoulder and neck, and his arms were now wrapped around his torso. His legs…they were wrapped around Darwin's mid-section. Penny smiles, nodding she stands up and stretches. He hadn't noticed before but, she was wearing pajamas. Her cotton pants were pink with yellow ducks scattered around, and she had a black long sleeved shirt that seemed blank. Darwin swims over to the stairs, where Penny laid out the blankets and pillows, she wiggled in, cocooning herself. She smiles at Darwin, resting her head in her hand.

"I've never seen him so comfortable with someone like this before." Her gaze softens. "Not even me."

Darwin smiles shyly, "Y-yeah, I know. Vise versa for me too,"

Penny raises her eyebrow, "You too really love each other don't you?"

The boy nods, "I do, and I'm nearly positive he does too."

"Yeah, I think so." She sighs, dipping her free hand's pointer finger in the water, swirling it around. "I…I'm sorry about k-killing him." She murmurs, avoiding the fishes gaze.

"I know." He sighs too. "Gumball told me how difficult it was for him to defeat the spirit thing, actually, he didn't really, not alone. We had to help him at Carrie's house. Remember?"

Penny's shock was shown clearly, "W-wow, really?"

He nods, "Yeah, I can't imagine how hard it would have been to fight him, if Gumball couldn't…I wouldn't think you could." He smiles apologetically, "No offence."

"None taken, I know what you mean." She flicks the water. "I would never intentionally hurt him."

"Neither would I." Darwin whispers.

Penny nods, "Yeah. How's he been doing?"

"Good. Pretty much." He shrugs. "Besides the fight from earlier."

Penny cocks her head, "What happened?"

"Eh, some dude tried to beat me up. Gumball came and saved me." He says in a girly voice, fluttering his eyes. "My knight in shining armor saved me!"

She giggles, "Wow."

He grins, "Yup, pretty much that."

Gumball tenses, moaning slightly, ears flattening, catching Darwin's and Penny's attention, "What's wrong?"

Darwin shrugs, "I…don't know. Bad dream maybe?"

She nods but the two scream when Gumball yowls out, leaping off of Darwin, onto the edge of the pool. His legs shake as he pulls himself up, he wobbles to the fence, leaning against it. Howling as pain rocked his body. Darwin's eyes widen along with Penny's, the fish desperately tries to get out of the pool, but fails.

"Go help him!" He shouts, voice quivering with worry.

Penny nods, scrambling out of the blankets and running over to the screaming boy, who was obviously awake. She touches his shoulder, "Gumball-"

The feline snarls, shoving her away. She stumbles back with a cry as Gumball's hand connects with her shoulder, burning her. The feline snarls, clawing the fence with his claws. He yowls as another wave of pain runs throughout his whole being. He falls over, puking out whatever he had ate that day, along with blood. Gumball's back arches with another burst of pain, screeching. The back door slams open to Penny's house, revealing her parents. Soon their scowls turn into worried frowns as they run over to Penny and Gumball.

Penny's father reaches out to the boy, making contact with his quivering shoulder and flipping the feline around. Gumball screams, lashing out at the man, who dodges the hit. Only to receive a kick in the gut.

"Gumball!" Darwin shouts, tears flowing down his face as he watched his boyfriend scream, blood seeping from his hands, and wounds.

The feline screams, trying to stand, only to collapse onto the snow, screaming. Many lights of the nearby houses turn on, and many shouts to shut up were heard and ignored.

Penny's mother reaches out, Penny speaking up quickly, "Mom don't! He's super hot!"

Her mothers hand touches Gumball's cheek, she screeches, yanking her burnt hand back and clutching it to her chest. Snow falls onto Gumball, melting nearly immediately. Gumball shrieks, tears rolling down his cheeks, burning up before dropping onto the ground. Penny's dad bites his lip, making a rash decision; he reaches out to Gumball.

HAHA CLIFF HANGER! About time I write a authors note, jeez. So, my spring break is over *pouty face* but, I get to spend time with my amazing friends (HintBoyfriendHINT) lol. Yup, so I'm spoiling you with a update of five. Freaking. Chapters! And that new story I was telling you about! Turn of Events is it's title...byebye and thanks for the amazing reviews!

~Stormy