The Watterson's car drove into the parking lot, and located a good parking spot, pulling up into it.

The front doors opened and out stepped Nicole and Gumball, the latter looking rather annoyed as he was engaged in an argument with her.

"Mom, seriously, why did you have to drag me out of bed to come and do this? On a Saturday?!"

"Because we need to do some Christmas shopping."

"You need to do some Christmas shopping! You didn't need to drag me along with you! It's so unfair!"

"Of course I did!" She argued.

"Why? What do you need me here for!?"

"Because...I need you to help carry the shopping!" She replied, Gumball noticing her hesitation.

He raised his eyebrow. "and why couldn't Darwin or Anais have come instead? You know, the ones who actually enjoy shopping with you!" He replied annoyed.

"Well uhh, Darwin has a date with Carrie later!"

"I have one with Penny as well but that didn't stop you from dragging me out! Besides, Anais still could have come."

"She's only four, she needs her sleep."

He crossed his arms. "She hates being treated like a four-year-old and you know that! Your excuses aren't gonna work on me. Tell me, why am I really here?"

She sighed and slumped in defeat. "I just wanted to spend some time with you, alright? We rarely ever spend time together, just the two of us, and I thought that this would be a perfect opportunity for us to do so."

He rolled his eyes and let out a chuckle. "You seriously went to all of that effort, waking me up and forcing me to come shopping with you... just because you wanted to spend time with me!? Why didn't you just say you wanted to do something with me!?"

She hesitated to answer, looking down.

"Mom...?" He called out, slightly concerned.

"...Because you never would have said yes...because you'd never want to spend time with me..." She finally admitted.

"What...? Why...why would you think that?" His face fell slightly

"Are you kidding? Why would you want to spend time with me when you have your siblings, Penny, Carrie, and all your other friends to choose from instead? You're way too busy hanging out with them to care about me of all people. You have better things to do than spend time with your boring old mother..."

His ears lowered as his face changed to one of pity, hurt that she would genuinely believe something like that. "What...? That...that's not true...of course I care about you...of course I wanna spend time with you..." He slowly took her paw into his own.

She looked at him with a weak smile, as she felt her heart warming. "R-Really?"

"Of course! You're a great Mom, the best even! You go out of your way to look after us every single day, comfort us, care for us, and even do a job you hate just to do so. Not to mention the awesome, but also scary, rage powers you have and your black belt in karate! I mean, why wouldn't I want to spend time with you?!"

She sniffed as she began to tear up, incredibly touched. She suddenly pulled him in and gave him a tight, loving hug, which he returned.

"Thank you so much sweetheart you...you have no idea how much that meant to me." She told him in a broken voice as she struggled to stop the tears that were streaming down her face.

"You're welcome...*sniff*...I love you Mom."

"I love you too sweetheart..."

They hugged for a little longer before she eventually released him and wiped her eyes.

"Are you okay now?" He asked.

She smiled. "Yes, I'm okay honey, just feeling a little emotional still.

"Oh, okay. I'm uh...I'm sorry for being so stubborn and whining so much about coming...you just wanted to spend some time with me and all I was doing was moaning and complaining about it..." His ears lowered as he looked down, beginning to feel guilty.

She chuckled lightly "Awww, it's alright sweetheart, you had every right to be annoyed. I woke you up early on a Saturday and forced you to come shopping. I'd be annoyed too if I were you. But hey, you know what, just because we need to do some shopping doesn't mean we can't still have some fun..."

"What do you mean?"

"How about we do something fun afterward, make you coming along worth it, hey?"

"Like what?" He raised his eyebrow.

"Hmm...oh, I know! How about I play you at some games at the arcade?" She smiled.

A grin began to form on his face as began to snicker. "You? Playing games?!" He struggled to hold back his laughter.

She crossed her arms. "Hey, I'll have you know that back when I was your age I used to go there quite often with your father on dates, and I got pretty good at quite a few of the games there!"

"Pshh, yeah right! I'll wipe the floor with you!" He began to laugh

"Oh, you wanna be competitive, do you? She raised her eyebrow as she began to smirk "Alright then if you're so confident you'll win, why don't we turn this into a bet?"

"Oh? I'm listening..." His ears pricked up.

"If you win I'll give you a $20 bonus to your pocket money next week, but If I win, you...have to do the washing up for a week! What do you say?" She held out her paw.

He thought about it before grinning and taking her paw, letting out a giggle as he shook it. "Alright, you're on!"

She smiled. "May the best cat win...after we've done the shopping."

Gumball frowned and let out a sigh, following her inside.

After finally finishing the shopping and putting it safely in the boot of the car they two headed back inside, going over to the arcade.

They ended up playing together for hours, completely losing track of the time as they played the various games available, laughing, smack-talking each other, and just genuinely enjoying every second of their mother-son bonding time.

Eventually, they ended up tied and decided to do a tiebreaker in a racing game to decide the winner.

"Come on, come on!" Gumball began to sweat as he had his tongue sticking out of one side of his mouth in focus, the two neck, and neck.

"Come on, one final boost and...BOOM!" Nicole got an extra speed boost which sent her zooming forwards past the finish line, making her the victor.

"No, I was so close!" He threw his arms down in frustration but was still grinning nevertheless.

"But not close enough young man! Looks like someone is doing the washing up for a week!"

"Dagnabbit, I forgot about that..."

"Don't you try to worm your way out of it now!"

He chuckled. "I know, I know, you won fair and square. I definitely underestimated you!"

She looked at him with a smug grin. "You got that right!"

She was surprised as he suddenly hugged her lovingly. "Thanks for doing this Mom. I had a really great time."

"Awww, you're welcome sweetheart! I had a great time too!" She rubbed his head affectionately, causing him to close his eyes, smile, and let out a deep purr.

She chuckled. "Alright you, we best get home. The others have probably woken up by now and are wondering where on earth we've disappeared to."

He nodded and took her paw as they began to walk out.

Gumball looked up at her with a grin. "You know, you only won 'cause the games we were playing were those old ancient ones at the arcade. If were playing mine at home I would've easily destroyed you!"

"Oh really? We'll just have to test that theory of yours when we get home then, won't we?" She leaned forward with a smirk.

He giggled. "Yeah! You're going down!"

"That's big talk for someone who just lost to me..." She raised her eyebrow.

"Oh no, I'm not letting that happen again! I'm gonna destroy you this time!"

She chuckled. "We'll see about that..."

They both laughed and exited the arcade, heading back to their car.

"Hey, Mom?" He asked, looking up again.

"Yes sweetheart?"

He rubbed his arm as he began to blush lightly. "Can we do this again at some point? I-I mean spending time with you, just us two together. It doesn't even have to be at the arcade, we could...we could watch a movie or play paintball or just get a meal o-o-or whatever, I don't really care what we do, as long as we're spending time together."

She began to smile. "Awww, Gummypuss... I'd love to!" She rubbed his head affectionately.

"Awesome!" His face lit up. "I can't wait!'

She chuckled as her smile began to widen. "Me neither, me neither..."