A/N: Pssst! Hey! Check out the AO3 version of this chapter on Toon Tower Archive of Our Own! I've got something else there, and it looks better!

Chapter 7: Hurry Up, He's Dreaming

Garnet sees the setting sun in a west window at the hall in floor 20. A giant, black spot shaped like a heart decorates most of the sun's surface.

After a more well-suited lunch, the park crew has made an effort to restore at least one hotel room, so the children can sleep. Penny and Anais had gone ahead to the hotel walls to see how the room was going as the crew rapidly, almost frantically, walked past them as they worked. The other kids waited in the lobby rather impatiently. The hotel room had been dusted off of the dirt, been sanitized, and fixed as quickly as possible, expecting to have it complete by dusk. The hotel room is at the farthest side of the east of the tower, so the children can be awakened by the sun with the heart spot in it through the window as it rose. At one point, Skips had walked past Steven, Gumball, and Darwin, and peeked outside the broken entrance, uncaring of the rubble and glass around him as well as the cold breeze, to look at the setting sun.

"That's one heck of a sunspot," he once commented half-jokingly.

Earlier during lunch, Pearl had arrived at the restaurant to see how everybody's been doing, as well as apologize for getting upset. Steven assured her there was no problem, but requested that he see the map, to get information of the restaurant. It was at that point, that Steven saw another new helpful explanation when he looked at the map again: every edible condiment and ingredient is multiversally made to accommodate the biological needs of beings of different universes and the contents are stocked infinitely, always fresh. Regardless of the world where they originated from, the food was always digestible for every toon. Having been assured of this, and the self-sanitizing restaurant, Steven proceeds to help make a batch of hot dogs, and some sandwiches for himself. He enjoyed them, after all, he's felt like he has gone a whole day without eating.

A whole day.

He realizes this just now, as he walks along with the other kids towards the storage room where Pops had called them forward from the hall that led to the storage room. He doesn't think even Gem missions with him lasted this long. His dad is probably, or definitely, worried sick by now. Should he come back now? But still, he is curious to what lies ahead. He looks ahead to find Pops at the door, kneeling in front of a dark grey box looking as childishly ecstatic as ever, and excited to have the kids come. All three stand in silence, Steven is restless in worry and having a small bout of anxiety over not being home, and Gumball looks at Pops sarcastically.

"Children, could you please take a look at this peculiar object I found?" he requests. Gumball then notices Pops is wearing a bigger, sillier, more colorful top hat, filled with red and white stripes and green polka dots. He frowns slightly at the ridiculousness of it, combined with Pops' overly playful smile.

"Come," Pops directs at Steven, noticing the boy's discontent. "Try it, it'll be fun."

Steven calms himself down, and starts to head forward. Pops stands up to let Steven through and walks back. Steven kneels curiously in front of the box. He hums and swallows a bit of too much spit in his mouth as he stares into the dark, black hole at the top of the box, unable to make out anything from the darkness, not even in the hall's light. He turns back questioningly at Pops and a skeptical Gumball.

"Go on, child!" Pops calls. "Put your hand inside and see what you pull out."

Steven curiously turns back to the box. Seemingly without hesitation, he puts his hand inside the hole. As he feels nothing but the hard and fuzzy texture of the rims of the box's hole, he soon reaches further, until his whole arm is inside. He lights up when he feels some fabric in his palm, grips it, and quickly pulls out his arm in calm anticipation. Steven looks at what he pulled out from the box; a white cozy hat shaped like the head of a bear, with round ears at the top and straps at the bottom to place around the head. He stares in awe at it with starry eyes, and immediately tucks his head inside and pulls the straps around his chin.

Gumball and Darwin's eyebrows raise in subdued, yet ecstatic surprise, and Pops breaks into high giggles upon seeing him. "Oh, you look positively delightful!" he cheers. He then turns to an even more skeptical Gumball. "It's a box that produces silly hats of your liking!" He claps enthusiastically. He turns toward Gumball and Darwin. "Go on! Reach in! I'd love to see what you look like in those hats!"

"Pops, hey, c'mere!" Mordecai calls out at the end of the hall. Pops emits a little 'ooh?' sound before standing up, his attention now caught on an entirely different priority. The other kids watch as he disappears from the hall along with Mordecai. Steven then feels himself distracted as he feels the fuzziness of his hat and the ears, producing a cheeky and joyful smirk and more starry eyes, easing his worries.

Gumball scoffs. "Least he's gone, I don't have to be babied like this," he mutters as he reaches towards the box along with Darwin.

"Hope it doesn't look too colorful," Gumball comments off-handedly. He laughs to himself as he reaches down the hole and rummages freely. "'Cuz, y'know, I've been havin' some drama with lucky hats…" unwilling to tell the whole story, he pulls his arm away to look at what he grabbed. His laughter immediately ceases, and is followed by a wordless squeak of revulsion. His widened, incredulous eyes stared at a dumb-looking red gnome hat in his hand.

"Well, this doesn't look lucky," he snarks snootily. Gumball quickly puts it on before he lets himself think too much on it. The hole of the coned hat is slightly larger than his already huge head. Only half his eyes peek from underneath the hat, giving his face the appearance of a dopey scowl. He scoffs again, but his mind draws blank. "…Yeah."

Darwin can't help but snicker, bringing his fins to his mouth as his cheeks start puffing from from the held in laughter. Gumball starts to groan and grimace, which only served to pull the hat further down and obscure his eyesight. Gumball growls and pulls the hat back up in annoyance. Rather than reaching his fin down the hole, Darwin grabs the top of the box with both arms, and does a quick handstand, sticking the entire top of his head (body?) into the hole. He squirms slightly, before popping out of the hole with a grunt and sitting on the floor. He curiously reaches his fins up to feel at what he has on his head. He feels a kind of cool, round glassy surface, and reaching further, he sees something strange protruding from the front.

"Oh, so this counts as a hat now," Darwin remarks in a doubtful tone, not quite as a question. He has a mere teapot on his head.

Now it's Gumball's turn to snicker, but this time he doesn't hide it. Though he normally would have reacted in scorn, Darwin still ends up grinning and his voice rises in chuckles. Gumball's humor is contagious, and it's difficult to stay mad at someone with a hat like that. Even Steven smirks a little bit at the increasing giggles. Gumball turns to him with a wide, happy grin. "You have a bear on your head," he comments between giggles. Steven then begins to burst into more giggles himself, until the entire corner is filled with laughter.

"Hey!" Rigby calls as he slides into view at the end of the hall, interrupting their laughter. They all turn their heads towards him attentively. "Hey, dudes, your rooms are ready. You can go sleep in beds there now." Upon this statement, the kids continue to stare for a few moments before responding.

Gumball and Darwin then look at each other in a mash of excitement and relief at finding somewhere to sleep, but Steven finds himself a little stunned. Bed? Already? Are they going to sleep here? Hoo boy. As usual, Gumball and Darwin speed up from the hall at near lightning speed, leaving him behind. Steven is led to handle his uneasiness by himself as he gets up, takes the hat off his head and holds it, and starts to jog from the hall to the pillars in the center, looking up for a moment to try to take a look at the Gems but is unable to find them. After all, the hearty sun continues to be worth their attention.

As he runs to the stairs in the guest room with where he guesses he'll sleep, Steven stops near the entrance facing south. The twilight in the setting sun on the right side gives the horizon a dash of, magenta, dark purple with nearing dark blues blues and then pitch blacks. Judging by some images he saw on his phone, he could swear it looks like somebody had stroked the sky with paintbrushes. He stands in curious silence, face blank as the landscape changes color while the sun sets, followed by small and yellow five-pointed stars. They are not vast balls of gas millions of lightyears away dimly perceived by a human eye, as Pearl had described, simply cartoonish little five pointed stars, which Steven figures the Crystal Gems would find simultaneously fascinating and disappointing.

"Hey! Over here!" Skips calls out from the stairs. Steven takes one quick glance at the sky before running off to where he is called. Skips then proceeds to lead him to the hallway where the room is located, at the penultimate hall close to the door that leads to the sloped path and the Rooms the Gems still work on. Skips leads him further down the path and passing by several tattered rooms until they reach a clean, polished, wooden door at the very end in the left wall. Mordecai and Rigby lean against the wall in front, and Pops watches on. Skips steps back and offers Steven to open the door to the room. He curiously twists the new knob, and opens the door with a lack of a creak. He is greeted by a small hallway, with a closet to its right, leading to a couple of beds at the very end with a generic-looking painting of a portal.

Steven stares in bright joy when he finds Pearl inside right in front of the painting, her hands clasped in a welcoming pose.

"Hello, Steven!" she greets cheerfully, extending her arms. "This is where you and your friends will be sleeping for the night. I trust that you will like it here! Now, I will brief you on some of the things you'll be needing for your stay."

As Pearl explains, Steven takes the time to watch his surroundings. He looks down to see the carpeted floor being much cleaner than before, and sees shades of red and dark orange decorating it. The room itself is colored in various shades of red through light yellow. In the bed farther from the window, at the left of the painting, he could see that Gumball had tossed his gnome hat at the foot of the bed he is now lazily plopped and splayed on. He sees Steven, and lets out a long satisfied sigh and splays his body a little further than his limbs would normally allow, clearly indicating the bed to be his. Meanwhile, Steven sees Lion snoozing on the foot of the other bed, another clear indicator to whose bed that one belongs to. At the corner in front of that bed sits a round table with an illuminated lamp.

At the window, Darwin holds his teapot tucked on his arm and stares out the window as the sky darkens completely, and the false stars twinkle brighter. A strange, bright, white moon reflects on his wide-open eyes.

Next to Gumball's bed is a half-open door that leads to an adjacent room. Steven peeks inside, and sees another bed, with Penny sitting calmly and looking up at him. Steven pulls back, and sees that directly in front of the window lies a small kitchen. To its right, there is a couple of sinks, as well as another door that leads to an adjacent bathroom. Steven then turns to actually pay attention to Pearl.

"—and over here there are sinks with some toothpaste and various different toothbrushes, all arranged by color, which you can use for your oral health. Yours is the red one, the cat's is the blue one, the orange one is for the fish, the rabbit's is pink, and the yellow one is for the flying creature."

"We have names, you know," Gumball creaks in a somewhat sarcastic tone, unmoving from his spot. Pearl looks away from Gumball and back at Steven in a mixture of mild embarrassment under a blank expression.

"…Now, then, over here," she gestures towards the closet at the small hall towards the door. "Is where your night wear's located. All the pajamas over here come from all sizes, so you should be able to find one that fits you." She gives Steven some room to step forward to try to take a closer look at the closet. Meanwhile, she cups her hands again. "Alright, now, Steven, if you ever need anything, I believe you know where to find us, or the others." Concluding with her explanation, Pearl heads for the door out of the room with some satisfaction.

"Hey, Pearl, wait!" Steven shouts, and she turns around curiously. He points towards the window. "What do you think of the sky? Does it look spacey to you?"

"Spacey…?" She leans forward to look at the window, where Darwin still stands in a bewildered trance. She raised one sole eyebrow in slight bewilderment herself. "Well then… that's not very… realistic. I could even say that's almost insulting. I do, however, wish we could take a closer look at this, but… we've already had too much distractions this afternoon. The geography of this world really caught our interests, but we still have much work to do." Pearl finally turns to leave, not wanting to stay behind schedule and concluding that this room won't let the noise from the construction reach them. Before stepping out the door, Pearl looks at him warmly. "Have a nice evening, Steven."

"Good night, Pearl!" Steven chirps happily as he watches Pearl exit. He turns towards the closet to look for pajamas, but before he could open the closet, Gumball zooms by him and nearly knocks Steven into the wall. Gumball enters the closet, and changes himself right there right away. He once again, zooms over to his bed and gets comfortable, wearing a two-piece, yellow striped pajamas with his size. Not knowing how to react, Steven moves over to the closet himself. He silently changes into some red striped pajamas. He grabs the folded map he has kept in his pocket and keeps in in his grasp, and exits the closet, humming to ease the quietness of the room. He places the map on one of the pillows of his bed, not taking the time to look at it.

As he brushes his teeth, he notices that Darwin had quickly snapped out of his trance, taken off his shoes and leaving them on the table, and is now filling his teapot with the water from the sink next to him.

"Hey, look, I'm making my own bowl!" Darwin chirps randomly. Steven cracks a little smile at that as he watches him carry the teapot over to the table, spilling some drops of water into the carpeted floor. But as he sits on the bed, Steven soon drifts into concern again as he feels his heart race.

"Hey, Darwin," Steven says somewhat nervously, and Darwin tilts his body in response. "We've been out for a whole day, don't you think anyone in your world should be worried by now?"

At first he doesn't register, and blinks once. "Well, maybe Mom would—" Suddenly, his eyes turn to dots and his smile loses mirth, and his words produce wheezed squeaks. "Mom," his whole face shatters like glass, revealing a horrified, twitchy-eyed, twisted expression. "Oh my gosh, you're right!" he screams, nearly tipping over the pot. Steven reels back in shock. Darwin starts to scream periodically, and feels the urge to get down from the table and run. "GUMBALL! GUMBALL! MOM'S GONNA KILL US IF WE'RE NOT HOME! DO SOMETHING!"

"I think mom can wait a little longer," Gumball quips. Steven and Darwin look in confusion at a dismissive Gumball, lying down with his arms behind his head and his eyes are closed.

"What?" Darwin questions.

"But I thought you wanted to leave the most when we first got here, if I remember," Steven continues to looks at Gumball doubtfully.

Gumball stretches his arm indifferently. "Yeah, I know, but I'm getting some good vibes right now from this place." Gumball starts to grin in pleasure. "Nothing's wrong. There's nothing to worry about. We'll be fine here. We should stay."

Darwin starts to stare in horror at Gumball's behavior, and gasps loudly. "Oh, no, this whole place is a LOTUS-EATER MACHINE!" Darwin shrieks, startling Steven and Gumball. "We're getting mind-controlled into staying for some kind of nefarious purpose! AAAEEEEK!" he frantically grabs the lamp from the table, and starts hitting himself in the head with it with loud clangs. "Wake up! Wake up! Wake up! Wake up!"

Steven cringes as Darwin's face begins to bruise from the hitting, while Gumball just stares irritatingly, and almost furiously, but in a small sense of concern underneath.

"Would you please calm down?" Anais half commands and half begs as she stands on the door leading to her and Penny's room, with Penny accompanying her. "Look, I know this is probably going to bring problems at home, but I'm pretty sure we're not being mind controlled for some 'evil' purpose. I think I would know."

Penny turns to stare at Anais as she makes her way into the bed. "Ah, but…" she mutters, before leaning against the doorframe in indifference. No point in trying to argue against her pretentiousness. In seconds, she gulps, takes a deep breath, and makes a small, doubtful statement, directed towards the other boys. "Is Darwin seriously implying that this is all a dream?"

Gumball's eyes turn to dots in shock, now understanding what his brother meant, and Darwin starts to shiver. "…Wow, that makes sense," Gumball says in sincerity. Steven's worries subtly start up again. But deep down, he doesn't believe that. It couldn't be. Tried as he might, he came up with an explanation that he can reasonably allow his conscience to be at ease.

"Hang on, guys, I don't think this is a dream," Steven tries to deduce. "Think about it! I mean, it's pretty comprehensive. Nothing really doesn't make sense like normal dreams. Normal dreams are way weirder."

There is a moment of silence. "Well, lemme ask you…" Gumball says in a somewhat somber and pensive tone, much to Anais's subtle surprise. He points towards the moon in the window. "Does any of this make sense to you? Is that not weird enough for ya?"

Steven opens his mouth, but nothing comes out, he grips the sheets of his bed, and his other hand strokes the map. For a moment, he contemplates on looking at it, to see what's next in store for them as he is wondering, but he finds himself sighing deeply in exhaustion instead. Steven lets out a long, drawn yawn, and he starts to blink slowly. At this moment, a small thought occurs to him.

"But you don't feel tired in dreams, do you?"

There is no response, as it is now Gumball's turn to ponder. Darwin joins his brother on the pondering. Gumball blinks more frequently, breathing and his head starts to lull slightly as he leans it against his palm, his other kneading the blanket. Moments later, Gumball yawns just as loudly, but Darwin remains wide awake for the most part, only occasionally blinking slowly.

"Yeah," he smacks his lips nonchalantly, nearly forgetting what he was thinking about. "I guess you're right about that." He pulls the covers from his bed and starts to snuggle between them. "Don't worry about anything right now, dude." He lets out an exhausted sigh, and he starts to mumble. "Good, night, please."

Darwin hums doubtfully, but chirps up again. "Okay, good night!" he turns off the light from the lamp, the room now being illuminated by the strange moon. He immediately puts his feet to the teapot and crawls inside. He spills some water on the table and tries to squeeze his big body inside like a balloon. He submerges his body, but in a short moment, his foot awkwardly pops out of the spout. Darwin proceeds to sigh sadly, and he goes to sleep regardless. From the door to the girls' bedroom, they shout 'Good night', one being slightly more tired and gentle than the other.

Steven lets out one final yawn. "Okay, then," he says tiredly. He takes a deep breath. "Good night everyone." He snuggles under the bedsheets as he starts to get comfortable. The map in his hand starts to go underneath the sheets. He'll worry about it in the morning, but he's too tired right now. He thinks he HAS been on longer missions before, and his dad didn't't seem to mind. He can't think straight as his mind slowly drifts into slumber. In the tower, the act of sleep is a peculiar experience.

Hours later, Steven finally enters REM, a state in which leaves his mind more open to the tower and it's environment. The light from the moon bearing a gigantic, black exclamation point on its surface shines through the window at its brightest.

And he drifts further to his slumber

to feel sand in his inner ear.

Sand that is colored in all shades of blue.

He tilts his head, and it pours it all out.

Then he hears a singing voice.*

The voice is singing a mysterious tune

with clipping and glitches between each verse

But so full of wonder, and curious in tone.

The tower itself, seemed to sing a song.

He wanders in the desert

attentive to the voice

which guides him ahead

to a single door

and a portal appears

in its entrance.

He hears guitars now

and the tone shifts,

and he starts to walk ahead

slowly and steady

in the rippling solid walls,

like liquid underneath.

Passing through a sideways door,

he looks down at the ceiling

and up to the floor.

In the ceiling there is light,

that drips from a lamp,

a yellow bulb, in liquid form

dripping upwards, into the black.

He stares at the vast void,

with a curious mind, he jumps up.

In the space he's floating, and forms words in his head.

He sings to himself a song of sleep.

He sings to himself about his head,

as his body moves through the black mass,

and further up into to the stars,

glitters of light which flow in the air.

His body goes through them, and wildly they fly.

The lights now bring color,

cyans, and light purples in a swirling flow

and through the flow they form shapes.

They form spheres and dusty gusts

to make planets, and swirls

and more masses of stars.

An image forms in the vast mass of stars.

An image of somebody whom he knows well.

His mind soon tells him how much he longs

for her to see the wonders of dreams.

The weirdness, the mystery, the curiosity,

the world that he's in, the world of the tower's.

A white stripe passes through,

and he still wonders.

More stripes pass through,

so he looks up.

White and black stripes move in a spiral

in all the starry and vast blackened void.

The spirals grow smaller the further it deepens.

Mesmerizing, hypnotic, and strange

strangely enough, just like a portal.

And he's

squeezed tight.

Good Night.

The light passes through Steven's eyelids in a reddish hue, as the sunlight shines through the window in the new morning of his stay in the tower. He flutters his eyes open, and he can faintly see the illuminated room, shined by the sun with the heart on it. Steven's rest well, but he feels as if he can't seem to open his eyes all the way. The combination of sunshine, and a rather turbulent night's sleep has left him in a combination of joy, peace, and emptiness, unable to process a proper, congruent and clear reaction from his nightly dream. He remembers everything, vividly. As if he never fell asleep, and was merely transported somewhere else. Come to think of it, the original portal had appeared on the foot of his own bed back home.

Steven starts to look around the room, noting that Lion is no longer in the room, Darwin is no longer in the teapot, and presumably Penny and Anais have left as well. The peaceful moment within his mind passes when he sees a look of disturbed revulsion on Gumball's face as he sits up in his own bed. Gumball stares at him wide awake, with his cheeks swollen to drown out a wordless scream. Steven opens his eyes wider, unsure how to respond.

"Tell me you had a weird dream," Gumball begs, exhaling the scream that never came out, "like a really, REALLY weird dream. Like…" he tries to gesture in between his pleads. "…an alien dream…"

Steven squirts in confusion, and looks away from Gumball as he starts to recall. "I, uh… yeah, kind of… definitely," he says sluggishly. He blinks. "I, uh…" he then suddenly and frantically pulls the covers from his bed and starts to feel around the mattress with his hands. He brightens up when he feels some paper, and quickly grasps it. He opens it up to find what else it has to say to him, regarding the dreams. In the spot on the map where his room is located, he finds something. He reads it aloud.

"Why should the fun stop at bedtime? You can still play in your dreams! This dimension's atmosphere has all the dreaming properties to induce otherworldly experiences upon entering the REM cycle, to ensure elaborate dreams literally out of your world! You could say it would feel as if you're traveling in verse instead of prose, but don't take our word for it!"

Gumball starts to heave audibly. "So you're tellin' me that this place gets into our heads?!" Gumball grabs his lower eyelids and stretches them all the way down to his chin, grunting anxiously. "And we're breathin' that—" His eyelids and his eyeballs soon snap back into place like rubber, and Gumball pulls his head back from the recoil and slight sting. Steven almost feels his own eyeballs pop out his face upon witnessing this act, as he disturbingly reaches to stroke his undereyes with a fingertip. But upon noticing Gumball's anxious state, he inhales through his nose, and reaches out to him.

"Are you feeling okay?" Steven asks kindly. "Do you wanna go home?"

Gumball almost yells out in frustration. "I don't even know! I don't know how to feel! All I wanna know is this place's deal! But I don't wanna worry! And I don't wanna feel like I'm being watched! I…" he gets up from the bed and tries to stretch his tense back all the the way down with some cracking noises. With some minor squeaks of pain, he tries to calm himself with little avail.

Steven looks at him in sympathy and understanding. He gets out of his own bed and walks over to Gumball. Though he has his own worries, he chooses to try to ease Gumball's. "Well, there's a lot of weird things around here. Remember when we first saw each other? You thought I was really weird, but then you got to know me better, and then the other way around! I know that if we stay, we can still find some really cool things. There's still plenty of stuff to see around here."

Gumball looks at him in doubt. Steven decides to make himself clearer, and shoots him a very warm look, with a glassy texture in his eyes. "If you really want to know everything, do you think you'll stay?"

Gumball swallows a little and sighs deeply. He turns his head and catches a glimpse of the hearty sun, then looks at Steven's map. "…I think…I… wanna stick around 'till the end," he starts to make the tiniest of smirks. "I wanna see more. As much as I want to. Then I'll feel better leaving." With that out of his chest, Gumball sighs in exasperation, then starts to walk. "You know…" he begins to head for the closet door to change back into his clothes. "You're good."

Steven smiles at the compliment. Gumball is right, they should still stick around for a while longer, and he'll deal with what happens at home, if it happens. Though at this point, he starts to wonder why the map hasn't covered any of that particularly sensitive information when he needs it. Should he specifically ask for it? Maybe the map will give him the answers when he spends a reasonable amount of fun in this strange land. Maybe he'll finally be at ease once the refurbishment is complete and he gets to see what the tower really has in store. Maybe if they got to see the main tower's attraction…

"Maybe I should get the Gems to hurry up," he says, as he heads to the closet to change back into his own clothes quickly as Gumball begins to exit the hotel room. He tucks the map back into his pocket and begins to head towards the door straight to the hallway.

As they begin to run upon exiting, Gumball makes a cocky, yet confident smirk. "Call me crazy, but I think I've got a few tips for them in mind…"

*Always In My Head- Coldplay

Because I just couldn't leave it like that. I had to narrate the whole thing in verse. Oh joy. And ffnet doesn't seem to like the way I format my poetry very much.

Also, that's the second time a chapter ends with someone showing kindness and support towards Gumball. Trust me, the kid needs it.

Alright guys, listen up because this is very important. If I don't finish chapter 9 by the end of my break, I might have to put this story on hiatus at this point until I can try to do something about my university sophomore year. I can probably finish chapter 8, but I don't wanna risk pausing the story at an even less satisfying point, so it's very likely this might be the last chapter for a while.

Also, FFnet broke my links, and I can't even write the URL of my websites, so I suggest you just look up on google Toon Tower on Tumblr and Archive of Our own, and elceetheporcupine on tumblr.