Gumball emerged from the bathroom still partly wet from his shower. He made his way to his room, before closing the door and changing into something else. He thought it would be best if he didn't have his tear soaked shirt and pants on when he saw his mom again, for her sake. He put on a light blue T-shirt along with some gray shorts. After a few moments of letting his body dry off, he laid down on his bed.

'Now what?' He thought to himself. He felt too energetic to just lie there.

After about an hour of doing this, he couldn't stand it. He got up and decided to go downstairs and outside. He breathed in the fresh air and glanced up at the clear blue sky. Gumball thought of a few things to do...but none seemed too interesting.

'Hmm, I could walk around the house? Nah, too boring. I could...play in the grass? Come on brain! I'm not a child anymore...'

Gumball slumped down on the pavement before suddenly getting an idea. He could try those exercises that Nicole had somewhat taught him all those years ago. It was worth a shot...

Nicole woke up after taking a quick nap. She felt a little better, but still felt a tinge of stress still lingering in her system. She decided to get up and grab something from the fridge to help take her mind off it. She opened her door and was about to make her way downstairs, when she passed Gumball's open door. She quickly peered in and checked to see if he was in there, but found it empty.

'Huh, maybe he's downstairs too.' Nicole thought.

She made her way into the kitchen downstairs but was also met with an empty room. Nicole decided to head for the window and gazed out. Just beyond the lawn was Gumball on the pavement...doing her stretches. Although his techniques were...well, quite stiff and amateur in nature, it still brought a small smile to her lips.

'After all this time...he still remembered.'

Nicole made her way outside and onto the porch. She watched silently as Gumball continued his "stretches". Eventually, she walked over near Gumball.

"Mind if I join you?" She asked, drawing Gumball's attention to her.

He stopped for a second, before nodding.

"Sure mom. I wouldn't mind."

Nicole gave a warm smile before loosening her body and stretching out wide with her legs and arms. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Gumball admiring her stance, and attempted to copy it. Nicole was loving this. She truly missed this. It felt good to experience it again...

After a few stretches and a few small mishaps on Gumball's part, they decided to stop it there. Gumball took a few deep breaths before turning towards Nicole.

"So, now what?"

Nicole hadn't really planned what to do after their stretches, but after a moment, an idea came to her.

"Well, I was planning on starting a garden out back. Sure we have plenty of fruits and veggies in the fridge, but I thought it would be something fun to do; not to mention rewarding."

This seemed to grab Gumball's attention.

"Can we plant like, corn and potatoes? Ooo, can we plant tomatoes too?"

Nicole chuckled at this.

"Yes sweetie, we can plant those."

"Nice! So, what do we need to start it?" Gumball asked following her back towards the house.

"We need to mark out the garden then plow or overturn the soil. After we do that we can work on the planting of the seeds."

"How do we plow or flip the soil though? We don't have any tools."

"The next house over has a few shovels in a shed we could use. I'll go get them." Nicole mentioned before heading instead towards the next house across from them.

After a few minutes, she came back with two shovels in her hands.

Gumball was excited. Sure they had "attempted" to grow a few things back at their old home, but they never really grew since they were either trampled to death, or never got watered because Richard had forgot to do so, unsurprisingly. Also, it seemed like something more to do with his mom together again. Something he had long missed. Judging by her now seemingly bright smile, it seemed she was also excited for this.

Nicole was happy to do something nice again with her son. The stretches were nice, but it didn't last as long as she had hoped to. Hopefully this would be a better bonding experience with her son. As she and Gumball made their way out back into their backyard, Nicole could tell; this was going to be a very rewarding experience.

After marking out the size of the garden with a few pieces of wood and makeshift string, the two began digging and flipping the dirt. Sure it was a crude way of doing it, but it seemed to work well enough in their eyes.

As Nicole was digging, she decided to make small talk to hopefully pass the time by faster. But what should she ask him? Something happy? Definitely something not sad... then she thought of something...

With a cocked head and a smug grin, she looked towards her unsuspecting target.

"So, did you ever have a special someone back at home?"

Gumball looked up at her quickly, before giving the biggest teenage sigh she had ever seen him do, and then rolled his eyes.

"Really mom?!"

"What? I was curious. I didn't want my 'lovely son' falling into the hands of...like, a succubus or something."

Gumball let out a quick laugh, before facing her again.

"Is this because of Darwin?"

"Gummypuss I-... okay maybe. Him dating a ghost was...just hard for me to accept."

"Mom, they weren't dating, they were just friends. I think. Anyways, why would you care who I was hanging out with?"

"Because I didn't want you to date someone who would hurt you. Or worse, kidnap you or something."

Gumball raised an eyebrow at her comment.

"Kidnap me?! Why would they do that? They wouldn't really be getting much..."

"Sweetie, you know that's not true..."

After a few moments of awkward silence, Nicole was thinking perhaps she had taken this too far. As she was about to apologize, he spoke.

"No. I never had someone special like that back home."

He stopped shoveling and glanced up to meet her eyes.

"Well, except for you of course." He said, letting out a half laugh.

Nicole smiled back. For some reason, that made her chest flutter a bit.

"Oh you, mr. smooth talker~"

Now it was Gumball's turn to give her a smug face.

"Well, since we are on the subject of this, how on Earth did you and dad meet?"

Nicole clenched her shovel a little tighter, before loosening it slowly.

"I-well..."

"Come on, spill the beans!" Gumball eagerly said, giving her his full attention now.

sigh* "well, as you know, I left my home as a teen because of my VERY strict parents, and Richard left his because he was kicked out of his home. We met at the Elmore library because it was the only place open that late. We ended up going on a date a few days later after we started hitting it off."

"A date huh? What was it like?"

"Well, back then, it was magical. We laughed almost nonstop after telling each other jokes and about funny events around town. We ordered really good food; Richard ordering the most. We made the night go by so fast, that we didn't even know we was in there for hours until the waitress told us they were closing soon. Truly good times..."

"Wow..." Gumball was quite surprised. He didn't know that about them. He always kind of thought their relationship was mundane. Maybe he was wrong...

"Going on a date sounds like it would have been fun. Too bad I never got to experience one.."

"Really? You never have gone on a date before? I thought you and Penny, that one day you too went to the mall-"

"No. We didn't. She just dragged me along because she wanted to prove a point about something. It really broke me. Sure I never had someone special, but I did have a crush on her for a while; that was, until she did that to me..."

"Gumball..." Nicole said, stopping her shoveling too, setting it aside before embracing her son.

"I'm so sorry you had to experience that..."

"It's not your fault mom. You don't have to be sorry." Gumball said, embracing her back.

As she held him close, she started forming an idea in her mind. Something that might just make his day; or evening.

"Gumball?" she asked, pulling away just enough to meet his gaze.

"Yeah?"

"Gumball...you, said you never had gone on a date before..." Nicole started, taking another breath before continuing.

"So, I was wondering...would you like to go on a date...with me?"

Gumball gave her a rather confused look.

"A date? With you?"

"Well, it would be great practice for you if we ever get out of this...place, right?"

"I...I guess you're right." He admitted, scratching the back of his neck.

"I mean...if you want, we can have a picnic...if could call it a picnic...date...something like that." Nicole suggested.

Why was she suddenly feeling nervous. She felt like her body was heating up. Did she say something wrong? Why was she feeling like this all of the sudden?

"Sure mom, I'd love to go on a date with you then." Gumball said with a smile.

"I guess it would beat just lying around the house all day."

"R-right. Good point." Nicole responded.

"So, you wanna do it around sunset? Make it scenic like the cheesy romance movie flicks you made us watch?" He asked.

Nicole rolled her eyes at that last statement.

"You know those movies weren't THAT cheesy..."

Gumball gave her another raised eyebrow. Along with crossing his arms this time.

"Okay, okay...MAYBE they were that cheesy..."

"Ha! Called it..."

"Don't rub it in..." Nicole mentioned, now picking up where she had left off digging.

"So, a 'picnic date' with yours truly at sunset does sound like a good idea..."

Nicole smiled at that.

"Then it's settled. But only if we can finish this garden digging first."

"Alright. I'll double my speed; just for you, m'lady."

Nicole stuck out her tongue mockingly towards him at that, before continuing.

This was going to be an interesting evening...