Waking up in Nicole's arms was always the best thing here. Gumball felt like his whole body was still a bit tingly from last night. It was so fun. Slowly wiggling his toes and fingertips helped him get better sensation throughout his body before he sat up. Peering over to Nicole, he decided he needed to wake this true "sleeping beauty" in a way that mattered.

Carefully sliding off the couch, he got level with her face by getting on his knees. Gumball then drew in close to her face, before kissing Nicole's ever soft lips. After he pulled back, his lovely sleeping princess awoke. Fluttering open her eyes, she glanced around before locking eyes with him.

"Morning sleepy head~" he said, causing her to smile back at him.

"I thought that was my job." She replied, drawing in for another kiss.

The next one was a bit more passionate since both were now(partially) awake. It was a wonderful experience indeed. After pulling away, Nicole said something that caught him a little off guard.

"So, you liked my jokes last night huh?"

"I-...Maybe a little." He mumbled under his breath.

"What's that? I didn't hear you." She taunted back, pretending to cup her ear and waited for him to repeat himself.

Gumball rolled his eyes and let out a sigh before speaking.

"I SAID...Maybe a little. I guess you weren't so bad after all."

Nicole smiled before embracing him in a hug.

"Thanks, Gummypuss." She said, causing him to smile.

"Maybe I should tell some more later toni-"

"No!" Gumball quickly cut her off, causing her to pull her head back and laugh.

snicker* "I was only kidding sweetie, don't worry. I'll give it a break for now."

Gumball, having been tricked again, laughed along too before nuzzling into her again.

"Thanks." He said sincerely, before resting his forehead against hers.

"So, Mr. Flirter, what's on the agenda for today?"

Gumball thought for a moment before realizing something. He still needed to finish his book he found. But he needed more time alone. How though?

'Hmmm...Oh! I got it!'

"Well, since we found quite a few things on our little "rummage adventure", why don't we sort through each of our stuff and place it around where we want it?"

"Hm. That's a good idea. I'll work on mine while you go work on yours. Sound fair?" She asked.

Gumball nodded, before pecking a kiss on her nose and standing up to head back to his room.

"Oh! Gummypuss, it seems we almost forgot something." Nicole called out, causing Gumball to turn around in question.

"Showers first. We need to clean up ourselves considering we probably are still dirty."

Gumball made a fancy gesture with his arms as he bowed by the stairway.

"Ladies first." He said, causing Nicole to stand up and walk by him; Flicking her tail at his chest playfully as she did so.

"You're too kind~." She spoke sensually before making her up the steps.

"You might want to wash off some of that dirty mind of yours too." Gumball called up to her smugly, causing her to do a 180 spin to face him at the top of the steps.

"Oho, like I'M the one who needs that cleaned..." she shot back, causing Gumball to clench his heart in an exaggerated fashion.

"Ouch! That really hurt you know~"

She rolled her eyes before walking off.

After he heard her gather her new pair of clothes and shut the bathroom door, he quickly made his way into his room and shut his door. He then flopped down onto his bed. After taking a breath of relief and closing his eyes for a second, he slowly reached between his bed and his drawer and pulled out his book.

'Looks like I should be able to get a few minutes to myself to read some more of this before it's my turn.'

——

'I can't believe it...' Nicole thought to herself. 'He actually got me a necklace...'

To think she had never received such a gift since she got a perfect score in high school as a teenager was hard to grasp for her. It was just so beautiful...

Although she had taken it off before slipping in the shower, she felt barren without it around her neck now, despite only having had put it on the night prior. She actually craved it; like she craved Gumball...

Gumball...

"Maybe he was right on me needing to clean my mind a bit...'

Rubbing her temples and letting out a sigh, she attempted to clear her mind. However, her mind still came back to Gumball, no matter how hard she thought to avoid it. It was like his gift had implanted himself within her.

"Maybe another time..." she said to herself as she shut off the water.

Grabbing a towel and getting out of the shower, she walked over to the countertop and picked up her necklace. Placing it around her neck, she instantly felt better and more fulfilled. It was like receiving a hug from Gumball. As she observed herself in the mirror, she smiled. She looked so beautiful with it on. Clenching it in her hand, she felt another sensation. Warmth radiated throughout her body in waves and she felt her cheeks tingle as well. This caused her to smile a bit wider. She knew what that feeling was now. After experiencing it enough here, she was certain. It was Love. Not just general love, but the most sincere form of it. Gumball had won her heart, there was no doubt about it.

As she continued to contemplate all this, she couldn't help but think of something else...

'He has given me so much, and yet, I feel like I have still given him very little. I need to find something that can make him feel how it felt for me receiving his necklace. Sure, he seemed happy with receiving his ship in a bottle gift, but I need to find something more...'

Nicole then decided that she would now be on the "lookout" for something that Gumball truly enjoyed. Surely she could find SOMETHING, right?

'But what?...'

——

After hearing Nicole open the bathroom door, Gumball quickly shut his book and hid it back in place before she knocked and opened his door.

"Your turn Gummypuss." She said to him laying down on his bed.

"Alright, thanks." He spoke back, stretching his arms before making his way over to his closet.

Nicole just stood there, admiring him lovingly as he did this. Gumball then noticed her gaze and gave her a questionable look.

"What is it? Is there something on my clothes?" He asked, looking down at himself.

"No no, I was just...lost in my thoughts. Sorry."

Gumball then gave her another smug grin.

"Looks like you weren't able to clear that dirty mind of yours after all, huh?"

"Very funny..." she said back, but Gumball noticed she said that in a way that was...surprisingly not a playful. It half almost sounded serious.

'Why did she speak like that? Did she actually still have a dirty mind in the sho-...oh...'

Gumball decided to play along and laugh a bit nervously before turning back to his closet.

"I'll uh...see you after I'm done with my shower." He said, fiddling with his clothes that he wanted to pick out.

Nicole gave him a questionable look in return before clearing her throat.

"R-Right. See you then."

Closing the door behind her, she took a second to let out a nervous breath and pinched the bridge of her nose.

'What was I thinking?! *sigh* he totally heard my voice falter like that, didn't he? He didn't take that in a wrong and hateful way right? Alright Nicole, just...relax. It's okay, let it go. Head for your room and just take a few minutes for yourself...'

As she walked off and entered her room and closed the door behind her, she felt a sense of bewilderment. Why on earth was she behaving like this? Why was she feeling nervous all of a sudden? Why didn't she just brush it off?

Nicole let out another deep breath before laying down on her bed. Looking towards her wrapped blanket of stuff, she remembered she had placed her books in there.

'Maybe one of those could help take my mind of things...'

As she got up and walked over to the blanket, she slowly reached her hand through the top of it and fished around for one. Eventually feeling the hard cover of a book in her hand, she grasped onto it and reached up to pull it out.

'I wonder which one I got?'

Pulling it out and into view, Nicole felt a tinge of excitement and...a tiny blush. She had pulled out her romance book that she had snuck in with her other items. Clearly, given the circumstances, she was hesitant on simply putting it back and getting the joke book, but what would the point of reading it if Gumball wasn't keen on hearing any for at least some time?

She decided that the romance book would have to do. It might still take her mind off her situation at least. As she opened up the book, she saw the big and fancy letters of the story.

A Tale of the Captain and Stewardess: Love on the sea

Written by: James Harioth

As Nicole read the first few chapters of the book, she actually was getting a bit...bored. As much as she was a fan of the "Chickflick" movies and "Rom-Com" books back at home, it just seemed like time had changed her tastes in entertainment. Something she wouldn't have expected in this part of her, considering she had liked this stuff basically since she was in her teens. Now she just felt disappointed in herself.

'Clearly something must be wrong with me...right? How could I NOT like this? It's adventurous, secretive and seductive, has at least one nefarious villain so far...*sigh* what is up with me?'

"Having fun over there?"

Nicole actually jumped hearing that.

"Gumball?! Oh...s-sorry sweetie, I didn't hear you there." She said, clenching her chest and letting out a now relieved breath.

"But I knocked. Are you...okay? You seem lost in your book there." He spoke, giving her a curious glance.

"What? Oh, I'm...I'm fine Gumball, I just was...lost in thought."

"Not from reading the book? What book is that anyway?" He asked as he approached her.

As he reached her, he looked down and read the front cover of it.

"A Tale of the Captain and Stewardess...Love on the sea? Really? Still reading cheesy Romance books after all this time?" He said, crossing his arms and giving her a raised eye brow and a smirk.

"I-Hey! So what if I still like these books?" She spoke defensively.

Gumball shrugged.

"I don't know, I just...thought you didn't still like those."

"Well I-..."

She stopped. It...was kind of true. She was just debating this with herself. She actually seemed to NOT like them anymore, to her surprise.

"Well what?" He asked, now starting to sound a bit softer with her pausing her sentence midway.

"Never mind." She said defeated, closing the book and setting it to the side.

Gumball noticed her ears start to droop down and made his way over to the bedside and sat next to her.

"So...the book didn't seem to help you much, did it?" He said, causing her to face him.

"Not really..." she admitted, before looking down.

Gumball gently rubbed her back and scooted just a bit closer.

"What's on your mind?" He asked, drawing her attention once again.

"I didn't hurt you with that tone of voice back there, did I?"

Gumball gave her a curious look.

"Really? THAT was what was on your mind? Nicole, it's no big deal. Really."

Nicole let out a deep breath of relief and hugged him.

"I'm sorry I stressed myself about that. I just noticed your emotions and I just thought...well, I hurt you."

"Well you didn't. That I can assure you. That didn't even cross my mind."

"Then...why the awkward face?" She questioned, causing Gumball to, in return, sport yet another face of embarrassment.

"Well...heh, I just...thought when you said you still basically had a dirty mind in the shower, I sorta...kinda...thought you meant you were...ya know...in the shower..." he trailed off, sheepishly glancing away from her, all while his cheeks went beet red.

Nicole put the pieces together and drew her head back in laughter.

"Gumball Watterson..."

"What? I was honest. I actually thought you were doing that in the shower. Not that I'm...you know...against that sorta thing...I just-"

Nicole finally ceased her brief laughter before holding up her hand to silence him.

'Oh I am truly dumb sometimes...' she thought before speaking.

"Okay, okay, that's enough young man."

Gumball chuckled nervously and rubbed the back of his neck.

"So...I guess that wasn't the case, huh?"

Nicole shook her head, causing Gumball to smile awkwardly.

"No. It wasn't."

"Heh. Sorry..." he said sheepishly, causing Nicole to, in return, rub his back.

"It's fine sweetie. Really."

Gumball then rested his head on her shoulder.

"So, I think we can both move on from this situation happy?" He asked, causing Nicole to smile warmly at him.

"I think so. Thanks." She responded, kissing his cheek.

Gumball let out a sigh of relief before both of them sat in silence a few minutes, just enjoying each other's warmth.

Then Gumball spoke up.

"Well, since we are still sorta on this topic...I gotta know. Have you ever done it?"

Nicole turned to face him.

"Have I ever done what?"

Gumball faced her and gave her a look with raised eyebrows.

"Come on. You know what I'm talking about about. Have you ever done THAT in the shower?" He said, lightly bumping her with his elbow.

Gumball half expected to get slapped with asking that type of question. Granted, he still was curious, and in his defense, felt like it was worth a shot.

"I-I Uh..."

Nicole was NOT expecting that. A part of her wanted to slap him silly for even asking such a rather personal question. But the other part of her wanted to be transparent with him...and honest.

sigh* "Gumball..." she started.

He braced himself.

Half closing his eyes, he stiffened his body and prepared for his punishment...but it didn't come. He was met...with an actual response.

"Gumball...there comes a time in a woman's life when she has reached a low point. This low point is VERY unpleasant. In my case, it was indeed just that. Unpleasant. When I lost you, I told you about how I spiraled out of control and fell into a deep and depressive state. In the beginning, I did a few things to attempt to get out of it. I exercised, did breathing techniques...and I...did that, occasionally, in the shower; but nothing seemed to work. Or at least, not last very long."

"I guess that makes sense..." Gumball admitted, setting his hand on her shoulder. "I'm sorry you had to feel that way. It still saddens me that you had to experience that."

"It's alright Gummypuss, it's over now. That's all that matters."

Gumball nodded in agreement. He was glad she had moved on from her depression. He was also glad he got his answer; he just didn't expect to hear her depressive reasons for its use.

"Well, since I spilled my can of worms, why don't you?"

Gumball turned to face her.

"Huh?"

"I mean...confess. Have you ever done it in the shower? Or not?"

Gumball smiled.

"Well...I can say I haven't. But that doesn't mean I never thought about it."

Nicole smiled.

"Interesting. Anyways, it seems like we both got our answers, didn't we?" She said, causing Gumball to nod in agreement.

Nicole got up and straightened out her clothes.

"Well, I guess that settles things. Let's go get something to eat before we mess around with our stuff, okay?"

"Alright." He responded, getting up as well.

As they both headed for the door, Nicole turned to face him.

"Ok, I need to do something real quick."

"What's that?" He asked.

Then, like lightning, he felt a somewhat harsh slap on his face. Just as he was about to cover it, he felt her draw him in close and then kiss him. It all happened so fast he barely could register it all. Pulling back, Nicole looked him in the eyes.

"That slap was for asking such inappropriate questions. "

"What was the kiss for?"

"For helping me settle things. Thank you sweetie, I love you."

Gumball raised his hand to where she had slapped him. It still stung. Admittedly, he was expecting that. But getting slapped here, now, had thrown him through a loop.

"I love you too." He felt his brain make him say as she turned around and made her way out the door, all while he stood there still dumbfounded.

'Man, what a woman...' He thought, before making his way out too.

———

After eating a good breakfast, Gumball and Nicole both made their way upstairs and went into their own rooms to place their items where they wanted. Gumball had made sure to lock the door, just in case, to prevent her waltzing right in when he was reading. Luckily, he had told her that he would need extra time considering some of the items were needing to be placed in JUST the right spots. Sure, that wasn't entirely true, per say, but it bought him more time to finish his book and to unload his bag. Gumball needed to skim through a few longer chapters to finish it on time. After all, when they were both done, they would reveal their new 'decorated rooms'.

'Alright! One chapter down, another to go...' He thought, flipping to the next page; all while soaking up each tidbit of information.

——

Nicole rummaged through her now unfolded blanket on the floor. She had picked out the glass items first to place around the place, and set a few aside for downstairs. She decided to place a few of the blue glass pieces she had collected by her bedside drawer. It would really make the room a lovely color when the sun would hit it with its rays of light. After about an hour or so, she felt like she was almost done. Granted, she hadn't picked out as much stuff compared to Gumball, but she did find quite a few things to decorate up the room and give it a nice touch. Stepping back for a moment to admire her progress so far, she was proud of herself. It reminded her of the time when she moved into her first home and she got to decorate it with her husband. She loved placing touches of her own tastes here and there. Perhaps that was another mildly fun thing she did with Richard.

Richard...

Nicole quickly shook her head before refocusing on her final touches around the room.

'Now to place a few things over here and I should be done...'

——

Gumball slowly closed the back of his book. He had done it. He finished his book! Gumball felt so excited and thrilled to have finally completed it. Jumping off his bed, he did a fancy spin before fist pumping the air.

'Finally! Now that I got my knowledge in for the day, I feel like this sorting and placing stuff around my room will be a breeze.' He thought, untying his blanket and shuffling stuff out evenly on it.

As Gumball whisked away at placing stuff around, he actually felt somewhat happy doing it. Maybe it could have been from finishing his book, but he was thinking that perhaps placing stuff he liked around his room was actually fun. Softly humming to himself doing so, he placed a few things here and there. After about half an hour, he was done. He stepped back from his dresser as he looked at it from placing the last item on it. That, of course, was the ship in the bottle.

Nodding to himself that it looked perfect, he wiped the residue from everything off his hands using the now unpacked blanket. Looking around his room, he admired his work. Placing his hands on his hips, he let out a relieved sigh. He had finished it all.

'Well, I guess it's time I reveal it to her. Hopefully she appreciates my handy work. I'm sure I'll like hers regardless.'

Stretching his body one final time, he made his way outside his room, closing his door behind him, and went over to Nicole's. Knocking on the door, he heard her move towards it. Then the door slowly opened, followed by her slinking through the crack, and out into the hallway, shutting the door behind her.

"All done?" She asked, causing Gumball to nod in response.

"All done."

"Well, in that case, who should go first in revealing their room?" She questioned.

Gumball smiled before outstretching both his arms and clenched his fists into balls.

"Rock paper scissors?"

Nicole joyfully smiled back before returning the gesture.

"Alright sweetie. On the count of three. One. Two...THREE!"

Gumball played a rock while Nicole played a paper, making her the winner of the round.

"Shucks. Best of 3?" He said, causing Nicole to smile devishly at him.

"Wishing to beat me this time, huh? Fat chance!"

Gumball cracked his knuckles.

"Bring it on..."

On the count of three, the two drew their hands. Gumball played rock while Nicole played scissors.

"Gah! You beat me that time..." she spoke, twitching her tail.

"Looks like we're even now..." he said, now sporting a devilish smile of his own.

Nicole knew this was the last round. She would be upping her game. No more play time. Now...it was serious.

She cracked her neck, side to side, before cracking her knuckles. Her pupils dilated slightly, which gave her a more serious look.

"You ready...Gummypuss?"

Gumball gulped. He KNEW that look. She was prepared for this. She had that same serious look when she was chasing him during that game of Tag.

'Oh no...I'm gonna lose huh?...NO! Think straight. You got this. Don't give up. You. Got. This...'

Gumball outstretched his hands and she did the same. She gave him a wicked look. Gumball felt a tinge of fear, but after thinking of their history together, the way he made her so soft and loving towards him, he gave her a wicked smile back. This made her seem to slightly catch her off guard briefly, but only for a second before she returned it with more vigor.

"One. Two. THREE!" They both yelled in unison.

Throwing down their hands, they looked at each other's.

Nicole suddenly dropped her smile.

Directly across from her hands, which were in the shape of a rock, was paper.

Gumball slowly outreached his hands and used his 'paper' to dramatically cover Nicole's rock. Awesome mouth sound effects included.

Nicole felt her ear twitch. How could she have lost? She never loses. Especially to something so simple such as this?

She glanced up towards Gumball, who to her surprise seemed to care little for his victory.

"Nice try Gummybear, but it looks like I won. Don't worry, you can get your chance next time."

Nicole watched him spin on his heels and walk casually towards his room. Nicole just stood there; still trying to process her lose. For a 'Tri-hard', she sure felt her ego just take a nose dive from all that. She felt so shocked. Actually, now that she thinks about it, it must be the same type of 'shocked' that Gumball seemed to feel from her slapping then kissing him so rapidly. Something she still sort of felt regretful towards doing in such a manner.

'Wow...what a man.' She thought, before slowly trailing behind him towards his door.