Gumball entered the burgundy colored house. It's now familiar decor and lovely wooden scent brought a sense of ease to him when he stepped inside. It was like an old home now. Well, close enough for his liking at least.

'Alright. Where do I start?' He thought to himself as he pondered his next move.

Reaching down into his pocket, he pulled out the small golden ring. As he looked at it in his hand, he couldn't help but feel emotions swirl in him again. When he had taken it and slid it in his pocket before climbing back in bed with Nicole last night, he felt...strange; especially with the ring so close to her again. Something she seemed to rather distance herself from. As he now grasped the ring, he felt its shape make a small imprint in his hand.

'I truly hope this is the right move...'

Putting the ring back in his pocket, he breathed before getting back mentally to coming up with his plan.

After a few minutes of pondering and pacing back and forth somewhat, he got it. He concocted a plan.

'Now, where is that silver that I saw?'

——

Nicole stepped out of the bathroom and headed downstairs to the living room. Plopping down onto the couch, she glanced up towards the ceiling and breathed out a sigh. It was lonely without Gumball, and it was going to be a few days, supposedly, until he got back. This means she would be stuck with herself for quite some time.

What am I supposed to do until then? Just...lay around? Come on Nicole, you spent years by yourself and only NOW you find it boring being alone? Has Gumball really-...you know what, scratch that. He HAS been impactful on you since then...'

"Ughhh." She half moaned, wiping her face before letting her right hand dangle off the side.

"What can I do?"

Gumball...

Nicole grasped her necklace. She knew she had to wait. He was coming back. He always did. She just had to be patient.

Gumball...

Grasping harder on the necklace, she lowered her ears a bit.

'Come on...think.'

Gumball...

It then came to her.

"The garden..." she said, looking towards the back door.

It had been some time since she and Gumball had checked it out, so she was fairly certain it could be needing some maintenance.

As she got up from the couch, she made her way over towards the back door before opening it and stepping out. Feeling the sun's rays felt nice again on her body, especially now. It was...comforting. As she approached the garden, she noticed something. All the new plants that she had last checked were now reaching maturity.

'They've grown so much...Gumball is going to be SO happy when these crops finish growing. We could have that food fight I promised him.'

Running her hand gently over a tomato leaf, she felt it's soft, crumbled and somewhat fuzzy texture.

'You plants are such a mystery...'

Despite the plants having no pollinators, they had grown quite rapidly and appeared to be in good shape. This was obviously perplexing to Nicole, but after remembering all the wacky and weird things that she and Gumball had experienced here, she decided to just accept it and shrug it off.

As she inspected some of the back row plants, she noticed some had slumped towards the ground.

'Looks like I need to place some stakes for them to be supported...' she thought, deciding to head back to the house to find some make-shift ones she could use.

——

Gumball made his way to the kitchen with a few things in his hands. One being a mini spice mortar and pestle, a few pieces of silver, a palm sized rock and a couple sculpting tools from the master bedroom. As he placed it all on a countertop, he took a breather.

'Alright, one step down.'

He then looked towards the oven; doing so made him feel a tinge of nervousness.

"I really hope this crazy idea works..." he said to himself as placed the silver pieces into the stone mortar.

Placing the silver pieces into the oven, he shut it, and started cranking the oven temperature to the max; but the knob seemed to not stop at the 500 F mark. It appeared to be able to go beyond that...

"What the what?" He said out loud, obviously bewildered by all this.

As he continued to slowly turn the knob, he felt his hand cramp suddenly and he flinched, pulling his hand back before widening his eyes in horror. The knob, after removing his hand, had gained momentum and continued to spin after he had flicked his wrist in agony pulling back. With the speed that is cat like reflexes allowed, Gumball quickly stopped the knob from spinning. As he was about to turn it back, he stopped.

'How many times did this knob spin? Is this broken or something? How hot can this oven GET?!'

Gumball glanced down at knob again before letting out a sigh.

'Come on, ovens got limits to them. Surely the extra spinning of this weird knob didn't affect it too much. It probably was just loose...'

Accepting that the oven probably won't even go above the 500 F, he let go of the knob and stepped away from it.

'Well, now that the metal should be heating up, hopefully it can at least soften a bit. This should give me enough time to carve out the mold for the ring...'

With that, he pulled out the golden ring from his pocket again, and placed it on the rock.

"Time for the mold..."

——

Nicole rubbed some of the dirt from her hands as she stood up, admiring her work. She had successfully placed make-shift stakes, which were made of broken wood, next to all the drooping back row crops.

'Not too shabby...' She thought to herself, wiping her brow.

Deciding to recover a bit of her energy, she walked back towards the door and sat on the steps. There, she picked up her water that she had left out and started to drink some. Nicole was proud of herself. She had successfully watered AND staked the plants that needed attended to. Despite it raining not too long ago, she thought it would be best for them to all at least get a drink of their own until the next rains come.

Leaning back and letting out a sigh of relief, she closed her eyes and soaked up some of the sun's warm rays. Feeling the breeze cool her body slightly, she smiled. It felt so wonderful.

'Perhaps it won't be so bad being alone for a while after all...'

Despite everything that was currently bringing her tranquity, she couldn't help but get a sneaking suspicion that Gumball was experiencing just the opposite of her.

'Come on Nicole, your being too worried about him. I'm sure he is just fine. I really just hope he isn't doing anything stupid...'

——

"Oh I did something stupid...didn't I?" Gumball spoke nervously, looking through the visage of the oven. The metal inside seemed to be glowing red in color but he couldn't fully see it entirely.

He had successfully created the mold of the ring by tracing it and carving out the middle part between the small and large circle.

'Well, I guess it seems hot enough for me to check it...' He thought, walking over to the oven after picking up his homemade "tongs" he had crafted in the meantime after the mold from some metal.

Opening the oven slightly, he felt a serious wave of heat hit his face. It was so intense, he had to shut the oven quickly and step back.

"Woah!" He said, wiping his forehead.

'That's strange. I thought 500 degrees would feel a bit cooler and not almost burn my face. I guess I was wrong. Anyways, I gotta get this metal out...'

Gumball let out a breath of air before bracing himself with the tongs in one hand and the other on the oven handle.

'Okay...1...2...'

"3!" He uttered, opening the oven. It felt like the surface of the sun was touching his skin for a brief second as he grasped the mortar. Despite the pain, he hastily yanked it out and slammed the oven shut with his hip. He set down the mortar and dropped the tongs in the sink. Almost as soon as he did, he saw the tongs start to actually melt the white surface covering of it. Concerned, Gumball ran water over it, causing it to instantly set off a plum of steam and sizzle. Eventually, it fizzled out and grew much cooler.

'Wow! That must have been WAY hotter than 500 degrees.'

As he walked over to the mortar to see how the metal looked...he was shocked. Literally dumbfounded. There, half burning into the solid table, was a mortar filled with pure liquid silver. It had melted ALL the way. Not just partially; but fully.

"Holy shit!" He shouted, running back to the tongs and picking them up. Quickly, he grasped the mortar and raised it off the table.

'I gotta pour this quick and cool this off fast! How did this even HAPPEN?...Ugh, never mind, just...just pour the damn metal.'

Slowly, Gumball leaned the mortar over the molded and carved out rock. He was able to somewhat pour it quite easily, despite the heat. He finally filled the gap in fully, drip by drip. After he did so, he cautiously walked over to the sink and turned on the water. A loud sizzle sound emanated from the mortar, followed by a huge cloud of steam and smoke. Gumball looked away to prevent himself from getting hit with the force of the rising gases. After a minute or two of this, he decided it was cool enough to not melt anything.

"Geez...you were trouble, huh?" He spoke to the stone mortar, moving it side to side with his tongs.

The faint red glow around it was now completely diminished, along with blackened and solid metal clinging to its interior. Gumball decided to set it outside and away from the house, just in case. As he put the mortar down in a bare patch of dirt, he let it go with his tongs. As he turned around and was about to enter back in the house, he thought he heard a final sizzle come from it. Turning back, he gave it a cheeky grin.

"Ha. Now you got an attitude eh? Well, Mr. I-wanna-melt-the-table, I think you should stay out HERE for a while as punishment for what you've done. Only when you cool off, will I consider bringing you back in..."

With that, he laughed to himself before going back inside.

——

After having cleaned up his "messes" somewhat, he still had that temperature thought lingering within him.

'Doesn't that metal melt like at a temperature WAY hotter than 500 degrees Fahrenheit? But how is that possible?'

Gumball decided to drop his kitchen towel in his hand and look at the oven closer. He had pressed the button to turn off the oven as soon as he had placed the menacing "table melter" outside, but didn't touch the temperature knob. As he did, he noticed it was on the number 450 degrees.

'That can't be right...' He thought, as he turned it back to zero.

Then...he found a problem. The dial didn't want to stop at zero. It wanted to go backwards past it. As he continued to spin it, he noticed it didn't stop at zero until he turned it about 4 times.

"Oh..." was all he could say.

It just hit him. He must have somehow turned the oven up to around 1900 degrees.

'H-how is that even possible?! Wouldn't the oven melt itself if that was the case?'

Gumball shook his head. He couldn't deal with this nonsense. Something had to be wrong. As he walked over to the fridge and picked out a bottle of water however...something came to him.

'Wait...could...could the oven be like the fridge? Could it be wonky and...weird enough to somehow survive that extreme temperature that I apparently cranked it to?'

"...Oh my God!" He said to himself, shutting the fridge and walking back over to the oven.

As he looked it over, he peered back into it through the somewhat clear panel.

'Are ALL the ovens here like that?' He thought, tapping at it.

As he turned around to see how his now filled mold was doing, he saw the metal appear to be still quite hot and glowing red.

'Looks like that metal is gonna take some time to cool off. Well, since I got basically everything cleaned up except for...well, the now large melted hole in table, what should I do until then?...'

Suddenly, almost on queue, his stomach started to rumble.

'Perhaps I could make make myself some grub. I am a bit hungry...'

Before he faced the fridge however, he turned his attention back to the mysterious oven. This made the gears in his mind start to spin.

'Hmmm, maybe I could break a few "house rules" that Nicole set in place, and test out this oven and its abilities myself...'

With that, Gumball had grabbed some fish from the fridge and placed it onto a tray with lemon slices and butter on top. He then turned the oven dial once more, only this time to a MUCH more reasonable level.

"Alright, if this bad boy doesn't absolutely destroy my delicious creation, then perhaps it might just redeem itself in my eyes..." he spoke out loud, wiping his hands off as he shut the oven with his fish inside it.

After waiting a a while, he checked it again, and saw it looked cooked to his liking.

'Perfect!'

Bracing himself, just in case, he opened the oven door and...felt only a moderate amount of heat.

'Whew! That's a good sign...' he thought, wiping his forehead.

As he grabbed two small towels, he placed one on each of his hands and used them to pull out the tray. Setting it down on the counter, he shut the oven and turned it off.

The fish was cooked to perfection. Its perfect tan browned glow combined with the savory look of melted butter and lemon juice made his mouth water.

'Oh I can't wait to try thisssssss!' He thought, as he quickly grabbed a plate and silverware.

As he picked up the fish gently and set it down on his plate, he brought it over to the table and sat it down beside his glass of milk before taking a seat. Cutting into it was utter joy as it looked juicy and scrumptious. As he took his first bite, he was immediately overwhelmed by its flavor. It was breathtaking.

"Mmmm, well done me...and well done oven. *gulp* you-" he said, pointing his fork at it.

"Have officially redeemed yourself. To YOU!" Gumball cheered, raising another piece of fish in the air as a "toast" before eating it joyfully.

After finishing his lovely meal, he decided to check on his mold once again. As he loomed over it, he saw that it appeared solid. It looked quite cool now.

'Maybe it's done...'

Walking over to the far side of the table, he picked up his tools. He pulled them over to the rock mold and started to chip into the center rock piece. Soon he was through, and pulled the debris out of it and grabbed a pair of tweezers. Slowly but surely, he grabbed the now solid metal, and pried it out of the mold.

Holding it up to the light made it shine brilliantly, making Gumball's eyes grow wide.

"It's beautiful..." He muttered, turning it to make it sparkle more.

Sure, it needed to be smoothed and polished, but Gumball felt proud. He had done it. He had made the ring! The ring...he wanted to propose with...

Nicole.

Gumball blinked before pulling the ring back slightly.

Nicole.

'Why do I keep thinking her name like that?'

Nicole.

'Alright, come on, let's focus on-'

Nicole...

Gumball felt his heart beat funny for a moment as he placed his hand over his chest. Slowly he took deep breathes before feeling it subside.

'That was...weird.'

Shaking his head, he decided to shrug it off and grab his tool that he needed.

As he worked, he felt a thought linger in his mind.

'I really hope she will say yes...'