Penny's hand drifted, guiding the brush across the canvas, crafting a simple tree line. She dabbled in little splotches of dark green and brown, before stepping back and admiring it.
"Perfect." She thought. "Now onto the lake."
She marked out the water, filling it in with a mix of blues, adding small cracks for the waves. The fairy stared at it for a moment, contemplating what else it needed.
"A boat." She decided, adding a small speck of brown, with a little figure inside.
Penny suddenly felt a slight ache in her back. "Owowow okay, okay… I'm sitting down, mommy's sitting down."
She collapsed into the nearby chair she had set up. She looked down at the small bump on her stomach, then at her work in progress painting.
"What do you think honey?" She asked. "If you hate it, you can tell me to throw up."
Penny held her breath for a moment, then sighed with relief. "Okay, good. Glad you like it."
She turned her gaze back to the painting. "This is nice, isn't it?" She thought out loud. "Just the two of us."
That was immediately interrupted by her phone ringing from across the attic. "Nice while it lasted." She muttered unamusedly, pulling herself back to her feet. "Let's see what your dad's doing now."
She walked over to her phone, still buzzing. She picked it up, expecting it to just be another everyday support message or a regular check-up from Gumball. But she froze when she saw the caller ID.
Patrick.
Penny felt frozen in place, unsure of what to do. Her finger hovered in between the buttons to accept the call or hang up. In the end, she simply set the phone back down on the chair, letting it ring.
"Hey, it's Penny. I'll call ya back when I can."
"Hi Pen, it's me. Listen, me and your mother were talking and, well, we think we'd really like to see you guys again."
Penny sat back down in her art chair, burying her head in her hands.
"Do you think you and Gumball would like to have dinner with us sometime? Now, before you say no Honey, we want you to know we've been doing some… counselling. There's nothing we want you to change, we swear. We just want to see you again."
The fairy looked back to the phone, memories of their last dinner together flashing in her mind. Shortly before she packed her bags and left.
"I- I don't know how to say this without sounding like I'm guilt tripping, I'm not, but- you don't have to come. I understand if you need space right now. Just know, the offer's always on the table. Just like dinner, heh heh."
She gave a small chuckle.
"Look um- we've uh, we've realised we're not going to be around forever. We just want to make things right, while we can. I just hope the Wattersons are taking good care of you. Hope to hear from you soon Penny.
Love you Sweetie. Polly which button is it to-"
Penny stared blankly at the now silent phone, feeling like she'd been punched in the gut. She turned back to her painting, attempting to distract herself, but her eyes fixated on the small boat and its sole passenger. What once seemed like a brave traveller, now seemed like a poor lonely soul about to be swallowed by the ocean. Her eyes began to water, the fairy eventually bursting into tears.
She heard the front door swing open downstairs, the slight creaking of the stairs as soft padded feet hurried up them.
"Hey sweetie!" Penny heard a muffled voice call. "I got you your favourite, cherry ice cream!" No response. "…Penny?"
The fairy wiped her nose, trying to stop the tears as they streamed out. She covered her mouth, attempting to stop Gumball from finding her. But she knew he'd know where to look.
"Penny?" Gumball called, peeking up through the attic door. Penny squeezed herself as best she could behind some boxes in the corner. How she wished she could transform into a mouse or rabbit and just dart away, but the doctor had said she couldn't turn into anything smaller than her regular self.
"Hey uh." Gumball said. "You know I can see your glow from here, right?"
Stupid glow. Always giving her away. Penny sighed, standing up, brushing away more tears.
"Hey honey, what's- oh." Gumball noticed the look on her face, his heart immediately swelling with sympathy. He moved over to the fairy, wrapping her in a big bea- cat hug. Penny reciprocated it, leaning into his shoulder, breaking down again, tears staining the cat's jacket.
"Hey, there there." Gumball comforted. "What happened? You wanna talk about it?"
Penny shook her head slightly.
"You wanna come lie on the couch and have some ice cream?"
Penny nodded, sniffling.
"Let's do that then." He smiled, gently prying Penny off him, escorting the still sobbing fairy to the ladder downstairs. He looked back at the attic, trying to find something to take her mind off things. And there was her painting. "Oh my goodness, Penny, that's looking amazing! Where'd you learn to do that? Have I ever told you just how talented you are?"
Penny chuckled a little as she climbed down the ladder. "Oh, Gumball."
"You're my lucky penny, Penny." Gumball leant down and kissed her on the cheek. "Dunno what I did to deserve you."
"Me nei- WOAH!" Penny yelped as her foot slipped on something round. She clung to the ladder as her feet dangled, all while she breathed rapidly in and out.
"Penny you okay?!" Gumball cried.
"Yeah" she panted. "I just slipped on-" Penny stopped herself, looking down. Tens, maybe hundreds of sealed tubs of cherry ice cream lay scattered over the upstairs floor.
"Gumball..." Penny frowned, inspecting one of the tubs. "Why is there so much ice cream?"
Gumball chuckled meekly, scratching the back of his head. "Well uh, it was on sale, and y'know… your uh, appetite…?"
Penny scowled up at him. "I don't eat that much!"
"Yeahhh, half that tub is already gone."
Penny blinked, looking down at the now half full tub in her hands, accompanied by strange pink smudges on her hand and mouth. "Huh." She licked her hand, it tasted oddly like cherry. "This changes nothing." She hissed.
"Whatever you say Pen." Gumball hopped down, clearing a small gap on the floor and grabbing his own tub. "Now, how about I put all this in the freezer while you lie down and we can watch some nice cringey movies."
Penny sighed, admitting defeat. "Alright." She said, cracking a small smile.
"That's the spirit." Gumball beamed. He leaned in to give her another kiss on the cheek, before bending down to start collecting all the ice cream.
"Stop right there Mr Villain." The obnoxious protagonist shouted. "Your evil deeds are at the end- I mean, at an end."
"Nyeh, but that is where you are the wrong Mr Steve Superhero Man. For I have this button that will destroy the entire." The actor paused to check the script in his hand. "The entire the world!"
"Do you think these are ironic?" Gumball asked.
"Mmmph, I dunno." Penny mumbled, her mouth full of ice cream. "Either way, it's way too on-the-nose for me." Gumball looked at the fairy and sighed, reaching for the remote.
"But how will you-" The hero was interrupted by the TV suddenly going black. Penny nearly choked on her ice cream in surprise. She turned and saw Gumball pointing the remote at the screen.
"Hey! what gives?"
"Penny." The cat said, softly. "Why were you crying earlier?"
Penny's face fell. "It's uh… it's hard to talk about."
"Come on, it can't be that bad."
"My dad called."
"Okay, maybe it can be that bad." Gumball gulped. "What uh, what did he say?"
"He said that he and Mom want to have dinner with us, to try and make things right with us while they still can."
Gumball raised an eyebrow. "What, are they sick?"
"No, it's just-" Penny sighed, taking a deep breath. "We haven't really spoken since… then." She placed a hand on her belly. "I never even told them about our… you know."
Gumball gasped. "Wait, they don't know?"
Penny shook her head. "We had only found out like a week before. And at the time, well, I think it'd only have made things worse."
Gumball wiped his forehead. "Oh. So, what do they mean by making things right?"
Penny looked down at the floor. "When I was little my dad had a big fight with my Grandma. I remember him yelling at her on the phone and getting angry. The next day he calmed down and wanted to apologise but…" She whimpered as she fought back tears. "There was an accident… and he never got the chance."
Gumball's heart sank. "Oh Penny, I'm so sorry." He said, squeezing her hand gently.
"It's why my dad is so protective. He's scared of the world, because he can't predict it. And he wants to never lose that chance with us."
She turned away, ashamed. "But I might've already lost it."
"We should have dinner with them."
"What? Gumball I can't just rock back up and tell them I'm preg-"
"That doesn't matter Penny. You're still their daughter. And this-" he patted her baby bump. "This is their grandkid. Sure, you might not owe anything to them, but I think our kid deserves to at least know where they came from. Heck, my mom didn't introduce me to my grandparents until I was twelve." He added with a sad smile.
"But what if they don't approve? Gumball, we're not even married yet."
"If they don't approve, we don't have to care! And besides, if your dad has any problems, I'm the one who'll get in trouble, I'll take the fall. You'll be fine. WE." He squeezed her hand again. "Will be fine."
Penny took another big breath, and nodded. "Okay."
"We're doing this?"
"We're doing this."
"Atta girl!" Gumball cheered. "So… when do you think it'll be?"
"I don't know." Penny said, standing up. "I guess I'll go talk to Dad. Say er, do you have any plans for dinner tonight?"
Gumball shrugged. "The others aren't gonna be back for ages, what do you say we just get ourselves a pizza… or two…?"
"Two pizzas sound good, I'll go order it." Penny said, heading for the stairs. Gumball grabbed her hand, holding her back.
"Gumball!"
"Nonono, you've dealt with enough today. Listen, how about you go do something you like, like painting, and I'll go out and get us some pizza. And when you're ready, you can talk to your dad, okay?"
"Okay."
"Alrighty. Love ya." He winked.
Penny rolled her eyes, chuckling. She didn't know how she found Gumball so corny yet so charming.
"Oh, before I go, what flavour do you want?"
"Just a Hawaiian I think. The baby isn't asking a lot. Oo, could you try and grab me a root beer too?"
"You got it. Later Penny!" And he bounded out the door. Penny heard him cry in a muffled voice. "PIZZA AWAITS!.."
"Oh Gumball…" she tutted, giggling to herself.
She climbed back up to the attic returning to her painting. She observed the little boat and its sailor, seemingly fighting against rough seas.
She grabbed her paint brush, making the figure a little bigger. Suddenly the waves didn't seem so daunting. In place of its head she drew a yellow circle, two little stubs on either side. Next to the sailor, she painted another figure, giving it a blue head.
No longer alone, the sailor didn't seem scared anymore. Penny smiled. As she set down her brush, she knew, almost for a fact, that the two were gonna be okay, no matter what the waves said.
She walked over to her phone, punching in a certain number. She held it up to her ear, hearing the ringtone before it was interrupted by
"Penny?"
"Hi, Dad."