Starting New: A World Apart

Chapter 28: A Room of Love

As they both arrived at Gumball's still closed door, he spun around to meet her face to face.

"Alright, ready to be blown away?" He said confidently, causing her to smile.

"Most definitely. Let's hope it isn't just sprawled stuff on the floor."

Gumball rolled his eyes.

"Come on, don't you have a LITTLE faith in my ability to decorate?"

"Perhaps. But it seems like your 'Role Model' back at home had a big influence on you, your brother and sister; especially if all he did was lay around the house and watch TV. He would leave his pile of clothes nearly to a state of decay if I weren't around to clean them. You and Darwin also seemed to just throw your dirty clothes everywhere around the room too. It was like a game of hide and seek sometimes."

"I-..."

Gumball felt awful at that moment, realizing it really was like that. Him and Darwin had a routine to quickly grab clothes before school and then throw the old ones around somewhere before they were done with them. They didn't care where they landed, as long as they had a fresh pair the next morning.

Gumball lowered his ears slightly.

"I'm sorry I was like that back at home..."

"Gumball sweetie, it's alright. Things were different back then..." she admitted, embracing him lovingly.

Snuggling into her better, he thought of a question.

"Hey, um, did you ever...have a mess of a room around my age?"

"No. My parents were very strict about tidiness. If so much as a visible crumb was discovered on my floor, they would make me pick it up and clean the entire carpet just to make sure there weren't any more. I like cleanliness, but that was FAR too extreme for my liking. I hated it." She said, swirling a few hairs on his scalp with her finger.

"I can see why..."

Clearing her throat, she let him go and looked towards the door.

"Well, enough about me. Let's see what this room has to offer, shall we?" She said, causing Gumball to reach for the doorknob.

"Agreed. Now, close your eyes." He said in anticipation.

Nicole obliged and closed her eyes. She then felt Gumball take her hand.

"No peeking now~" He whispered as he turned the knob and opened the door.

Leading her inside, he let go of her hand and shut the door behind her.

"Okay, you can look now." He said, causing her to flutter open her eyes.

Her jaw nearly hit the floor.

'I can't believe it...'

The room she saw before her was...well, breathtaking. The neatly placed objects around the room were specifically placed and well organized. The dresser sported lovely little metal trinkets along with a few clay art sculptures. His closet handle held beautifully crafted glass beads along with colorful string pieces to give it a cozy feel. Each corner of the wooden bed headrest held a dream catcher; each a different variation of color combined with a leather trimmed exterior. Finally, to top it all off, on the bedside drawer...was the ship in the bottle. With it being stationed right near the side of the window, the glass refracted beautiful colored light onto the floor. This reminded Nicole of the stained glass window decorations they had outside in their lawn back at their old home. Something she truly admired...