TAWOG Fanfic Advent 2022

Day 2

8 Years Ago...

"GUMBALL, WHERE ARE YOU?!" GUMBALL?!" Nicole yelled out in genuine fear as she ran around the house frantically searching every room, beginning to panic as her son had completely disappeared.

Earlier that day a new microwave she had ordered had arrived. She had installed it whilst Richard kept an eye on Gumball, but when she'd finished and come to check on them Richard had fallen asleep and Gumball was nowhere to be seen.

The two had spent an hour and a half frantically running around the house, searching every room from top to bottom but there was absolutely no sign of him. It was as if he'd vanished into thin air.

Nicole sat down on the sofa and rested her hands in her paws as she began to cry softly. If he wasn't in the house then her son had probably wandered off outside all on his own. It could take days or even weeks to find him, or they might...they might not ever find him!

She was so worried...her four-year-old, all on his own, who knows where! Anyone could take him, hurt him, do whatever evil things they wanted to him and there was nothing she could do to stop it!

She continued to cry when her ears suddenly pricked up, noticing something. She froze as she listened intently.

She could hear something, very faintly, a...a very soft rumble but...where was it coming from?

She wiped her eyes and stood up, trying to figure out the source of the noise.

She moved around the room and found it got louder in the direction of the kitchen.

As she entered the sound got louder and to her delight she realized was the sound was.

Purring.

He was here! Gumball was still in the house! But where?! Where could he possibly be hiding?!

She looked around trying to figure out the source of the purring, which is when she finally noticed something on the floor and lightly face-palmed herself in embarrassment.

"Oh, of course!" She chuckled into her hands as she began to feel incredibly stupid.

It should have been so obvious, especially to her. How could she have missed it? How had she not checked there?!

Meanwhile, Richard was panicking as he frantically searched upstairs for Gumball. Nicole had trusted him to look after Gumball and what had he done? Fallen asleep!

He mentally berated himself for doing something so incredibly stupid, so reckless! His son was now missing and it was entirely his fault! If anything had happened to him, if they couldn't find him, Nicole would never forgive him!

"Richard, I've found him! C-Come and look!" She held back laughter.

Oh, thank God she'd found him! He was okay! But why was she laughing?

Confused, he went downstairs to see where he'd been hiding this whole time.

He reached the bottom of the stairs and found Nicole in the kitchen, a wide grin on her face as she held back laughter.

"What's so funny?" He raised his eyebrow.

She nodded to what was on the ground beside her, and he finally understood.

A wide grin formed on his face as the realization dawned on him, and he began to chuckle as he walked over.

"I can't believe we didn't look here first! I mean, where else could he possibly have gone?" She chuckled.

As she rested her head on his chest with a wide smile on her face, he wrapped his arm around her, and the two looked down at the adorable sight in front of them.

There was Gumball, all curled up with a large smile on his face as he lay fast asleep, purring away happily...

...in the cardboard box that the microwave had come in.