Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Gumball Watterson walked out of Elmore Junior High with his siblings.

It was a boring ordinary day. The classes had been boring. Even the weather had been boring.

There was a police car parked on the curb.

"That's unusual." commented Darwin.

Gumball turned to him. "Might be the ONLY unusual thing about today."

"That's how we WANT it to be, Gumball." Anais reprimanded.

"Hey!" Donut Cop yelled from the car. 

Gumball, Darwin, and Anais continued walking to the curb to sit and wait for their car.

"Hey!" Donut Cop yelled, this time louder.

"I wonder who he's calling for!" Darwin thought out loud.

"Come over here! Yeah! Watterson kids!"

Gumball, Darwin, and Anais stopped in their tracks. "I think you have the wrong kids, sir." Anais told the Donut Cop. 

"What did you do?!" she hissed to Gumball. 

"Nothing!" Gumball shout-whispered back.

"Well obviously you did SOMETHING!" Anais yelled.

"Yeah. Ya robbed a bank." Donut Cop told the Watterson siblings.

"Wh-WHAT?" screamed Gumball, Darwin, and Anais simutainiously.

Donut Cop sighed. "We have footage of you robbing Elmore Bank. Don't lie to cops, kids."

"WE DID NOT!" Anais stepped forward. "Well, I didn't, and Darwin is too pure to rob a bank, but I'm not sure about Gumball."

"Hey!" 

Rolling his eyes, Donut Cop told the kids: "If you don't fess up, we'll call your parents."

"Do what you want, Mr. Cop, but we'll be fine." Anais smugly grinned.

"No. That didn't happen." Nicole Watterson firmly stated.

"Of course it did, Mrs. Watterson." Donut Cop said. "There is footage."

Nicole crossed her arms, her expression a mix of confusion and disbelief. "Footage? Of my kids robbing a bank? That’s absurd! Do you really think I raised a bunch of THIEVES?"

Donut Cop whistled. "You're talking about the kids who blew up the cafeteria."

"That was an ACCIDENT!" protested Gumball.

"It was a science experiment gone wrong!" Darwin added, trying to defend them.

"Is melting every single cafeteria food in your microwave and then pouring them all into the school oven a science expirement?" Donut Cop raised an eyebrow.

Chapter Text

The Watterson family’s escape to Spork City was less a leisurely road trip and more a high-speed flight from justice. As they cruised down the highway, the city skyline emerged in the distance, a jumble of bizarre architecture that were all spork-like.

"Wow. Spork City REALLY takes its theming seriously." Anais commented.

"How the what do people live IN there?!" Gumball marveled.

"I don't know. They look so...thin and easily breakable! How do the buildings not collapse?!" Anais queried.

Chapter Text

Nicole swung open the door to her and Richard's room. "Well, it's not bad."

"It's WAY too fancy. This should be, like a safety hazard. My eyes, ohhh, my eyes!" complained Gumball as the Wattersons wandered inside.

"What you call 'way too fancy' is what I call nice-looking." retorted Anais.

In the center of the room, there was a big white bed. The sheets smelled like fresh strawberries.

"Hey! Where's the food?" Richard asked. "I smell food!"

"Oh, Mr. Dad! It's just the sheets!" Darwin explained, hopping on to a velvet couch besides the bed.

"The sheets are edible?" Richard asked.

Gumball rolled his eyes at the window. "Ew."

"I think it's a perfectly FINE view, Gumball." Anais replied.

"Well, let's go see the kid's rooms now!" Nicole announced.

The Watterson family stepped into the kids' room, and Gumball immediately flopped onto one of the beds. "I call dibs!"

Darwin sat down on the one nearest to the window. "This one's mine!" 

Anais rolled her eyes and put her bag on the middle bed. "Ergh. I'll have this one, then."

She took out one of her apples and bit off a chunk.

Nicole watched the kids mess around for a minute and then turned to leave. "If you need anything, knock on our door!" she told the kids.

"I'm hungry." Richard stated as the parents left the room.

Gumball flopped on the bed and stared at the creamy white ceiling. "Huh. This was not how I expected my day going."

"None of us expected this." Anais told him, pulling Daisy out from her bag.

Gumball rolled his eyes at Anais. "Of course you brought Daisy. You just can’t leave her behind, can you?"

Anais smiled, cradling the stuffed donkey. "Daisy makes everything better, especially in a situation like this."

"Yeah, sure," Gumball said, flopping back on the bed. "But who knew we’d be hiding out in a spork-themed hotel because of a bank robbery we didn’t even commit?"

"We’re like those innocent characters in detective stories who get framed!" Darwin piped up.

"The difference is, in the detective stories, their names get cleared." Anais said.

"I guess." Gumball muttered. "But eventually it'll blow off, and we can go back to living normal!"

He rolled over. "Right?"

Chapter Text

"I can't believe it!" Gumball yelled.

He had flopped on the bed and had a GIANT grumpy face. A pillow in particular was in his fist and being squished really, really hard.

"We were FRAMED! This is despicable! This is NOT how I imagined my weekend going!" he roared. The pillow bunched up a bit more.

Gumball sighed and turned over so that he was on his face and stomach. 

"This...isn't how I imagined my life going, actually." he sighed.

Darwin looked up from the window bed, swinging his legs off the side. "No, none of us did."

"Yeah!" Gumball protested. "We were accused, framed, blamed! This is unacceptable!"

He tossed the pillow across the room. It hit the wall.

"We're in a hotel room, Gumball." Anais sighed.

"You know what we're also in? A big load of responsibilties NOBODY asked for!" Gumball yelled, jumping on the bed. The fluffy mattress kept springing him back up again instead of sending everything flying, so Gumball stopped. 

"Hhh...hhh...yeah, we didn't do anything!" Gumball cried. "And now we're never gonna be the same and our lives will be spent on the run! Gone! Wasted!"

He buried his head under a pillow. 

"Some things will be the same." Anais offered. "You'll keep being a goofy dimwit, Darwin will keep being a fish with legs, I'll keep being sane."

"I...guess! But it's NOT FAIR! JUST NOT! AUUUGH!" Gumball kicked his legs everywhere. Pillows bounced.

"Repeat after me." Anais ordered. "I will be fine."

"Hhh...I will be f-fine." Gumball muttered from under the pillow. "Yeah, fine..."

"We will clear our names."

"...We will...clear our names."

"And it's going to be okay."

"It's...gonna be OK."

Gumball waited a second and lifted his head out of the pillow. 

"Th...thank you. I guess your smartness really did come in handy." 

"Gumball?"

He turned. "What?"

Slap! 

"That was for insulting my usefulness."

Chapter Text

"We have to look out for the police." Nicole stated. 

"That was kinda obvious, Mom." Gumball attempted to toss a jellybean into his mouth but failed. He started choking.

"I'm serious!" Nicole sighed. "We could go to jail for something you probably didn't do!"

"Whk-whkat dko ykou mkean pkrobabl-kak-ly?" Gumball choked. "I am choking please help me"

"Well, I mean...you do have quite the record."

Instead of responding, Gumball coughed out a jellybean and fell over.

The first thing Gumball saw when he woke up was the paper.

"Proper Education In Hiding From The Police"

"Mom? Anais? Darwin? What is this?" he asked. Gumball picked it up and opened it.

RULE ONE: Don't draw attention.

It showed a picture of Gumball screaming in a public area and the police around a corner. 

"Haha, as if. Couldn't be me." Gumball laughed, flashbacking to the many times he had done something exactly like the drawing.

RULE TWO: Know the area.

This one had a picture of Gumball escaping from the police by using the area, which conveniently had at least 12 different hiding spots.

"OOOH, that could be me. I'm swift like a ninja--" Forgetting his prior condition of choking on a jellybean, Gumball started dancing. 

"I am as fast as a tiger! As sneaky as a fox!" Gumball proudly announced.

"I'm as brave as a lion! As powerful as a snake! As smart as an owl! Actually scratch that. I don't like birds."

"Gumball. What are you doing."

"AAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

Anais, who had been in the other room, sighed. "I can hear you through the walls, you know. You're hyping yourself up way too much."

"How dare you. You'd understand if you understood this ancient relic." He showed it to her.

"You know sometimes I think I like my life. Then I remember that you think you'll find a brain back there if you roll your eyes." Anais sighed. "We all got that book. It's from Mom. Why else does it say, 'Lovingly, Nicole Watterson'?"

idk where to end this so here you go it's ended 

Chapter Text

Kick.

Kick.

Gumball was kicking the taxi driver's seat. Squeak. Squeak.

"What kinda games they got?" he asked.

Squeak.

"Gumball, stop kicking the seat." Nicole did not reply to his question. She sighed and became intrested in Spork City's sporklike architecture.

He stopped for approximately 3.008 seconds. Then he started drumming on the cup holder.

Anais put on headphones.

Beep. Boop.

"175 tokens for 45 cents! Mom! Please, this is a deal!" Gumball tugged on Nicole.

"More like a steal. Fine. I'll get you 100 tokens. But no more. And we're not coming back."

The kids waited non-patiently as Nicole bought the tokens.

"YAY!" Darwin cheered. "What should we spend it on?"

"Hey, there's a ball throwing game over there." Anais pointed. "A real gamble, 10 tokens to play but 5 tokens every target you knock off."

"Anais, would you do us the fa--" Gumball started, grinning.

"Of course." She inserted the tokens and instantly hit 8 of the 10 targets.

Darwin tried to highfive her but faceplanted on the ground as Anais bent to collect the tokens.

"That's 130." Anais smiled. 

"Psh. Boring. Anyone can throw a ball well." Gumball snatched up 5 of Anais's tokens and tossed them in. He then proceeded to miss by 2 feet.

"Anyone? Does that include you or was your brain to small to legally be classified alive?" Anais quipped. 

"A FLUKE." Gumball grabbed at the tokens again but missed.

"GUYS! LOOK!" Darwin pointed. "It's a..."

"A what?" Gumball shrugged.

"A claw machine." 

"Oh, I'm the best at those." Anais started out for the machine.

"No, dear sister. It is time for yours truly to try his luck." Gumball took 20 tokens and inserted them. A flash appeared on the screen. Plays: 2

Gumball aimed the claw at a large calico cat holding a ball of yarn. "Easy target."

"Bzzt. Control. Mission in operation?" Darwin whispered

"Bzzt. Yes. Bzzt." He lowered the claw. It caught the cat's head in a bad angle and slipped.

Gumball threw his head back as the claw returned with nothing. "RIGGED!"

He aimed the claw again.

Nothing. 

"Let me." insisted Anais. 

"No, let DARWIN!" Gumball retorted. "He's been waiting!"

Without anyone's permission, he inserted 10 tokens and pushed Darwin over.

"Great, Gumball. Now we only have approximately 75 tokens left!" Anais sighed.

"Wow, this seems hard. I'll try!" Darwin aimed at the cat quicker then Gumball had.

"No, it's all in the movements, Darwin. You see--" Gumball gaped as the cat entered the hole perfectely.

Darwin opened the hatch to retrieve the plush. "Here!"

"Uh--Uh--" 

"Um..."

Darwin tried to shove the cat into Gumball's stiff hands. "Hello? You in there, man?"

Gumball gasped air. "Totally a fluke and beginner's luck. You know these things happen all the time, Darwin! ...Now why don't you try for the shark with the sunglasses?"

Anais rolled her eyes in the corner. "...Yeah right."

im not good at math