The chill of winter was on the horizon. It was September.

The breeze from the lone open window felt like a thousand chilling needles scraping over his flesh, but it still wasn't enough to cool the heat winding through his core. One glance around his room left a pain in his chest. His room almost bare for it was the day of real goodbyes. Goodbyes to the home he has known for nearly two decades of his life, goodbyes to his ever-loving parents, his neighborhood, and a goodbye to her.

The light of the morning only hollowed the contrast betwixt by it and the dark circles enveloping the dullness of his pale, tired eyes, and suddenly his thoughts are lost in another haze. His mind is clouded with insomnia and the creeping speculation of everything he has tried so hard to bury for so many days.

As he was packing, a sigh escaped his lips as he picked up a certain already dust-covered stuffed toy from the top shelf. A small smile formed on his lips at the thought of Wendy saying, "I don't know if it's a duck or a panda, but I want one." But it wasn't that, Dipper thought. Wendy wasn't the reason why his heart was aching right now.

Six years back, he and his sister spent their summer in a small town called Gravity Falls in Oregon. Back then they were just a pair of happy, carefree twelve-year olds with a slight innocence about them. Sure, Dipper felt heart-stopping moments and butterflies whenever Mabel was present but— a kid never really delves into those things, right? Even 'til now he couldn't admit to himself what he truly felt; if he felt anything at all.

This stuffed toy was given to him by Mabel for getting back Waddles for her that fateful day where the only thing that mattered to him was impressing Wendy. It was also the day he truly noticed his sister. Her long brown tresses, her cheeks so rosy pink she must have withdrawn them from a cherub, her lips so full and quiet, with a mischievous glint in her dark eyes. Flawless, that is what Mabel is. Mabel. That beautiful name— a prayer on his lips. Get over it, Dipper. Get over it. Don't think about her, he swallows, breathing deeply amidst the mocking calm. Not now. It's not worth thinking about now. Think about something else. Anything.

A knock at his door broke him out of his reverie.

"Hey." That voice.

"Mabel." he breathed as he spun around.

"You okay? Is college getting to you?"

"You have no idea."

"I'm leaving in a few, by the way," she said softly, looking around. "I- Is that the toy Waddles and I won for you? I wonder how everyone's doing back there… Boy, those were great times."

"They sure were!" he comments, really glancing her way for the first time. Staring into those deep dark eyes he begins, "Mabel, I— "

MABEL!

Their father's voice reverberated throughout the entire house jarring them from their conversation.

She sighed. "That was…quick. I guess I'm going now. You take care, bro. See you at Christmas?" she said with her brace-free perfect smile.

"Of course. You take care, too. I'll be just a phone call away, alright?", his tone full of longing.

"Ditto, and Dipper? I'll miss you." she added with a wide grin and pulled him into a tight hug.

"I'll miss you, too, sis." he sighed, returning the hug. Oh, if only she knew.

And what hurt the most was that this could be their last moment together in a very long time. She's off to study all the way on the East Coast and Dipper, well, let's just say they'll be on almost opposite sides of the country. As the last of goodbyes were said, he stuffs his hands into his beaten pockets and shuffles back into his room, leisurely making his way to that lone open window— looking after their Father's car drive off into the distance of the misty road. He goes back to that indeterminate specie of a stuffed toy and carefully returns it to its place on the top shelf— and it was all he could do to neglect the growing pang in his heart.