"Are you sure we're allowed to be in here, Mabel?" I took a quick glance around the room, holding on tightly to the bag slung over my shoulder. Getting in trouble was the last thing I wanted after being lost in the forest on that little island. Scuttlebutt, I think it was called. It still felt like something from there was watching me.

I shifted my weight and shook the feeling off. Calm down, Grace. Nothing was there and nothing followed you back. You're just being paranoid. I was drawn out of my thoughts by the hand that came to rest on my shoulder. I looked up at the woman whose hand it was and found her smiling brightly. Her short and fluffy brown hair was falling into her eyes but she didn't seem to care at all. She never seemed bothered by anything.

"Of course we're allowed in here! It's my brother's room after all. I'm just gonna grab what we need and then we can split, okay?" She took her hand from my shoulder and ruffled my hair, making me cringe a little bit. It took hours to get it into place so it wouldn't get in my face and now it was messed up. I couldn't complain though. She did that sort of thing out of affection.

I took a chance to glance around while Mabel was looking what we needed. The room was neater than I thought it would have been. Papers were stacked neatly on the corner of a desk, books were straight and organized on a shelf, and there was, despite the many claims Mabel had made, absolutely nothing on the floor. It didn't quite match the person I had come to know, who was often like a whirlwind.

Of course, if he was a whirlwind then Mabel was a full-blown tornado. She moved quickly from one place to another, leaving destruction in her place. She was probably the reason she thought her brother was messy. She was, after all, tearing up his room looking for something. I bit my lip, realizing that, if she kept this up, there was no way he wouldn't know we had been here.

She waved off my concern and dug through a bag in the corner. I thought that I should be helping but I had no clue what she was looking for. It could have been literally anything in the room and I didn't feel right going through other people's things, related to them or not. So, in an attempt to keep myself from feeling too bad, I looked out the door and glanced at both ends of the hallway.

It was empty, something that was normal around noon since everyone would go out for lunch or hang around in the kitchen and make something. I felt relief rush through me and let out a sigh. That was one less thing to worry about at least. No one was going to catch me in there. Mabel would explain everything but that didn't change how awkward it would be before that.

"Got it!"

I came out of the doorway and looked back at her, finding a glowing Mabel with a grappling hook. I blinked once or twice, trying to wrap my head around why we needed that and why it would be in here instead of with every other piece of equipment. She came by me, waving it a little like I couldn't see it, and started out the door.

"Shouldn't we clean up…?"

"Nah. He won't notice the difference." She spoke with complete confidence and I found myself convinced so much that I closed the door and walked beside her. She knows him better than anyone else, so if she says he won't notice then he won't notice. No point in worrying about it now.

[🌲]

I had absolutely no clue how to distract anyone. To be fair, I couldn't do much outside either but those things I could at least figure out through trial and error. If I messed this up then the entire plan went down the drain. That alone was enough to make me nervous but I had to distract him. Mabel's brother. My idol. My ill-advised, more-than-just-a-summer crush. Talking to him was hard enough in the first place. Having a whole plan hinge on it was just… Terrifying.

Mabel got him out of his room and his books to start everything off. Everyone else in our team waited outside for the big surprise at the end of our little plan and I stayed in the main room, nestled on the couch and trying to come up with conversation topics until I had to give one of them a shot. I figured talking about things that had happened recently, like Gnome-napping from last week where he'd almost broke his arm or the possession mess that resulted in a broken, bloody nose, multiple cuts and bruises, and a long lecture from Mabel, was a good idea but they were all too heavy for tonight. It was supposed to be a happy night, not time to focus on horrible injuries.

Mabel said to just be you, I reminded myself, tightly squeezing the owl throw pillow I'd moved from the corner of the couch. There was no way that just being myself could distract him. Unless she wanted me to get overly anxious and panic, of course. That could work. It was bound to happen soon if I kept dwelling on this.

As I was considering this course of action, they came into the room. Mabel had his arm wrapped in both of hers and was physically dragging him, a pouty and almost grumpy expression. It was sort of funny when paired with her brother's completely confused face. It was clear he had no clue what was happening or that Mabel was, more than likely, acting rather than actually upset with him.

"Seriously, Dipper. You can't spend all of your time locked up in your room or hunting monsters. Did you even sleep last night?" Mabel put her hands on her hips and stared up at him. Even from a distance, I could see the fire in her eyes. It must have been a lot more intimidating up close.

"No… But that's not the point. I need to be ready if something happens. There's a kid on the team this year, since some genius thought it would be a good idea to put them on what's literally our most dangerous group, and I'd rather not get them hurt."

I flinched at his words and drew my eyes away from them. It was like a not-so-friendly reminder that I was the youngest person there. Even our team leader thought of me like I was a kid instead of a full member. It felt like a hand grabbed at my heart and started pulling. I hated that feeling.

"She's not that much of a kid. Besides, we were twelve when we started. That's a lot younger than her."

"That's us, Mabel. It's an entirely different matter when it's someone else."

"Look, we can just… Talk about that later, okay? The big thing here is you need some time with your head out of the journals or you're going to go coo-coo bananas and it'll all end up like it did with my sock opera only with people instead of socks."

"..You're right. But we are talking about this later."

I heard a door open and then close and reached up quickly to wipe away tears that had just formed in the corners of my eyes. Part of my wanted to celebrate that I'd managed not to cry but I couldn't even begin to do it. I could still feel the hand in my chest and I was waiting for the ripping motion that would set it all off. Instead, what I got was a softly spoken curse.

"You… Heard all of that, didn't you." He was still across the room, far enough away that the curtain of hair that formed when I didn't pull it back and I was looking down blocked him from my view. He couldn't see me either, then. That was for the better. Nobody wants to look sad in front their idol, including me.

"Only every word," I said softly, keeping any creeping sounds of sniffling out of my voice. He gave a sigh and muttered something under his breath. The habit was usually cute, but it only seemed aggravating this time. I squeezed the owl again and bit the inside of my cheek. I still had to distract him and keep him inside until everything was in motion. There had to be something I could do to keep him here.

Footsteps broke my frantic thoughts and made me turn my head, trying to see who was coming near. Given that basically everyone else was outside, I should have known it was him but my brain felt like scrambled eggs. He stood at the other end of the couch, hands in his pockets and an awkward look across his face.

"I didn't really… It's…"

"I get it. You don't have to try and explain yourself to me," I started, tucking my hair back behind my ear and staring at the ground. "I'm not old enough for this team so why bother."

"That's not what I meant. You're just… Look, it really doesn't have anything to do with you specifically. It's just that girls your age are…"

I brought my eyes up to look at him. He looked like he was trying to find something to say that would make him seem less harsh but he had to have known that wasn't going to happen. I knew enough from Mabel that this had happened to him before. Not messing up an explanation, though that did happen a lot apparently. He knew what it was like to be thought of as a kid, too young for something he really wanted to do.

With a groan, he sat down on the couch and put his head in his hands. I wondered if trying to take something like that back was hard on him, since he really seemed to believe it, and tried to tell him it was fine. He needed convinced that it didn't bother me, but he wouldn't have that. He just shook his head.

"I'm sorry," he said softly. "I shouldn't have called you a kid."

I reached for him, pausing for a second just before I made contact with his arm. Just accepting his apology didn't feel like enough. He might still beat himself up over it if I didn't make sure he knew it was okay. It had hurt but I was okay, and that's what mattered. Dipper shifted his head and looked at my hand. I gave him a faint smile, pulling back a little, and slowly brought my hand back to my lap.

"It's fine, as long as you don't do it again."

He nodded slowly and the room fell quiet. I realized, without the small issue, there was nothing to keep him here until the signal came. I panicked inside, coming up with next to nothing that would be a good conversation to follow something like that up. The scrambled eggs that made up my brain weren't coming together to help me get through this so I did the first thing that came up.

Without hesitation, I reached out to him and gently took a hold of his shoulder, turning him towards me. His head followed and he worked his way to asking a question. Not thinking I could answer him even if I wanted to, I moved forward and placed my lips on his.

It was the quickest kiss I had ever seen and it still felt the sweetest. The short moment of contact brought butterflies to my stomach and the blood to my face. Everything felt like it was on fire but nothing burned. It was the strangest sensation I'd ever had but also one I wouldn't have minded having again.

I pulled myself back quickly, inwardly screaming that I'd just given him my first kiss, and covered my mouth. Looking at him again, I noticed he was as surprised as I would have thought he had been. Knowing that there was absolutely no explanation for this, I stood up from the couch and pivoted on my heels to leave only to be stopped.

He was holding my hand.

The moment I realized he had my hand, I wanted to die from embarrassment and happiness all at once. I didn't have the chance, though, because, he pulled me back onto the couch. I was ready for a lecture about why you don't just do something like that but it never came. Instead, he kissed me again.

It was longer this time, more than just the second or two of contact I had initiated. One hand was on my cheek while the other gripped just a bit tighter onto the hand he'd grabbed. My eyes closed and I started to kiss him back. The feelings from the first kiss came flooding back in and clouding my other senses.

That was when the first firework went off. I let out a little laugh and started to stand. Dipper looked at me and raised an eyebrow, asking an unvoiced question that couldn't have been anything but "what in the world is going on?" Rather than answer him, I held out my hand and waiting for him to take it. When he did, I brought him outside where Mabel greeted him cheerfully.

"Happy Summerween, bro-bro! We're too old for trick-or-treating but there's nothing wrong with having some fireworks instead, right?"

He laughed whole-heartedly and shook his head. "Is that really why you wanted me out here?"

"Yes," Mabel said without even a second in between their words. I smiled at them and took a step back, thinking that there was nothing better than a plan gone completely right.