Mabel Pines gave no answer. She just stood there, for a moment, mouth agape at his proposal.
Her brother wasn't a man who flirted, it was an art he considered himself bad for, and even when she told him time and time again that the cheesiness was just a part of the experience. He -except for really rare occasions- just let the last remains of that childish shame win the battle. That, however, didn't mean that he didn't have a way of showing affection.
He was a man of action, and a planner. He didn't say what he felt, he showed it. Every now and then he made stuff for her. However small, to woo her. And every year, around the time of their anniversary, he would take her somewhere, to a place they have never seen before, and show her something that would make her feel like the most special person in the world. To show her how much he loved her.
Even after their daughter was born, they keep traveling, and even when she got older and really had to hide the reason, he always managed to make something grandiose out of the experience. So, she was more than suspicious when it was apparent that this trip to Toronto, seemed to be just that, a trip to Toronto.
It was a beautiful city, full of beautiful places and beautiful people. They went to all kinds of places in the city and did all kind of things. From trying -and failing- to skate on the frozen reflecting pool in the Nathan Phillips Square, to giving the stink eye to her instructor at a Canvas and Cocktails for acting condescendingly, and looking at her daughter go from hating the cold weather to getting excited at a Leafs game and trying to get them to buy everything on the gift shop on the way out was a very amusing experience. She had to say it, a ten year old girl had no right to look as cute in a blue hockey jersey as her little girl, and because of that she was proud.
It wasn't the first time he did something like this though. Both a secretive person, and a good liar, Dipper knew how to keep something a secret, but she was his sister, she knew how to make him slip, how to make him reveal at least a clue of whatever was waiting for her at the end of the line. This time it was different though, aside from the week of touristing, he didn't seem to have another reason to bring them here.
That's why on that Saturday night she had her defenses down, anything he had for her would have surprised her. But even then, even then, the question was too unexpected. On that Saturday night, when their kid was sleeping, he called her up to the hotel's roof.
When she got there, it was almost empty, the only person there was her Dipper. He was looking at the city down below. She went to his side to share the sight, she noticed he was holding something in his hand. It was a small, pink, ring box.
She was going to ask, but when she opened her mouth, he extended his hand, showing her the box and started.
"We have been through a lot together. We had a crazy childhood, and things just got crazier in these last ten years. I… I know that if you wear this it is going to bring up a lot of questions, and that we really can't…" He said as he opened the little box, revealing a golden ring with three little gems one blue, one lilac, each one at the sides of a bigger, pink one. She wasn't looking at the ring though, as she was unable to look at anywhere but his eyes. This can't be what I think it is, is it? "…But if we could. Mabel Pines, would you–?"
Her eyes were teary, but she couldn't move her hands to wipe them. The entire world seemed to have stopped around her. She couldn't move, she couldn't look anywhere else. She had nothing on her mind but a question. Did he just ask me to…?
He was right on every Point. They couldn't, and it was going to bring questions if she ever wore it. But.
Every special moment they shared came to her mind. Every crisis they had gone through together was flashing in front of her eyes. From the literal apocalypse he went through to get to her, to the moment they realized about their feelings. From their first time, to when they realized she was pregnant. Every fear, every desire to run away, the moment they came out to their parents and every single hardship they overcame afterwards. How, he even when he couldn't tell her the truth, raised their daughter with all the love and care she deserved. And above all, she saw how much adoration those brown eyes had for her, for their kid, for their love.
So why didn't she give him an answer? Well, mainly, because it's hard to respond when you're using your mouth for another thing. In a blink, she had pulled him in, and kissed him. It was appropriate really, they, seen by no one, under the cover of night, and surrounded by a city of covered in white, decided that they would become one. Not in the eyes of god, not in the eyes of any state. But in their own.
Because why the hell did she need an answer for? They were twenty five, and had been "together" for almost thirteen now. He knew damn well what her answer would be. The wildest night that bed on their suite had ever seen was and the unusual aura she had the next day were proof of it.
She thought that nothing could ever take her out of that mood, when while walking through the city, her child said, "You know, if two look that happy when you are together, people are going to start thinking you two are married or something."
Kid. She thought, looking at her ring. You don't know how right they would be.
