Dipper Pines had only been in Gravity Falls for four hours when he first felt himself in some form of peril. After a marathon coach trip with his hyperactive twin sister Mabel, Dipper had been more than willing to head straight to bed. Unfortunately for the younger Pines twin he first had to catch up with friends he hadn't seen in person for nearly a year.
He had a brief interaction with his sister's best friends, Grenda and Candy and a slightly longer conversation with the heiress Pacifica Northwest, who after the events of his first year in the small town had become close friends with both his sister and her friends. Dipper had exchanged hugs with Melody and Soos, the new Mr Mystery tearing up at his friend's return. While this was happening Dipper couldn't help but notice the absence of a certain red headed Lumberjill.
Of all his many friends in Gravity Falls, Dipper had been most excited to reunite with his childhood crush, Wendy Corduroy. Disheartened by her absence Dipper had become slightly less animated than normal remaining almost silent until their return to the Mystery Shack. Dipper had informed the group that he was heading to bed and trudged his way to the attic, lugging his bag behind him.
He gently fiddled with the worn fur of the trapper hat he wore. It had been given to him by Wendy as he left Gravity Falls for the first time, the two had taken to exchanging hats at the beginning and end of any time they met up. It was at this moment that Dipper heard something on the roof. A loud thud followed by a strange scraping noise echoed through the thin walls of the Attic. Dippers mind raced thinking of past adversaries from the past four year's he'd been visiting the town. The only opponent that had ever attempted to climb the Mystery Shack was a group of rather ambitious gnomes who attempted to enter the house, via chimney, dressed as Father Christmas. This infiltration had failed due to their poor organisation and more importantly the fact it was mid-August. Dipper crept downstairs, past his sibling dozing in front of the TV, and into the shop section of the Mystery Shack. He found the ladder that lead to Wendy's spot on the roof, took a collection of slow, deep breaths and climbed onto the roof.
Dipper wasn't prepared for the sight that greeted him on the roof top.
There, stretched out on an old lawn chair, blue and white baseball cap pulled over her eyes, was Wendy Corduroy. Dipper completely failed to stifle a gasp at the sight of his closest friend. This noise didn't go unnoticed by the redhead who lept at the noise, turning to face the 16 year old.
Wendy's eyes grew wide as she caught the first glimpse of her friend since the previous Christmas. She dove off the chair and onto the startled boy dragging them both to the floor. Her arms encircled his midriff, clasping together at his back. Dipper had landed on his back and could do little but marvel at the mass of ginger hair resting on his chest.
They stayed embraced like this for the next ten minutes, Dippers hand gently playing with Wendy's hair. Eventually she raised her head to look at him.
"Care to tell me what that was about?" Wendy could hear the edge of mirth in her long-time friend's voice.
Flushing bright crimson Wendy stared down and mumbled grumpily, "I just missed you, dork."
Dipper couldn't help but smile at the Lumberjill's response, before responding with a simple "I missed you too Wendy." She looked up, returned his smile and moved to sit next to him. There the two sat catching up with one other about the last month. They kept in contact regularly, with Wendy occasionally coming up to Piedmont for a weekend of bad movies and slightly less magical adventures (apart from that one time with the baby hydra but neither Wendy nor the Pines twins will breathe a word of what happened with the small, multi-headed lizard.)
Noticing the time Wendy began preparing to leave, reaching for the discarded baseball cap that had been flung from her head when she pounced on the young man she'd been catching up with. She gently took the trapper hat from her friends head and replaced it with the baseball cap.
Dipper smiled at her before suddenly pausing.
"Wait a second. What are you doing up here Wendy?"
"Soos lets me come up here whenever I want, as long as I don't disturb anyone. Plus I needed it today, work was an utter train wreck." Dipper nodded his understanding, being the oldest Corduroy child she had taken to shadowing her father and preparing herself for her role in the family business. (Dipper claimed this made it sound like a feudal monarchy, to which Wendy responded with a quick comment of dork, followed by a mumbled comment about swords and ponds.)
Once again realising the time Wendy said a brief goodbye, pulled on her hat and leapt off the roof and into a nearby tree. Dipper stared at the Lumberjack's daughter as she walked into the forest in the direction of home, a giant grin plastered across his face. Said grin would stay with the young boy until he drifted into a blissful sleep.
This pattern continued for the first few week of the holiday. Dipper would spend his days off in the forest with his sister and her friends. Then in the evenings he'd wait for the tell-tale scraping on the roof and go to meet Wendy on the roof. Some days they'd talk for hours, about her work, his adventures, TV anything that allowed them to keep the conversations going. Then other nights, when Wendy's work had been trying or Dipper had come too close to serious harm barely a word would be said. They would simply look at each other and they understood, Dipper would sit, his back leant against the slanting roof and Wendy would simply curl into his side. If Dipper were his younger self this would have filled him with an overwhelming sense of giddy joy. But now it simply consumed him with an overwhelming sense of tranquillity. On occasion one of the two of them would fall asleep, rather than move the other would simply grab a blanket they had left on the roof and wrap them both in it.
On the Tuesday of the third week Wendy arrived at the Shack to find Dipper already sat on the roof, his legs dangling off the side. Wendy started up at him, before taking a knee on the ground beneath him.
"Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo." Wendy's voice boomed in the late evening air.
Dipper gazed down at her a small smile appearing on his face.
"What are you doing Wendy?"
"I'm doing that bit, you know? From Romeo and Juliet, but I only remember that line." Wendy heard a faint chuckle from above.
"I'm pretty sure that isn't the right line and we're the wrong way round and this is not exactly a balcony." He watched her as she climbed the side of the Shack her head appearing over the roof by one of his legs.
"Whatever. At least I tried, I didn't really pay attention in English class."
"Or any class" Dipper mumbled.
"What was that Pines? Just because you've grown doesn't mean I couldn't totally take you." Wendy lugged herself up next to him. She took a second to give her friend a quick look over. She noticed his right arm was wrapped in a thick bandage.
"Hey Dipper, what's up with your arm." She nodded her head towards the offending limb.
Dipper gently placed his hand on top of the bandage, wincing in pain.
"Nothing serious I just got into a bit of a scrap while I was out today."
"What exactly was it, a Wolf? Jesus Dipper look at those bandages." Wendy did nothing to hide the obvious concern in her voice.
"Not exactly a Wolf. It was kind of a bear." For the rest of his life Dipper Pines would regret telling Wendy that information in the way he did.
"A WHAT!" Dipper swore he felt the very forest shake at her cry of exclamation Wendy gave out. "You idiot Dipper Pines, you absolute moron. What the hell were you thinking?"
The young man's cheeks flushed at the deep disappointment he could feel emanating from Wendy. "I was trying to get a chunk of its hair. I needed it to get something from the gnomes."
"What on earth could the gnomes give you that was worth nearly getting yourself mauled?"
Dippers cheeks once again blushed bright crimson "A hat" he muttered his voice barely a whisper.
If Dipper had thought that the anger he had faced earlier was bad it was nothing compared to the outcry at his last comment.
"Let me get this straight, you nearly got yourself mauled FOR A FUCKING HAT."
"I needed it for Mabel, for her birthday I wanted to get her something special." But Dippers protest fell on deaf ears as he was scooped into a massive hug by the Lumberjill. Dipper relaxed into her arms and felt the young woman's breathing grow calmer.
"You're an idiot Dipper Pines. I shouldn't let you out of my sight, you're going to get yourself killed." He pulled back ready to respond with a quip, but was cut short by his redheaded friend's lips gently meeting his.
Dipper saw stars. His eyes grew wide before slowly closing as he melted into the kiss. He felt Wendy's arms encircle his waist as he was pulled slowly onto her lap. Dipper sighed happily into her mouth before gently pulling away.
The two teenagers looked at each mouths opening in unison.
"Dipper I lo..."
"Wendy I lo..."
The two paused, took a deep breath and burst out laughing. Dipper clutched his sides as Wendy gasped for air, both unable to believe the others comments. After a solid 5 minutes of laughter the two had calmed enough to look at each other. Once again both mouths opened and the two spoke in unison.
"I love you too dork."
The next week passed in a daze, Wendy had begged her dad for a week off and he had begrudgingly obliged. The Lumberjill had taken her newfound freedom to spend a lot of more time with her now boyfriend Dipper Pines. She had started to accompany Dipper, Mabel and her friends on their daily adventures. The rest of their friends had forgotten just how great a team the Pine Tree and the Bag of Ice made. Where Dipper was intellectual and had a tendency to overcomplicate things, Wendy was level headed and tended to favour the simple. All the while, as the two friends explored the forests of Gravity Falls, the eldest Pine twin watched them, humming gently to herself a broad grin on her face.
Mabel was certain they were dating. She was absolutely adamant. It was obvious, especially after the events of this evening. After a long day in the woods, attempting to convince a rather ambitious group of gnomes (the same one's from the Santa incident) to not free a collection of dinosaurs from amber as they definitely wouldn't make as they had put it "epic mounts." The group had trudged back to the Mystery Shack thoroughly tired and all flopped down on or around the sofa in front of the television. Wendy and Dipper had sat side by side on the floor their legs just slightly touching. The group stared in unison at the screen, immersed in the beginnings of a Ducktective marathon, all of them apart from Mabel who stared intently at the young maybe-couple. As the marathon continued into its first hour she noticed a subtle interlocking of the pairs left and right hands. At the one hour 45 minuet mark, Mabel noticed Wendy gently rest her head on Dipper's shoulder. At around the two and a half hour mark everyone in the room, apart from herself and Dipper, had fallen into a pleasant slumber. Mabel barely muffled a gasp as her brother began to gently play with the Lumberjill's hair. Just as Mabel had begun to calm herself Dipper made a grave error. He reached over, gently brushed Wendy's hair to the side and planted a kiss on her forehead.
"I KNEW IT! I KNEW YOU WERE A COUPLE!" Mabel's sudden roar of triumph awoke everyone in the room with a start. Candy, Grenda and Pacifica looked on in a muddle of confusion and terror as Mable launched herself at her brother and his girlfriend. Wrapping her arms around them, she began giggling manically before assaulting the two with a barrage of questions. "WHEN? HOW? WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME? HOW MANY NICES AND NEPHEWS AM I GETTING? CAN I KNIT THEM SWETTERS?" Just as Dipper was considering faking a heart attack to escape his sisters clutches, the three other occupants of the room grabbed Mabel by the arms and hoisted her out of the room, much to her obvious and very loud dismay.
Pacifica poked her head around the doorway, glancing down at the crimson faced teenagers. "We'll take her to calm down. See you both later. Oh and thanks, I won the betting pool the others all thought it would take the last day of summer for you two to go through with this."
As the blonde heiress left the room, Dipper and Wendy gave each other the same exasperated look.
"Roof?" they asked in unison.
As Dipper Pines and Wendy Corduroy sat, legs dangling from the roof of the Mystery Shack, arms wrapped around each other and only the muffled sounds of Mabel shrieking seeping through the walls of the Shack, they finally understood three things. One, they'd be avoiding Mabel for the next few days. Two, they owed Candy, Grenda and Pacifica a debt that they may never be able to repay. And three, that no matter what the strange town of Gravity Falls would bring, they'd face it with their Family, their friends and each other.