"Hey, Mabel, how are you doing?"
Holding a cup toward her lips, she raised her golden brown eyes to peer over it and gazed warmly at her brother. Dipper walked inside their shared room back when they were still 12 year-old kids, holding a cup of hot chocolate for himself. He sat on his bed, while she sat on her own bed. Just like back then.
She set the cup back down, careful enough to not spill any hot chocolate down on her favorite sweater. Her hands clasped together, her cheeks a warm shade of pink from the cold outside.
"Doing good, bro-bro!" She answered, grabbing her cup once more and took a small sip of her hot chocolate.
Dipper had hummed an extra reply.
"That's good to hear." He took a sip of his own cup of hot chocolate. His eyes were staring into hers, the same eyes like hers.
"How's married life with Paz? How are the kids? Are you sure you're a good father to them? Because I swear Dipper, I will—"
Dipper raised a hand to stop her, a smile graced his lips. "Chill, Mabel, I'm a great father and the kids are doing fine. Paz is also a great mother," Dipper took another sip. "She's nothing like the snotty, rich girl we used to know back then when we were still kids." His smile grew fondly, so was Mabel's.
"She...she was never the snotty, rich girl, Dip. And you know that." Mabel grinned.
"Yeah, yeah, I know."
There was a pause between the siblings, only the sipping from cups and Dipper's foot-tapping could be heard.
Mabel decided to ask Dipper again. She looked troubled, and Dipper noticed.
"...How's life...back home?" She stared at their window, clearly reminiscing about their life in Piedmont before they finally decided to move in with their Grunkles. They were happy, for 6 years. Everything was all good.
Then, Dipper decided to go back to their hometown and started to settle down for once in his lifetime. He was now 30, so was she. He had a family of his own, she did not.
Dipper looked at the window, copying her. "It's good. Mom and Dad sometimes help with the kids, while me and Paz are stressed with all the crime and cases. Might be tough, but Paz and I always pull through." Mabel's expression hardened for a moment. "Just like you thought me how." His voice lowered an octave, and somehow, that made Mabel smile once more.
"I...that's really great to hear, bro. I just— I wish I could come with you. To see our parents, to see Paz, to see your kids. My niece and nephew, Dipper! I just wish that..." She could not find the right words, and her chest tightened a little bit. "I just wish that I could, but I can't. I can't just leave Grunkle Stan and Grunkle Ford, not while they're already growing older and older by the minute."
Dipper sighed, "Mabel, Grunkle Ford and Grunkle Stan are still the same Grunkles we know and love. Sure they might be growing old, but they're still strong and stubborn, like they're supposed to. I mean, come on, Grunkle Stan fought me for the last piece of toast earlier, and I swear, he looked like he was really about to sock me in the nose. Glad Grunkle Ford was there to hold him down." He jested, which earned him Mabel's loud laughter ringing across each corner of their room. Her cup, empty.
"They're really something, but I just can't leave them, Dipper. They mean the world to me, and I know that they mean everything to you too." Mabel said, the wrinkles from her eyes dissapeared along with her short burst of laughter. "I want to leave, but I don't wanna be selfish." Mabel talked like she wasn't even Mabel, it terrified him while also touched him.
"You're not selfish, Mabel. And hey, if you can't leave, then I'll just have to bring our whole family here. For you, sis." Dipper said, and finally, Mabel settled with a longer smile to place on her face. Her empty cup rested between her legs, now cold and hollow. And so was his own cup.
"I'd like that very much, Dipstick. Thank you, but don't grow sappy on me." She threw a pillow at him, and he caught it with no such thing as effort.
"You're welcome, sis." He grinned.
Another moment passed by them.
But Dipper was now the one to break the silence. His eyes drifted back to their window and breathed out a heavy sigh.
"I just wish that you didn't have to leave me, Mabes."
He turned to face her bed, and found no one there. He smiled bitterly, the cup on his hands was still warm from his palms but it was empty.
Like him.
There was a big part of him that was empty.
Mabel took away that part with her cup.
It was cold.
He placed his own cup on the window, he walked over to her bed and picked up the empty one he had placed earlier for her and set it down beside his.
"Surely, it must be nice up there, with Grunkle Stan and Grunkle Ford beside you."
He left the two cups alone, the setting sun basked through the window and shined upon the two cups.
He walked outside the decaying shack that he used to love, and the place he grew up in, and he never turned back.
"But surely, it will never be nice down here again."
Mabel would laugh in his mind, her eyes would shine brighter than the stars and she would shake her head behind the window because of his ridiculous comment.
"Take care of everyone for me, Dipstick."