"How do I look?"

Wendy looked up from the magazine to find Mabel nervously playing with a strand of hair. Her girlfriend's ruby dress glimmered in the afternoon light as her anxious brown eyes focused on the redhead.

Standing, the taller girl stepped over and tried to pull her into a kiss and spoke in a playful by seductive manner. "You look great! In fact, if you're up for it I think we should ditch the party and stay home…"

Mabel pulled away, surprising Wendy with her next words. "I'm serious. How do I look?"

Wendy just stared at her like she had grown a third eye. "Wait, are you being *le gasp* SERIOUS?"

Scooping up Mabel's cell phone from her purse, she pretended to dial a dozen buttons. "Hello? Hello?! Dipper? YOUR SISTER'S BEEN POSSESSED AGAIN!"

Mabel snatched back the cell phone and sighed. "I knew I couldn't talk to you about this…"

Frowning, Wendy stepped to her side. "Mabes, what's the matter? Your acting really weird…is this about last week's debacle with the ferret?"

The brunette rolled her eyes, "No! I just…never mind. We better get going if we wanna be fashionably la-"

But Wendy had already stepped between her and the door. "Oh no, you don't. Tell me what the problem is before you assume that I can't help."

Seeing that her girlfriend had been slightly hurt by this assumption, Mabel raised her hands as she sat down on the sofa. "It's nothing like that…it's just kinda…embarrassing."

The redhead placed a hand on her shoulder. "Honey. You know how to drive a unicycle. You have a room full of pig memorabilia. Nothing you can say is gonna embarrass you to me. I've already accepted you for your weird self."

The artist looked up at her with the hint of a relieved smile and took a breath before letting it out. "I'm afraid I'm not gonna be pretty enough for Paz's party."

Wendy burst out laughing, and Mabel had to elbow her into silence. "I knew you would think I was being silly…"

The red-faced girl covered her burning ears as her girlfriend struggled to recover. "Mabes…I…*pfff* I don't know where you *pff* got the idea you weren't pretty. There are ladies who would kill to be you. Especially with that tall, beautiful, redheaded girlfriend you have."

Rolling her eyes, Mabel tried to elaborate. "I know it's silly but…all the girls at Paz's parties, they always have the best makeup and perfume. And their boyfriends are always supermodels. They make me feel fat and old."

Wendy hovered her index finger over her thumb as she spoke for demonstration. "That's because A) they are this wide," Mabel giggled and pressed the fingers further together, Wendy smiling at being able to rouse a grin out of her.

"And B), those girls are all twelve years old. They used time machines to inhabit younger bodies."

Snorting with laughter, Mabel calmed herself and managed to repeat the same sentence as earlier. "I'm serious."

Wendy brushed a finger down the side of her face and spoke without apparent emotion. "You keep saying that…but I don't see how you can be."

Mabel grew a look of shame, removing Wendy's hand and clutching it with her own. "I know how silly it is…but all of those girls have been to a dozen countries. They've slept with more women than people I have, and more men than years I'm old. I always feel like they're talking about me behind my back, and they make me feel ugh…ugly and uninteresting."

She looked up with a half-baked smile, partly gained from getting the confession off her chest. "What if we called and said that we were sick? Or that the ferret got loose again! We could snuggle up on the couch and watch a movie! Please, Gwendolyn! I just…"

Surprised at Mabel's use of her birth name, Wendy stood and stared down at her for a long moment. For a second she could swear that she saw Mabel hold her breath, as though she was about to leave her here and go have fun on her own. Then she dispersed the fears by sitting back down and placing her arms on either side of her love.

"First of all Babel, I would love to spend the evening with you. Do I want to mooch off Paz's fancy champagne, sure." A half-hearted laugh, "I'm not gonna force you to do anything, and you shouldn't feel obligated to come either. But you shouldn't avoid parties because of those girls. And you most certainly shouldn't give a flying kangaroo about what those bimbos think of you. Second, you are also THE MOST INTERESTING person I know. I don't see how anyone could possibly be MORE interesting. You've fought robots and aliens and demons. Those girls have nothing on you, and they never will. Okay?"

Mabel nodded, her eyes on her lap. "But I don't do that stuff anymore…I'm not like Dipper. What if that was the most interesting I can get?"

Wendy shook her head, "Sweetheart, I live with you. Without you my life would make dish waterfall asleep, you bring color into my world. Every day with you is an adventure and I want you to know that? Alright?"

Mabel nodded from her downtrodden position and looked ready to get up. Wendy didn't let her, though, telling the brunette that she still had a lot to say. "You are…cute."

She placed a finger upon her sweetheart's nose, and Mabel looked up in confusion. "You make me want to hold you close to me every morning, you make me want to protect you from everyone and everything. I've met kittens who weren't as half as cute you are when you're sleeping."

Mabel grew a shy smile, and Wendy continued. "You are pretty. That doesn't mean you look really good one day of the week, or when you want to. It means that you look pretty when you're in a paint-covered smock, and you look pretty when you're tearing up weeds in the front yard. Those girls would look silly doing either of those things and probably haven't done an ounce manual work their whole life."

Mabel's smile grew, and she took Wendy's left hand in her right one. "Is that so?"

The redhead nodded and Mabel raised a humorous eyebrow. "Well, just because you've hit the nail on the head doesn't mean you have to stop…what else am I?"

Pretending to look thoughtful, Wendy looked Mabel in the eyes as she finally spoke. "You are sexy." The opposite girl nearly fell over laughing. "I'm serious! You're not sexy when you try to be, not like those girls who put on a pout and a butt load of makeup." Mabel fell into a second round of laughter at the immature measurement. Wendy just went on. "You're sexy when we take a hike when you're baking. When you're fixing a piece of machinery yourself. When you're confident and when you're shy."

Mabel looked up, beginning to be transfixed by the look in her lover's eyes. Wendy's voice grew quieter and calmer. "When you're laughing you make my heart flutter, and when you're standing up to my seven foot tall and slightly misogynistic uncle, you make me weak in the knees."

Smirking, Mabel began to close the gap between their faces. "You're gorgeous…you make me forget that other women exist. Why? Because you have life, you're always moving, smiling, joking, and creating-"

"Oh shut up and kiss me."

Wendy grinned before moving forward and enjoying the passionate kiss.

When she pulled away from her girlfriend, her grin had grown to twice the size and Mabel had apparently become infected, because she wore one as well. "You are beautiful. You're my Mabel. I wouldn't want anyone else, and that's all that matters...right?"

Mabel nodded and wrapped her arms around Wendy's neck. "You know what else I am?"

The redhead shrugged, and Mabel pulled her into a surprise embrace.

"I'm lucky."

Enjoying the warmth of her partner, she burst out laughing at Mabel's next words. "I'm also 10 minutes late for a party but you know…I'd rather go with the former."

Breaking the embrace, Wendy asked if they were staying home or going to the party. "I think…we should go mooch off of Paz's champagne."

Laughing, Wendy followed her out the door.