Disclaimer: I do not own Gravity Falls.
That's a Home to Me
Home had had a lot of different meanings to Stan over the years.
In his earliest memories, home had been a rackety house, the warm arms of his mother, and the smell of dinner cooking in the air. Home had been his older brother tousling his hair and sending the occasional letter once he was sent off to war. Home, more than anything else, had been his twin brother at his side, his partner in crime. Whether in the house, on the beach, or at their boat, Stan had thought that as long as his brother was there, he'd have a home.
In a single shot, Stan lost all of that. He was thrown from his home, in more ways than one. As painful as getting tossed from the house he had thought of as home, the sight of his brother's back as he closed the curtains on him hurt more.
From that point on, home was a bit more sporadic. The closest thing he had to a home was his ever faithful Stanmobile, and while it was a comfort on some nights, there were other cold, lonely nights where it wasn't enough.
There were a few flashes of other homes during that 10 years: a room that he'd managed to rent for almost three months, riding along with a science geek even crazier than his brother, a shelter that had been willing to pay his hospital bills and take care of him one time he'd landed himself in some hot water.
Still, his state of being was called homeless for a reason.
And then that night had happened.
Stan thought he had truly lost everything the night his twin literally slipped through his fingers.
After that…
It was a gradual thing.
Stan had been afraid to touch anything at first. This was his brother's home and he was just a leech, like always. He didn't want to mess with anything, because he'd been sure that he'd get him back in no time at all.
But then, he ran out of money and opened first the Murder Hut and then the Mystery Shack. He'd moved his twin's things, making sure to preserve them perfectly, because he knew he'd want them when he got back. Slowly, his own things, his own style, crept into the house.
He wasn't quite sure when he began to think of the house, his prison as he sought to get back what he lost, as his home.
Had it been when the people at the bank learned to recognize him enough to sigh in consternation every time he showed up to pay for the house's mortgage and eventually finished paying it? Had it been when he remodeled one of the storage rooms on the second floor to make a bedroom for himself and actually moved his things from his car? Had it been when he finally boarded up his brother's room, knowing it would take longer than expected?
Had it been when he hired a kid who looked at him like he was their whole world and never left? Had it been when he told the red-headed girl that if she wanted to hang around so much she might as well become his cashier? Had it been when two kids, twins like him and his brother but so much stronger and closer than they'd ever been, came to his house and brightened up his day?
Had he only realized it as his twin had threatened to take it all away from him? As he had found himself in a position where he would go back to the lonely life he had once known?
He wasn't sure. He guessed that it didn't matter when he had started thinking of the Shack as home because he had.
Though with everything in the past year, he now thought of two places as home. One was a boat that he finally got to adventure in with his brother and the other, of course, was…
"Mr. Pines!" Soos's face lit up as he opened the door to the Shack. "Welcome home!"
"Grunkle Ford! Grunkle Stan!" Mabel came out from around him like a shot. Her arms were already open to give each of them a patented Mabel hug.
"They're here?" Dipper poked his head out from behind Soos. "Oh my gosh! I've got so much to tell you! You will never believe some of the stuff we found back in Piedmont." He had a huge smile on his face as he held up his journal.
Even Wendy popped up from her place on the roof. To his surprise, Pacifica was next to her. "Sup?" Wendy gave a lazy wave.
Ford laughed as he disentangled himself from their grandniece. He looked over at his brother, with a fond grin. "We're back, Stanley."
"Yeah." Stan said with a smile as he knelt to embrace his niece and his nephew. "We're home."
He was finally home.
And there was nowhere he'd rather be.
Oh, a home is a place to live in,
To eat and sleep and be
With the people you love and care about.
Yes, that's a home to me.
- "That's a Home to Me," Barney (1992-2010)
AN: So Stan's definition of what's home has probably changed a lot over the years, but now he definitely has a home with everyone. That's basically where the prompt took me and I couldn't get that old Barney song out of my head so that helped inspire this too. This also posted on my Tumblr. Happy first week of Stanuary!