A/N: This takes place in an AU where they did visit their great uncle from time to time, but none of the weird supernatural stuff happened and none of the more minor characters like Pacifica were met. Hope you enjoy!
Chapter 1
Readjusting his hat, pulling his hooded vest a bit, taking the cap off and running a hand through his messy brown hair. He was anxious. His eyes flitted down to the brass door handle, then up at the numbers.
"Twelve," he muttered, sliding his fingers along his clean shaven face.
Raising his fist, he hesitated, looking off to the side, out the window that ended this hallway. He exhaled, breath releasing from between his lips and joining the rest of the environment. He knocked on the door, stepped back, crossed his arms, and waited.
He didn't know how to feel. He was happy. And scared. He hasn't seen this person in years. A person who meant a lot to him. Because they had so much in common. Because they spent their entire lives together.
The door cracked open, and a brunette head peeked through the gap.
"Dipper!"
Because they were twins.
The door closed, the sound of a lock sliding, and it was flown open before Dipper felt arms thrown around him.
"Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you! I didn't think you'd come! Oh, it's so nice to see you!"
Her enthusiasm definitely makes up for the fact that she is choking me. He thought, a smile gracing his face as he chuckled.
"It's...I missed you too Mabel," he hugged her back, meaning every word. He missed her over exaggerated welcomes, her snuggly sweaters, her wide smiles.
She pulled back, staring into his eyes. "You never changed. You still wear the dumb hat Grunkle Stan gave you, and do you get the same ol' vests that you wore before you left? The only thing different about you is your...you stopped wearing shorts...and you're taller than me."
Dipper frowned, giving a slight smile as he gestured to her. "Me? Look at you! You're wearing a sweater with a pencil skirt! And I told you I would be taller. It makes sense biologically!"
She rolled her eyes. "Oh, you and your...biological...stuff!"
He shook his head, tilting his head a bit to look behind her. His smile turned downward at the sight of multiple boxes crowding the apartment.
He glanced at her. "You still don't know what to do with it all, do you?"
Her eyebrows raised as she looked over her shoulder at her place. She turned her head back to him, shaking her head. "He had so much stuff...it's amazing. And since mom and dad aren't around anymore either...I was given it all."
Dipper stuffed his hands into his pockets. "Yeah...hey, I am sorry I couldn't attend the funeral. I was in the middle of getting a book published and...I am sorry, Mabel. I should've made it, I know. You were probably a wreck. I kinda...was. I couldn't get out of bed for a few days. Had to have phone conferences with my publisher."
Mabel shrugged, gesturing for him to follow as she walked into the apartment. "I was sad, sure. But I understand that you couldn't make it. Jobs and...life…" she sat down on her sofa, where the corners of her lips turned up in a smile as she reached underneath the cushions, "But I got something...from Stan...and I think it was meant for us."
Dipper cocked an eyebrow. "Mabel? What...are you talking about?"
"I am talking about…" from under the cushions, she pulled out an old worn out book, "this!"
His expression became more confused as he took the book from her hands, the torn leather rough against his skin. "What is it?" He asked, opening it up and rifling through the pages.
"It's a journal of some kind. It has all sorts of symbols and pictures that I have never seen or heard of. But, what interested me the most was this page," she stood up and flipped a few pages before stopping on what looked like a map, "It's some island that isn't on the world map, somewhere in the Pacific. It has numbers up here in the corner and I was wondering if you knew what they meant."
Dipper narrowed his eyes at the numbers. "They look like coordinates," he turned his head up to look at her, "Why are you showing me this?"
Mabel's eyes widened with an excitement he knew all too well. She was almost hopping on her feet. "What if there is a treasure on this island? A family heirloom? And Stan wanted us to find it?"
The young man pursed his lips. "So what you're telling me is...you want us to go on an adventure?"
Mabel, with a wide open smile, nodded. "Yes. Like when we were kids, but for real! And with an actual reward!"
Dipper sighed and returned the book to her. "This isn't play pretend anymore, Mabel. We could actually get hurt or die. It's dangerous."
The sister was silent for a moment, staring at him, before speaking, her voice calm, "I know Dipper. But we are older and we have each other. Besides, don't you want to know more about our family history? This could give us that."
He raised an eyebrow at her, thinking of what would be the best thing to do. He did miss the old times where they pretended to go on adventures, and he did miss being with his sister. And he really did want to know more about their family. This could be the only way. It could be his only chance at finding out their family history.
After a minute of thinking, and a minute of Mabel's anxious stare, he held his hand out to the book, gesturing for her to give it to him.
She smiled and provided him the book once again, hugging him tight after he took it.
"Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, Dipper!"
He couldn't help but laugh at her excitement. "Mabel...Mabel, seriously, it's...it's not a problem. Just let go of me so that I can find find out where this island is."
She let go of him, nodding and grinning as she stepped back. "Of course. My laptop is right there if you need it. Thank you Dipper. Really."
He shook his head. "Hey, don't worry about it. That's what siblings are for. Besides, I need to make up for all of our lost time together. And if my navigation skills are good enough, we won't need your laptop. Do you have a map?"
She chortled and sniffed. "Dipper, do you really think I keep maps of the world around?"
"Well...I guess I assumed."
"And what does assuming do?"
"...Mabel-"
"Ah, ah! What does it do?"
He sighed, sitting down at her desk and putting the book on it. "It...it makes an ass out of you and me."
"Exactly!"
Dipper pursed his lips and glanced at his sister. "I should...probably get to work."
"Yes, you should!"
"Found it! Thirty five degrees, twenty seven minutes, forty-point-six seconds north, one hundred forty-three degrees, fifty eight minutes, forty-one-point-one west."
Mabel, sitting on the couch, threw her head up, looking at the ceiling. "Ugh! What does that even mean? Minutes, seconds?"
Dipper smirked at his sister's questioning. He spun the seat of the office chair around, his fingers already wrapped around one of her pens. "Think of it as-"
Her eyes widened, hand shooting out and snatching it from his grip. "No! You are not
biting my pens. I forbid you!"
Dipper stared up at her fire-filled eyes, threatening to kill him if he even thought about sinking his teeth into one of her ballpoints. "Sorry, Mabel...force of habit...anyway, think of the minutes and seconds as a way to find the exact degrees, like in decimals or a fraction. For example, there are sixty seconds in a minute, and sixty minutes in a degree."
Mabel's angry expression disappeared, replaced by a curious one. "So…like, making it more exact than just the degrees?"
"Yeah."
"Okay, so now that we have the coordinates, let's go!" She exclaimed, making for the door.
"Uh, Mabel?"
"Yeah?" She turned around, a wide smile on her face.
"We can't just go there. We need a boat."
"A boat?"
"Yeah...this island is in the Pacific Ocean."
"Oh...right...well I think I might know some people."
"Friends?"
"You might remember them, just let me call them," she said, pulling her phone out. She dialed in a number and pulled it up to her ear.
"Hey, it's Mabel. Yeah, he is right here, want to say hi before we get to business? Alright," she held her phone out to him, "she wants to say hi."
Dipper cocked an eyebrow, taking the phone from her hand. "S-she…?" He raised it up to his ear, "Uhm...hello?"
"Dipper? Is that you?"
His eyes widened. He remembered that voice. He almost couldn't believe it was her.
"Wendy?" His past crush when they went to visit Grunkle Stan a lot.
"Yeah. Holy crap, Dip. It's been a while. How was the east coast?"
"Y-yeah, it has been a while," he glanced at his sister, seeing her grinning ear to ear. He frowned and shook his head, mouthing Not anymore, then he returned to Wendy, "Uh, the east coast? Yeah, the east coast was great, it was...great. Got a book or two published. Did pretty well but I am glad to be back in the west, you know?"
"Dude, we gotta get back to our old shenanigans, I miss those. Anyway, your sister said something about business, so please pass the phone back."
Dipper nodded, even though Wendy couldn't see him. "Yeah, sure." He said before returning the phone back to it's owner.
She turned her back to him. "Yeah, so anyway...I know his voice got pretty deep, didn't it?"
"Ahem, business?" Dipper reminded his sister.
"Oh, right, sorry. Yeah, yeah, he is still the same Dipper, wanting to get to the point of things."
"Ahem!"
"Right! Anyway, remember when Grunkle Stan passed away, I got his stuff? Yeah, I know, thank you, Wendy, but I have gotten past it. He is in a better place...I hope. But anyway, I got all of his stuff. Yup, even the more disturbing stuff. But I found this journal, and inside of it was what looked like a map to the island. I didn't understand it much, so I asked Dipper to come over. Thanks to him, we now know where it is, but we need one thing: a boat. So I just need to know...are you still in contact with Soos?"
Dipper's head picked up, eyes staring wide as Mabel smiled at him. "Oh, you do? Good. I think Dipper is already excited. Anyway, I just wanted to know if he still had that rad boat we went fishing on that one time?" She raised her eyebrows, "Of course it will get us to the island. You're lack of confidence in the S.S. Soos is disappointing. Besides, we can just carry more fuel on the boat...come on, Wendy, it'll be fun! Just us four, looking for treasure on an uncharted island? That would be, like, the best!"
She stayed silent for a few moments. Soon, her smile widened. "Awesome! I can't wait! See you tomorrow!"
Hanging up, she put her hands on her hips in a majestic pose. "We sail in the morrow!"
Dipper smirked at his sister's silly nature, and stood up to hug her tight, pulling her in close. He remained quiet as she looked at him, slightly surprised. "Dipper?"
He pulled back and gripped her arms, looking her in the eyes. "Would it be too sappy to say I missed your personality a lot?"
Mabel stared him back before breaking out into a laugh. "Yes! Totally!" She recovered from her laughing and grabbed his shoulders, "But it doesn't mean I can't appreciate it."
He smirked, looking down at his feet. "Well...I guess we are going on an adventure. It's probably going to be boring, but whatever."
"If it is boring, then I will try to make it fun for you!"
He chuckled. "I can't wait."
Mabel nodded, mind running with ideas of how this journey will go.
"Neither can I."
A/N: Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and that you'll stick around until the end of this story. This is my first story in the fandom of Gravity Falls, after having been locked to Attack on Titan for so long, it's nice to breathe in this new world I have been shown to. But still, give me your praise or criticism, as they both helps me when writing. And make sure it's constructive. Anyway, again, thank you!
