The daylight was waning quickly, painting the sky from orange to purple. Dipper wondered why he hadn't thought of this sooner, the roof had the best view of the fireworks show that started just after sundown. He expected Mabel to join him, even Grunkle Stan, but the pair had other plans. Something about going out to the lake with Grenda and Candy to watch from there.
Dipper shrugged off the lack of company, he liked having the shack to himself; it was rare that he was home alone. In fact he was sure this was only the second time this summer that he was. The solitude was sure to do him some good, no Mabel or her friends to attack him with make-up, no Grunkle Stan to demand any chores of him. He settled back into the lawn chair, this is living, he thought.
The sun had crawled beneath the towering pine trees of the forest, giving a golden hue to the surrounding scenery. Dipper's brown eyes looked to the sky, expecting the burst of fireworks any second when he heard the crunch of footsteps on the pine leaves surrounding the Mystery Shack.
Dipper had to strain his vision in the fading light to see who it was. A blonde head of hair bobbed through the parking lot looking lost. "Pacifica?" he raised an eyebrow as she glanced up to where he was perched on the roof.
"What?" she spat back, as if he was in the wrong for speaking her name.
"What are you doing here?" he interrogated from the roof.
She scowled in reply, scrunching her nose up like she was disgusted at the thought of answering him. "I-I'm bored." She stammered.
Dipper raised another eyebrow at her. "So the first thing you do is come to our house, I thought you hated us."
She was silent for a moment. "I just wanted someone to watch fireworks with. My parents throw this stupid Fourth of July party every year and even though they 'promise' to watch the fireworks with me, they never do. So I came here."
"Ok," Dipper responded. He quickly pulled himself off of the lawn chair and climbed back through the window into the Mystery Shack. He smirked, the look on Pacifica's face was sure to be priceless. It was a shame he couldn't see it. When his feet reached the worn wooden floorboards of the gift shop, he ran to the front door and swung it open. Pacifica had already started walking away.
"Pacifica, wait!" he shouted and she glared at him over her shoulder. "You coming?" he held out his hand and a smile reached her lips just as the sky lit up.
"Dipper, where are you going?" Mabel asked just before Dipper grabbed the rungs of the ladder that led to the roof.
He pointed toward the ceiling. "Roof."
"But why?" she pouted. "This is family time!" she frantically waved her hands around, gesturing to Grunkle Stan and Grandpa Stan who were loading up the cooler with goodies and soda.
Dipper shrugged, "We have all summer to have family time. This is the only night I get to be alone."
"Let the kid have his alone time, we'll be watching the fireworks from the lake." Grunkle Stan grumbled as he carried the cooler out to the Stanley Mobile.
Mabel puffed up her cheeks in protest but then realized that her twin wasn't going to budge. He'd grown incredibly stubborn over the last year. "Fine." She hugged her brother then ran out the door, following their grandfather.
"Don't destroy the house!" Grunkle Stan yelled from outside. Dipper turned red for a moment in remembrance of a week ago when he accidently set the gift shop aflame.
"I won't!" he yelled back and waved them off. He waited for the old car to leave his line of vision before he gathered his things to the roof. A box full of sparklers and a cooler full of popsicles and Pitt cola. The only thing he was missing was her.
Dipper let his legs dangle off of the roof when he spotted her coming through the dirt path. Walking with a blank expression on her face until she saw Dipper waiting for her atop the Mystery Shack.
"Glad to see you showed up!" he said while waving at her.
"Well it's not like I had a choice. That party gets worse every year." She retorted, acting like watching fireworks with Dipper was only a last resort.
Dipper remembered sending her the letter, just a simple question inside. He was hoping she would come, last year was so fun. "Well, are you coming up?" he patted the spot next to him.
Pacifica smiled. Not just smiled because she didn't know what to say, but a genuine smile that spread across her cheeks and made Dipper feel like he was actually getting somewhere with her. The blonde crawled out the window and steadied herself as she made her way to Dipper.
"Ready?" he asked and she replied with a short nod.
The light of the sun had gone from Gravity Falls, leaving nothing but a dark sky that glittered with stars. The perfect blank canvas for a fireworks show.
"I know what you're up to." Mabel glared at her twin.
"What" Dipper responded, his voice cracking. He avoided eye-contact with her. He knew what she was talking about, but when Mabel gut stuck on subjects like this, she didn't leave them alone for at least a month.
"You and Pacifica. You're going to invite her over again." She accused.
"So what if I am, she just likes the view of the fireworks from the roof." He stammered, trying to ease the situation out of what it was turning into.
Mabel suddenly smirked and giggled. "You're in denial, bro-bro."
"I am not. I do not like Pacifica. If I did, don't you think that I would hang out with her more than once a year?" Dipper made an exceedingly valid point. He and Pacifica only hung out once a year. On the Mystery Shack roof to watch fireworks. Granted there were times scattered throughout the summer that they ran into to each other, but the only plans they ever made were on the Fourth of July.
"You can't hide your feelings forever!" Mabel shouted as she, Grunkle Stan, and Grandpa Stan left the house to go to the lake. Dipper was lost in thought as he watched the car drive away. He didn't have feelings for her, other than mutual friendship. Although he wouldn't know feelings beyond mutual friendship. So far his adolescent love life had been more "life" and less "love". He would be entering his first year of high school after this summer, he should have been in at least one relationship by now. Dipper pursed his lips and furrowed his eyebrows, thinking about what a waste the last two years had been. They wouldn't have been such a waste if you learned to speak up! The back of his mind teased and he shook off the thought. He wasn't going to focus on that, he was in the now.
He waited on the front porch until Pacifica arrived. Just like she had the past couple years, she walked through the canopied road and into the clearing.
"I see you decided to wait for me this year." She mocked as Dipper got up from the front step. Over the years Pacifica had gotten more slender and taller. Not near as tall as Dipper had gotten, but just a head shorter than him. She had curves; curves that Dipper didn't care to notice until now. Her eyes were still just as cold and calculating, but underneath their iciness, he could see a softer side of Pacifica.
"I didn't want to be rude," he held his arm out and she took it graciously.
"You know, we only meet once a year, but this is the highlight of my summer. For one night I get to hang out with someone who doesn't see me as a threat, or as prude or even someone who wants to use me for my money." Pacifica wasn't looking him in the eye when she spoke, but he could hear that she was sincere.
The pair were silent the rest of the night. Not speaking, just occasionally sharing smiles and glances amongst the bursting fire in the summer sky.
"You should really tell her, it's not nice to lead a girl on." Mabel advised him before she left for the lake with her friends and the rest of the household.
"I'm not leading her on," he whispered to himself. "I just don't know what to say." His first year of high school had been a disaster in the romance department. Mabel had set him up with a girl for homecoming and she never showed. She claimed she was sick, but rumor had it that she thought Dipper was too geeky for her standards. The teen scoffed at the memory.
Dipper waited outside for her again, this time laying down on the front porch to contemplate his emotions. He liked Pacifica. She was as genuine to him as he was to her. He adored that about her, she didn't pretend to be someone different because she knew that Dipper would see through it in a heartbeat. But did he like Pacifica? Was there ever any doubt about that? Of course he did. He knew it when they first started their Fourth of July ritual. There was an unspoken happiness between them whenever they were together. His only problem; did she feel the same way that he did?
He felt like a lost puppy when he thought about stuff like this. He started to rub his temples to alleviate the oncoming headache, when a voice addressed him.
"Dipper?" He opened his eyes to see Pacifica looking down at him.
"Hi," he waved slowly, sitting up.
"I can't believe you're tired of me already when I've just gotten here." Her voice was filled with a false sense of hurt.
He laughed. "Not yet, the night is still young." He smirked at her. She smiled back him, that genuine smile that he craved to see whenever they were together, which was to say, only once a year. He only got to see that smile one night out of 365 days.
Dipper grabbed her hand and led her up the ladder to the roof where he had the cooler and the sparklers. From the setting of the sun to the finale of the annual fireworks show, he didn't let her hand go.
"You're going to do it, right? Right?" Mabel harassed him while he sat on the couch, waiting for everyone else to leave.
"If I say yes, will you leave faster?" Dipper raised an eyebrow at his twin who pouted in return.
"You're not going to?" she frowned. "Dipper, I told you not to lead her on!"
"I am not leading her on and yes, I'm going to do it." He confessed. His sister beamed at him, proud that her brother finally had the guts to tell a girl he liked her. "You can stop that." He scowled at her.
"I'm sorry, this is just so exciting!" she squealed and hugged him before she headed toward the front door. "Good luck, bro-bro!"
He let out a sigh of relief when he heard the engine of Grunkle Stan's car fade away. He had a couple minutes to think about his plan for the night. As high school carried out, Dipper realized that checklists were not the way to pick up women. Most of the time, he went with the flow of the conversation, which led to decent results. But he and Pacifica only shared witty banter before watching fireworks together in silence. How was he supposed to go with the flow when he had no flow to go with? Should I just say it, or should I be classy? Women love classy guys! But that wasn't him. Dipper wasn't classy, he wasn't smooth; he was dorky Dipper who barely knew how to hold a conversation with a girl. A whole new wave of anxiety was about to crash into him when there was a knock at the door.
He pulled himself off the couch, checked his hair in the nearest mirror and headed to the door.
"Welcome, to my humble home." He curtsied while trying to hold back laughter.
"Funny," she giggled as she entered the Mystery Shack. "You may rise." She played along.
Dipper led Pacifica through the house to the gift shop where the ladder to the roof was. "After you," he gestured to Pacifica who graciously climbed up the ladder just like she'd done the last four years. He followed her to their spot on the roof. The cooler with popsicles and soda, and the box with the sparklers.
"It's perfect," she breathed, her blue eyes taking in the scenery.
"Yeah, it is." Dipper agreed, but his brown eyes had drifted away from the view of the forest and onto the blonde who was settling herself down at the edge of the roof. At 16, Pacifica had not just blossomed, she had bloomed. She cut her long blonde hair so that it was just past the center of her back and her bangs framed her face. She had lost the desire to cake her face in make-up and instead stuck with a simple palette of nude colors. The dark brown that was dusted on her lids made her sapphire eyes pop. Her lip gloss was barely noticeable other than the peppering of glitter that decorated her lips. She had on a loose tank top and a pair of light blue shorts. She kicked her sandals off so that her bare feet were hanging over the roof.
Dipper took a deep breath and joined her. The sun was still dipping below the sea of pine trees, giving them plenty of time before the fireworks started.
"Can you believe it's been five years?" Dipper started the conversation. Not a horrible start, but he was hoping that it would lead to what he wanted to talk about.
"Honestly, I can't. It feels like just yesterday we were twelve and I was just trying to get away from my parents dumb party. And now," she sighed. "Here we are, sixteen, five years later and still doing this." Pacifica sighed again, as if she was reminiscing the last five years.
"Is this still the highlight of your summer?" Dipper managed to ask, genuinely curious as to what she had to say.
She was silent for a moment then she spoke, this time looking his directly in eyes with her piercing blue ones. "Absolutely." There was no hint of doubt in her voice. That was all he needed to hear.
"Mine too,"
Pacifica gave him a confused look. "You get to do all those supernatural things and you say that the highlight of your summer is one day hanging out with me?" She looked dumbfounded. Dipper was one hundred percent serious, he had no reason not to be. Yeah, his supernatural adventures were exciting but those were nothing compared to the one night every Fourth of July that he got to spend with her.
"No doubt about it." He said, making sure his voice sounded confident and absolute. Pacifica gave him a grin, her genuine smile that he loved to see. The sun was still lingering in the pine trees, Dipper decided that he had to speak up sooner or later. He didn't want to ruin the fireworks for her. "Why don't we do this more often?"
"Do what?"
"Hang out, just the two of us. I like it."
Pacifica was quiet and for a while he thought she wouldn't answer. "Y-you like hanging out with me?" she stuttered.
"Why wouldn't I? I mean, it might only be for one day a year, but the memories of us hanging out mean the world to me. I don't what my summer would've been like if you'd never shown up, Pacifica." When he finished speaking, he snuck a glance at her. A splash of color on her cheeks told him that it was the perfect time say what he needed to say. "I like you Pacifica. Like really like you. Not just our annual hang out on the roof, not just for one day a year. I like you."
The last light of day died in the distance and the first firework of the night whistled into the sky then exploded in a shower of color.
"Really?" she spoke barely above a whisper. She spoke like she couldn't believe it, or like the situation was surreal.
Dipper turned to her, gently grabbed her shoulders and looked into her bright blue eyes. "Absolutely." In the midst of the fireworks and his adrenalin, Dipper leaned down to Pacifica and pressed his lips to hers. He leaned into the kiss and she returned the feeling. She clasped her hands behind his neck and pulled him closer. Her lips tasted faintly of peaches and her skin smelled like vanilla and lavender.
They pulled away from one another, not saying a thing. The fireworks continued, lighting up the night with bursts of color. Dipper put his arm around Pacifica and pulled her close. This was by far the best Fourth of July they'd shared. And neither of them could wait for the years to come.
So, I like Gravity Falls and I like Dipper and Pacifica, but there is a lack of fanfiction for them. I only know this because I read most of the existing Dipifica fics yesterday. And because it's in the spirit of the holiday, I wrote a really long oneshot that revolves around Independence day. I hope you guys enjoy!