Dipper looked at the tracks and then consulted his journal. They weren't any tracks he'd ever seen. Hell, they weren't any tracks his Great Uncle Ford had seen either. He just knew they had to do with the disappearances that we're going on around this town.

There was a clearing of a throat and Dipper's eyes involuntarily went towards the distraction.

"Dipper," Pacifica crooned. "You've been looking at these stupid things for at least an hour now!"

Dipper rolled his eyes at his girlfriend's hyperbole. "It hasn't even been 15 minutes, ya drama queen."

Pacifica pouted her pretty pink lips at him. "How do you expect me not to kiss you when you have the ridiculously hot 'trying-to-solve-a-mystery' face on?" She fluttered her lashes.

Dipper once more found himself rolling his eyes at her antics, his eyes returning to the... footprints? Maybe... but what if they were...

"Dipper," her voice held just a slight twinge of whine, "You and I both know that if you haven't found it in the journal by now, it has to be something you're Grunkle and you haven't encountered before. You have an eidetic memory, if it was something you'd seen before, I know it would be ringing that big brain of yours by now. And I really don't want to be out here with the bugs biting me for an hour waiting for you come to the conclusion that I came to in 15 minutes."

He turned to look at her just so he could glare at her.

She smiled saccharinely at him. "And now you're giving me the sexy 'I-know-you're-right-but-I'm-not-going-to-admit-it' face that I also just happen to love to kiss off of you. So, I propose that first, we kiss, obviously, and then we go back to our hotel room, you draw the prints from memory and I kiss you between sketches."

Dipper huffed. He didn't know why he even brought her along. "Woman, I love you, but I have a mystery to solve!" He turned back to the prints. Really, when he thought about it they could even be...

"Y-you love me?" Her voice was extremely soft but Dipper's ears picked it up just fine.

His eyes returned to hers, his mind replaying back what he'd just said. His hand went to the back of his neck, his eyes to his right foot shuffling the ground. He'd always thought it was cliche when people said their hearts felt like they were beating out of their chests, but cliche or not, that's exactly how it felt. He hadn't meant to say that; was too afraid to look at her reaction to his feelings.

"Say it again." She demanded and she sounded so much like her younger self his hackles raised immediately. He'd never met anyone who could make him change emotions quite as quickly as her, but when he looked up at her face, ready to blow, she had the softest expression he'd ever seen. It took the breath right out of him. She looked so gorgeous.

Dipper lifted his head high, squared his shoulders and hips, and took a deep breath. "I—I love you."

The answering smile on her face was blinding. " I love you too." And his heart seemed to want to burst out of his chest with positive emotions, not fear this time, at her admission. He stepped forward about to bring her into his arms—

But then her smile turned into a slight frown as she rolled her eyes. "Only you would tell your girlfriend you loved her for the first time while simultaneously telling her to shut up."

Dipper groaned, because he knew he was never going to live this one down, especially not when he knew she'd tell Mabel, and probably Grunkle Stan and Great Uncle Ford too."You're the worst."

Pacifica's lips turned into a smirk. "Nah, you love me. "

And really, Dipper had no choice in the matter as he scooped her up in his arms and kissed her tenderly, because honestly, what did one expect when she was wearing her 'I've-just-come-up-with-a-great-comeback-that-you'll-have-no-chance-at-winning-against' face.