"Mom can I have-"
"Yes, wait, no. Wait... What is it you want?"
"A dinosaur!"
"No Ty, no dinosaur." The kid sulked.
"You had a pig when you were 12."
"That was different. I told you that you and your brother and sister could have one reasonably sized pet." Ty sulked.
"I'd say a pterodactyl is reasonably sized..."
"It isn't!" A voice from behind them said. Mabel smiled.
"See, your Uncle agrees with me. And he's the resident nerd brain here."
"Ha! Nerd brain..." Ty snorted.
"You cannot call your brother a nerd brain." She said quickly.
"Aw mom, you do it." The nine year old whined.
"I'm an adult." Mabel said triumphantly.
"Barely." Dipper retorted.
"Can I call Meg a nerd brain?" He pondered, thinking about his super smart little cousin, who was six.
"I wouldn't. She'd beat you up and I'd have to ground her." Dipper said solemnly. He hated grounding either of his two twin nuggets of joy, Meg and Jess. He always felt guilty punishing them, and couldn't push that off on their mother.
"She couldn't beat me up! I'm a Wizard!" He raised his arms triumphantly, and a few sparks shot out. Dipper laughed and ruffled Ty's reddish brown hair, going over to Mabel.
Ty wandered off, no doubt dreaming up ways to get himself that dinosaur, either that or lovingly antagonizing his brother Mac.
"What're you doing?" He asked, casually leaning on her spinny chair.
"Bills."
"Boring." He yawned dramatically.
"Sorry we can't all be paranormal researchers." She retorted, brushing her hair back, hearing a ruckus in the living room and calling out,
"You kids better do your homework or else!" Slightly quieter ruckus followed, so she was pretty sure her loving threat was clear.
"Or else what?" He asked with amusement, taking up his cell phone so he could order a pizza for them. He knew what everyone liked... Better make that three pizzas.
"Tyrone wants a pet, a lot. So I told him and his siblings that they couldn't have any pets if they didn't do all of their homework every night." Mabel went for her calculator, then sighed and just looked up at Dipper.
"Come on Nerd brain, what is that number going to be?"
"249.69."
"Thanks. Order the garlic knots."
"Done. What kind of name is garlic knot anyway? What are they supposed to be? It makes no sense."
"I don't know, but Mac wants to be a garlic knot for Halloween."
"No way is he going to be a garlic knot. He's a triplet he has to be in a triplet costume."
"Right, I know, so I'm thinking of making Ty be a second garlic knot and Isabel be marinara sauce."
"She won't go for that."
"What about Meg and Jess? What are they going to be? Not Elsa and Anna again, I hope."
"No, they've finally let it go. I want them to go as either a cookie and milk or as you and me. You know, one wears a vest and a red shirt and the hat and the other wears the sweater?"
"Yeah, do that, make them dress as us."
"Will anyone get the costume, though?"
"They will if you take them to Gravity Falls instead of around here." Mabel and Dipper shared a house with two separate apartments, one for Dipper and his two girls and one for Mabel and her triplets. Initially, they had wanted to live in the town they had spent their summers, but had settled in an even smaller town with what Dipper called paranormal runoff from the falls. It was a decision based purely on the fear of Bill they both still possessed, even 20 years later.
"Well, some people will know. I guess it would be nice if the girls got to see their friends back home..." Dipper thought, though they usually just did Summerween there and Halloween here.
"It's settled then. We'll all go to Gravity falls for the Holiday."
"Can you make Jess a shooting star sweater?"
"Yeah, with all the free time I have."
"You used to make at least one sweater a day."
"Three kids ago." Mabel argued. As she talked, a sleepy Jess climbed down from upstairs and crawled it to her aunt's lap. Jess really looked up to her. Mabel smiled and cuddled the little blond girl.
"Hey sweetheart, how was your day?" Dipper asked, crouching down to his daughter's level, smiling at her.
"Good daddy but I'm sleepy now."
"Did you have fun at school?" Dipper had been worried 1st grade would be too much of a transition for his baby girls. But it was mid-september, and they were fine. Jess nodded, and as Dipper remained crouching a small body jumped on his back.
"There's my other princess. How was school today Meg?" Meg was silent a moment as her tiny arms reached around his neck.
"Eh." Dipper knew how she felt.
"Are you making friends?" Meg fell silent for longer this time and dread welled up in Dipper's heart. Meg was him, a younger, cuter him. She had the same birthmark as him, was smart and curious like him...
...Friendless like him. Thank goodness for her sister and cousins or else she would have no one around her age to play with. Dipper tried to keep her busy so she didn't ever have to feel lonely. Meg and Jess were taking ballet and self defense classes and whenever possible she and Jess went to work with daddy. On safer cases. Regardless, Dipper longed for his little princess to have friends.
Of course, Jess was a social butterfly. Jess had more friends then she knew what to do with.
The pizzas arrived, and everyone got called down for dinner. Then the parade of children who had to wash and rewash their hands began and Mabel counted to make sure she had no more and no less than three kids. There had been mischief on a number of occasions. Clones, runaways, and robotic replacements were not welcome unannounced at the dinner table.
Finally they all sat down to begin grabbing at pizza, Ty piping up mid slice,
"Hey mom, can I have a time machine?"
"Ask me yesterday."
"Okay. Hey! No. Fair." Ty sulked. Mabel just kissed his head. Life was rarely fair.
More backstory on the twins and triplets to come in the chapters that follow. Just wanted to start out. It isn't the best or the worst. To sum up, Mabel's three are nine, named Isabel (oldest), Macon (middle) and Tyrone (baby of the group). Dipper has two six year olds, Meg and Jess. Jess is older.