"C'mon Mabel – you can do this… factoring is easy… its like… um… its like division! Yeah, simple division. Sort of. Except for the part with the cross multiplication, but c'mon its easy stuff… look, you just have to blah blah blah blah.."

The soothing sound of Dippers normally-excitable voice in lecture mode continues to wind its way through the air while Mabel's eyes wander from the photocopied study-sheet. Finding nothing to hold her interest in the kitchen, she slumps down on her elbows atop the dining room table as Dipper continues to drone on and on about the weird mash of symbols and numbers on the handout, occasionally pinching herself in the leg to keep from drifting off to sleep as words like quadratic and binomial spew out uncontrollably from her twin brothers mouth.

Okay, maybe asking Dipper for help studying for the big test wasn't a great idea… he's super smart and all, but he is just butts when it comes to explaining stuff. I'd have better luck trying to get Waddles to tutor me in math.

The teen felt a silly smile spread across her face at the thought of her beloved pet pig in glasses and a sport coat trying to teach her math problems in front of a blackboard. The image is so vivid that Mabel can practically hear him oinking along most haughtily before stopping in the middle of his lecture to start eating the blackboard eraser and the thought causes a small snort of laughter to escape, startling Dipper in mid-ramble.

"Mabel, your math test is tomorrow – you really should be paying attention if you want to pull that grade up from a 'D'." Dipper said, his voice firm but not unkind. He's trying to do a 'teacher' voice, Mabel thought, that is just adorable.

"Well I can't help it – this stuff is boring. Seriously, I have no idea how you managed to even stay awake in this class when you took it much less that weird crazy rocket-science math that you're doing now." Mabel replied defensively.

"Its just Pre-Cal, not rocket science," Dipper said, "and I'm taking time away from studying for my final for that class to help you out here, could you please just focus with me for a couple of minutes so we could get through this?"

Mabel felt a twinge of guilt at that – it was true that he was only here because she'd pounded on his door for five minutes straight begging him for help earlier that day, but she was desperate here! A spark of anger flared up at the tone of her brothers voice and she snapped back at him -

"I'm sorry! Really, I wish I understood this nerd stuff as well as you did so I wouldn't have to bug you about it but I don't! Binomials? Quadra-whatevers? When am I ever going to need to know this stuff in real life?"

"Tomorrow, so that you can pass the test about them and then mom and dad won't ground you again for flunking." Dipper said flatly.

Mabel's mouth snaps shut and she lets out a defeated sigh. "I guess thats a pretty practical use for it."

Mabel takes a deep breath and picks up the sheet once again, turning her eyes toward it and focusing as if she could just download the knowledge directly into her brain by looking at it hard enough. It doesn't work, just like it hasn't every time she's tried it since she was a kid and with a not-at-all-exaggerated groan she tosses the sheet into the air and buries her face in her hands in frustration. She feels a sniffle start to come on and tries to viciously squash it down before it can reach the surface, but it still manages to make its way out and her shoulders shudder slightly as she struggles to contain a sob. Mabel feels a gentle pressure on her shoulder and her eyes look up from between the cage of her fingers to see Dipper reaching his arm out to her from across the table with a look of concern etched on his face.

"Mabel, whats wrong?" he asks and the note of worry in his voice reaches in and touches something warm inside her.

"Nothing." she says quietly, her words muffled slightly since her face is still buried in her hands, but Dippers hand stays on her shoulder and she sees him duck his head down and lock eyes with her and she feels unable to ignore the question in his look.

"It's just… this math stuff makes me feel stupid. I hate that feeling." Mabel says, even more quietly.

"Whoa now – you are NOT stupid Mabel, why would you think that?" Dipper said quickly, his hand giving her shoulder a reassuring squeeze that sends a little pulse down to that warm spot in her chest once again.

"Because I'm terrible at it! I look at all the little x's and y's and brackets and junk and my brain just goes pffffft. I see everyone else in class nodding along when the teacher is blabbing about this stuff and I just… ugh. Sorry for spazzing out on you like this, its just been really stressful in this class."

Another sniffle claws its way up Mabel's throat and she hates herself just a little for letting something like a test get her down so bad, especially in front of Dipper who has this ridiculous deer-in-the-headlights expression at the sight of his sisters sad face. He reaches out for her, hesitantly, and cups her face in his hand, raising her eyes up to meet his – its a strangely intimate moment and to Mabel's confusion she finds her heart beating just slightly faster at the look in her brothers eyes. Its nothing provocative – but its a look with such genuine concern and love that she feels her sudden sense of gloom become just a tiny bit brighter. Her mind flashes briefly to her dreams of the past few weeks but she shakes the images from her head. Get a grip on yourself Mabel... he's just being friendly... it isn't like that at all.

"You shouldn't feel bad about the math thing… look, this stuff comes easy to me but its not like it really means that my brain is better or anything like that. You're way better than me at lots of other things that I am, to be one-hundred-percent honest here, actually pretty jealous of."

"Really?" she asks, somewhat skeptically.

"Definitely. You've got WAY better people skills than me & you've got me flat out beat when it comes to artsy-creative stuff. I do well in school because its the kind of thing I'm good at – facts and numbers and writing papers and things… but I'd trade in a few of my A's for some of your confidence any day." Dipper said, his words coming out in a jumble as he sought desperately to bring the smile back to his sisters face.

It works too – Mabel feels the corners of her mouth start to twitch and turn up just a little bit and she wipes the last of the sadness from her face with the back of her hand. Her eyes are shining as she returns Dippers look with one of her own, a grin splitting her face from ear to ear. She doesn't know it but Dipper is struck by the thought of how beautiful Mabel's smile is at that moment and he feels just a hint of warmth start to spread its way through his face.

"Thanks Dipper… that really means a lot to me to hear you say that." she says, and the earlier warmth in her own chest starts to blaze away like a cheerful campfire in her heart.

"Well I mean it and I thought you needed to hear it… seriously, you're a pretty amazing person Mabel and you shouldn't let yourself get down just over stuff like this." Dipper said firmly. His ears grow hot when he realizes that he's still cupping his sisters face in his hand and he starts to pull it away, but to his surprise he feels Mabel's own cool strong fingers lay themselves over his to keep it right where it is.

What is she doing? Dipper wonders to himself, trying to slow the uncomfortable way his heart is starting to speed up at the feel of her skin against his own. C'mon man, don't be weird – this is MABEL here… she's just affectionate that way. Sort of? I mean hugging yeah, but this feels a little more… stop it – there is nothing weird about this. Nope. Nothing at all.

"You always know how to cheer me up," Mabel said. "I mean, I know you gotta say stuff like that because you're my brother but its still nice to hear things like that once in a while."

"I'm not saying it just because you're my sister…" Dipper said quietly, his eyes dropping slightly to not meet her gaze, "I mean all of it. You're really special to me Mabel."

What am I doing? Mabel found herself thinking as she pressed Dippers hand to her cheek firmly, feeling a blush start to spread over her own cheeks to match the ruby-red tint of her brothers ears after hearing what he just said… and the way he said it. It just feels nice having him so close… I mean, we aren't doing anything wrong or anything… its like a hug or something, but for the face! Okay, so its nothing like a hug…

A silence grows between them for a few beats, not so much awkward as it is… expectant. Surprisingly, for the both of them, Dipper is the first to move – his free hand crosses the gap between them to brush a few stray strands of hair away from Mabel's face from where they had fallen earlier, his fingertips making a lingering trail down her cheek and along her jawline. Its a simple gesture, but in the odd heightened tension of the moment the touch feels almost electric against Mabel's skin. Not quite sure herself of what she's doing she takes Dippers other hand from her face and presses it to her lips firmly and though she sees his eyes widen just a tiny bit, he doesn't pull away.

Okay Pines… this is getting a little intense here. Time to put a stop to it. Dipper thought to himself. Any minute now. Just get back to the math and then a nice long and extremely cold shower before dinner.

Dipper doesn't pull away though and when he starts to slowly lean forward across the table toward Mabel she matches the gesture, their faces so close now that they can feel the warmth of one another's breath on their skin.

Okay, maybe this is weird, Mabel thought to herself before she closed her eyes and thrust her lips against Dippers. There's a moment of sheer panic in her as she starts to realize the enormous jump she just took before she feels, to her surprise and relief, Dipper starting to kiss her back and then she just lets all those thoughts drop away gently into the background as she enjoys the moment.

Dippers normally racing mind is calmed as well and when he feels Mabel's lips part and her tongue dart into his mouth he returns her energy in kind, running his hands up and down her back, along her sides and to her neck and he feels a surge of delight at hearing happy-sounding murmurs bubbling up from her throat when he starts to run his fingers through her long chestnut brown curls. He feels her own slim strong arms wind their way around his neck and pull him in closer to her as she kisses him with an energy unlike anything he's felt before in his short romantic life and he feels a contented sigh come from his own lips without realizing he was making it.

After what seems like too little time they break the kiss, each hesitant to pull away and end this perfect-feeling moment and have to return to the real world… and to the fallout from what they have just done. There's a tense moment of silence as they each brace for the other to get mad, to storm out and call them a freak but after a few seconds of silence they realize that it isn't going to happen. Mabel doesn't see anger in Dippers eyes, or disgust or disappointment… he just looks sort of nervous and hesitant and adorably red in the face.

"So… um… that was unexpected." Mabel said to break the silence.

"Yeah… I would say so." Dipper said hesitantly. "Not… not bad though. Just unexpected."

"No – definitely not bad." Mabel said. "Um… confession time… I may have sort of been thinking of things like this… with you… for kind of a while."

"Oh." Dipper replied, a faraway look in his eyes. "Like, how long?"

"Not important." Mabel said quickly.

"No, I guess it isn't." Dipper said.

"So… should we get back to studying that math then?" Mabel asked, feeling suddenly awkward and exposed.

"Yeah… sure. Math." Dipper said.

They turned back to the table and the textbook that had lain forgotten between them just a few moments ago. After a minute of silence Dipper reaches out and takes Mabel's hand in his and gives it a small squeeze.

"Um… after we finish studying would you want to… I mean… maybe… um… do that again?" Dipper asks quietly, his eyes low and not quite meeting hers.

The warm feeling in Mabel's heart flares up high and she fights hard to stop the ecstatic grin that she knows is starting to spread across her face.

"I would definitely like that." she says and the two turned back to the book once again.

It was probably a world record for shortest study session in history.