Hello all!

First of all, I would like to majorly apologize for the loooong wait, it's been almost a month since I last updated! I had a huge writer's block and had wasn't motivated for this story, but I finally found where I was headed with this, and now I know where I'm going with all of this. Everything in this story happens for a reason, as cryptic as that sounds.

ALSO, I edited the ending scene in the last chapter pretty recently, as I changed a few details and the grammar tenses which were quite messed up. All is fixed now, so if you'd like, you can go back and reread the ending to it. I'm so thankful for all the the reviews, follows, favourites and views this story has been getting, it's insane. I love all of you guys, seriously, and once again I apologize for this OVERDUE update. I've been itching to post this chapter ever since I finished it during study hall today at school and finally it's here.

Not much of the twins and Danny interacting yet, but it will all come soon. Also, I'd like to address some of the comments and questions that you guys have had.

Empro8: Thank you! I plan on definitely making it unique from others.

bruno14: Thank you, and as of now, no, Wendy and Danny are just friends, but you will see their friendship develop over time in the story. Hope that helps! :)

BaconLover1800: Thanks!

StarPaw0007: Yes indeed, it will, you just wait and see! :D

TheSilentFury: Thank you! :)

Lord Vortrex: Hello! Okay, about it being inspired by the comics, yes and no. The scene for Wendy and Danny meeting, yes, I was inspired by that scene in the comics, but other than that, it will be totally different. I actually had the idea for this story months ago, before I even read the Cold Front comics (which are amazing by the way) but that particular scene with them first meeting, yes xD

ToothPasteCanyon: Thank you! Jazz is the best, I do hope I'm doing her character justice! :)

Huge fan: Thank you! That's actually how I envisioned it to be like!

And without further ado, enjoy!


Chapter 4

"Oh, right, I never even introduced you guys! This is Danny, I just met him," Wendy said as she gestured to Danny, who still was feeling a little out of place after witnessing the whole scene that just unfolded before him. Why wasn't Wendy even fazed by these two kids waving around some gun thing? Wasn't that not normal? Or was this normal for them?

Danny was used to ghosts. This wasn't ghosts. This was something other than that, something weird. And ghosts are weird. He thought back to the conversation he had with Jazz in the motel. If she were here, he was pretty sure she would have told him he'd lost his marbles again. Maybe it wasn't the town that was off. Maybe it was just him...

Danny blinked, and then snapped out of his trance. He was sure that other words were exchanged, but he was unsure as to why the both the kids, and Wendy were staring at him. Minus the kid with the pine tree hat. He was glaring. Confused, Danny gave a small smile, and then cleared his throat awkwardly.

"O-oh! Yeah, hi. I'm a– tourist. Which means I don't live here. I'm, just buying... stuff." he explained hastily, cringing at the sound of his own voice faltering.

The girl in the bright pink sweater tilted her head in confusion. "So you're not Wendy's new boyfriend?" she asked.

Danny's eyes widened in surprise. Why would she think that? "I, uh, don't even live here. No." he said, frowning.

"Boyfriend?" Wendy laughed. "Dude, I just met him like, a few minutes ago or something." she said, and Danny looked back at the twins. The kid stopped glaring at him, but his still narrowed eyes begged to differ. Why was he looking at him like that?

"Yeah. What were your names again?" Danny asked, trying to change the subject.

The female, happier seeming twin shoved her brother out of the way, and flashed her braces at Danny with a grin. "I'm Mabel Pines! I love glitter and kittens!" she exclaimed, raising her arms in the air, one being equipped with the weird gun. Her brother rolled his eyes at her introduction, but she elbowed him the arm, making him squeak in alarm.

The boy coughed, rubbing his arm, mumbling something incoherent. "Dipper. My name is Dipper." he said curtley. "Happy now?" he hissed quietly to his sister, and she nodded, unfazed.

Danny frowned. "Is that a nickname?" he blurted, and bit his tongue after asking it.

"N–no," Dipper stuttered. "Why would you ask that?" he countered defensively.

Danny held up his hands to show that he meant no harm. Shoot. Why did I ask that? He thought, and tried to think quickly for a response. "Just asking," he answered. This meeting was starting to get more awkward than when Danny first entered the Ghost Zone and encountered Walker, and as much as cool Wendy was, he kind of wanted to leave. But he still had to buy the things he was in the middle of buying. World, swallow me whole, he thought.

The kid glared stubbornly at Danny, and the teen only nervously smiled in response. Danny fought ghosts everyday, and here he was, being scared around a kid. He couldn't be older than thirteen, maybe even twelve!

Mabel, sensing the tension, grabbed her brother by the arm not occupied by the memory gun. "Hey Dipper, I need your help with something that requires us leaving this room and going upstairs that's not here!"

Dipper looked at his sister confusedly, and then back at Wendy and Danny. "Help with what, Mabel–"

"Now!" she said abruptly, and dragged him off into the Employee's Only room. The sound of struggling footsteps were then heard, followed by a shout, and shoes abrasively thudding against wooden stairs.

"Mabel! I need to–"

"Not today you aren't!"

Their voices were still clearly audible from the other room, but their conversation was only heard in certain parts, which really, made no sense to probably anyone else but them.

Danny swallowed, and attempted to nonchalantly lean against the counter. "So," he began, glancing at Wendy. "They seem… cool…?"

"They usually are. I dunno what's got Dipper acting like that though. He's usually less angry and more awkwardly sweaty. The only time he usually gets like this is around Robbie…" Wendy paused, squinting her eyes as if to make some sort of revelation. Then she shrugged, and went back to scanning the items on the counter. "Eh, probably like, puberty or something."

"Righttttt." Danny said, and looked back at the junk he was buying. "Well, this is the officially the longest time ever taken to make a purchase," he laughed, as Wendy scanned the last item, which was the very same Bat-Rabbit that Jazz had told him not to buy. Granted, he was only buying it to annoy her.

Wendy smirked at the stuff toy, and rang up the total cost on the machine. "You should see how I work on weekends."

"Wow. You work on weekends?" Danny blinked.

"Nope. Well, I'm supposed to. Your total's $49.80, by the way," Wendy responded as she shoved the items into a bag.

"Oh! Right. Almost forgot," Danny stumbled, taking out his wallet and handing her a fifty. She took the bill and gave him back change, and handed him the bag. "Now I just have to find my family and hope they're not shooting inanimate objects with ectoplasm," he said, to which Wendy lifted an eyebrow in confusion. "Long story."

She laughed, and then stopped, seeming to realize something. "Hey, you're pretty cool, actually, do you think we can hang out sometime, y'know, like, when I'm off work?"

Danny was baffled for a few seconds. Wow, she actually wants to hang out with me? So I'm not a complete dork? Take that, Jazz! "Well, um, yeah, sure, I'm in town for a few more days, so… maybe we could meet somewhere, or something?" he offered.

"Yeah! Dude, we should totally hang out tomorrow, I get off work early then at noon. And you can even tell me about whatever it is that your family does that they carry ecto...plasm… in their guns. I mean, my family has firearms but my dad likes to use his fists…" Wendy trailed off. "And I could totally tell you all the spooky town stories and mysteries of Gravity Falls!"

Danny grinned. Wendy reminded him a lot of Sam; she was fearless and forward. He was still a little homesick, and the ghost paranoia kicked in every now and then, but this was definitely compensation. Spooky town stories? It was beginning to sound like Amity Park already.

"Deal," he decided, and glanced behind him, "I mean, I'd rather do pretty much anything else than spend another second being around for my parents' ghost hunting palooza," and gestured to his mom excitedly coming out of the museum exhibition portion of the shack. Danny had to mentally brace himself for the embarrassment that was soon yet to come.

"Dude, what? Ghost hunting palooza?" Wendy laughed.

"Danny, you have to see this! Your father and I just caught a ghost in the exhibit using the Fenton Ghost Weasel!" Maddie exclaimed, dashing into the gift shop.

And there it is, Danny thought, and groaned internally. Another excited shout from Jack was heard back in the other side of the shop, and in a blur, Maddie was gone again.

Danny cringed, rubbing the back of his neck in embarrassment. "My parents are, uh, tourist shop fanatics?" he tried. He didn't exactly want Wendy knowing that his parents were ghost hunting loons, not yet, at least.

Wendy however, didn't seem to buy it, and with a wry smile, leaned her elbows on the counter. "Okay, 'tell ya what. I'll give you the benefit of the doubt for now, but you're so telling me next time we see each other. Meet me at the totem pole at 2 o'clock tomorrow? Y'know, the one that's been tipped over since yesterday?"

"Yeah, I know the one. I'll see you there, then!" Danny began, and looked back to see Jazz approaching with an annoyed look on her face. "But… I should go before my family does something weird again."

"Ya probs should," she agreed, sitting back on her stool with a small hand gesture. Danny smiled, walking backwards in the original direction he came from almost in a trance just as he bumped into his sister.

"Oof! Danny! You were here the whole time? I was in the museum with mom and dad for ages, I was wondering where you were!" Jazz exclaimed, rubbing her head.

"Yeah, I never left. Are mom and dad done with… whatever they're doing yet?" Danny asked, squinting. Their parents seemed to be dissecting the tourist attractions with their tools, Maddie frowning while Jack acted as if he had just won a prize. A cheaply made, knock-off prize.

"They better be, if not I'm gonna drag them out myself. We've been here forever and I don't think I can take tourist trap memorabilia for any longer." Jazz rolled her eyes. "Mom! Dad!" she called, walking back into the museum room. Danny followed meekly behind her, and waited for Jazz to say whatever it was she was going to say to get her parents out of the shop.

Jack and Maddie looked up to see their children come out of the giftshop, and smiled.

"Dannyboy!" Jack greeted.

"Oh hey, Danny!" Maddie said cheerfully, retracting a Fenton tool set from her belt. "Isn't this place fascinating?" she pondered.

"If you count bad taxidermy as fascinating, then yes. Very fascinating," Danny replied, glancing down at the store bag in his hand. It contained the Bat-Rabbit he bought with the sole purpose of annoying Jazz, and even looking back on it now, he didn't regret his purchase once.

Jazz put on a false look of pain and turned to her parents. "Mom, when are we leaving? We've been here for so long and I want to get back to the motel room. I'm tired and hungry again and my feet hurt, LET'S LEAVE," she complained.

Maddie looked back at her daughter, and seemed to agree. "Sure, but let me just look at–"

"Great! Let's go now!" Jazz chastised.

"But–"

"Hey, dad, what's that outside the Mystery Shack?" Danny exclaimed, pointing to the window with fake enthusiasm laced in his voice. Granted, there was nothing actually outside, but Danny knew that even hinting the appearance of a ghost somewhere would always trigger his parents obsession, and make a great escape route for anything. Jazz was right, they actually had spent an awful long time at the tourist trap– but not that Danny minded. Talking to Wendy felt so short but it actually was a while. He could only imagine what Jazz had to be doing this entire time.

Jack seemed to buy it however, and grabbed Danny by the arms protectively with wide eyes. "Ghost!? Maddie, let's go!" he shouted, and scooped his wife up bridal style, slamming the exit door, and running out of the tourist trap, startling Wendy, leaving Jazz and Danny behind.

Jazz turned to Danny and smirked. "Thanks, little brother."

"No problem." he grinned. "We should go, though."

"Yeah, we should," Jazz agreed, beginning to walk out of the shop. Danny followed her, but not before stopping and giving a small wave goodbye to Wendy. She looked up from her magazine and smiled, giving a soldier's salute back. Jazz pushed open the door of the entrance and stepped outside.

"Huh, wonder where they went…" Jazz wondered, raising a brow as she scanned their surroundings.

"Maybe over there attacking that weird old guy?" Danny guessed, prompting both the siblings to witness their parents attacking a barefooted hillbilly hobo looking man with a bandaid on his beard, overalls and a worn out brown hat.

Jazz blinked, and then slowly held a hand up to her mouth. "Good point." she said hesitantly.

"He'll be fine," Danny assured, as his sister's frown deepened. He turned to Jazz, a feral smile morphing onto his face. "Oh, Jazz, you'll never believe what I just bought."

Jazz huffed. "Danny, I swear, if it's that bat thing…"


Upstairs in the Pines' twins bedroom, Dipper was pacing back and forth around the space between the beds. He continuously clicked the pen in his hand off and on to the annoyance of Mabel, who sat cross legged on her bed beside Waddles, listening to Dipper rant.

"And did you see the way Wendy was looking at him? She totally likes him, Mabel!" Dipper exclaimed, pressing his thumb on the button of the pen so hard it made an indent in his finger. "What if he likes her back?! Oh my gosh, he probably does! I mean who wouldn't like Wendy, she's perfect! What if they start dating and fall in love and get married and then–"

"Wait, I thought you said you were gonna stop obsessing over Wendy after the whole Bunker thing happened?" Mabel interrupted.

"I, uhm, haven't."

"So–"

"But the guy!" Dipper exclaimed, clicking his pen off and on even faster than before.

"But Dipper, they just met, and he's a tourist anyways!" Mabel reasoned.

Dipper twitched. "But what if he's not a tourist? What if he's just saying that? What if he's actually some kind of creature, or something? We don't know these things!"

"Okay, now you're just acting craaazy." Mabel said as she twirled her finger around in a circular motion near her head, and went cross eyed. "Danny seems like a normal guy! If anything, he's like a hundred times better than Robbie." she declared, but comparing Danny to Robbie didn't calm Dipper down in the slightest.

"Exactly! And Robbie's a total jerk, and this guy isn't as much of a jerk, which means he'll have a better chance with Wendy!" he shouted, and Waddles made a high pitched squeal in response.

Mabel gasped dramatically at the sound of Waddles squealing. "Oh, what's that, Waddles? You think Dipper's acting crazy about Wendy again too?" she asked, scratching behind her pet pig's ears. "Why, yes he is, yes he is!" she cooed.

"I'm not crazy! I'm rationalizing," Dipper defended.

Mabel blew a raspberry. "Rationalizing, smashinalyzing!" she dismissed, and threw a pillow with a glittery pink unicorn on it at Dipper's head. It hit him on the side of his head, nearly knocking his hat off in the process to her amusement.

Dipper adjusted his hat back onto his head and turned to his sister. "I'm serious, Mabel." he said firmly, but it did little to faze his sister.

"So is Waddles," she responded.

Dipper plopped down on the ground, making a dull thud. "Okay, okay, I get it. I'm calm, I'm calm."

"Are you sure, bro-bro?" Mabel tilted her head, unsure of her brother's mental state.

"Positive. Eeee-yup." he drawled, popping the p. A comfortable silence passed over the two before he spoke again, coming back to an earlier thought which he almost forgot about– the reason why Mabel forcefully dragged him up here in the first place. Mabel never turned down the opportunity to introduce herself to strangers, it was like her specialty in extended greetings to random people.

Dipper frowned as he got himself off the floor, but this time didn't go back to pacing around the room. "Hey, why did you bring me up here anyways? You said you needed my help with something and then dragged me up the stairs. Literally. What was that about?"

"Pshh, oh, that. I could tell that if you stayed there any longer you probably would have either attacked Danny or said something horribly embarrassing for yourself so I thought I'd be nice and save you from doing something dorky. You're welcome!" she chirped, flailing her arms in the air with the sleeves of her sweater.

Dipper scoffed awkwardly. "Dorky? Me? I think you've got the wrong guy– Oof!" he exclaimed as he tripped over Waddles, who he didn't notice had been behind him until now. "What the heck?"

"I rest my case!" Mabel said triumphantly, much to Dipper's dismay.

"Okay, fine. I'll try to stop obsessing over Wendy. For now. I just gotta distract myself." he said, but more to himself than actually to Mabel.

"Why don't we try to look for one of the freaky monsters in your journal thing-a-ma-bob? Then you can obsess over that instead of Wendy!" Mabel suggested.

"What? I don't obsess over the anomalies in the journal…" Dipper trailed off. "Okay, maybe a little. Fine."

"Great! Hey, what about that cute red platypus we saw one time in the woods when we were trying to catch that Leprecorn the other day?" Mabel asked, bringing them both back to the memory of when Mabel accidentally encountered the Leprecorn near a stray box of sugary cereal in the woods. Dipper shivered at the thought, and tried to remember seeing the so called 'cute red platypus' that day.

He looked up at the ceiling to think for a few seconds before the memory came back to him. "Oh, you mean the plaidypus?" he guessed.

"YEAH!" Mabel agreed. "The plaidypus!"

"Plaidypus it is," Dipper agreed, but then suddenly stopped himself short. "Plaid… like Wendy… because Wendy wears plaid!" he exclaimed, and Mabel rolled her eyes.

"Why don't we just invite Wendy to come with us then to look for it? I mean, she was saying that she was super bored because the others went to a concert out of town or something."

"Wait, really?"

"Yeah, she told us earlier today when you were zoned out staring at her like a weirdo." she explained, and Dipper pouted out his bottom lip, thinking. They could go tomorrow and if they found it, he could impress Wendy and she would forget all about the tourist guy from earlier.

"Okay, I'll ask her today," he decided. What could go wrong?


Annnnd those also happen to be famous last words. You'll see how these plans will soon intervene will something else, heh. Expect an update coming soon, and y'know, not a month from now, like this one was xD

Please leave a review if you've liked this story, and as always, thank you so much!

- dannyghost :)