Adventures with Wendy Corduroy and Dipper Pines were usually a lot longer than the two originally bargained for, but their foresight almost always gave them the incentive to bring a tent and at least one sleeping bag along with them. The circumstances were no different on this night, as the two who were originally going on search for the mythical primate Sasquatch at ten in the morning had ended up twenty miles out of town as night fell.
Wendy, being the intense woodsman she was, created the fire with random things Dipper knew could start fires but wasn't physically capable of doing it himself. Of course, his scarlet embarrassment was evident on his face from the start, but he was long over it by the time the fire was going and he was cooking food for the two of them.
The night had fallen briskly, slightly uncharacteristic of a pacific northwest summer day, leaving the two in total darkness by midnight. The fire crackled warmly and beckoned the two teenagers closer, while repelling whatever unimaginable horrors or mysteries lied in the trees beyond them.
Dipper was the first to speak up as he flipped onto his back and stared up at the clear stars. There had been no clouds that day, and the beacons of space beamed back at the two adventurers lightly. "I'm sure Stan and the others know we got ourselves lost again."
"Hey!" Wendy fired. "We are not lost! I know my way around here better than the back of my hand."
"Better check the back of your hand again." Dipper quipped back jokingly. "We passed the same log on the left and right seventeen times."
The lumberjack's freckled face contorted in the darkness, and the young 13-year-old scientist laying on the cold blades of dried, infant grass couldn't help but chuckle. It was always like Wendy to get herself into situations she couldn't possibly get out of. And then get out of them.
She sighed audibly. "I'll figure it out tomorrow morning. As for right now I think it's best if we get some sleep."
"Hold up." He said quickly, voice wavering a bit. "Ac-actually, if you could... I dunno... watch the stars with me... I-I mean, not like romantically or anything, 'cuz that'd be weird, but... I mean... we worked really hard today, and..."
She laughed. "That's fine, dork. I'm comin' over."
His eyes unaccustomed to the dark, all he heard were rustles of grass and leaves as the lumberjack princess hobbled over in the darkness, cursing once or twice as she tripped over I burned firewood and before she laid herself on her back next to him. Her hand accidentally touched his, and Dipper made it his one life duty to eject his hand out of there as fast as he could so that she wouldn't think that his still-obvious crush was actually still existent.
She still knew.
She sighed loudly, laying her hands behind her head. "Y'know, Dipstick? I think I really like lookin' up at the stars with you."
"H-hey!" He sputtered in the darkness, earning a laugh. He blushed, unknown to her, as he rubbed his touched hand subconsciously in his hand.
Pas the bright constellations passed through as slowly as paint dries on the side of the Mystery Shack. Wendy, looking sideways at the stargazing boy, smiled lightly as the memories of the two adventurers rolled through her mind like the tale of two dorks. Without even thinking twice, she snagged his hand back and didn't let go.
The time in the bunker.
The weirdmageddon.
Her tests she needed help on.
Her very first Christmas.
"W-Wendy?!"
"Shh, dork. Lemme have this."
Even when it was midnight, the two still managed to earn their time together.