"Why didn't the circle date the cube?" Dipper put the joke out along with his fork, enthusiastically eyeing his bemused audience, "It was completely platonic!"

"Hah! Plantonic solids," Ford snorted. "Dipper you're really something." He shuffled the hair on the teen's head.

Nice one Dipper, Mabel mused, I've got one. Tell me, why did your sister screw the triangle? The family sat around the small wooden table shoveling pancakes. She abstained from the sausage and pushed her butter around, the syrup smiley face drooping in a Glasgow grin.

"Whassamatter with you, Mabel?" Stan asked through full cheeks, "Dipper keep you up with his snoring? I know it couldn't have been the science talk; that would have put you right out." He gave her a wink and she felt her cheeks push up.

"Actually, I think that it was the science talk," Dipper swallowed his food as he looked to Ford, "I totally gave her nightmares about that guy."

Uncle Ford seemed to look directly through her skull, "Nightmares?"

She felt the chill drip into her stomach, "Nah," she faked a smile, "It's nothing, really. Dipper just thinks everything is about that guy." That guy being you, Uncle Ford. "'Scuse me while I teach him a thing or two about girls."

Her chair screeched with the sound of wood on wood. Dipper followed suit as the two of them stepped out into the warm shelter of the porch. They sat on the steps looking at the trusty old golf cart that started it all. "You can't tell him." Mabel stared forward, feeling as if more than just one all-seeing eye was upon her.

"Mabel," Dipper laughed, "C'mon, it was just a dream. Charts are looking normal. Everything will be fine."

She gave him a serious look. "Why tell him, then?"

"Ugh, you know I hate Serious Mabel," Dipper brushed a hand through his hair, no longer afraid of showing his trademark. "Do I have to act like D-Fresh again?" He joked as he pretended to do kick flips on the lawn, "Radical!" He stalled, "Uh, bo-bodacious? That's the word, right?"

"Dipper, you're such a dork," she shoved him happily. "But, seriously. Mystery twins needs an air of mystery doesn't it? Just you and me, Bro-bro?"

"…I guess I can see your point," he scratched his arm as a nervous habit, "even if I don't understand it."

"I'll be fine," she slapped him on the back. "I just don't want the whole world to know what's inside my head."

"You want to hear something that's not much of a mystery to me anymore?" He smiled.

"What?" She grinned.

"Wendy," he leaned back, his hands spread on the timber planks.

"Whaaaat?" Mabel put her hands dramatically to her cheeks.

"Yeah. You know we're both a college level academically, and that makes the age gap seem less. What really helped was getting out of high school. When you're in it, four years make it seem like you're a decade apart."

"Wow, so you, uh…" she wiggled her eyebrows.

"Mabel, no," he laughed as he shook his head. "We're just friends. Really good friends."

"I believe I've heard those words before," Mabel stroked an imaginary beard.

"I may have lost my list but I feel safer maintaining my current status. I mean, she turned me down before. Besides, I don't want a girlfriend. It would distract me from my work."

Good. You've wasted your teenage years in a basement wearing a lab coat next to an old fart. "Safety-shmafety," She flicked her wrist. "Does she still work here?"

"Um, yeah, but only on weekends."

"My, my. Isn't today Sunday?"

"Yeees," he strained.

"Does she still ride her bike?"

"She… likes to walk that path," Dipper looked away as he pointed in the direction he knew by heart.

"Let's take a walk, shall we?" Mabel purred as she grabbed his elbow and sped up the pace.

Dipper frantically tried to wipe any remaining syrup from his face. "Mabel, it's a waste of time, she'll be at the shack eventually."

"Isn't it a lovely day in the woods?" Mabel ignored.

"Why, you want to have a rendezvous with Shmebulock?" Dipper joked.

"Shut up," Mabel teased. "Wanna know what's funny? I can't remember the names of any other gnomes. Hah! And they kept forgetting his name. Oof!" She suddenly walked into something soft.

"Mabel!" A girl in a flowery shirt with short red hair picked her up and spun her around.

She stumbled back, "We- Wendy?" Where was the fur hat? The lumber jack chic? The luscious locks?

"Yeah, dude," She no longer had to bend to talk to the girl. They were eye to eye. "What have you been up to? I haven't seen you around here in a while."

"Hehe, yeah," Mabel couldn't deny the strange feeling in her stomach. Everything in Gravity Falls wouldn't be the same as she remembered it. Why would she think that? What, was Robbie a businessman now? "I've just been working on sweaters back in Cali."

"Right on," Wendy winked at her before she turned to Dipper.

The glance they exchanged made Mabel want to disappear into Ford's old bunker. It was like something from a romance movie, speaking of a million things that had occurred in her absence. It was then she realized maybe she had missed his awkward teen years. They both had. The twins had abandoned one another; done things they said they would never do.

"Oops! I dropped my excuse further up the trail," Mabel knew they weren't listening anyways, "I better go find it!" she sang as she sped off into the towering sequoias. She heard Dipper call after her faintly but she raced on, spurred by the conflicting emotions in her heart.

She wanted to come back here to recapture her youth. She should have known there was no way of going back. No time ruler could let her exactly recreate that summer of innocence. She couldn't take back those stupid years she'd wasted in high school. She couldn't erase the senior quote she'd devoted to a douchebag. She closed her eyes to block out the warm tears. That was, until she found her socks wetted by a cool mountain stream.

"Agh!" She shrieked as she stepped out of the creek. Mabel sniffled as she took a second to assess her surroundings. Yep, lost. She crouched with her hands on her knees to watch the fish. "Hello, Mister Minnow." Her voice strained to be happy. She calmed as she looked at the trees swaying in the reflection of the water. Water striders were moving against the current. Then, there was a yellow figure with a black top hat in the ripples. "You!" She looked up to see him standing on a rock that parted the water.

"Me!" He grinned in mock surprise. His expression changed, "But, enough about me. What about you, kid? You allergic to woodland creatures or something?"

"I'm- I'm fine," she grinned. "I was just splashed by the water."

He took a moment, taking his glove off slowly, watching her expression as he cupped the water in his hand and pushed it in her direction.

"Hey!" she trilled as she felt the water dampen her hair and shirt.

"Now you've been splashed," he shrugged. "Before, not so much."

She kicked the water back at him playfully, knocking off his hat. "That's a splash!" she giggled as he flailed his arms and waded into the water to retrieve his precious item. He left it on the shore to dry, as his blonde hair shone in the dappled sunlight. He shook it like a shaggy dog.

"Touché, Shooting Star," he sat down beside her on the bank, removing his coat to let it dry as well. Mabel smiled at the black suspenders over his white dress shirt. Seems her tastes were moving from the eighties to the twenties. She laughed as she imagined him in the style of Richard Simmons.

"Am I crazy?" she spoke towards the tree tops.

"Why say that?" He scrutinized her with one charcoal eye.

"I only see you when I'm alone."

"Hate to say it, but you don't hang with a friendly crowd."

"Well not to you."

"Exactly."

"…

Why does Uncle Ford hate you so much?"

Bill's eye widened before he glanced back at the same trees Mabel was examining. "We were pals once. But now we're not."

"Is it that easy?"

"Isn't it?" Bill raised an eyebrow, hinting at her current situation.

"Not if you care."

"True. He didn't care. I certainly didn't care. We were both out to get what we wanted. He wanted knowledge. I wanted world domination. Then when I seek my end of the bargain- he traps me! What can I say, karma's a bitch."

"Are we- in a deal?"

"Wouldn't you like to know," he smirked.

"I would."

"Do you care?" He grasped her chin and tilted his head to look into her auburn eyes.

She could see herself reflected as light in his dark pupil, "I- don't not care." She looked away.

"Of course," he laughed. "You're Mabel."

Her heart spiked at the sound of her name. "Do you care?"

"What is caring?" He gestured out to the wind.

"Of course," Mabel imitated, "you're Bill."

"Yeah," He whispered, "what would I know?"

She took her attention away from a woodpecker to examine his face. Her smile faded as she saw his brow furrowed. He must not have been used to all of the emotions that could be conveyed through his mouth because it seemed unsure of which look to settle on. "You're right, toots," his expression became a dark smile. They both had used their grins to hide. Her feelings behind cheer, his behind menace. At least that's what her gut was telling her.

"You tell me," she covered the fear in her voice.

"No, you tell me." He stood up, "Bill is in the eye of the beholder." Was that why he always dressed to the nines?

"No," she smiled as she brought her hands up to cup his jaw and neck, "you can decide for yourself." Her lips met his, eliciting a low groan. He wouldn't tell her that he cared, and maybe she equated it to what they were doing, but she could sure taste the passion on her tongue. Her bad if he sunk them all into a chaos pit. Again. The way he kissed her took away her worry and pain and made her feel as if she were floating. She hoped it did the same for him. Maybe he didn't know what he wanted. Maybe this was the first time Bill didn't have a clear plan of action and it confused the hell out of him. But as long as his goal wasn't total domination of anything aside from her…

She stopped at the sound of a twig snapping, and looked over her lover's shoulder to lock eyes with her twin. "Dipper," she breathed. Her arms grasped Bill's biceps, he grasped her back. She glanced at the unwavering dark of his eye. He wasn't going to run?

"Mabel- yeah- uh," Dipper flinched, "you scared me when you ran off there. Is everything okay with…?" She could see the way he eyed the blonde suspiciously.

He turned to give the boy a good look at his face, "Ben," he smiled.

"Yes, Ben," Dipper put his hand to his pocket. "Isn't it funny that my sister shows up here a few days ago- after years of living in another state- and suddenly she's all over you?"

"Hilarious."

Mabel couldn't decide whether that was glee or sarcasm. She took his hand in hers to make sure he kept his promise. She squeezed his ungloved palm, urging for trust. He wrapped his fingers around hers but did not look her way.

"Hey, Dipper, did you find-?" Wendy stumbled onto the scene. "Woah, way to go, Mabel!" She cheered as she examined the refined male specimen. "I haven't seen you around these parts. Yet you look oddly familiar..." She looked between the boy scientist and Ben, "Are you a tourist?"

"That's a good word for it, Gingersnap."

"That's it!" Dipper pulled what looked like a laser gun from his belt loop, "I know that you're B-!"

"BEN!" Mabel interrupted "Ben was just telling me he has to get back to his traveling theatre troupe. Yeah, he's all about that. Go on now, Ben," she gave him a light press on the back, "I'll meet up with you later."

"You sure will," his eye flicked in Dipper's direction a second before he placed a kiss on the back of her palm, "Star."