Sorry about the wait! I meant to post earlier, but work, classes, and a stressful birthday unfortunately said I had other plans. So here we are! Also, THIRTY REVIEWS FOR THE LAST CHAPTER I COULD KISS YOU ALL! THANK YOU!
Anyways, I know you all were WAITING for this chapter. So, enjoy!
Chapter 14
"Welcome to the Mystery Shack!"
A pair of twins, a boy and a girl, squinted up at the older man. The sight of them originally sent pangs of guilt and longing through Stan. Twins, just like him and Stanford. But quickly, he brushed it aside in favor of giving the pair a cheesy smile. "I'm your Great-Uncle Stan. Call me Grunkle, though, because it takes too long to say Great-Uncle, and time is money!"
The girl of the pair seemed to take an immediate liking to her "Grunkle" Stan, because she flung herself at Stan with a bright smile and a hug, like a squirrel dosed with too much caffeine and glitter.
"I'm so glad to meet you! I'm Mabel, and this is Dipper!" she said enthusiastically. She lowered her voice, as if conspiratorially, but her voice still carried across the clearing. "He's not too happy about being here."
"Still can hear you, Mabel," the boy groused, coming to stand next to his twin with a sulk. Danny studied the pair. They were short, on the brink of puberty and growth spurts. Both had thick chestnut hair, much like Stan's when he was a young man in the seventies and eighties, and were nearly identical, if it weren't for their clothes, their hairstyles, their genders, and the difference in facial expressions. Mabel looked happy to be there, an explosion of glitter and smiles, but Dipper looked like someone had murdered his dog and was seeking revenge.
All in all, they were kinda cute.
"Nice to meet you, kids," Stan said brightly, and he gestured towards Danny, who gave the pair of twins a small wave of greeting and a wide smile. "This is Danny Fenton, co-owner of the Mystery Shack and a family friend."
Danny could have sworn that Mabel's eyes grew three times their original size when they landed on him, and beside her, Dipper groaned.
"Mabel, no," he sternly told his twin, but the young girl threw herself at the halfa. Danny and Stan watched with amusement as she leaned in towards the halfa, like she was sharing some sort of deep secret.
"On a scale of one to America, how free are you tonight, handsome?" she asked eagerly, batting her eyes, and there was a thwack noise as Dipper smacked his forehead in frustration. Danny, on the other hand, burst out into incredulous, raucous laughter at the ridiculous pickup line while Stan chortled.
"Uh, Mabel, was it?" At the girl's nod (whose gaze never left Danny, who began to howl with laughter, nearly bent double in a futile attempt to reign in his mirth), Stan continued, "Mabel, he's way too old for you. Trust me on this."
She deflated, disappointed, before she perked up. "Well, I'm sure I'll have other opportunities to woo boys while I'm here," she said optimistically, before she started to make her way into the house. She stopped, however, at the front porch, bent over, and said, "Hello, my good worm sir! How are you this fine day?"
"Is she serious?" Danny choked out, wiping his eyes, a little confused but mainly amused by the girl's quirkiness, and Dipper sighed in aggravation.
"Yeah, all the time," he answered with a grumble. Danny smiled. He could only imagine what it was like to have a sister like Mabel – Jazz was mostly normal, save for her ability to come up with the stupidest names on this side of the ghost zone. And maybe her own, ghost-hunting abilities.
"Sounds like fun." Danny turned to Dipper, and gestured inside with a quick jerk of his head. "Well, why don't we show you around?"
"Sounds great," the young man grumbled sarcastically, and Danny chuckled at the belligerence, before he turned to Stan.
"Hey, Stan, don't you have a tour starting soon?" he asked, and Stan yelped, glancing at his watch, before hurrying back towards the shack.
"Don't do anything I wouldn't do, Casper!" he called over his shoulder, and Danny groaned.
"That's, like, everything except for murder," he called back, and ignored Stan's cackle in favor of Dipper's quiet, "Casper?"
"Nickname that Stan gave me a long time ago," Danny said with an exaggerated roll of his eyes and a wink. "Keeps complaining that I keep popping up like a ghost."
"Alright," Dipper conceded, and followed Danny into the house.
Thirty minutes later, the twins had settled in their new room, and Danny watched them play outside.
Mabel looked like she was having a blast, rolling down hills covered in grass with a squeal of delight, but Dipper, on the other hand…
"He looks like he's trying not to straight up jack someone's car," Wendy commented with an easy laugh, looking out of the window.
Danny leaned against the window sill. "Maybe he'll make a friend with that woodpecker," he said, pointing at the woodpecker that was pecking at the dark green and brown hat on Dipper's head. He spotted someone creeping closer to the kid, and groaned. "Oh, no, Stan, don't, he just got here –"
"Boo!" he heard Stan shout through the ridiculous fish-head mask, and with a squeal, the male twin fell over to Stan's uproarious laughter.
Stan continued to laugh, until a coughing fit overtook him, and pounding on his chest, he gasped out, "Ah, it was worth it!"
Dipper did not look impressed.
Danny sighed, and headed out to shoo Stan back to the tour group he was supposed to be leading.
"So, Danny," said a coy voice, arms draping over the side of the couch by Danny's head, and Mabel's brace-filled smile entered his line of sight, "How long have you lived in Gravity Falls?"
Danny hummed, tapping the remote and watching the channels flick by on the TV. It was late in the evening, and they had just finished closing the Mystery Shack for the day. Stan was still checking inventory and profits for the day, while Danny relaxed by the television. "A good long while," the halfa replied evasively, pausing on a channel that blared something about "Throwable Hedgehogs" ("What?" Danny spluttered under his breath), before he continued flicking through the channels.
A small hand touched his hair, and he heard a crooned, "Oooh, soft," before Mabel began to bury her fingers in his thick locks. "Yeah, but how'd you wind up here? How'd you end up opening the Mystery Shack?"
Dipper, Danny noticed, had perked up in the corner of the room, despite his eyes being fixed on a thick book scrounged up from the dark recesses of Stan's room. Ten Things to Avoid When Talking to Women, the title read, and Danny bit back a chuckle, before he turned his attention back over to Mabel's question.
"Well, I met Stan in Mexico," Danny said, and watched both Mabel and Dippers' eyes widen.
"Mexico?" The fingers dropped from his hair, and suddenly his lap was occupied by a young, curious, pubescent female. "What were you doing in Mexico?"
"Yeah, what were you doing in Mexico, Casper?" a new voice repeated sarcastically, and Danny's blue eyes flashed up to crinkle in amusement at Stan, who stood in the doorway of the living room.
"Well, a certain someone had landed himself in prison with the funniest excuses, so of course I had to go and spend some time with him, keep him company," Danny drawled, and both he and Stan laughed at the open-mouthed, befuddled faces on the twins' faces.
"You were in prison?!" Dipper squawked after a moment, "You met in a prison?!"
"More like he stalked me there," Stan added cheerfully, and Danny tried not to laugh as the twins' brains seemed to explode at the added information. After a beat, Mabel seemed to recover.
"What was it like?" she asked curiously, reaching up to poke Danny's cheek, and the halfa beamed.
"Not bad; Stan and I tried to guess what the mystery meat in the daily dinners was," he replied.
"Popular vote was rat," Stan offered with a nod of his head, and the two of them had the delight of watching both twins turn a faint tinge of green.
"You know what?" Dipper's voice was higher than usual, and he closed his book, tossed it to the side, and rose to his feet. "I think – ah," his voice cracked, and he cleared it before continuing, "I think we should get to bed. G'night, Grunkle Stan, Danny!"
"Y-yeah, night!" And just like that, both twins were gone, the sound of their feet pounding up the stairs receding after a moment.
Stan and Danny waited with bated breath as a door faintly slammed, before they burst into loud laughter.
"Oh man," Stan cackled, rubbing his eyes and shaking his head. "Did you see their faces?"
"I wonder what they'll think now that they know we've been to prison," Danny said mirthfully, before he rose to his feet. "Well, think we should head down, now that the twins are in bed?"
And chuckling, the headed into the gift shop, tapped the code into the vending machine, and descended into the dark basement.
Next chapter we'll be starting the series proper, so be ready for that!
Posted and Edited: 2/15/2017, 5:15 PM EST