"D-D-D-DIPPER!"

Dipper was at the door in seconds. Mabel was outside, her arms bare and cut, soaking wet. Her teeth were chattering like crazy, and she was as pale as a ghost. The boy instantly took charge, pulling his sister into the Shack and slamming the door shut.

Jack was stranded outside, annoyance etched on his features. "Thanks a lot, you stupid hat kid," he mumbled distastefully, zipping to the neared window to watch the twins.

The younger of the Pines dragged May into the kitchen, where he forced her to sit while he fetched her a towel. May forced herself to her feet and to the window, which she used all of her strength to pry open. Jack flew in.

"You didn't have to do that, May."

May shrugged wordlessly, shivering. Jack flew her to the chair Dipper had ditched her in, mere seconds before said boy reentered the room with a towel. He draped it over Mabel, who curled into its warmth.

Dipper went over to the stove, where he put on a kettle and started to boil some water for his twin. He demanded a story of why Mabel was soaked to the bone without anything to keep her warm in the outside world in weather like that.

And May gave him the story. Being the (idiotic) nonbeliever he was, Dipper scoffed. He ground his teeth and mumble it to be nothing but imagination, hallucinations from the freezing cold.

"You don't believe me," she whispered when Dipper gave no response to her story.

Dipper shrugged.

"We spent our entire twelve-year-old year looking for these amazing, magical things, and I come to you with the truth about this, and you don't believe me."

"You got into the Smile Dip again," Dipped said bluntly, "that's all that happened. You'll go mad for just a tiny bit of that stuff."

"Why don't you believe me?"

Dipper stiffened. "It's childish."

"I'm not childish!" Jack shouted. "Wait..."

"That's not good enough!" May cried, standing up. "Childish is dressing up in frilly pink sparkly princess dresses! Childish is doing incredibly stupid things for fun! Childish is crashing toy race cars into the wall! Falling through thin ice, with your life in peril every minute, that is not childish! Having a single person to protect you is not childish! Being terrified every minute of every day, hoping that you won't be plagued with nightmares and that you won't get hurt and that you brother will believe you for once in your darn life... is not childish."

Her voice came out as a whisper on the final part. The room was so quiet that you could hear a pin drop.

Dipper glared at his sister, eyes dark. "Mabel Kelly Pines," he growled, "I wish you weren't my sister."

That hurt. Saying that they weren't twins was painful, like a splinter, but they would still be brother and sister. But those words were blades, shredding their relationship into pieces. Even if they could make up then and there, nothing would ever be the same between them again. It would be like trying to put together a puzzle missing a piece.

"The worst things in life come free to us," May whispered, "words, love, hate, death- and you, Dipper. You are no better then the Boogeyman himself."

She ran up to her room.

"I'm sorry."

"You have nothing to be sorry about."

"I let you fall through the ice."

"You saved me."

"I didn't do anything to stop you and Hat Kid from fighting."

"We fight a lot."

"Not like that."

May was quiet.

"You agree."

"No."

"Yes."

"...Yeah, I do. But there was no stopping it."

May shoved a sweater into her small bag. Jack had declared he was taking her to the North Pole. Mabel was packing an extra outfit, her pajamas, her dream/nightmare journal, some yarn and needles, her letters from Jamie, the rain painting, and her scrapbook. Her excuse was simple enough- she was going camping with Grenada (who went camping often) and wouldn't be back for at least a day or two.

She wrote out her note to her great uncle as Jack continued to talk. He had managed to make his way to the subject about what an idiot he was for letting her leave his sight on the ice. May let him rant, knowing from experience with her brother that he would feel better after a nice long time frame of yelling at himself and others.

May wrapped her fingers around the scrapbook, the final item in her bag. It was light enough, no heavier then an elementary schoolers backpack. She sighed contently, drifting into the bathroom and grabbing her toothbrush. Unknowing to her, Jack had followed.

"Whatcha doing?"

In surprise, May squeezed the toothpaste bottles and half of the glittery toothpaste once in the bottle was splattered across the counter, mirror, and Jack's face. The minty substance dripped off of her toothbrush. She momentarily looked upset.

"I- uh, I didn't mean to. Sorry," she stuttered out quickly.

Jack crossed his eyes, narrowing them and concentrating on the smudge of toothpaste on his nose. He stuck out his tongue and made it crawl up to his pale nose, where he licked it off. Obnoxiously, he smacked his lips together, sending his saliva onto the already filthy mirror.

His face scrunched up in distaste. "What is this stuff?"

"Toothpaste," May responded slowly, raising an eyebrow. "Minty bubblegum flavored."

"Minty gross flavor," he murmured. "What do you do with it?"

"Put it on a toothbrush and brush your teeth."

"Why?"

"To keep them clean."

"Oh, so this is the junk Tooth is always gushing about."

Mabel gasped loudly. "Oh my gosh, Jack, wanna have a toothbrush race?"

"A who what now?"

She was bouncing around, a wide grin on her face. "When we were twelve, Dipper and I used to have toothbrush races all the time. We would just brush our teeth as quickly as we could for the required two minutes and see who had the most spit at the end!"

Jack laughed as Mabel tried to clean the toothpaste off the mirror. "Uh, as fun as spitting sounds, I'll have to pass."

May shoved the toothbrush in her mouth. "Boo," she mumbled, little bits of spit splattering from her mouth. "Suit yourself."

About five seconds later...

"THIS IS TAKING TOO LONG!"

May spat in the sink, clearing her mouth. "Dude, it's been like, ten seconds." She p the toothbrush back in her mouth.

"Ugh..."

Jack perched himself on top of his staff, nervously waiting like a hawk for May to finish.

Two seconds later...

"I'M GONNA DIE!"

"Nwo, yowr not."

"This is stupid! And boring!"

"Trwy tewin dat to Tooft."

"Tooth... come on, May, what if Pitch attacks again?"

"Wather have Pitch attack then face the wrath of the Tooft Fawiry."

"...eh, you got me there." He grinned mischievously. "But I'm not waiting any longer."

"Wha...?"

Jack wrapped his arms around May's waist, making her yelp. She was lifted off the ground, drool dripping out of her mouth, as he flew her to her room. He grabbed her bag with the crook of his staff, and out the window they went to see the Guardians of Childhood.

Yay, yay, yay! So excited, wee!

~Dakota