Hi, guys!

as always, here is my answer to the Guest Reviewer:

Thanks! It's great to know you like to read them, 'cause I like to write them! And I'm glad it started to make sense now! And that Gideon actually looks more evil, I was afraid he was just stupid. And yeah! They finally did it! I bet a lot of people were waiting for it for a while... Anyway, that's Dipper! He just couldn't forget to lock it, right? He couldn't let the chance to someone ruin that very special moment and sorta of get killed by Roderick, lol. Anyway, I hope you like the new chap! :D


Chapter 28

Farewell

Mabel slowly woke from her slumber. The room wasn't dark anymore, the sunlight entered through the cracks of the wooden shutter and they forgot to cover it with the curtains. However, it wasn't too irritatingly bright either.

Then, she realized there was nothing but the blanket covering her body. Well, the blanket and a male arm coming from behind her. She smiled remembering everything that happened in the previous night, she also noticed the source of warmth on her back she knew it came from Dipper's body.

She wouldn't mind waking up like that every day. And that was when she remembered she was leaving that night. Mabel didn't cry, though. Right now, she didn't have a reason to. Instead, she just reached his hand, caressing him slowly so he wouldn't wake. Dipper moaned waking the moment he felt her touch, closing his left hand on hers before pulling her closer against his bare chest.

"Morning." He whispered still sleepy but immensely happy, his smile couldn't leave his face.

"Good morning." She answered giggling after a quick kiss on her earlobe.

The bed was only a single bed, so there wasn't a lot of space, but even so, Mabel managed to turn. Now lying on the other side, she could face him. He kept her close, pulling her in by the waist. He smoothly kissed her forehead before touching her lips with his.

Slowly, she raised her hand to brush his messy locks from his face and forehead, once again revealing the big dipper birthmark. Usually, he's always embarrassed when people see it since people started mocking him when he was just a kid. Mabel, however, was a different story, she actually liked it. She brushed her thumb on his birthmark; she couldn't help but think he's so unique, not knowing he thought the same towards her.

Dipper shifted to get confortable and pulled the blanket to cover them more, after all, there was nothing else to shelter their bare skin from the weather of the north, even if his room wasn't too cold. After that, he let his hand run freely on the soft skin of her back.

"So… How are you feeling?"

"If you're afraid I might have regretted it, the answer is no. I'm fine." She answered, "How about you? Is your knee still hurting?"

"Nah, it will get better."

"Yes, but Soos said it's still gonna take a while for you to heal completely, so you have to be careful, okay?"

"Sure. I will."

"De-doop." She played poking his cheek, smiling like a lunatic, and maybe she was. He rolled his eyes, already used to her unique weirdness.

"Geez, it must be late already… We need to go."

"No… not now, it's too soon. It's so good in here. By the way, what time is it?" Mabel wondered.

"I don't know. I could check my pocket watch, though. The problem is that is inside the pockets of my pants, which is somewhere on the floor."

"Don't you dare move now." Mabel demanded, removing her hand that was running freely on his bare chest to hold his torso, he couldn't help but smile even wider. "I want to stay like that at least for a little while."

"Okay. You know what? I could stay here all day too, but I'm starving; I don't think I can stay for too long."

The girl then shut her eyes closed smiling and biting her lower lip.

"Mabel, what are you doing?"

"I'm trying to remember everything. Every little detail."

"You know, we could make this a recurrent thing…"

"Oh, Dip, it's never going to be the same. Besides, the first night is more important." She opened her eyes and shifted to get partly on top of him, making Dipper lay with his stomach up and have her on his chest. "Which makes me wonder… How many girls you had before me tonight."

"Oh, come on, it's not a suited subject for this morning…" Embarrassed, he looked to the sides feeling his cheeks got hotter.

Yet, he couldn't help but noticed how beautiful she was with her natural blushed cheeks, her slightly messy hair was splattered over her and falling on him. Her dazzling orbs looked at his full of love and admiration. It was inevitable not to reach and try to brush her chestnut locks with his clumsy hand, Dipper just felt the need to touch her.

"You can tell me, I promise I won't get mad or jealous. I just want you to be honest. I know as a pirate you're probably did this a lot of times before, especially because of your wonderful performance."

"Stop saying it like that so easily."

She giggled at how embarrassed he looked.

"Jut answer at once."

"Okay… The number is zero. Happy now?"

Mabel looked to the sides, raised an eyebrow and even tilted her head slightly to the side. He could also see her eyes narrowing just a little.

"Say what?"

"You heard me. I'm not repeating."

"But… really? Zero?"

"Yes, I know, it's ridiculous. Could you please stop repeating it?" Shamefully, he rested his left hand on his eyes as if he could hide his embarrassment with the gesture.

"It's not ridiculous. And it's not something supposed to be planned, because there isn't a rule about it. I just thought you did it because, well, you are a pirate after all and I know what pirates use to do when on shores. Besides, you seemed to know what you were doing last night."

"That's because… No forget it…"

"Because of what?"

He sighed heavily rolling his eyes.

"Fine, I'll tell you. I wouldn't be able to hide it from you anyway… When I turned 15, my dad paid me one night with a... professional woman. She was very beautiful and all and I wanted to do it, but it was so weird that I just couldn't go all the way. We ended up playing cards all night and she gave me a few tips on how to please a girl… Geez, it's just so ridiculous, I'm such a prude…"

"No, it's not ridiculous. It is just part of your personality. Which I love anyway. Besides, knowing your number was also zero just made me admire you even more." And so she just leaned to kiss him yet again.


Roderick wasn't stupid. He might have been in the kitchen with Stan, drinking rum, but he noticed something was going on, especially after his son spend so long in his former room with Mabel and not even showing up to go to the room he was sharing with his son. In fact, the over protective father almost went to intervene, but Stan's hand on his shoulder stopped him.

"Chill, Roderick. You know they love each other and they're old enough to even marry if they want to." The old man reasoned. It was hard for him, but the captain left them alone anyway, drinking a lot before he could finally go to bed.

Morning was a little harder for the captain to take in, though. He still hoped to see his son on the mattress at the corner of the room or at least in the kitchen. However, Dipper wasn't anywhere to be seen, which only meant he was in his former room, with Mabel. Roderick's suspicions only got confirmed the moment he saw his son sauntering to the kitchen. That is, sauntering as best as he could with his injured knee.

"Good morning everyone! It's a great day, isn't it?" Dipper said sitting at the table to eat something, he was starving.

"Morning? Kid, it's almost 10 o'clock, you should be saying good afternoon." Stan commented with a slightly mocking tone hidden in his voice.

"Is it really that late? I haven't noticed…" The boy mumbled, usually, he was supposed to be at the shop around seven, waking up between 6:00 or 6:30. Dipper gulped as he realized he was almost 4 hours late, but he wouldn't have change anything. "Sorry, Grunkle Stan. I promise I'll work a lot to compensate."

"It's okay, kid. We all wake up late once in a while…" The old man's suggestive tone indicated he knew exactly what had stalled his grandnephew from getting out of the bed. "By the way, where's Mabel?"

"She's getting dressed." With very red cheeks yet a still big smile on his face, the young pirate just lowered his head, reaching for the bread and some cheese at the table.

Suddenly, Robbie appeared at the door.

"Geez, finally you're awake, I thought you were sick or something. What took you so long to get your butt outta bed? And why are you smiling so much? It's irritating."

"Oh, just keep quiet and go to work, Robbie. Especially now that Wendy is not around." Stan commanded while Roderick just hid his face on his hands. "You just love to interfere in other people's business."

"Aye, aye…" The 19-year-old man replied coming back to where he came from, just as Mabel got to the first floor of the house and entered the kitchen.

"Where's Wendy?"

"She's out with Soos, they're scouting the area for your protection. I asked her to go since I wanted to be around today, especially what I heard that happened yesterday with the prince…" Roderick answered.

"Thanks for your concern, but I don't think he'll come back anymore so soon. Dipper was quite believable. But we'll be careful anyway."

"So I've heard. I just want to make sure you're safe. By the way, why don't you sit with us and eat? You're probably hungry."

"I am. Grunkle Stan do you have some eggs? I'd like some boiled ones with some cheese and bread."

"Sure." He answered.

After breakfast, Dipper went to the shop with Robbie while Stan decided to continue Mabel's self defense classes, and Roderick went as well not only to observe but also to give her advices.

The three of them trained until lunchtime, though with pauses so they all could rest, especially Mabel that was still not used to an intense training, which only made her sad.

She tried to hide it and managed to do it pretty well the whole day, no one noticed the small piece of sadness following her around all the time because she knew she'd not get the chance to be used with the training. She wouldn't be able to keep seeing these people that she grown to like so much as a family and that cared for her like she had been a part of it all along. And that unfortunately made her very sorrowful, even if she did her best to enjoy every single part of it.

Dipper was obviously the one who almost noticed something was going on, he didn't know if it was a twin-thing or a lover-thing, but he just knew something was there. She denied, of course. Instead of insisting on the subject, he decided to just leave it alone, guessing that she was acting strange due to her fiancé showing up. He also didn't find it weird that her hugs were longer than it used to be, he just figured it had something to do with the previous night.

Melody came to prepare lunch as usual and the shop was closed from 12:00 to 13:00; so everyone could gather around and eat together, including Soos and Wendy.

After lunch, Mabel went to the shop with Dipper, Wendy and Robbie, happy to be able to hang out with them the whole afternoon until the shop was closed at 18 sharp. During this time, Wendy was very perceptive in looking at how closer Dipper and Mabel were with each other. She didn't know why, but she could guess by the way the teenager pirate kept touching her. She didn't notice, however, that the princess was a bit distant, maybe because Wendy didn't know the girl as well as she knew the boy. But she noticed that Mabel tried to hug everyone at least once before or after dinner.

The truth was that the princess was bidding farewell without telling anyone. Mabel wanted to tell them about Gideon's proposal, that she didn't have a choice but to go with him. She knew they wouldn't understand, though. Especially Dipper. He'd only say that she didn't need to go, that she couldn't go and tell her he promised her she'd be save. But how could she do that? There were too many lives at stake that would rely solely on her choice.

Even feeling as she was deceiving them all, she did not yield. After helping to clean up after dinner, Mabel said goodbye to Melody as she went back to her house, being escorted by Soos, and not long after that, Wendy decided to go home as well, still smelling a rat when Mabel hugged her before she left.

"Well, that was a busy day." Grunkle Stan commented, the house got suddenly quieter with less people around.

"I don't know why are you complaining, old man. I was the one who worked all day at the shop." Robbie said before drinking a long sip of rum directly from the bottle.

"It is the least you can do since you're sleeping under my roof and eating my food."

"Aye, aye…"

"And don't drink too much, we all need to keep at least a bit sober in case Blind Ivan's crew or now the snobby prince's men show up." Advised Roderick, worried. Robbie nodded in response, but kept drinking anyway.

"Don't worry too much, Roderick. I don't think none of them would come so soon…" The princess replied, still having to hide the fact that they didn't need to worry because she was leaving that night. "I think I'll go back to my room, now. It's getting late."

"Are you going to sleep, already?" Dipper asked.

"No, I still have some stuff to sew and then I'll go to bed."

"Okay. I'm gonna take you there."

"I know the way."

He rolled his eyes at her joking tone. "I know. I just want to accompany you, silly." And so he stood up at the same time she did to walk upstairs with her by his side. As soon as they got on the second floor, the boy slipped his hand around her waist for the hundredth time that day, though she was definitely not tired of it. "So… should I come to your room later?"

"I'd like to, but not tonight."

"Oh…" He wasn't exactly disappointed, but he was sure she'd accept it. "But you're okay, right?" Both Stopped in front of her temporary room.

"Yes. Just a bit tired. And I'm worried about your knee too. You shouldn't be walking around so much."

"I'll be fine. By the way, now we have a good excuse to just marry already. I mean, what kind of man would I be if I didn't take your hand in marriage after what we did last night?" His suggestive grin was breathtaking.

"A pirate?"

"You know what I mean…. Hey! That's it!" He exclaimed suddenly with a great idea, Mabel just tilted her head in confusion. "If you're already married, you can't be Prince Gideon's wife!"

"Dip, it's not gonna work. If he wants to marry me to expand his territory, he'll just want to kill you to clear the path. It's not gonna be that simple. Besides, he thinks we're siblings and don't forget about Roderick, he's yet to get used to us. We'll just have to find a way out of it."

"Technically speaking, we are twins…" He mumbled irritated, though he was glad that he could put his feelings aside at least to lie properly to Gideon, all it took him was necessity for him to manage lying so well.

"Yeah, but just forget about it. And you know, at least we're never gonna forget the other's birthday." Her joke managed to make him chuckle just a little. She slowly reached his hands and interlaced her fingers in his. "I'm glad you took me away from the palace. I got to meet you and so many things, learn about weapons and self defenses; I got to visit places I never thought I could; and I also got to feel things I never thought I would. So, thank you so much, Dip."

"Come on, you don't need to say it like it's the end. I still have a lot of things to show you. And you're gonna learn a lot more about fighting. You'll see and you'll like it all."

"Yeah. I guess I would." She whispered and he raised an eyebrow, he didn't have the time to ask anything, though, because she pulled him by the shirt to shut his mouth with hers in a very long kiss.

After a few long minutes, they separated panting; it was hard to breath due to their hearts beating so fast. By then, Dipper had already forgotten what he was going to say or inquire; he could just pull her closer by the waist. She embraced him as well and said in a very honest voice, "I love you so much."

"I love you too." He whispered back. Then, she kissed him again saying goodnight before she entered and closed the door behind her.

The sewing thing was actually just an alibi; she could do it, though she was not in the mood. Instead, she just found a blank paper, pen and ink in a drawer of the table and wrote a farewell note. When it was done, she left it on the pillow, so anyone could see it easily when searching for her in the morning. Then she turned off the lamp and waited until the sounds and lights seemed to cease. And as soon as she felt it was safe, she grabbed the first beige cloak Dipper gave her and put it on before slowly opening the door to leave.

The corridor was dark and silent, with a relived sigh; she walked down the stairs, already knowing the way like the palm of her hand. Robbie and Soos were sleeping near the fireplace in the living room as usual, but she didn't expect to see the kitchen with the lights on. She figured that probably Stan and Roderick were spending some time in there, drinking and chatting.

Mabel gulped and turned to the window she used to escape the first time, right before Dipper promised that he'd protect her. Once again, she prepared to jump out of the window, but her heart almost skipped out of her mouth when someone surprised her from behind, "Leaving so soon?" Mabel turned and saw Stan not too far away from her.

"Hi, Grunkle Stan… Look, I can explain…"

"It's okay. I know, girl. I overheard you talking to that snobby prince. I know you don't have a choice and even though I don't like to keep it a secret, but I also know that Dipper wouldn't really understand. He doesn't know what war means; I know. When I was young, our country faced many wars. It pains me to say it, but you're doing the right thing." Mabel didn't know how much she needed to hear it until that moment. She hugged and thanked the old man.

"I just wish Dipper could forgive me someday. I know I'm being too selfish not telling him…"

"He will; I know it. Would you want me to come with you to the docks?"

"No, it's okay. I can handle it with the things you taught me."

Stan nodded and so she left through the back door. Stan waited a minute before going after her in secrecy. He wouldn't risk her getting hurt on the way, though he respected her wish to go alone.

Mabel walked down the streets, already knowing the path to the docks. She forgot the detail that Wendy's house was in the way, and she certainly didn't expect to be spotted by the fellow pirate girl, who was awake talking with her father by the window. It was customary for her to chat with him when she was in town, especially at night after her annoying brothers went to sleep while drinking. When Wendy saw Mabel walking down the streets, she almost chocked and ran after her.

"Mabel! What are you doing here?"

"Wendy? H-how did you find me?"

"My dad and I like to watch the streets at night and count how many drunken people we see. Now, what the hell are you doing here? Come with me, I'll take you back to Stan's."

"No. I can't go, Wendy."

"What? Nonsense."

"I'm going back to the palace. Gideon is taking me there."

"He can't do that. He can't force you! Come with me and we'll fix it!"

"No, Wendy. It can't be fixed. I just… If I don't go, he'll start a war. You don't know how it feels like to have this kind of decision in your hands. I am a princess, I can't put myself first. Do you know how many lives could be lost in a war? Hundreds, maybe thousands, from both sides. I can not do that." By then, her voice was almost failing and about to sob. Wendy's forest green eyes suddenly got a lot wetter than usual.

"B-but it can't be! There has to be another way."

"For now, I can't do anything else, Gideon gave a deadline; I have until dawn. I left a note on my bed explaining everything."

"Dipper doesn't know it, does he?"

"No one, except for you and Grunkle Stan. I… I really need to go, now. By the way, there will be a small ship with a serpent on its sail at the docks. The ship and its contents are for you guys. It's my ransom, so at least you won't be empty handed." Mabel said feeling her hands automatically reach for her necklace. She let her fingers brush it, feeing the pendant's ledges. Looking down at it, Mabel squeezed the object in her hand and finally took it out of her neck. "You know, Wendy, I'm going to be a queen. I'm going to rule this kingdom. And now I ask something from you, not as a ruler but as a friend."

"Anything." The pirate girl replied, ready to comply. How could she deny a favor from a dear fried, maybe even best girl friend, she has? Especially when said friend was in need.

"Give this to Dipper for me. He deserves it. I have other stuff from my mom back in the palace but he doesn't. And maybe he can remember me when he looks at it." And so she handed her the golden locket. Wendy didn't understand exactly what the princess meant, but nodded anyway. "Just tell him I'll always love him." The pirate hugged her friend in answer. "And please, wait until morning. Not only because I know he'll try to come after, but also because I want him to rest well tonight."

It didn't take long until Mabel continued walking to the docks. Wendy silently followed her as if to make sure of what was going on, finding Stan in the middle of the way doing the same, following the princess to assure her safety. Both watched Mabel boarding in a big ship that soon set sail after her arrival. There, they also sighted the ship with the ransom. Wendy told some members of the crew to take care of it until morning, and then, she and Stan walked back to his house.

Obviously the neither the red haired nor the old man could sleep that night. They drank and chatted until the first light of the day shine in the horizon. After that, Wendy knocked on Dipper's door to wake him up. Roderick was there as well; even so, who opened the door was the teenager. Groggily, he rubbed his sleepy eyes, getting out of his room.

"What are you doing here so early, Wendy?"

She couldn't say anything, however, he could notice her eyes were wet and maybe a bit puffy. He couldn't remember the last time he saw her friend crying so he raised an eyebrow, soon starting to feel more awake as he noticed something was wrong. Before he could ask what was it, she gave him a necklace. Dipper froze when he realized it was Mabel's pendant.

He didn't think, he just felt the need to run to his old room. He burst the door open and entered, hoping to see her sleeping there as if it was just some kind of stupid prank. Instead, he just found nothing but coldness and emptiness. Dipper just knew she was gone, and that was why she acted that way the previous night. He felt rage for being so stupid not to notice, and then betrayed and numb, overwhelmed by a deep sorrowful anger. How could she leave him like that?

His knees felt weak and he felt, regretting it instantly because of the very sharp pain in his injured right knee. In deep pain, he sat on the bed, finally noticing the paper with his name on it. He grabbed the folded sheet in half and opened to read it.

On the farewell note, she explained everything, but even so, he still felt awful, angry and betrayed. Wendy gave him space and time before walking in and handing him the pendant one more time. He watched it swing in front of him for a second or two until he grabbed it.

"She asked me to tell you she'll love you forever. She also said something weird, there's other stuff from her mother in the palace but you don't have it… I guess what she meant is that the necklace might remind her of her mom and she hoped you could remember her with it…"

But Dipper knew what she really meant. This necklace was important for her because was her mother's, which happened to be his as well. Giving him the pendant was not only a poor try to make him feel better, so he could have something from his mother and from the girl she loves at the same time. He sighed realizing just how weird this whole situation was.

So lost in thoughts, he didn't notice Wendy leave and his father replacing her until he sat beside his son. Roderick put a hand on his shoulder.

"So… Stan told me what's going on…"

"Can't we follow her? Get her back?" The feelings were clearly clouding his judgments.

"You know we can't. And not only because my ship can't work miracles, it's fast, but not that fast. But the most important thing is that it was her choice."

"Yes, but… but how could she do that? How could she leave me like that?"

"Son, how could she not to? It was this or war."

"I know, but I just… I'd rather have her here than just her necklace." Dipper confessed. "How can't I do anything about it? I love her. All I want to do is be with her, but I'm stuck here while she's going back to her fancy palace to get married to an awful snobby little man that I just wanted to kill for hitting her, he's going to make her life a living hell and for what? To avoid war. She's sacrificing herself for an entire kingdom and no one's ever going to know it. No, in fact, people like us are just going to hate her just because she has a huge house, a bunch of servants and money. I did that before I knew her. It's not fair."

"I know son. Life's not fair. If it were, I'd have married your mother instead." Roderick's words made a light bulb appear in his son's head.

"You… you stayed with my mom anyway. She married another man, but you stayed by her side no matter what."

"But of course. I loved her and she loved me. And I kept loving her still, even if she chose another man. Back then, she told me she didn't have a choice; she was blackmailed into it or something like that, which is the main reason I hate the king."

"Great. Just great." Dipper exclaimed ironically. "And now history is repeating itself. You should have gotten her instead of me. You should have saved her from living in the palace."

"How would I know something like that would happen? The plan was for us to raise the two of you together, knowing each other all along. But then, she died and everything changed. I had nothing but you, so I decided to come here and start again. Things were very hard and then came the opportunity to become a pirate and I could somehow avenge her working against the king."

"I know you told me that, I'm just… furious! She doesn't deserve that. I… I want to go there. I want to go back to the palace; I want to stay with her no matter what. I could just work in the castle like you did when my mom was alive."

"What?"

"You heard me. I could do just like you did. I just need to stay by her side. That twisted snobby little prince is going to ruin her life and I want to be there to collect all her broken pieces."

"Son, you have to know that this is a very reckless and dangerous decision. And it's not gonna be easy."

Dipper rolled his eyes, "Yeah, I'll have to work a lot, so what? I can get used to it."

"No. What I meant is that it will be hard to see her with another man and do nothing. Even if you know she hates and despises him, even if you know, in our heart, she loves you just as much as you do, it will hurt. She'll still have to walk in public with him, she'll have to sleep in the same room as her husbands, you two won't be able to see each other for too long and she'll probably have to kiss her husband in public, even if she doesn't want to. And you're gonna be there to watch it all, unable to do anything, acting as nothing more than a servant. So, yes, it is going to hurt, a lot."

Dipper sighed, looking down, clenching his fist against the golden locket. He thought for a few seconds, now much more calmer than moments ago. Slowly raising his head, he looked at the hazel green eyes of his father.

"But was it worth it?"

"Are you kidding me? If I could chose, I'd do it all over again if that were what it would take to be with her."

Father and son made sad, truthful smiles to the other. And Roderick side-embraced his offspring.

"Then I guess you know what I'm gonna do next."

"Yes, I do. Don't worry; the ship will be ready in about two days. Until then, I'll give you some tips to infiltrate and blend in with the servants."


So, what do you think about, it, guys?

Is it good? Is it bad? Do you like it or not? Why? What do you think is gonna happen next? Tell me on your reviews! They mean a lot to me!

Itban Fuyu