Disclaimer: I do not own Gravity Falls, the characters, or anything you recognize.

I am actually very proud of this. I wrote it, thinking it would be awful, but it turned out much better than I could have ever hoped it would. It's a short oneshot and kind of a character study. I hope you enjoy it, and reviews make my day (*Hint, hint*). Thank you!

Title: Love: The Strangest Anomaly Of All

Summary: In the aftermath of A Tale of Two Stans, Ford looks at his brother, playing with the two kids (his great niece and nephew. He's still trying to wrap his head around that), the way they smile and rough house and laugh and… and love. And for the first time in a long time, Ford feels jealous of his brother instead of the other way around… because Stan has a family and he doesn't.

Stanford Pines had never really put much stock in family, as cruel and shallow as that sounded. He never saw much of a reason to.

Growing up, it was him, his brothers, and his parents, and they were far from a model family. His mother loved her children very much, but she was a little lost as to how to truly show that love (an unfortunate trait Ford inherited), and more than once, Ford wondered if his father even loved his children at all, if he truly cared about them or only what they could accomplish.

Ford never really met Shermi. The boy wasn't even ten years old when Ford ended up in the portal, and he was much younger when Ford left home.

No. The only family he ever truly had was Stanley.

Stanley, his twin but so much more than that. His best friend, his platonic soulmate, the one who would still be his brother even if they didn't share the same blood. The eccentric boy he grew up with, shared a room with, played with. All of his memories of childhood involved Stanley in one way or another as they explored, adventured, flew and fell, laughed and cried, hurt and rejoiced, as they grew up… and grew apart.

Stanley Pines, his twin, his family, the one who couldn't live without. The boy he loved.

The boy he lost.

The boy- for he may have looked like a man, but he was still that scared little boy who climbed into Ford's bed when he had nightmares, who shivered in Ford's arms after their father yelled at him for something or other, the boy who sniffled as Ford patched up his bruises and cuts after various encounters with bullies (most of the time, protecting Ford)- that he watched from his window as he got into his car and disappeared down the street. He had shut the curtains, trying to forget the boy he knew he could never forget, but he couldn't help peaking out and watching the car get further and further from their home (well, Ford supposed it wasn't really Stanley's home anymore)… from Ford.

Ford stared at that road long after Stanley was no longer in sight.

Ford tried to stay angry at Stan for a while. It wasn't hard to convince himself that Stan ruined his future, but time heals and rebuilds and more than that, Ford grew up. What Stanley did was a mistake. A selfish, immature mistake, but wasn't Ford just as selfish and immature as Stanley for allowing his brother to walk away, for allowing one moment to take a thousand other moments and throw them in the paper shredder? For allowing himself to think that he didn't need his brother?

But if there is one thing that can be said about the Pines family, it's that even the smartest of them have pride bigger than their brains.

When anger failed, Ford focused on forgetting Stanley, forgetting his twin, losing himself in his research until the memory of his brother was shoved into a box in the back of his mind, locked with the strongest steel in the world.

Sometimes, Ford could forget, but forgetting entirely was out of the question. Forgetting Stanley was like trying to know somebody you'd never met. Forgetting Stanley was… impossible.

Still, time went on, and Ford's pride only grew as the years passed with no word to or from Stanley.

But then, he was faced with something he couldn't do alone.

So he called the only person he could trust, the only person he could rely on when he couldn't even rely on himself.

But sometimes pride overpowers trust, sometimes madness overwhelms the things that logic can't explain, like the way seeing Stanley again made him want to cry and smile, but he couldn't- the times were too serious for tears or chuckles. The way all the memories that he had tried so dang hard to forget came flooding back, the way the first word Stanford associated with Stanley was home.

Because when their home had seemed so broken, their family so fractured, Stanley had made him feel at home, had been his family. Stanley was his family and his home. Stanley was his everything.

The other side of the portal was horrible. He couldn't even put it into words, it was so awful. When he had a spare moment when he wasn't running for his life, he would sleep and dream of Stanley.

And now he's back in their dimension, and his brother is so close and yet so far away.

Ford, finally leaving his lab after so many days, blinks at the harsh sunlight when he steps out onto the back porch, and his eyes immediately land on Stanley.

He's playing with those kids (his great niece and nephew. He's still trying to wrap his head around that). The way they smile and rough house and laugh and… and love. And for the first time in a long time, Ford feels jealous of his brother instead of the other way around… because Stan has a family and he doesn't.

Stan had saved him from the portal while taking care of those kids and trying to shield them from the dangerous mysteries of Gravity Falls as best he could. Stanley had made a living (even if it was a run down tourist trap in the middle of no where) and had… had grown so much since Ford had last seen him. The Stan he knew was kind of a jerk. He protected Ford and that was it, but now… now, he had kids, a new family, to protect, and Ford stood on the sidelines.

Ford had always tried to convince himself that he didn't need Stanley (and he had nearly managed to do it), but now, looking at the way Stanley hugs those kids, the way he looks happier than he ever did when Ford and Stanley were kids, much less young adults, whenever he thinks of Dipper and Mabel… he thinks that maybe the tables have turned. This time, Stanley is the one who doesn't need him.

Ford is successful and smart, and Stanley is a con artist who only knows how to make money and disappoint people.

Ford watches Dipper roll around on the grass with Mabel before they gang up on Stan, leaping on his back and putting him in a chokehold while Stan roars with laughter and continues to wrestle with the kids, who look like they're having the time of their lives.

Well, maybe Stan didn't disappoint everyone.

Ford worked hard all his life and conquered all the odds while Stan never took anything seriously, took short cuts and cut corners with no real thought of the consequences.

And yet, Ford finds envy poisoning his chest when he looks at his brother now because…

Well, because Stanley has something Ford doesn't, something he hadn't had in a long time.

A family.

Ford walks back inside before he is noticed, and he does what he's been doing since he was eighteen. He tries to forget, tries to forget that he knew what a family was once, tries to forget that feeling that holds a family together, a feeling he had tried to forget completely, deeming it as an irrelevant obstacle that would only get in his way on his path to greatness.

But now, he wishes he had a little bit more of that feeling, had forgotten that feeling a little less so he can at least feel it when he looks at the brother who saved him and the kids who look at him with such wonder in their eyes and call him Grunkle Ford.

Love, he muses as he closes the door to his lab once more, is truly the greatest anomaly of them all.

Thanks for reading! Have a nice day, everyone, and please write a review!