The thudding of the rain continued, occasionally getting stronger and pounding harshly against the roof trying to get in, only to return to its normal state of gently landing on the roof soon after. The sound occasionally being broken by the louder boom of thunder nearby. It was depressing outside.

My sister and I were trapped in the shack with limited options on what to do to spend the time, especially with Gruncle Stan out of the house getting groceries. The storm, while mild, had caused a man to drive his car off the road into a powerline, cutting off all electricity to the shack. Mabel was already quite scared of the storm, but the sudden loss of power had reduced her to a terrified mess that seemed to be on the verge of tears. I couldn't bear seeing her like this. I had to do something.

"Hey, Mabel?" I asked as I approached her.

I didn't get any response. She was currently in Sweater Town trying to ride out the storm. I rested my hand on her shoulder. She shook it off and went deeper into her Pink Fluffy Unicorn sweater.

I looked around the room desperately searching for something we could do to get our minds off of the storm. My eyes were eventually drawn to a pile of pillows and blankets in the corner of the room. I looked back at my scared sister.

"What if we made a pillow fort?" I asked as I put my hand back on her shoulder.

She didn't shake off my hand this time and seemed to sit up a little more at the idea.

"We'll make a really big, strong one using all the pillows and blankets in the shack and make a fort that the storm could never get into."

Mable poked her head halfway out of her sweater to look at me. I could see the fear in her eyes and tear stains on her cheeks, but I could also see the curiosity and anticipation in her eyes regarding my proposal.

"Can we make it down here so when the power comes back we can watch TV?" She asked quietly.

I smiled. "Of course we can."

She shot out of her sweater and latched her arms around me in a big hug, a meek smile plastered on her face.

"Thanks, Dipper," she said in a slightly more upbeat voice.

We let the hug linger for what felt like an eternity; it was the most pleasant feeling I had experienced in a while. Mabel's hugs felt like angel hugs, especially when her soft cheeks were pressed against mine as they were at that moment. I never wanted to let go of her and it didn't seem like she wanted to let go of me either. I slowly crept my hand up her back to begin playing with her hair, only to be cut short by the sound of thunder, causing her to pull herself even closer to me in fear. My hand gently returned to her back as I began rubbing up and down her spine to calm her back down.

"Okay, let's get started," I said in a hushed voice.

Mabel reluctantly let go of me and picked up her enthusiasm as she ran over to the pile of blankets and pillows. I did my best to spin Gruncle Stan's chair completely around so Mable could hang one of the blankets on the back of it. I ran into the kitchen and brought in another chair and draped the other end of the blanket over the back of the chair.

"We need more!" She said in a now excited voice.

She ran into the kitchen and grabbed another chair that we put on one side, and she brought in another chair to put on the other side, forming a cross with the chairs. We draped another blanket over the chairs and kept adding more pillows and blankets wherever we could. We moved the tiny table by Gruncle Stan's chair into the center of the fort to hold everything up and began working on the walls.

We had spent a good twenty minutes just putting everything together before we finally were content with our creation. We both crawled into the fort and lied down facing each other with only about a half foot between us. We smiled warmly towards each other, both of us a little sweaty. Mabel suddenly pulled me into another hug.

"Thanks, Broseph," she whispered into my shoulder.

Thunder suddenly boomed throughout the Shack, startling Mabel who quickly pulled herself closer to me. I tightened my hold on her in response to let her know I wouldn't let go.

"It's okay Mabel. The storm can't get us in here," I cooed into her ear.

I felt her loosen up against me but maintained her same grip with her arms. She took a deep breath and rubbed her face deeper into my chest in an attempt to get even closer despite there being no more space between us.

I smiled and couldn't help but inhale the scent of her hair. It was an intoxicating aroma that I couldn't get enough of, yet I had to pace myself as to not come off as a creep sniffing her hair. But why was I worried about coming off as a creep? She's my sister, why would I be trying to do such things? And yet, there I was, doing such things. But that means it can't be creepy. I assured myself that all brothers enjoy the smell of their sister's hair. I was perfectly normal.

I was torn from my thoughts by the sound of Mabel muttering something into my chest.

"What was that Mabes?" I asked softly.

She shifted her face to the side, placing her ear to my chest.

"I'm hungry," she repeated.

I chuckled a little bit and took another sniff of her aromatic hair.

"Does your heart always beat this fast?" She asked.

It didn't occur to me until then just how fast my heart rate was. I knew it started to pick up when Mabel first pulled herself close to me when we laid together, but I didn't realise how fast or why.

"The uh… thunder startled me earlier," I lied. "Let's get you some food."

I took one last sniff of Mabel's hair disguised as a stretching-inhale while I reluctantly pulled away from her and climbed out of the blanket fort. I noticed Mabel was very apprehensive of getting up, which warmed my heart with how adorable she looked, which I did not want to ruin.

"I'll get some food for you," I said with a warm smile.

Mabel grinned with her eyes barely open as she laid her head on one of the pillows next to her and pulled a blanket up to her chest. Forcing myself to tear my eyes off the sight before me, I carefully moved around the fort and ran into the kitchen. I rummaged through the cabinets and found some peanut butter, some grape jelly, some bread, and some plain potato chips. I prepared two plates and made both of us a sandwich and put some chips on both plates. Suddenly, another boom of thunder shook the house. How much longer could this storm be?

"Dipper!" Mabel shouted from within the blanket fort.

"I'll be right there," I replied in a worried tone.

I quickly grabbed both plates and quickly yet carefully made my way around and then into the blanket fort. I was greeted with the sight of Mabel curled up under her blanket, practically shaking. I set the plates down in a spot where they wouldn't get crushed and wrapped my arms around Mabel in a tight hug to calm her down.

"It's okay Mabel," I hushed. "I'm here."

Within seconds, my terrified sister stopped shaking and looked up at me through the top of her blanket. She tried to awkwardly hug me back through the blanket, but couldn't quite get her arms around me.

"I'm right here Mabes."

I gave her one final squeeze and then a kiss on her forehead. As I pulled away, I could see the look of shock on her face from what I had done. It suddenly dawned on me that I had never kissed my sister in any way outside of once or twice on her cuts. My eyes went wide as I tried to say something that only came out as stuttering because I had no idea of what I was trying to say. As my awkwardness continued, Mabel leaned forward, hesitated, then planted a kiss on my cheek, causing me to freeze up and stop talking. I looked up at her and she was smiling. As if by instinct, I blushed and smiled back. Then I remembered why I was gone in the first place.

"Oh yeah, here's your sandwich," I said as I handed her the plate with the most chips.

"Thanks, Dip," Mabel said as she took the plate and began eating.

I grabbed my plate and joined her in eating. The rain was rather soothing to listen to and took my mind off of everything. Everything, except for Mabel, whom I was having a hard time not staring at. Every once in awhile, I would catch myself staring at her while she was eating and then struggle to pull my eyes off her. She was beyond just pretty, Mabel was beautiful. I'm sure every brother thinks that about their sister, though. Just like how I'm sure every brother kisses their sister on the forehead every once in a while and blushes when she kisses them on the cheek in return. I mean, I know that I come from a pretty weird family, but I'm not that kind of weird.

One of the times that I looked up at her, she seemed to suddenly look away as if embarrassed and tried to hide it by stuffing half of her sandwich in her mouth. I could see a smile creep up on her lips that were struggling to contain the amount of sandwich within them.

"You know," Mabel said as she swallowed the food in her mouth. "It's kinda funny."

"What is?" I asked.

"We're thirteen years old, and yet we still handle thunderstorms like we're six again. We've even got the same comfort food."

She waved what's left of her sandwich around to show her point.

"Yeah," I smirked. "It's weird, so much has changed and yet everything's still the same."

"Well, not everything's changed. You're still my dorky little brother who knows just what to do to cheer me up."

That sentence filled me with a strange sense of both joy and sadness. The fact that she told me that I'm always able to cheer her up made me feel so warm inside knowing that I was able to keep Mabel happy. And the "dorky little brother" saddened me a little, but I had no idea why. She always called me a dork and it never affected me before, so it couldn't have been that. Perhaps it's cause she called me her 'little brother?'

"You're only older by five minutes," I forcefully chuckled, realising that proving I wasn't that little had done nothing to help. "But a lot else has changed. Our friends have changed, our family has changed, even we've changed in a lot of ways."

"What do you mean?" Mabel asked, her mouth full of chips.

"Well, we've both started dating, we've both matured quite a bit, last summer we faced things that forced us to grow more than even some adults–"

I was cut off by the sudden sound of thunder shaking the entire house again. Lightning must have struck really close to the shack. Mabel launched herself on top of me, spilling our chips all over the inside of the fort.

"I guess not everything's changed," I chuckled and held her close.

I took another whiff of Mabel's addictive scent and I held her tight as she began to loosen up on top of me. Because I was such a scrawny kid, she was a bit heavy on top of me, but I forced myself to deal with it because of how peaceful and comfortable she looked. There was a sudden snap and a crash outside. The lightning that struck must have hit a tree, causing it to fall over. Luckily, it was not close enough to touch the shack, but Mabel was shaking more than ever.

"Hey, hey, hey," I cooed into her ear. "It's okay Mabel, it's okay. I'm right here. I won't let anything happen to you."

Squeezed her tighter to show that I wouldn't leave her. She squeezed back even harder and shoved her face into my chest. It was a little hard to breathe, but I knew I had to be the stronger one there for her. Without thinking, I planted another kiss on the top of her head.

"I'm right here Mabes," I whispered. "I love you."

Mabel's shaking seemed to calm down to the point where it was barely noticeable, and she lessened her grip a considerable degree. I was finally able to breathe again and took a deep breath through my nose, taking in a large amount of her aroma. She made herself more comfortable, resting her ear to my chest. I could feel her cheeks shift into a smile.

"I love you too, Dip."

We laid like that for a long time. So long that Mabel had fallen asleep. My thoughts remained on Mabel most of the time, but after a while, I began thinking of how we had been interacting today, and mostly how I was acting towards her. It was a strange feeling because, although she was my sister and I felt comfortable around her, I also felt awkward and a little sweaty at the same time. It was as if it was the normal, sibling feeling I had mixed with… the feeling of having a crush on somebody.

I thought back to everything I did that day regarding her as well as how I felt when I did those things for her, and it made sense. While many of the things were typical, caring sibling things anybody would have done for their scared sister, the reasoning behind many of the things were different than it should have been and the feelings I had while doing them were certainly not platonic. I couldn't believe myself. I had a crush on my sister. My twin. My literal other half.

I'm sick. I'm gross. I'm a horrible human being. She's my sister, I'm supposed to love her, not be in love with her. And yet, there I was. I couldn't figure out what to do. I obviously couldn't tell her and get it out of the way, she would be disgusted and never wanna talk to me again. But Mabel's not like that. She would certainly be a little weirded out, but she would love me all the same, just not the way I wanted. But if somebody found out, then we would be ruined. I would get bullied by everybody and she would get teased as the girl who's brother is in love with her.

I didn't know what to do and I could feel tears running up to my eyes out of frustration and fear. I could feel myself begin to shake, stirring Mabel from her nap. She sat up and looked at me in the eyes with confusion and worry.

"What's wrong, Dipper?" She quickly asked with fear in her voice.

I remained silent, unable to put my thoughts into words. She placed her hands on my shoulders.

"Dipper. What is wrong?"

"I… I can't tell you," was all I could spit out.

Mabel pulled me into a tight, loving hug. I hugged her back quickly.

"Why not?" She asked.

I smelled her aroma yet again, but it was a painful scent now, knowing that I was a creep for enjoying it. But why was I a creep? It's not like I decided to like her the way I do.

"I don't know…" I replied, fighting back tears.

"Oh Dipper…" she whispered, sadness pushing her words. "Please?"

"I can't." My voice was involuntarily muted.

Mabel held me close. I could see tears within her own eyes. It was painful to see, more so when I realised it was my fault.

"It's okay Dipper," she croaked. "I'm right here. I love you."

She kissed me on the cheek, which then went red along with the other. My brain went blank. I stared into Mabel's eyes and saw how worried and scared she was. I couldn't do this to her. She deserved to know. I closed my eyes and pressed my forehead to hers.

"I love you too, Mabel," I whispered. "I'm sorry. I–"

"Hot Belgian waffles, that's a storm," announced Gruncle Stan while he flung open the door to the living area of the shack. "What? Do we also not have pow– What on earth did you two do?"

Stan nearly dropped the groceries in his hands when he saw the massive pillow and blanket fort in the middle of his living room. His eyes must have still been adjusting to the inside as he didn't realise the tear stains on our cheeks, nor the redness of our eyes as we looked up at him. The lack of light in the room mixed with his old age probably did not help.

"Clean this up, now," Gruncle Stan ordered as he walked into the kitchen to put away what he had bought.

When Gruncle Stan was mad, Mabel and I knew it was best to just listen no matter what. While we knew that he wouldn't hurt either of us, Stan was still scary when he was angry. We quickly jumped up and began tearing down our fort and putting everything back from where we got it. Once we were done, I slowly slumped my way up into the attic to be away from everything without Mabel noticing. Stan had called her into the kitchen to help him put away the groceries.

I dropped onto my bed which was just as sad as I was considering the lack of bounces it provided me. I turned onto my back and stared at the ceiling, tears occasionally rolling down the sides of my face. I reanalyzed every part of our relationship, everything I had done for her, and how I had felt through all of it. I remembered many times of this empty feeling when I would see Mabel off with some other guy, and I hated the idea of being nothing more than just her sibling. I have a girl that I love and care about and desperately need to be with, and have gotten all of that with her in a way that it will never be how I need it to be.

I was stuck alone forever because I was in love with a girl I could never have yet would always be stuck with her as a reminder of that. There was a sudden knock at the door.

"Dipper?" Mabel asked from behind the door.

I didn't respond. I simply crawled under my blankets and hid my face. I couldn't let her see me like this, and I especially couldn't explain why I was like this. Yet, I was so close to getting it out before.

Mabel opened the door and shut it behind her as she entered the room.

"Dipper, please talk to me." I could hear the pain in her voice from seeing me so upset. I mumbled some gibberish that even I didn't understand.

Mabel sat down next to me on the bed and set her hand on my shoulder through the blanket. There was a sudden clap of thunder. I could her gasp in fear and immediately shot my torso up out of the blanket and latched my arms around Mabel to comfort her. She hugged me back, still shaking.

"I'm sorry," I whispered.

"For what?" Mabel asked, pulling back so she could look at my face. She didn't let go of me, though. "Dipper, what's wrong?"

"I…" I looked into her eyes and saw so many different emotions that I couldn't figure out a way to describe them all. All I knew was that I wanted them all to stop in an instant.

She stared back at me expectantly.

"I love you," I said simply.

"I love you too," Mabel said as she latched her arms around me again in a tight embrace.

I loved the feeling of her hugging me. She was easily one of the best huggers ever because she made me feel so warm and happy inside with just the most basic of gestures that anybody would give. Especially people who are close, like lovers or siblings…

"Wait," I said as I lightly pushed Mabel away enough so I could see her face. She looked almost hurt by me doing that, like she never wanted to let go of me. "That's not what I meant."

"What?" She asked. "What do you mean?"

"I mean…" my hands were trembling and my heart was racing. "I love you as more than just a sibling. I want to hold you close to me and let the entire world fall away, leaving nothing but us. I wanna kiss you deeply and hold that moment for an eternity. I want to lay with you on a cold winter night cuddled up together, and go for walks with you through enchanted Gravity Falls forests on warm summer days. I think you are easily the most beautiful girl to ever exist, and the most wonderful person ever. I wanna have my first everything be with you, including having you be my first girlfriend."

Mabel stared back at me, absolutely star-struck by what I had just told her. I was terrified about what was going through her head and what her next action would be. I was certain that she was gonna run out of the room and tell Gruncle Stan about what I'd said and I would be shunned by them and my parents. Or she would slap me and never talk to me again. Or she would pretend like it didn't bother her, and then slowly slip away from me and end our sibling relationship. But I never would have guessed in a million years what her actual next move was.

Mabel flung herself forward and kissed me right there, directly on the lips. I was taken aback by her sudden move and took several moments to reciprocate it. It was the most amazing feeling I had ever experienced. Her hugs were fantastic, this kiss was phenomenal and I never wanted it to end. I wrapped my arms around her and pulled her closer to me while our lips were still pressed together. It was my first kiss and I think she was still in the single digits in terms of kisses, so we were not the best kissers, but we didn't care. It was still amazing all the same and I had never been happier or felt warmer inside than I had at that moment. Sadly, we eventually had to break.

"Wow…" was all I could get out in between breaths.

"I love you too," Mabel said. "I always have, and I've wanted to tell you since forever, but I've always been too scared to because… you're my brother. I didn't want to gross you out and have you stop talking to me."

I looked at her tear-stained face with surprise. I pulled her into a tight hug.

"I didn't want that to happen with you either," I said, starting to tear up again.

She returned my hug quickly. I could hear her still sniffling, but I could feel her smile pressed against my shoulder.

"You know we can never tell anybody," I said, my voice weak.

"I know…" Mabel sighed. "But hey, we can be like super-secret spy boyfriend and girlfriend. Our dates could be like missions that we have to keep from our family and we can get a secret base that we use to go make out in."

I laughed at Mabel's cuteness. She always knew just what to do to cheer me up. I watched as she pulled away and reached into the drawer between our beds and pulled something out.

"And if anybody tries to make fun of my boyfriend for dating his sister, I'll use every spy's greatest tool!" She aimed the object in her hand towards the lamp on top of the drawer. "My trusty grappling hook!"

Mabel fired the hook through the lamp, shattering it all over the floor. We both laughed intensely and I pulled her into a warm hug. Power returned to the shack, allowing the above light in our room to turn on.

"I love you, Mabel," I said happily.

"I love you too, Broseph," Mabel replied. She gasped. "Wait, I can call you my brofriend!"