Chapter 2: Welcome to Oregon

Dipper spares Mabel another glance, honestly a little freaked out that she could be so cheery right after puking her guts up. What freaked him out more however, was how she could go right back to eating those gummy koalas. Shaking his head, he chuckles and places an open hand on the center console. Mabel looks over at him, cheeks stuffed with candy, before giving him a suspicious squint and placing a few gummies in his palm. Dipper looks down at his hand, a small snort escaping his nose. "Not what I was going for, but thanks Mabel" He chuckles, tossing the candy into his mouth before expectantly putting his hand right back where it was. She looks at him in confusion, before suddenly his intentions dawn on her. She practically slaps her hand down into his, happy to hold it.

"My dearest brother wants to hold hands with me?" She asks, putting on some sort of accent he couldn't identity for the life of him. "My, how scandalous, what will the neighbors think of such a... taboo display of affection?"

Dipper laughs again, "If this is a taboo display of affection then what do you call all of our making out earlier?" He asks.

Mabel scoffs, pretending to be offended, "Why, little brother, that was simply a loan of some lip gloss, applied second-hand"

"We're twins" He corrects her, not wanting to hear the 5 minute argument "And gotta say, the notion of sharing lip gloss like that is grosser than the idea of making out with my sister."

"Well that's because you like making out with your sister" She giggles "and to be fair, she likes it too."

Dipper can't help but laugh. "We're dorks" He says simply.

"What was your first clue?"

/\/\/\/\

After a few more hours of driving and another bag of gummy koalas gone, the sun was staring to set. Dipper eyes the clock, unsure of the best option. "Hey Mabes?" He asks gently, rousing her from a pretty good car nap.

"hmmm?" she mumbles, still properly waking up. "Whasit?"

"It's getting dark, at this rate we probably won't get to gravity falls until after midnight, and you know how Grunkle Stan gets when he's up past his bedtime" He explains "Soooo we have a couple options. We could either keep driving, and hope that Grunkle Ford is still awake to let us in, we could find a motel to stay the night in, or I have the tent in the trunk, we could set up camp off the road a bit and just spend the night like that."

Mabel scratches her chin as if stroking some beard she didn't have like a wise old wizard. "As tempting as camping sounds, I wooould like to shower. So I vote motel." She decides.

Dipper nods and pulls out his map of the area from in between his seat and the console. He unfolds the creased and coffee stained paper, and takes a moment to orient himself. "Alright then, the closest one to us is..." He takes a moment to read it, before his face drops, "The Love Bug."

Mabel suddenly looks like she's about to retch "Nope! We are not going back there! I don't want to have to burn any more of my sweaters!" She declares, looking at him dead serious "We are not going back to the Love Bug" she shudders.

"You don't need to tell me twice," Dipper agrees, sharing in how skeeved out she was, "It'd be more accurate if they called that place what it was, the Bed Bug."

"Fo 'sho" Mabel nods. "And for the record using the black light in the room last time was your idea, not mine."

"So should I get the tent out then?" He asks, putting the car into park on the shoulder of the road.

Mabel debates it in her head for a second, before deciding against it, "Nah, I can handle Grunkle Stan if he's cranky" She assures him, before lowering her voice to a whisper "I have dirt on him" she giggles.

Dipper casts her an intrigued look as he pulls back onto the road. "Dirt? Well c'mon spill it."

Mabel shakes her head "Nope! If he fails to meet my demands of not being a grump, then I will spill these beans of mine, but not a second earlier." She states, zipping her lips.

"You're the worst, you know that right?" He asks her.

"But you love me, don't you?" She shoots back.

"We both know the answer to that question" He answers her.

Her smile drops, replaced by an embarrassed look as she's unable to stop the next sentence from coming out of her mouth, "I know, but I really like hearing you say it." She admits.

Dipper's heart skips in his chest. Sure, they'd been together for four years, but the moments when Mabel really lowered her guard like that, those were his favorite, to get to see the side of her that nobody else did. "Well Mabel, I'll have you know, that despite you being the worst, I love you with all my heart."

Mabel throws her hands up to cover her blush, squealing as she stomps her feet against the floor of the car a few times. They said 'I love you' plenty often, but the times when he was really saying it always got to her. After a moment she manages to regain her composure, well, at least as much as she wanted to before looking over at Dipper. "Hey Dipper?"

"Yeah Mabel?"

"Do you ever think about the future?"

"Like, space ships and laser guns? Or do you mean our future?"

"Our future" She manages to squeak out.

"Well, kinda. I try to plan less, because I know it freaks you out, but I guess I do. Why? What's up?" He asks.

"Because I had an idea, and you can totally say no, or tell me I'm dumb-"

He cuts her off, "I will never tell you that you're dumb Mabel, never."

"Alright well, what if this time... we don't leave Gravity Falls?" She asks hopefully.

"You mean, you wanna move there permanently?" He clarifies.

"Maybe not permanently but..." She says, trying to find the right way to organize her thoughts "But Gravity Falls is a weird place, full of weird stuff and weird people. In a place like that, me and you, we wouldn't be that weird, we could just be us. I mean Grunkle Stan and Grunkle Ford already know. Candy and Grenda are close to figuring it out, I know Wendy and Soos, and Melody, and everyone would accept us, even if it's not right away and I'm just..." Her rambling slows down as she tears up "I'm just tired of hiding us Dipper."

Dipper looks at his sister, he knew she didn't like hiding, but she never told him it was weighing on her that much. "I'm tired of hiding too." He admits "Tell you what Mabes, how about while we're there this time, we tell everyone and if they accept us... then we stay."

She wipes her face, managing to look him in the eye. "You mean it?"

"I mean it, I promise"

Mabel breathes a sigh of relief, but before she can relax completely, there was one last thing she had to bring up. "Y-you know..." She stammers, trying and failing to get through the sentence. Damnit, they had talked about it before, but now that it was a possibility, it was just so real. "You know, it's legal there. We could... ya know"

Dipper smiles "Oh trust me, I know"

/\/\/\/\

It was around 11:45 when they pulled up the gravel drive to the Mystery Shack. After their talk in the car, Mabel had put on one of the numerous mix CDs she'd made for Dipper, though he had his doubts on who the music selection was really for. They'd made minimal stops, and by that they stopped every forty-five minutes or so to get Mabel more snacks, and by the time they finally passed the Gravity Falls sign they had crashed through during their run from the gnomes, she was as hopped up as Dipper had even seen her (barring the smile-dip incident of course.)

As Dipper puts the car into park and turns off the engine, the silence envelopes them. He looks to Mabel, unbuckling his seatbelt in order to lean over and plant a kiss on her forehead. After that, they both get out of the car, and Dipper takes it upon himself to get the bags out of the back. Mabel has to stifle a laugh as she watches him struggle with her incredibly heavy duffel. It was sweet that he always wanted to be the strong one for her, but she was the one packing real muscle and they both knew it. That being said, she wasn't about to stop him from carrying her bag. As he grapples with the bags, Mabel walks up up to the front door of the shack and lays one of the hardest knocks Dipper had ever heard against the wood.

"GRUNKLE STAN! GRUNKLE FORD! LET US IN!" She shouts, the door opening only a second later, a crotchety old man in a tank top and boxers answering the door.

"Geez kid it was unlocked, you could have let yourself in" Stan sighs "No need to shout to half the neighborhood"

"It was what?!" A voice calls from the other room "Stanley you know you can't just leave it unlocked what if someone came to steal my res-" The voice cuts off as it's revealed to be Ford "Well hello Mabel" He says, his voice growing far softer "How's my favorite niece?"

"I'm faaantastic Grunkle Ford!" Mabel announces, with a dramatic thumbs up.

Stan looks past Mabel to Dipper, not buying it. "Dipper! How much sugar has she had?"

"Not enough or too much, depending on which one of us you ask" He replies, dropping the bags on the porch for just a second to give both of his Grunkles a hug, which Mabel quickly jumps in on "We missed you guys" He admits.

Stan looks to the side, embarrassed with displaying any sort of affection. "Yeah yeah, well, we missed you too." He mutters with a cough.

As his niece and nephew release him, Stan clears his throat again "Alright well, your room is just the way you left it last time. Are you really sure you don't want a bigger bed? Just you know..." He coughs awkwardly.

"We're sure Grunkle Stan, thank you for offering though" Dipper replies before Mabel can. He'd done enough for them, they couldn't ask him to spend all that money on new furniture.

"Alright well it's late, and as much as I'd love to catch up with you kids, today's been a busy day, so I'm off to bed." Stan says before turning around and retreating to his room.

Ford chuckles and calls after him "You're getting old Stanley!"

"Yeah yeah, so are you sixer!"

With that, Ford wished the twins a good night and left for his own room.

Dipper leans over and plants a quick kiss on the top of Mabel's head, her secret weak spot, before picking their bags back up and starting towards the stairs. Mabel closes the door behind her and trots up the stairs after him. Dipper crosses the boundary into their attic bedroom first, dumping the bags on what used to be his bed. Mabel sneaks up behind him as he unzips the bags for both of them, and she sneaks her arms around his waist "You know, I really love you Dipper" She says softly, the grogginess in her voice making it clear that she was crashing from her sugar rush. "I don't know what I'd do without you."

A smile spreads across his face, turning around in her arms to face her. "Where'd that come from sweetheart?" He asks gently.

Mabel's heart flutters at the term of endearment, they so rarely got to use them. She places his hand over her heart "Right here" She says quietly.

Don't ruin this moment don't ruin this moment don't ruin this moment Dipper chokes back a laugh crap.

Mabel looks up at him with an angry pout.

"I'm sorry!" He manages to get out before breaking into a laugh "I love you so much, but that is the corniest thing you've ever said!" He laughs, pressing his forehead against hers.

A small chuckle escapes from Mabel's lips as well, finally giving in to his arms and surrendering her weight against him.

"C'mon Mabel, let's get to bed" He says softly.

Yeah, bed sounded nice.

/\/\/\/\

Well folks ,that's chapter 2 for you. I promise we'll be getting into the real meat of the fic going forward!

Don't forget to RR! -Astranamay