Slices of Life and Family

by bluefrostyy

PART 3 of The life of Sebastian Pines! (Read that first, I doubt you'll understand what's going on) The story follows Seb's life after Gravity Falls. Bill was defeated, but the Pines family still have thousands of adventures together. Old characters will come back, new characters will make an appearance, all to accompany Seb through his journey as a human (Cowritten with Mizuuma)

34. Chapter 34 A date?

Sorry for taking so long. College and instagram! I have an account there Bluefrostyy, please follow!

Notes:

Miz: The Island is something MizBill created before they went to Jersey, it was in IiR.
If you haven't read it, MizBill didn't like the inmigrant child internment camps in Shlumps government, and decided to teleport all the children to safety onto an Island that she created. It's in a hidden glade-like area behind the waterfall in Gravity Falls.

Drawing in Tumblr! Please enjoy!

---

Miz commented to Ford that she wanted to check up on the Island. She wanted to use some of what she'd learned from observing the Heeyatl Pak's (that was the name of Max's tribe, while his species were called the Eix Leel) hidden ocean-side territory. A whole magical realm, in another sub-dimension, with all the space needed to nurture and breed the wild animals (fish) in the huge ocean beyond their lands. So… she wanted to do that with the Island. It was a hidden Glade, much like the unicorns had, in that it was grounded in place, a separate dimension that was perfectly stable. And, well… the size wasn't an issue. Miz could expand it as much as she needed.

Miz had given Ownership to Stan, Ford, Fiddleford and Sebastian. So she needed their permission to do any changes. The triplets agreed easily enough, but she had to ask Fiddleford for the last one. So Stanford would accompany her on a teleport back to Gravity Falls after a long day of Miz (as Xin) going to all the restaurants and eating their food challenges, stockpiling his energy stores (and thoroughly enjoying himself.)

It was just after dinner now, and Xin was rubbing his full stomach, sighing at the burning under his skin. Even with how quick he digested… he ate way too much in one sitting and his physical form was having trouble handling it. Ford noticed the discomfort in his expression as he finished his own meal. "Are you alright? Do you have a stomach ache?"

"...a little…" Xin groaned, rubbing his stomach. "I can feel things churning around inside, tearing apart and releasing so much… heat." This wasn't like that one lunch visit to a buffet, this was an entire day of gorging himself on high calorie foods. Ford watched Xin groaned softly and reached out to pull Xin's chair closer to his own. "Here, I can rub your belly for you."

Xin blinked. "Um… okay?" Ford quickly explained, "I know some stomach massages to help with digestion and bloating? I ah… looked it up." He shrugged sheepishly. "I just thought, well, even if you digest things differently from humans, you still only have so much room in your physical stomach. So…"

"Alright, sure. Get over here and start soothing me!" Xin chuckled before groaning and placing a hand on his stomach. Ford rolled his eyes fondly as he moved his chair behind Xin's, reaching around quite easily with his arms and placing his hands on Xin's stomach. The dragon groaned softly as Ford rubbed around, pressing here and there. The dragon relaxed, leaning back in his chair as Ford caressed his swollen stomach. Slowly, his stomach broke apart all the physical aspects of the food back into its atomic elements and Xin leaned his head back into Ford's shoulder, eyes closed and relaxed.

"Enjoying yourself?" Ford asked, the grin in his tone quite clear. Xin mumbled, feeling the energy fill up his reservoirs until full. The excess could be forced into his stores (which was a little painful, what with the burning) or converted back into mass and spread through his physical vessel into his fat stores, and (not wanting to feel that itchy burning) Xin groaned softly as he felt his clothes tighten around his body as the excess was all dumped into his vessel. Ford's brows creased as the belly he was touching seemed to shift, the painfully tight swell of the stomach all but vanishing as Xin's lower abdomen began to swell up. "What's…" Ford moved his hands lower and pressed his fingers into the soft skin. He felt around, confused about the change in mass, at the new tightness in Xin's pants as the creases were all smoothed out by his growing thighs. "Did you just…" Ford glanced down at how tightly Xin's pants were clinging to his butt, the poor fabric straining. "Turn all your food into fat?"

"D-don't point it out!" Xin wailed, pulling his shirt down to cover his round belly. "It- I needed to store it somewhere !" He was bright red, slapping Ford's hands away. "Do-don't you dare laugh!"

Ford blinked owlishly and peered around Xin's shoulder to look down at what his hands had felt. "...did you just gain ten pounds?" He sputtered incredulously.

Face entirely red now, Xin mumbled, "...twelve…"

"...That must have been a lot of energy, if the conversion into actual physical matter ended up being so much…" Ford marveled. Xin deadpanned, "I just ate a ten pound burger challenge and then you ordered some cake just so you could eat it in front of me! So I ordered some fries and a few subs to make myself feel better over not being allowed to have any dessert- and then the owner of the shop gave me a free smoothie- which you said didn't count as dessert so I drank that too- And this was after I spent today eating the food challenges at five other locations." Only gaining twelve pounds after all that only showed how much his internal storage had grown. Though… it appeared he still needed more. Things were so much harder in this Set than his own, where he could simply toss off his physical vessel at any time if he wanted the room to stretch out. Well, no biggie. More Deals shouldn't be hard. (He also could, technically, expand his Mindscape, and turn more of the energy into parts of himself , but he didn't feel like doing that, since he was planning on using up this energy, he didn't want it to be part of himself. That'd result in the same issue as back home, where he could feel everything that was made from him. It was the reason why he stored excess energy inside vessels here, because he wanted the energy to be seperated from his Self) "Look, can we just go already?" Xin huffed, still pulling his shirt down in some futile effort to hide his belly. Ford chuckled. "Alright, lets go so you can work off everything you ate today." He teased, patting Xin's belly.

"...don't think I won't eat you for pushing your luck Fordsie." Xin huffed, crossing his arms. Ford laughed, getting up and taking a few steps away, pausing when he realized Xin wasn't following. "What's wrong?"

Xin wasn't looking at him, but his embarrassment had apparently gotten so bad that his scales were beginning to peek through, Ford could see them spreading along the sides of the dragon's neck. "...uck…" Xin mumbled.

"What was that?" Ford raised an eyebrow.

"...I'm stuck…." Xin whined, pushing at the arms of the chair and wiggling. His thighs were firmly lodged into the sides of the chair. Ford burst out laughing, and didn't stop even when Xin whined harder and started trying to kick him, "DAMMIT FORDSIE IT'S NOT FUNNY!"

Fiddleford checked his phone to see the time. Stanford said that he and Xin were coming over soon. He frowned. They were late, but then again, apparently they were gonna be heading over from Jersey, so maybe Stanford had forgotten to take into account the time difference between the east and west coast…

Then he heard a… soft noise and there was his best friend. "Ah, Stanford, you're here." Fiddleford smiled. The brunet man grinned back, his smile twitching oddly. "Yes, sorry for being late F, there was a bit of an issue with… ah…"

"Shut up shut up shut up~!" Xin whined, slapping Ford's shoulder as the taller man held back his laughter.

Fiddleford nodded at the other man. "Ah, right, so you're here for the… permission from me, to modify the Island?" Xin stopped his ineffectual 'punishment' on Ford to address the mechanic. "Yup. I'm gonna expand the space, more ocean for more habitat for the fish to breed, need to make sure there's enough to properly sustain a population. Also wanted to get an update from you about what's been happening there."

"Right, well, you have my permission to add these upgrades to the Island." Fiddleford nodded.

"Thank you." Xin said gratefully. "Oh right, I meant to ask, have you gotten sanitary pads and stuff for the women on the island? And birth control?"

"...wh-what?" Fiddleford blinked and then nodded. "Y-yes we did. Dr. Wexler pointed those out ta me." Xin slumped against Ford, relieved at this. "Thank you. I realized I didn't create any for them- stupid me, should have remembered." He straightened up and patted Ford's shoulder. "Well, let's go. I have a lot of redecorating to do!"

"And some weight to lose." Ford couldn't help but tease, which earned him a slap from Xin's tail (which was suddenly out and writhing behind the annoyed dragon.) "It's not funny!" Xin stormed off, not even bothering to hide his antlers and scales as they seeped out past his human form. As he passed the edge of the unicorn barrier, Xin threw off the clasps around his wrists and the items turned to dust as they hit the ground. Stupid barrier, so much trouble.

Ford winced and jogged to catch up to his friend. "I'm sorry if I took it too far. I didn't mean it like that!" He caught up to Xin and took his hand. "Xin? I'm sorry." He said clearly, not realizing Xin was so upset by his teasing. The dragon sniffled. "It's embarrassing, ok?!" He rubbed his belly with one hand. "I keep-" He paused, unsure how to explain himself. "I was underweight for most of my life. A-and once I finally put on some weight to get up to something healthier-" He tightened his grip on Ford's hand, even as they left the Center and walked into the woods. "-mom called me fat…"

Ford was very taken aback. "Wanda-"

"No, not Wanda. My other mom." Xin shook his head. He wiped at his eyes. "A-and I don't think she meant it like she was criticizing me- but it- I didn't like it. I didn't like that she thought I was healthier when I was-" Xin had to stop and breathe. "...I was 88 pounds for the longest time, all through high school and collage… it's… it's not healthy to be that underweight." He sniffled. "And w-when I finally got myself up- and she made me feel bad about it…" and all of society strove to make her feel bad about it-

"Oh Xin…" Ford wrapped his arms around the dragon and rested his chin on his shoulder, rubbing his back. "I didn't mean to make you feel like that-" He assured him. "I…" Ford blushed. "I actually think it's… cute…" He admitted. Xin looked up at him, "Really?" He sounded a little skeptical.

"Yes, well, I mean- th-that is to say-" Ford stuttered. Xin leveled a stare at him. Ford sweated as he tried to backtrack. "What I mean is you're always cute- no- that's- ah- wait, lemme try that again-" Ford covered his face with a hand to hide his blush. "You're-" He felt like his tongue wasn't listening to him, Ford worked his jaw, trying to get his thoughts (and words) in order.

"It's fine." Xin rolled his eyes at the flustered owl. "I think I get it?" He patted Ford's cheek and smiled. "Quit trying to talk before you end up choking on your tongue." He laughed, wiping the rest of the half formed tears from his eyes.

Ford sighed in relief. "Oh, yea-yeah…" his relief was short lived.

"So you think I'm cuuuuute~?" Xin giggled, skipping ahead of him down the path.

Ford started sputtering again, and even worse now. "Xiiiin!" Ford complained with a groan, making the dragon laugh.

Back at the Center, in the security room, Fiddleford and a few of Ford's other scientist friends were watching the interaction on the cameras that Fiddleford had set up around the forests of Gravity Falls, a precaution after Tyler got lost in there a few summers ago. They couldn't hear what was being said but they could see the way their boss enfolded the shorter man in a hug from behind and rocked him gently. Dr. Poddar smacked the table. "I knew they were dating!"

"That isn't proof!" Dr. Jerald complained. "You just don't wanna pay up!" was the indignant response. Dr. Wexler hummed as she and Fiddleford peered at the screen. The mechanic turned to glance at the chemist. "Dating or not, there's definitely something there."

"They have to be! I mean, they were having S&M in the BREAKROOM!"

"I still think you were seeing things, dude."

Fiddleford rubbed his chin. "Stanford always did have a thing for cryptids…"

The other scientists stopped squabbling to gawk at their co-boss. ""REALLY?!""

"Ask him about Sirens sometime." Fiddleford shrugged. Dr. Clark looked like he was choking. "Sirens… and a dragon!?"

"Damn, the guy likes them dangerous , huh?" Dr. Wexler looked almost impressed. "Didn't take mister 'too shy to even find a place to sit in the cafeteria he owns' for such a thing."

Fiddleford could have corrected them, but he found this all too funny. If Xin were there, he'd have given Fiddles a high five.

"Well let's leave 'em alone to their privacy, now?" Fiddleford shut off the camera feed. "Come on everyone, back to work."

"So he's Ace for humans but horny for cryptids." Dr. Clark folded his arms and nodded solemnly. "I can respect that."

"..." Everyone stared at him.

"You're weird, dude." Dr. Poddar deadpanned.

The Islanders had gotten used to people coming and going, but when the Care Units all bowed their heads to Xin and called him "Creator." they sank to their knees as well before the man- no, before their savior! Xin looked a little uncomfortable, and it wasn't from the fact that the Islanders were worshiping him, it was because their worship of him was sending him even MORE energy that he couldn't hold onto. Not in this tiny human-sized vessel.

Long story short, Xin was forcibly shifted back into his dragon form from the force of the worship, which only awed the Islanders even MORE to realize their savior was a DRAGON (long, serpentine and feathered! Just like the legends said!) and Xin was incredibly flustered when they all started calling him Quetzalcoatl-

"What the heck?! I thought you guys were Catholic?!" Xin sputtered as his new worshipers cheered and thanked him. "Fordsie~! Help~!"

Ford was no help whatsoever. "Well." The scientist calmly cleaned his glasses. "Your father IS the Axolotl after all-"

"I'M CHINESE FOR FUCK'S SAKE!" Xin wailed.

"I wouldn't be surprised they still have that legend in mind," Ford grinned. "And you ARE a God, and you DID save them… oh lord Quetzalcoatl~" He whispered teasingly.

"You all suuuuuuuck~!" Xin whined.

He set to work fixing up the Island quickly after that, wanting to be done and out and away from their worshiping gazes (which only made their awe of him all the greater as they watched the majestic dragon expand the very ocean and fill it with fish and other bounty with merely a gesture). The care units also gave Xin an update of what was needed here in terms of supplies and such, which Xin also handled. The poor dragon had his tail down, flustered to hell and back as the people continued chanting "Quetzalcoatl!" at him. "Mi nombre es Xin!" He wailed.

That only made them chant, "Xin! Xin! Gracias, nuestro salvador Xin!"

"...at least they're getting my name right now…" The dragon complained as he nuzzled the fruit trees that Blue had grown, taking comfort in them. His large body was trailing all across the island as he picked his way around carefully to reach the spots he had to work on.

Ford jumped onto his back with ease that came from practice, and laid down there to watch him work, amused. So amazing~

"Stop being so smug up there! Don't think I can't feel it!" Xin growled up at him. Then the dragon squeaked. "The children are climbing on my tail!" He held very still, praying for the parents to get the kids off.

"Gran dragón, ¿por qué dejas que el gringo te monte?" One of the adults asked. Xin huffed. And then, just to get back at Ford for laughing at his predicament, answered, "Él limpia mis escamas, es mi sirviente."

The Islanders nodded at that, a few of them snickering behind their hands.

Xin finished asking them about what else they needed and made the necessary adjustments and upgrades to the island. Finally, he bid them farewell and winced at the surge of worship. At this rate, he wouldn't need to eat tomorrow! And then Xin ducked down and squeezed his way through the tunnel to leave the Island. He sighed once they were back in Gravity Falls. "Well, I'm sure brother's Sixer would be so angry with me over what just happened, never mind the fact that I derived no joy in it."

"...that other me IS a paranoid son of a bitch." Ford admitted, petting Xin's antler absently. "...and seems to hate the fact that you're a god."

"More like 'refuses to believe it could be in any way benevolent'." Xin rolled his eyes as he picked his way through the trees, his magic making his paws float a tiny bit off the ground, as they had been back on the island, so as not to crush anything beneath his massive weight. He was churning with too much energy, he didn't want to shrink back down. It was more comfortable to be big like this. But he couldn't go back to the hotel like this! He wouldn't fit!

Xin rumbled low in his throat and decided to just spend the night in Gravity Falls. He'd go to sleep, head home to his own set to drop off all this excess energy, and then come back tomorrow morning. Plan made, Xin made his way back to the Center. Ford blinked. "Oh, are we going to tell Fiddleford that we're done?" Xin re-materialized his Seal again, clasping it around an antler this time.

"I'm going to bed." Xin huffed as he slithered past the barrier and ducked his head to get in the doorway. Ford peered down from where he was perched between the dragon's antlers. "...here?"

"Well I can't calm down enough to go back into a human form. So I'm going to sleep here." Xin snorted, stopping to scratch himself, damn tree leaves brushing along his belly tickled! It'd been bothering him for the past few minutes. "We'll head back tomorrow morning." And with that, they were in the Center again, with some workers leaving for the night (and staring, jaws dropped, at the LITERAL dragon). Ford waved at them. "Good evening, and thank you for your work today." He told them all. The staff nodded dumbly. Right… cryptids were real. Dragons were real. What was so surprising anyway? They walked away quickly, careful to steer clear of those large paws, and sharp claws.

(Xin kept quiet about how being so much bigger than other people made him feel smug inside. This was his own guilty pleasure.)

Xin bent down and slithered inside the Center, his bulk filled the hallways, but he could fit just fine. He easily made his way to Ford's lab, it was large enough to fit him, and he was curling up to sleep anyway. Xin wiggled his head through the door, this part was a tighter fit, he turned his head to get his antlers in as Ford slid down his body like a particularly bumpy slide. Ford waved at Fiddleford as the other man passed by in the hallways. "Good evening F. We're spending the night here. Xin can't change back at the moment."

Fiddleford blinked slowly up at his friend. Then at Xin's lower half as he wiggled around, trying to fit through the door. He opened his mouth, paused. Closed it and paused again. "Well, try not to bring the building down." Fiddleford finally said, his tone like a desert in the peak of drought.

"Ah, right." Ford turned back and pulled on Xin's tail. "Xin! Stop wiggling like that before you break something!"

"...I think I'm stuck." Was the muffled response. And looking at the doorway to Ford's lab, you could clearly see that Xin's larger hind legs and hips were not fitting through the doorway. Not without some help at least. Ford sighed. "Ok, hang on while I push. I think you can make it, you just need to rotate your hips this way…"

And Fiddleford turned to walk away because he was too tired to deal with this. Let Ford handle his dragon friend on his own.

"Come on, I'm going to push, just stretch your left leg back and twist your hips!" Ford placed his hands on the dragon's underside and pushed. Xin squawked, "Where are you touching?!" as his tail writhed around. "Sorry, I'm just trying to-" He pushed again, heading towards the middle, underneath the arch of Xin's tail. The dragon squealed, "Quit pushing between my legs!"

"Where am I supposed to push?!"

The two struggled a bit more, both idiots missing the obvious answer of 'make the doorway bigger', before Xin laid down in the hallway, still half in and out of the lab. "I'm just going to sleep here. Good night." The pout was so clear in his tone that Ford could practically SEE it. "Then where am I supposed to sleep?" Ford whined, leaning against Xin's (warm) tail. "Just sleep on the floor." was Xin's unhelpful answer. "That's what I'm doing."

"Nah, I'm going to the break room." Ford got up to begin walking away, but paused when he heard the whimpering. "Nooo! Don't leave me here alone!" Xin thrashed again. Ford patted his tail. "Ok, I won't leave. I'm right here."

Right, Xin didn't like sleeping alone. Ford should have remembered. He winced at the distressed whine. He patted Xin's tail again, "I'm here, I'm right here. I'm not going to leave you alone." He soothed.

"...Really?" Came the quiet, almost subdued question. Ford nodded, before realizing Xin probably couldn't see it. (The Center was shielded against Scrying now.) "Yes, I'm going to be right here." Ford looked around and pulled at Xin's tail, dragging the long appendage around to make a makeshift bed for himself. "See? I'm going to sleep right here."

"Really, really?" Xin asked, curling his tail around where he could feel Ford. Ford patted the tail, smoothing down the feathers on the end (and marveling at how soft they were), "Yes. Really." He nudged the tail around, laying down on top and pulling the tip and it's feathers over himself like a warm blanket.

"...promise you won't leave me alone?"

Ford yawned, feeling rather tired from the long day. He nodded, wiggling around to get more comfortable. "Yeah, promise…" He relaxed on the (surprisingly) comfortable scales, nodding sleepily. Xin didn't respond for a while, and Ford figured he must have fallen asleep. Then, even quieter, so much so that Ford wasn't sure if he was imagining it, Xin asked, "You really mean that?"

"Yes, I'm staying right here to sleep." Ford rolled over snuggling into the soft feathers.

"...oh. Okay…." Xin sounded… a little strange. "Good night Fordsie."

"G'night Xin…" Ford slurred, drifting away comfortably.

There was a bit of a small problem the next day. Or rather, a big problem.

"What do you mean you can't change back?" Ford rubbed his face.

Xin had wiggled out of Ford's lab and was currently in the huge cafeteria, curled around an entire table and attracting all sorts of stares from the other employees. The dragon huffed. "Well, the Islanders seem to be praying to me. They've collectively decided it would be their daily routine from now on." He grumbled. The dragon shook his head, ruffling his feathers. "And human worship is so much more… potent, than the flavor I get from other species. I can't risk changing back into a smaller form until I can adjust to the difference." Xin laid his head on the table, blinking at Ford. "Can't have me suddenly transforming into my dragon form out of nowhere, right?"

Ford groaned. "Well, what am I supposed to do with you like this?! You barely fit anywhere and we can't have people seeing you!"

Xin stared at Ford and then slid his gaze over to the many, many people pointing and gawking at him. "Riiiiiiight, no letting people see me." The dragon gave one of the nearby scientists a raised feather and the guy almost dropped his tray. ("Holy shit! A real dragon?!")

Ford looked around at his co-workers and shrugged. "Oh, that's completely different and you know it~" He poked Xin's side with a half formed pout. The dragon wiggled. "Can your perception filter block… all this?" Ford waved his arms at Xin helplessly. The dragon scoffed. "Of course! But I won't be able to fit back into the hotel…" He sighed. The one upside was that he wasn't hungry… even if he still wanted to eat, just to taste stuff.

"Well, I guess you'll have to sleep outside for a while." Ford chuckled. "And don't worry. I'll be there...so you won't be alone. Like I promised." The scientist told the pouting dragon. This made him relax.

Xin purred and nudged Ford. "Hm… pet me?" He batted his eyelashes and Ford rolled his eyes. But he did reach out his hand to begin stroking Xin's snout. The dragon continued purring, closing his eyes in bliss.

The scientists watched the interaction, gaping. So the rumors were true...the dragon nudged closer to Ford, who in return hugged the warm, soft snout. "You're like some giant kitty." Ford cooed as he scratched along Xin's feathers, trailing a hand down one of Xin's antlers. The purring did remind Ford of a cat, and the slit pupils. But weren't dragons reptiles? No, Xin was warm blooded, despite the snake-like appearance. Ford kept making his observations as he began to climb up Xin's head to continue scratching him.

Ford laughed when Xin helped him get on top and he continued rubbing and scratching. This was so nice. His hands felt nice and warm and the dragon's heat was making his face go red. He was imagining doing this after working with Xin on a new project, or after exploring an unknown mystery with him, after a session, just curling up together every day and stroking his mane-

The purring rumble of the dragon was sending pleasant sensation all over Ford as he straddled Xin's head, to pet him properly. Then Ford froze, catching his thoughts, clamping his legs up and together and losing his grip as another sensation made itself known.

-and fell the 2 meters back to the floor with a thud. The people around winced at the wanted to check on their boss, but...dragon.

"Fordsie? You okay?" Xin nudged him with his snout. Ford nodded, trying very hard to hide his face, he could feel how warm it was, he was blushing so hard. "I-I'm fine! Yes! Perfectly fine!" He tried not to think about the warmth tingling around him. Damn his body reacting to the vibrating sensation! Ford told himself it was merely a physical reaction to vibrations being applied between his legs. It was his own fault for sitting right on top-

"Are you sure you're alright? That fall looked pretty bad?" Xin nudged him again and Ford waved a hand. "I'm fine! But I think I should pet you from the safety of the floor, from now on."

"As long as you don't stop doing that wonderful thing with your fingers, I'm okay with that." Xin purred, lying his head down on top of Ford's legs, careful not to crush him, "Wouldn't want you to break your wittle fragile human meatsack~" He nuzzled against Ford's chest as the scientist rolled his eyes. "Yes well, when there's a difference in size to this extent-"

"I could make you bigger?" Xin teased. "Or you could borrow Dipper's grow-shrink flashlight?"

"Ah-hah!" Ford gasped. Xin blinked at him. "What? You wanna try giant Ford time?"

"No, we can just use the flashlight to shrink you!" Ford grinned, like that would solve everything. Xin groaned. "Not… really… I mean… you could shrink me, but I'd just have less room to hold energy and we'd be back to the original problem."

Ford slumped over, lifting his glasses to massage his eyes. "Fuck." Xin laughed. "Sooo~ giant sized you? Yes or no?"

"We SHOULD be getting back to Jersey is what we should be doing." Ford groaned, scratching Xin's nose. "But you're dragon-sized and can't...What easy ways can you burn your energy, my dear dragon?" It's not like he wanted to go back exactly, he'd love to go to his lab for a while, but one, he couldn't do that because Xin , and two, Seb and Stan would claim he cheated doing work and be angry at him and he didn't have the energy to deal with those two right now.

"I could make you giant." Xin repeated. Ford groaned. "What is it with you and transforming me?"

"...it's fun." Xin admitted.

"Hm. Being a giant isn't really in my top list of wishes."

"Then, what DO you wanna be? I'm open to requests?" Xin swished his tail back and forth, making some people scream and duck. ("Watch it!")

"Can't you burn energy like, running around? Like Seb and his kids do?"

"Our powers don't work the saame~" Xin whined. "His weirdness energy is not independent... And he'd cry like a baby if his energy was stored in his body like mine!" In fact, he used to go through awful agony because of that.

"Then burn little things." Ford passed him a napkin to incinerate. Xin whined again. "Burning it that way would take aaageesss!" His tail continued swinging around, knocking the least coordinated scientists down. ("Sir! Please take him out of the Center~!") "And that's a huge waste of resources! Burning things that don't need to be burnt is a waste and contributes to air pollution!"

"I'm sure it's not quite that bad." Ford rubbed his face, at least this talk gave him time to regain his composure. Though… Ford looked over at Xin again, watching the way the dragon wiggled his butt back and forth, sweeping his tail across the room. "But perhaps we should move this outside…"

("Dude, where's his dick? I can't see anything underneath-" "What the fuck man?!" "What? It's a freaking dragon! Why wouldn't I try to examine his anatomy?! It's the biologist in me!")

Xin whined loudly when he heard them and Ford smiled sheepishly before patting the dragon. "You know, let's go outside."

They stayed in the backyard of the center with a perception filter on. The tourists WERE still around after all. Though judging by Dipper's comments, tourists couldn't tell the fakes from anything real.

Xin was pouting, still feeling the energy inside him. Ford was pouting as he tried to think of a solution. They were still here and no progress…

He...was going to have to take one for the team...wasn't he? He thought with despair. "Fine, if… if you made me a giant, and then shrank me back to normal, would that use up your energy?"

Xin pawed at the ground. "Well, yes. But I'll have a surge of energy from their morning prayers tomorrow and then this'll happen again."

"Can't you just tell them to… not pray to you?"

"Worship is an internal thing. If they think about me, and hold me in their thoughts as a god to devote themselves to, I'm gonna feel it. Heck, I've been feeling short bursts from them all day." Xin grumbled.

"It's hard to be a god, huh?" Ford paced as he thought on what to do!

"...yeah, kinda? I mean, it feels kinda good, at first. But it's like eating too much ice cream, I end up feeling kinda sick if I can't process it all. And full." Xin huffed. "But at least worship isn't lust energy, yeesh, that stuff SUCKS!"

Ford raised an eyebrow. "Lust energy?"

"Yeah, it makes me super horny and stuff. Like, hornier than usual. It seriously sucks." Xin grumbled. "Bad enough whenever I have dumb physical stuff on my own, I don't… mind them, but I like to deal with them in my own time, ya know?"

Ford couldn't believe he was having this conversation. "R-right…"

"I mean, don't you get pent up and need to let off some steam sometimes?" Xin asked, tilting his head. Ford coughed, face red. "W-well, my body, unfortunately, does experience certain urges...in...rare occasional situations. But I merely… ah, as you put it, let off some steam, and then go back to my work." Ford pulled at his shirt, right, it was summer, that's why it was so warm in here.

"You know, I never even thought about what would happen if I had a worshipper who also lusted for me?" Xin realized. "You think that'd double the sensational output? What should I do if something like that happened?"

"...I wouldn't know." Ford answered honestly. Xin lounged on the grass, his tail swishing around absently. "I guess, Jan's fans would be considered that type, wouldn't they? I don't normally have to deal with them directly, so it's not that much of an issue. Unless I'm having a concert, then the lust is just… everywhere!" He shook his head. "One good thing about being here, being outside my Set makes it so I don't have to feel the tiny blips of worship and lust from my fans." He could probably just send them into a bubble so he didn't have to deal with it, but power was power and it'd be a waste to not take what they freely gave, right? Xin huffed. Fordsie was right. Life as a god was hard. "Hey Fordsie…" Xin rumbled, nudging Ford with his snout. "Can I drain the carbon from the sky and terraform the earth to heal the messed up climate?"

"That's way too intense." Ford deadpanned. "I'd love to let you do that, but it has to occur slower or it can mess up the climate even worse and cause other consequences...Besides…" He nudged Xin's snout softly. "You already said you were going to help me on that, it was already my plan to fix the climate~" He smiled softly.

The dragon pouted, and Ford was surprised to see that he managed such an expression with his muzzle. "I know, I'm just impatient." He wiggled his butt back and forth. (And also decided he would just go and do that, slowly pull the carbon from the atmosphere, that is.) A few scientists from the center were sneaking out to try and examine the dragon. ("So, eastern and western dragons look different in mythology, and Xin is clearly asian, so they really don't have wings.")

"Hey~Go back to work you fools! Shoo!" Ford waved his arms around and the scientists grumbled at being ordered to leave. Xin couldn't help but wiggle his butt even more at how Fordsie was protecting him from those scientists' curious eyes and grabby hands. Ford sighed. "You look like you're about to pounce." Ford noted. Xin lidded his eyes at him. "I just might~" He sang. Ford sighed. "You're feeling hyperactive, aren't you?"

"Yeeees~" Xin moaned, "I wanna DO something! Play? Fly? Rampage?"

"No rampaging." Ford said instantly. "Look, how about we go back to Jersey, you can swim in the ocean, maybe make me g-giant… only for a few minutes-"

"I could turn you into a dragon too~" Xin's feathers flexed, the dragon leaning in and pressing his snout against Ford's chest. "I'm sure you'd make quite the handsome one~"

"A dragon?"

"You'd help me even mooreee with my energy problem. And I wouldn't even have to mess with your actual body, could just take you out and put you in a vessel, building a neeeew vessel would take even more energy than to simply make you bigger~" The dragon purred, nuzzling him. Then to sweeten the pot, he whispered, "For science ~"

Ford's face morphed into a distressed expression. (Even as another part of him also whispered -For science~)

-.-

They had gone deeper into the woods, much to the scientists' disappointment. Ford's hands were fidgeting nervously as Xin wiggled and practically jumped up and down like a very excited puppy.

"William, I'm not very sure about this anymore…" Ford bit his lip.

"I'm sure!" Xin purred. "I'll teleport your body somewhere safe, like maybe back in the hotel room, and then I build a dragon vessel for you!"

"Why do I have to be in the vessel?!"

"Because it's more fun that way! Who would play with me otherwise? Don't you wanna be a draaaaaaagon~? You'd have your own scales to analyze~ and tail~ and snout~"

Ford's face was bright red. But..He had been outside his body before (in a much more embarrassing form), and Xin...he trusted him with his body. Well, within reason. Ahem. But… being a dragon? Ford wasn't sure if-

"Come on Fordsie~please~"

Ford sighed. "Fine. But, be careful."

"Don't worry~" Xin purred against Ford. "I'll be gentle~"

That didn't reassure Ford at all.

"...oh. Wow… I'm… I'm a dragon…" Ford held himself very still, oh Tesla he was so big! And… Ford glanced behind himself, marvelling at how his neck was so… long. He was also very different from Xin! For one, he had WINGS! And he didn't have those long whisker-like things Xin had. Oh science~! Be still his heart!

Xin lounged on some rocks nearby, the two dragons were on a rocky mass in the middle of the ocean, so as not to cause trouble for the people at the beach. Xin was admiring how handsome Ford's dragon form turned out. A western styled dragon, yes. With deep blue scales and dark brown spines all along his back.

"Why-Why do I look...like this?"

"'Cuz you're not Asian and it's fitting." Xin shrugged, trailing his gaze up and down, all along Ford's large form. Those majestically curved horns… that wing span~ oh my~ He walked over to Ford and nudged him under his own snout. He felt so tingly~ Xin purred, rubbing himself along Ford's flank, to the scientist's confusion. "X-Xin?!"

"Mmm~ such a handsome boi~" Xin's tongue lolled out and he gave Ford a grooming lick. Ford squeaked. "Come on~ you're a dragon~ isn't that cool~?" Xin whined. He was burning with heat and just wanted to snuggle really badly~

Wait, the way Xin was behaving, and panting… Ford frowned. "...are you in heat?" Ford deadpanned. Xin continued whining, nuzzling against Ford insistently. Ford groaned. This… was super weird. "...your vessels are really accurate, aren't they?" he wondered aloud. Xin whined again, pawing at the ground and leaning against Ford's side. "I-I'm a professional!" The demon-dragon wrapped his tail around Ford's. "But I… haven't gone into heat before?" he panted, leaning into Ford's side.

"I've read that some species only have a mating response triggered when in the presence of another of their kind." Ford noted, wishing he had his journal so he could write this down. "Fascinating, I count as another dragon for your vessel to begin displaying-"

"Sure, great! Whatever! Dammit Fordsie~ I'm burning!" Xin groaned, curling his much longer, serpentine body around Ford. The blue dragon blinked. "I'm not going to mate with you!" He sputtered. "I don't want you to!" Xin shot back, flushing. "I just… really need to cuddle right now." he whined.

"...if it's just cuddling, I can do that." Ford agreed. Then he wheezed when Xin contracted around him, like a snake squeezing its prey. "N-not ssssso tight…" Ford gasped, and Xin loosened his hold. "Sorry."

"Y-yeah. No problem." Ford was suddenly very worried about what would happen if Xin wrapped a human up like that? They probably wouldn't survive, if he was being honest with himself. So Ford let Xin continue coiling/cuddling up with him, purring like a motor and radiating heat, until he eventually relaxed, loosening his hold and sliding off Ford's body. "Xin?" Ford nudged him with his snout.

The golden dragon was still half wrapped around him, eyes closed and… appeared to be sleeping peacefully? Ford sighed. Well, from what the sky looked like, it appeared the two of them had been here for hours. The sun was going to be setting soon. Yeesh, they really had spent the whole day as dragons together… and Ford didn't even get to try out his new wings for any flying yet!

Well, no matter. Ford glanced over at Xin and licked his mane absently. This day had been quite… interesting… and Ford had learned more than...he actually wanted to know about dragons and... mating instincts.

As he groomed Xin's mane, the snake-like dragon hummed, "...ove you Fordsie…" sleepily as he twitched and shuffled closer to press against him. Ford huffed. "I don't know what you just said, but sure." He yawned himself, rather exhausted, and hungry. Dear lord, he was hungry. Were dragons naturally hungry? Or was it because this body hadn't eaten all day? But he didn't trust himself to try and hunt or fly or swim without supervision, plus, Xin was sleeping and he couldn't just leave him alone here. So Ford laid his head down over Xin, draping an arm around the slender dragon and pulling him closer before going to sleep himself.

Ford woke up and his first instinct was reaching for his glasses, before realizing he didn't have them on, and he was SEEING. Then he remembered he was a dragon. Right. Xin had oversaturated himself with energy. And then something about using up his energy and insisting on turning Ford into a dragon to do so.

His stomach grumbled and he nudged the golden dragon curled up next to him. "Xin...Xin, can we go back? I want to eat...as surprising as that sounds." Instinctively, he licked him a few times.

Xin opened his eyes and yawned as he stretched. "Wow...Did we fall asleep here?" He smiled as he nuzzled Ford and started licking his beautiful curly mane. Xin waited for him to say something, But Ford just sighed, "Okay, quit that. I'm hungry and I need food."

Xin swooned, "Gasp! The Stanford Pines wants to eat something?! The world must be ending~!"

"Hah, hah." Ford rolled his eyes. He got up, getting himself oriented to the whole… four legged thing. The water from the sea around them had risen while they slept and half his body was wet. Blegh. He shook his head and his new tail to get some water off him. Xin was laughing and running around him, looking very excited for some reason and nuzzling his side from time to time. "Haha! Hahaha!"

"So~ Can we go back to the hotel now?" Ford complained.

"I'm still full of energy!" Xin whined.

"...Are-Are you kidding me?!"

Xin laughed and nuzzled him again. Why-Why wasn't he saying anything though? Xin had… he'd… told him yesterday… told Ford… "I love you Fordsie." and it had been so nerve wracking to say it, he probably shouldn't have, but he just felt so good and they had been together, and he remembered what happened, it felt so nice (and neither of them had crossed the lines of comfort for each other, even during all that), and-and he didn't leave ... Ford had… had promised to not leave him alone- and- and-

But Ford wasn't… saying anything about that! So… did he… Xin had thought… Ford had… (he must have read him wrong, oh, that's… that's f-fine… Xin wouldn't… let this… stop them from being friends... )

"Xin~" Ford groaned and nudged his head. "We can discuss this later. Can we go back to normal so we can eat?"

Xin felt so confused. Why was he still nuzzling him if he didn't…? "I could turn you back and send you back to your body. I could just...chill here until I get the hang of being worshipped here in a physical form." The golden dragon sighed heavily.

"...No. I said I wouldn't leave you." Ford sighed.

? Xin was sure he was reading all this wrong… If he wasn't saying anything about yesterday...but he was still saying all this...Oh Ax, how dumb, he was so dumb… Xin huffed and tried not to feel down on himself. He… probably made a move too soon. Xin whined a little, his tail and ears drooping down. "..." But… Xin wanted to make sure, he wasn't going to let this be some stupid misunderstanding! If Ford was just too unsure- well… Xin sighed. "Um… Fordsie?"

Ford was staring down at the ocean, at the fish swimming by. His stomach growled and he was salivating.

Xin took a deep breath, gathering his nerve. "Did you um...hear what I said? Yesterday… After… that stuff we… um, did together?" Xin turned orange. Oh, yeah, he and Fordsie… did… did that mean that Xin was finally giving up his V card? Eh, not that virginity was even all that important. Screw it, he wasn't a virgin anymore! Hah! Suck on that Pyronica! She didn't get to tease him about it anymore!

Ford blinked and looked up from the food swimming past him. "Um...You didn't really speak much yesterday...Um, you mean when you fell asleep? The 'Blughbuh Fordsie?'" The former human asked in a mocking tone, ears dropping and eyes closing to imitate Xin. His tail was wagging on its own, amused at himself at how FUNNY he was.

Xin blinked...OH. So… Fordsie didn't hear him. Well. Xin was relieved, and also annoyed as shit. Cause there was no way he was gonna be telling the idiot that again! Auuugh! Xin sighed, it… it wasn't like he even knew if he really did like Fordsie in that way. What if he'd only felt that way at that moment because of the day they spent together? Auuuughhh! Xin flopped down onto the rocks with a splash. Fuck it. Don't think about this anymore. It was fine to be friends and only friends. Romance? Who needed that?!

….and he DIDN'T have a crush dammit! Xin rolled around, whining. He was probably wrong. What did he even know about romance? He was just… making things more complicated for himself. Xin sighed. Ford was still staring at the water, head down near the water and his tail waving around as he salivated.

Damn Ford for being so cute.

"Come on dummy, lemme teach you how to hunt for food." Xin walked over, smacking Ford's flank with his tail to get his attention. Then, as Ford watched, Xin dove into the ocean, easily swimming by ribboning his long slender body around. Ford watched him chase after a school of fish and then Ford groaned.

"I'M NOT A SWIMMING TYPE DRAGOOOOOON!"

Well, seeing as his dragon body wasn't made to swim much, Xin had to find new ways to teach Ford how to hunt. "Have you ever played that game of catching apples with your mouth?"

Yeah. Xin basically taught him to dive half his body into the water, open up his mouth, catch some fish, and come back out.

It worked. It...actually worked.

Xin, curled up in a pile, watched the blue western dragon stare at the waters with full concentration and when you least expected it, SPLASH! He was in and out with a mouthful of fish. He snapped his jaws to kill the fish before placing his hunt between him and Xin. Xin wondered how much of this was Ford, and how much was just dragon instincts...He didn't like to brag~ But he was darn good making bodies biologically correct, instincts and hormones perfectly integrated. (If not...yesterday's...thing, wouldn't have happened. Xin was very sure his big brother would be having a conniption if he ever found out about that… but Com hadn't actually known that having another dragon nearby would cause that sort of reaction!)

Ford sat down in front of him and shook himself to get rid of the water. His curly mane was everywhere now. He silently stared at the golden dragon then at his food and softly nudged some to him.

Xin purred at the gesture and walked closer. He didn't eat anything though (he was trying to get rid of energy, not get more) and curled up against Ford's chest before lowering his head. That was a no thank you, you eat this. So the other dragon obeyed and started eating.

Ford found it so weird he wasn't...chewing anything, just lifting it into his mouth, biting it in two parts before swallowing. It was weird, eating fish without cleaning it, but he had eaten worse in space, and got used to it. And the scales didn't seem to be an issue here. His throat felt warm, and when Ford concentrated a little, he could feel some sort of burning deep inside his throat. Did he have fire?! Was his internal fire cooking the fish as it went down? Well… that was good, he was a little afraid of parasites, but if his body produced fire then the heat should kill off the bacteria and other harmful add ons.

Ford was so hungry, he wasn't used to being this hungry. Sure, he and Stan had gone hungry before out in space, but Ford didn't eat much to begin with and managed to bear with it. But this body was ravenous. He was kind of glad that Xin didn't seem to be hungry, probably full on 'worship'. Ford dove into his fish pile, chomping them up, using his long forked tongue to wrap around the weakly flopping animals to pull them into his mouth. He kept trying to grab at the fish with his paws but his manual dexterity wasn't very good and he found it much easier to use his tongue.

Xin grinned a bit and snuggled as he purred. Yes~ Eat it all~Oh wow, the dexterity Ford had with that long tongue~ He was glad Ford wasn't weirded out by this. Sure he said it felt weird, but it didn't really disturb him and made him feel horrible, like their genderswap weeks ago had. He was too curious for his own good.

"Ah~" Ford's voice brought him back as he sighed with content, his belly now full. "Well. That was a thing." He commented, coughing some fish' spines.

Xin was about to say something, but Ford burped and a stream of flame came out. Ford's eye went wide. "Did I just-?!" His spines were sticking up straight and he flapped his wings in excitement. "I'm really spitting fire!" He was so giddy about this. He was a DRAGON and he could spit FIRE!

Xin giggled, nuzzling against Ford's side. "You sure did~" He also took this time to check on Ford's body, Flickering to see him still 'sleeping' in his hotel room. Well, Xin took this chance to teleport some food into him, can't have his body starving while it's owner was out. At least, that's what he'd been planning to do, but he saw Seb kick the door open, "Sixer! Where's Miz? We haven't seen her in a while and I'm obvs not worried, but Wanda's obvs worries about everything and she's getting worried-" He stopped and stared at the comatose Ford. "Ah come on! Are you two doing some out of body experience thing again?!" Seb groaned, long suffering, and stomped over to pull off Ford's blankets, looking for Miz. She wasn't there. He sighed.

"How long have you been out?! Have you eaten?!" He shouted at Ford's unconscious body. Xin snorted. Silly.

Seb pulled his hair. What could he do?

As Ford tried spitting more fire, Xin giggled as Seb called Stan and both cursed at Ford's body. Then, apparently his brother thought Xin was an irresponsible dragon to leave Ford's body without attention and Sebastian left his own body to GO IN FORD'S BODY! Hahaha!

"Well I'll be ⅔ of our triplet union until Sixer's back!" Seb in Ford's body announced. "Look! I'm here!" He went back to his body. "And I'm here!"

Xin watched Stanley massage his temples and walk out of the room. 'Ford' with glowing yellow eyes, picked up Seb's now limp body like a sack of potatoes and followed him out, laughing madly (sounding very weird in Ford's voice.)

Xin blinked back to reality. Ok. He'd let Seb have his fun being tall and muscular for a while~

Now that he knew Fordsie's body was going to be well looked after, Xin turned his attention back to the dragon beside him. Ford was huffing and spewing out embers, licking his mouth with a long tongue as he frowned at the taste in his mouth. "Bleh, it's all burning. But… it's not as disgusting as I thought."

"Well~" Xin yawned and stretched and he floated a little bit. "It's time for flying lessons~"

Ford wagged his tail.

-.-

Ford hid his tail between his legs. Xin had taken them to an uninhabited mass of land with a very high cliff. Couldn't he learn from somewhere less...life threatening?

"Xin...I'm not very sure about this...It's too high and I really haven't had much time to get used to all these muscles." Ford looked behind him and wiggled his wings.

"Trust me, Fordsie. It'll be alright ok? I'll be right here for you. Besides, flying can't be that hard, you actually have wings! I have to do all sorts of magic to get into the air!" Xin nuzzled him before stepping behind Ford. "Ok. I want you to extend your wings."

"Like this?" Ford flexed his shoulder muscles, feeling his wings spread out, ok, that wasn't too hard, at least.

"Uh huh." Xin nodded. "Now, lean a bit more forward, yes, excellent, good boy!" Xin turned around, his back facing Ford.

"Now this is the hardest part ok? Close your mouth as you fall, wouldn't want insects getting in, now would ya?"

"What?"

"YEET!"

With a hard kick from his hind legs, Xin kicked the blue dragon off the cliff.

" AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!" Ford screamed in panic. Xin hung over the side of the cliff, lazily watching him plumet. "Just open your wings and hold them open!" He called down.

"-HHHHHHHHH!"

"Yeesh, still screaming?" Xin rolled his eyes. Wow. He was still falling. Eh, he was fine. Xin put a cushioning spell on him earlier in case he-

WHUMP!

-hit the ground. Xin got up, leasurily stretching his back and tail out with a low purr. Welp, time to go down and check on him. He flew down easily, ribboning through the air gracefully. He landed beside Ford, who was on his back, eyes wide and his legs all sticking up in the air. "Sooo~" Xin sauntered over to raise a paw and close Ford's mouth, really, all that screaming, he bet the idiot swallowed a whole lot of bugs. "Care to try and figure out what you did wrong?"

"..." Ford said.

"What was that?" Xin leaned closer.

"...can't believe you PUSHED me!" Ford wailed. Xin rolled his eyes. "You're fine. Not even hurt. Besides, how else did you think dragons taught their young how to fly?" (Though, if he were a real dragon, Ford would have been one of those cubs who didn't make it, what with how poorly his first try went.) Xin nudged Ford, pushing him over onto his legs. "Now come on, let's try that again."

"I think I'm going to just stay right here on the ground, thanks." Ford sounded a little strained, eyes still wide and movements stiff. That… had been… terrifying. No wonder Stanley was afraid of heights.

"Come oooon Fordsie~" Xin whined. "Don't you wanna learn to fly?"

"Not your way, no." Ford sniffed. "I'm going to do this the SCIENCE way!"

"...the wha?"

"...this is soooo boooring~!" Xin moaned, lying on the ground. Five hours! They've spent the past FIVE HOURS with Ford measuring wind speeds and doing flapping exercises. "It's taking foreeeeever~!" Xin complained again.

"Hang on, I think I've got it this time." Ford turned around again, having walked around the field multiple times, changing the way he was facing, as if that would make his take off chances any better. It was funny watching him jump into the air and then fall on his face… the first 20 times. After that, it just became kinda sad.

"Weren't you the one who wanted to go home?" Xin groaned, pulling at the grass absently.

"Well, not if I can't do this!" Ford huffed. "Besides, you still can't go back to normal yet either, can you?"

"..."

"That's what I thought."

"But we could be doing something fun! Just try jumping again! Even baby birds are kicked out of their nests!" Xin groaned loudly and slammed his tail against the ground. Then he hummed. "You aren't being a proper dragon... They would just jump. Doing it the 'science way' is straying you further from being a good cryptid...Which means you aren't really an anomalist expert if you can't even do something baby dragons do~" Going for his ego~

"Well, I'm still a scientist on the inside." Ford responded and jumped into the air again, wavering before landing. "Hm… not enough speed…"

"A BORING scientist!" Xin wailed, "You're less than a baby dragon, Fordsie~ a scardy boring BORE man!"

"...you really want to see me jump off a cliff?" Ford didn't have eyebrows to raise but his expression was pretty obvious.

"Yes please!" Xin wagged his tail. Ford sighed. "I can find a smaller cliff." He finally said. It wasn't like he was actually getting bored himself or anything!

They found a smaller cliff for the wittle scared dragon. Ford had a determined look on his face, knowing he was at a lesser risk of dying here than when he was in space, or when he went into the woods, assured him a little, but he felt unsure with his new anatomy and fell clumsy as hell!

He didn't want to be a scared baby dragon though…

"Need help~"

"...Yes." And Xin, out of nowhere, sent him flying off the cliff again (but this time Ford was ready for it, and had asked him for this). Ford screamed on the way down again. But this time, he remembered to open his wings and hold them open as he went.

Xin sighed in relief when the idiot started flapping his wings. Fuckin' finally. Well, no, he wasn't flapping, he was gliding, there's a difference. "Good job Fordsie~!" Xin called out. Ford was laughing as he 'flew' around. "I'm FLYING!" He roared, shooting off some fire.

"No, you're falling with style." Xin called back. At least now that he could do that, it was easier for him to actually fly. He looked so cute. Like an excited little cub. "Hey Fordsie~" Xin purred, nudging him. "Now that you can fly…"

"Yes? What is it?"

"Let's go have some fuuuun~!"

Ford had a bad feeling about this.

The pilot was just having a normal day, flying the plane, getting them onto a good spot where he didn't really have to think much, this was a flight like any other, no problems what so ever. He yawned and glanced to the side, taking this time to admire the view.

It was so peaceful out there… up until it wasn't.

He started screaming at his copilot to LOOK UP!

The co-pilot, who was looking down at his phone, glanced up, but saw nothing more than clouds. "...what's wrong sir?"

"YOU-YOU DIDN'T SEE IT! HOLY SHIT!" The pilot took his hands to his forehead, wide-eyed and gasping for breath.

"What was it?"

"It-It was yellow! And-And LONG! And it had huge teeth! And yellow eyes- and the thing looked at me!"

The copilot grimaced a bit. "Are you feeling ok? Would you like me to take it from here?"

"I swear I-THERE! HOLY SH-I-I-T!" The pilot sobbed.

"Look, you've obviously been flying too long. Here, let me take over. Take a nap dude.

They changed places, but instead, the pilot searched for his phone and got ready to snap a picture. "It's impossible you didn't see it!" He looked deeply into the front and side windows. "Where the hell is it?! It was huge!"

The copilot sighed. Would he need to report this? The plane shook a little bit, sudden turbulence surely, and then the copilot heard his partner SHRIEK.

He looked fast towards what he was pointing and in the side window, he saw two big brown eyes staring at him, from a scaley blue face.

Now both men were screaming and trying to get help from the base, but to no avail, it suddenly stopped working. The FREAKING DRAGON moved his head a little bit to stare at them from the front window and blinked at them, almost looking… sheepish?! Then it let go of the side of the plane and glided away. The pilots were still screaming.

Wrong thing to do. They activated the microphone by accident and their passengers started panicking as their pilots sounded like they were being murdered. Things got more chaotic when dark shadows blocked out the light from outside the windows now and then. Also the turbulence. Someone looked out the window and screamed. "What are those?!" Everyone was freaking out, except the children, who were delightedly screaming, "A DRAGON!"

The plane kept swinging from side to side as the giant creatures shifted places to look at them. The long yellow one blinked at one window and nudged it with its head. The woman at that window screamed bloody murder, but Xin and Ford couldn't hear anything since it was sound proofed.

Ford lifted his head up to look at Xin. "If the pilots get too scared, the plane could crash and they could get hurt, we should stop. This counts as terrorizing." He pouted. Xin sighed heavily. "Fine~~ But...come 'ere, we gotta show them we are wittle dragons curious of this human contraption and that we came in peace~"

The passengers all leaned to the opposite side of where the dragons were, fearing they'd tear the side of the plane. The flight attendants were trying to get them on their seats. Both were wrong. In any case they'd still die.

"The dragons are kissing!" A kid pointed excitedly. The people trying to activate their cameras were screaming because for some reason they didn't work! But in fact, the blue and yellow dragon left the side of the plane, and flew away just enough to be seen. The yellow one nuzzled the blue one, licking at the other's mane. With a muted roar, the two plunged down.

Now everyone was on the other side of the plane, pressed against the windows, trying to see them. But they were gone. Out below the clouds and gone. Everyone sighed, the adrenaline pumping through their veins making them hype as shit. And… of course, only NOW were their phones working!

Xin was looking at Ford as both dove down back into the ocean. "Come on. You gotta admit that was fun." Ford sighed, but he was grinning. "Well, a little. But it was still rather dangerous. What if something happened to that plane?"

"Don't worry. I blessed it. They'll land safely with no issue. Look, a boat! Come on~" They reached the water and sunk like cannon balls. That is to say, Xin dove into the water and swam easily, while Ford flopped around and sank beneath the water while struggling.

They didn't lose time at all. Xin rose from the water and landed on the ship, making the men on board scream their lungs out. He growled at them for being rude, don't scream so loud! Xin waited for Ford to climb on. Ford shook himself and stared at the poor men. He bared his teeth and growled.

Oh dear. One fainted.

The Xin happily went over the crates of ice with freshly caught fish. Yuuum~ he shouldn't be indulging, since he was supposed to be wasting energy… Xin quickly turned away and focused on the net that the men had just pulled up. It was filled to bursting with live fish. Xin began scooping them up into his mouth. But he wasn't eating them, oh no. These fish were being teleported to the Island. Xin needed to give them more fish after all. A larger population to live in the oceans all around them. There were already plenty of sea creatures there, having been teleported along with the landmass when Xin had first sent it to it's hidden spot in Gravity Falls, but with the recent expansion Xin had made to their 'ocean' area, well, he needed to fill it with food for the people.

While the yellow creature (many of them thought it was some sort of sea serpent) ate their fish, the fishermen stared at the blue one (that looked more like a dragon), it was looking around the boat with what seemed like curiosity. His nose twitched as he smelled everything and them. Their faces were very funny looking, Ford had to admit.

"It-It's ok boy...Just...Don't eat us…" The one who was being smelled by the large blue creature whispered, terrified. Ford snorted. Geez. That was the first thing he decided to tell a dragon?

"Why -Why isn't my phone working, goddammit!" Another man complained.

Xin finished taking half the fish to the island before walking over to Ford, slapping his head with a paw. The men watched the blue one nudge the paw back with its head. Oh no, were they going to fight? But the blue dragon simply went over to the pile of fish and began eating his fill. And the yellow one nuzzled him, purring loudly. The fishermen stared, with their bodies trembling in fear, as the blue one sat back, licking around his mouth with a long tongue, cleaning himself off. And then the two creatures simply flew back up into the sky.

A couple fell to their knees as others finally felt safe enough to faint.

Meanwhile, Xin and Ford landed back on their rocky island and Xin laughed loudly. "Did you see the looks on their faces?! HILARIOUS!" He rolled around on the ground. Ford chuckled. "Yes, it was quite funny. But I think we should go back now. It's been two days. I'm sure everyone's worried. I know you've probably figured out a fix for your storage issue by now. I've seen how deeply asleep you've been." (Ford wasn't stupid, even if he was a bit oblivious. He knew that Xin must have gone back to his own side of the Door, and that meant he must have been working on his energy storage issue.)

Xin sighed. "Yeah, fine." He licked at his paw and rubbed it against his feathers. "I'm gonna miss being a dragon with you though." He told Ford. "You're very handsome."

Ford wagged his tail nervously, and looked away. "I...thank you...Um...It's always quite the experience to be with you as well...Even...fun sometimes." He gave him a tiny smile.

"Sometimes?!"

"Most times." Ford corrected. "But that's still not all time."

Xin made offended sounds. "Well! Well!" He scoffed. "Then I'm going to have to try harder to make it fun ALL times mister!" He bumped Ford's side with his butt and Ford laughed. "Looking forward to that then."

Xin took both of them back to New Jersey. They were back in the mindscape, no dragon forms. He went to Ford's bedroom but...His body wasn't there.

Right. Seb was borrowing it…

He Flickered and winced at what he Saw.

"Where's my body?" Ford groaned.

"Do you really want to know?"

"...Yes."

So Xin took Ford to where the family was. Everyone seemed uncomfortable or pissed off. Shermie was about to throw hands.

"Well, and then I did this nerd thing that exploded in my face!" Ford's body said proudly before slumping in the chair. Seb gasped. "Oh Ax~ Ford, you should be more careful!"

'Ford' opened his eyes. "Hah! Surviving is the greatest reward, yes, I love it when I do that!"

Wanda was covering her face. "He went insane...Help."

When Seb was back in his body, Ford quickly dove into his own to stop this one-one conversation.

"Seb-"

"GOD, STOP IT SEBASTIAN!" Sherman screamed before swinging at 'Ford's stomach. The hit was caught, just in time. Ford's reflexes had kicked in. Seb, in his own body, widened his eye as Ford's body, now controlled by probably Ford himself, wheezed a little bit, he caught the blow, but Shermie punched HARD. "That...wasn't very good timing, Sherman."

"Holy Moses, you're back." Stan gasped.

Sherman punched Ford again, much to their mom's complaints of being civil. "That's for leaving us alone with Seb while he DOES this for the past two days!"

Ford coughed. "Right, well, that was entirely Xin's fault."

"Gasp!" Xin placed his hands on his chest. "You would leave me all alone in my time of NEED?!"

"Of course not." Ford rolled his eyes. "But you didn't have to put me in a vessel. We could have just hung out on the ocean for a while normally."

"...What were you two doing?" Wanda and Carla asked suspiciously.

Ford coughed. "Oh well...Just...cryptid investigation…" His family didn't seem too convinced but they decided to drop it.

-.-

"FORD! What the hell were you and Xin doing?! The sailors are all claiming they saw DRAGONS stealing their fish!" Wanda glared. To Ford's relief, Xin raised his hand. "That was entirely my idea. Sorry. I just thought it would be fun."

Ford knew about this. He had gotten messages from Fiddleford about how lots of people have sent messages and letters to the Research Center telling them about dragons and to do something about it.

Wanda groaned. "Unless you have a really good excuse, you're gonna be grounded for an extra week."

Xin wiggled, looking chastised. Amelie was giggling behind her hand, along with the teens. It was funny watching Xin, a grown man, get scolded. "I wanted to teach Ford how to fly and swim… and I needed some more fish for the people on the Island…"

"...you could grab fish from the ocean directly, and you KNOW it." Wanda wasn't backing down. Xin's feathers drooped. "...I thought it was funny? And no one got hurt-"

"Those sailors are screaming at everyone they can see along the pier and beach to beware of the dragons. The cops were called, last I checked." Wanda deadpanned. Xin winced.

"You could have told him no, you know that." Stan deadpanned at his older triplet. Ford grinned, hands behind his back. "Well yes...But it was fun...And Xin getting scolded is a hilarious thing to watch."

Xin sent him a glare and Ford smirked. Xin's eyes narrowed. Oh, so it was gonna be like that huh? Well, challenge accepted.

-.‐-

Xin was hyped up on energy for a whole week before he apparently raised his energy storage well enough that he could eat again. Xin was floored by this revelation. How intense human worship was. (Though, perhaps it was more potent here, with humanity that weren't just extensions of himself? Everything in his own dimension was made out of pieces of himself after all, so maybe getting worshipped by them just didn't have as much of a kick to it.) He hadn't messed with that too much in his own Earth. There were a few people here and there- but he never went out of his way to be seen as a deity to people. He was fine with being a muse. Well, there was being a cat in Egypt, which was great- but it wasn't quite the same? And Xin found himself wondering if he should actually go for it or not. Probably not. Too much. Being a god only meant more responsibilities. And he hated having responsibilities.

He was fine with the people self governing. Micromanaging his farmlands was enough work!

After his punishment for scaring the humans passed, Mabel had the idea to go to the beach and play something. Of course, her intention was TOTALLY spending time with family, and not because she wanted to see Max and show him all kinds of human things and admiring his pretty face lighting up at everything . Not At all.

They also invited Amelie, because she was just very nice to hang out with. Her parents didn't like her spending so much time with 'humans', but after telling them that the Pines were chill with magic (and in fact, were magic themselves, to a point), they were more comfortable to let their daughter play with them.

At some point a volleyball match started. The triplets and Shermie formed teams and everything.

The only funny thing about it was how seriously they took it. As if their lives depended on it.

"You knucklehead! Catch the ball!" "You idiot! Don't hit me!" Stan and Shermie fought each other as they played.

Mabel and the others were playing less boisterously (though Mabel sometimes lost herself and started spiking the ball at high speeds). And Max loved the game, he got the hang of it pretty fast and didn't usually have trouble passing the ball to the other side (Mabel had to reassure the tall wittle reptile boy that no one would get angry the few times he missed) Amelie was quite good at it. Xin… on the other hand…

"Oof!" The dragon face planted into the sand once again. He laid there, face in the sand and butt in the air.

Then the ball hit his butt. Hard. Again . Xin whined.

"Fez don't be a dick!" Seb called as Stan laughed his ass off. "It's so BOUNCY!" Seb was smirking though, so his worry wasn't too sincere. Stanford was deadpanning at both of them for bullying the poor dragon. Dillon crouched beside Xin, "Wow. You're really bad at this."

"Mmph mm hhmmm!" Xin complained. He sat back up and wiped the sand from his face. "Gimme something to kick and I'll take his head off…" He glowered in Stan's direction. Amelie patted his head. "There, there. Everyone has things they're good or bad at. There's nothing wrong with that."

They took a break from the game, it was obvious the Pines couldn't take it without fighting. Max was sitting next to Mabel, questioning her about the metal in her mouth. "It's a retainer, to hold your teeth still so they won't move and get all twisted."

"I don't get it, but cool!" Max smiled brightly. He pulled a little at his cloth belt's hem. He had been researching in the scrolls and clay tablets for information, but he had managed to transmute his cape into a long piece of cloth all by himself. He just wrapped it around his waist. He was just too proud of his new position, he felt useful, and needed and his parents felt proud of him for once in his life...It meant the world for him and he wanted to wear it.

"Oh! I just realized I haven't shown you my phone! Here take a look! You can communicate with people even if you're far away! And you get access to the internet, where you can learn anything you need." Mabel typed in clothes as an example and Max thought his brain was going to burst with how many things suddenly appeared in the box thing.

"Also, I got a tv in my hotel room, after this we can go watch stuff together~"

"Absolutely not!" Was Shermie's shout from somewhere.

"We're just friends!" Mabel smiled and glanced at Max. For now...

Shermie folded his arms. "Mabel Pines, as your father, I am telling you that you need to have your brother and cousins with you for any movie nights." Mabel rolled her eyes. "Sure dad~Not fun." Dipper and Dillon groaned loudly. As if they didn't have stuff to do! Max just looked adorably confused.

Xin raised his hand. "I can chaperone." He glanced down at the children. "And I can take the twins and Diego with us." Dipper jumped on this, "Yeah, the kids can go with Mabel. So me and Dillon don't have to." Dillon nodded, holding hands with Phillip. Stan grumbled a little. "Dillon needs supervision too. Diego, you go with him."

"Yay! I get to hang out with Phillip!" Diego cheered and ran towards the ginger boy who picked him up with a smile.

"Why does the Great Dragon want to come with us?" Max asked Mabel softly. "Does...Does your father not like me? I wouldn't hurt you if that's what he thinks."

"Eh… so he can spend time with us… It's not that dad thinks I'll get hurt, he's just afraid I'm gonna have too much fun." Mabel pouted at the chaperone. But she couldn't turn down the twins, who were chanting ""Movie! Movie!""

"I thought humans liked to have fun too." Max was so confused. Mabel blushed a little and giggled. "Don't worry about that."

Xin followed the human and eix leel couple, with the twins holding each of the dragon's hands as they made their way back to the hotel. As the twins were sharing a room, Mabel stole Dipper's tablet and settled in with Max on her bed while the twins climbed next to them, innocently unaware of the huge 'ruining of the mood' they were creating. For Zach and Zoe it was just hanging out with their cousin and a new friend. Xin sat on Dipper's bed to watch them.

"What do you want to watch? A movie is a...is a picture, a bunch of pictures that move so fast together that the images move and they tell a nice story you can watch!"

Max rubbed his (now hair-looking) feathers, confused. "Um...You can choose?" He wasn't sure if he understood the concept of a movie yet. Or a moving picture? He knew what drawings were, but how did they move?

She passed the tablet to the five year olds and told them to choose wisely. "It's Maxi's first movie ever, it has to be a good one." The twins gasped and nodded solemnly. They couldn't believe Mabel was trusting them with such an important task.

As the twins searched and debated, Mabel leaned against Max's shoulder. She could sense the faint feeling of the pointed spines he had in his reptilian form. Magic was weird. She could feel them but...not actually grab them, nor his tail. His tail was hitting the pillow (very very softly, it was barely noticeable because of the spell) but when she waved her hand around it...she felt like a very dense mist? Without really hitting anything. Amazing~

"What sorts of stories do you like?" Mabel asked him, to see if there was a way to narrow down what sort of genre they could find for the movie.

"It's ok, we can um, watch a story you like." Max insisted but Mabel poked his cheek. "Nou~ It's YOUR choice! And your first movie! I wanna know what YOU like! I know what I like. But this is about you right now."

Max shifted awkwardly in place and glanced at the twins who were deadpanning at him like saying 'come on man, choose already'. He sighed and after glancing at the encouraging smile of the Great Dragon, he thought about it. "Well, when I was a pup...I loved hearing from the storyteller about the stories of the Gods, their adventures and all the things they've done for us...Also, stories of great adventurers and the...exciting things they've done. I have a friend, he's a merman, and he has been around the world a lot, he used to tell me what he saw...I'd love a story with, um, these moving pictures, about an adventurer's stories...or...A hero too. There's a story of a legendary hero in my town, that is known because she defeated an entire army with just a few other females! And she saved everyone and became a hero and everyone loved her! I liked it too because...it was rumoured that she had a few blue scales mixed in with the usual green, which, made eix leel not believe in her at first...But she did it, and, and the storyteller was great telling us about her story…"

Zoe blinked. "Isn't that Mulan?"

"What's a moo-land?"

"Hang on, Disney time!" Mabel grinned, setting up the movie. Xin giggled. "There's a tiny little baby dragon in this movie." He said in delight. Max stared. "They had pictures of dragons?"

"They're drawings. Humans have such wonderful imaginations~" Xin told him with a big proud smile. Max frowned. Was he being too dumb to understand what was going on? The twins patted his arms. "You'll see when we start watching." Zach told him cheerfully.

Mabel hummed as the movie loaded. "You see, movies can be very different. One type can be moving pictures, you see real people and objects in there, but nothing happening there is actually happening, and the other one has moving drawings! A lot of different drawings put together to make it seem they're moving"

"Look, Max! The movie is starting! Listen!" Zoe hit his arm to call his attention.

The music started and Max's eyes widened as everything moved on its own. "Woah…"

"Welcome to post industrial technology, Maxi." Xin waved his hands around dramatically. Everyone gathered around the tablet to watch the movie, and Max found himself rather confused about what was happening. Why was the girl being dressed up all pretty to go see the matchmaker? That was something that men did. Max remembered when he was put before the village matchmaker, and was told that there was no way any woman would want someone like him. Even if he was great at everything a male should be good at, (he could even cook better than his brother, he liked finding new things to make fish taste different), no woman would want to mate with him, for fear of their children turning out so hideous.

" -fool of me. And bring honor to my family tree. Keep my father's standing tall~ " Well, he could relate a lot to that… and also to how the main character nearly missed the event altogether. Max was sure that even if his scales were decent looking, he'd still find some way to be rejected.

Max was feeling terrible after the girl's terrible mess with the matchmaker. She fucked it all up and now no one was going to marry her either. " Why is my reflection someone I don't know~? Somehow I cannot hide. Who I am Though I've tried~ " Max sobbed.

"I don't like this story, Mabel…" He sniffed, wiping his tears rapidly. "Is it ending already?" His father told stories like this to make his brother and him behave. Fuck up and you'll end up single and ugly, though Max is already ugly, so he needs to work extra hard if he ever wants a mate.

"Oh Max! Nooo, it gets better!" Mabel reached out to hug the sweet baby. "Lots of human stories have sad circumstances in the beginning, and they're about the main character overcoming them and getting a happy ending." She patted his hand as she wrapped her arm around him.

The story continued and the dense mist hitting the pillow got harder as his tail moved faster at the dragon's appearance. It made him smile and everyone was glad to see that.

"So...Human males go to war." "Yeah, biologically they're prone to be stronger than females so a long time ago only males could fight. Now though, many girls are part of the military and they're amazing!" Mabel explained with her hands on his shoulder. Xin wanted to correct her on the historical accuracy, but decided against it. No need to confuse Max even more.

"And...She is going to act like a human male to be accepted...But that's so easy! Human males and females look a lot more alike!" Max complained with a pout until his eyes widened. Oh~

The girl managed to do it and she became a good soldier throughout the movie. Mabel was right, the story DID get better! Which only made Max think harder about this brilliant idea he just had. All his life, everyone had told him he was such an ugly shade of green. Well, females were green, though theirs was a slightly different color, but Max was sure that with a little work he might be able to pass himself off as a small female?

The military had always been a great way to socially ascend, like his aunt and his sister. He could do that too! Like the mooland girl or the legend of the great female!

Xin sent him a raised eyebrow at the incredibly loud thoughts the eix leel boy was making and then watching him gasp loudly when Mulan was discovered to be a woman and everyone in the movie gasped, with the annoying advisor man sneering at her. "He-He can't kill her! Right?!"

"No spoilers." Zach shrugged innocently.

Mulan's life was spared and Max fell backwards onto the pillow. Mabel patted his shoulder gently. Was the movie too much for someone seeing a movie for the first time? And a tablet? And a screen?

"You're not posing as a female in another village, Maxini." Were Xin next words at his apparent relief. "No one would spare your life like this and you know it."

"Great Dragon!" Max's green eyes widened. "Can you-" Mabel stared at Max incredulously. "Max no! Movies are not so you go around imitating them! Besides, I like you male!" she shook him by his shoulders. "You're really handsome as a man!"

Zach and Zoe stared at Max with very judging looks and had to pause the movie at this. "No. Just no." Zoe shook her head. "If Max wanted to be a girl, you can't tell him he can't!" Zoe huffed, somehow managing to convey this controversial idea so simply despite only being 5 years old.

Zach on the other hand felt somehow offended. "But Max isn't a girl. Right? Mulan isn't a boy just because she dresses like one. She icould/i be a boy but she even says that she isn't. And even if she's strong and good at fighting, that doesn't make her a boy, she wants to be a daughter, not a son." Zach huffed. He didn't go out of his way to be all 'manly' like uncle Stan, he didn't need to. He was still a boy! Zach asked Max carefully. "Do you feel like you're a girl? Do you want to be a girl?"

Max blinked, not used to such intensity from children. "I...I suppose I don't...No. I'm a male. I just...If Mooland could find a way to do it, maybe I could do it too. She also couldn't get married, but she...she didn't want to. I wish I could get married, that's what I...what I've always wanted in my life, but it's not happening…"

Max liked his apprenticeship, and learning magic, because he liked learning , but his dream had always been being able to get married, like any male. If he couldn't do that… well, then his life was pointless, wasn't it? But here. He was SEEING how someone actually managed to make it work in the military!

"Do you actually want to join your army?" Mabel grimaced. "Again. Movies are not to be imitated! And you MUST have other things you want to do! Right? Not just...get married… Which, is fine for some people but...That can't be the only dream you have...right?"

Max shifted awkwardly. To be fair, he had always wanted to travel like merchants did, or visit places, like his merman friend did, swimming around, but that was inappropriate. "No. It is. That's all it is." He lied.

"But...weren't you practicing? For-For priesthood? You told me!" Mabel insisted. "Yeah, my family and I were hoping that it'd make me more valuable for someone to finally marry me…" Zoe stuck her tongue out. Ew. Marry.

Mabel pulled at her hair. This physically burned her inside. It was so horrible! Max wouldn't ACTUALLY believe he would only be worth something when he gets married right? And seeing how his poop village was, being married felt like he'd be owned by someone! And she didn't want that! Women and men shouldn't be thinking that was the only worth they had!

The tablet beeped and Mabel noticed it was low on battery. "Hey kiddos, why don't you bring a charger...um, Dipper forgot the charger, but any of our uncles might have one. And you could take Max around the hotel!"

Max nodded as he followed the twins to walk around the...shared...palace place Mabel was staying at. (They had to explain that they didn't own the hotel.)

Then Mabel grabbed the kittie pillow she brought with her and screamed into it.

Xin sighed and looked at Mabel. "I think you gotta understand, Shooting Star...That Maxini comes from an entirely different culture than this yours. As well as a different species. It's sexist, yes, but it's not quite comparable to what humans have nowadays." He told the distressed teen. "Max's world is centuries of progress behind, using magic only for ritual or religious purposes. And unlike humans, who needed to develop more technology to survive, they rely a lot more on their natural instincts and physical strength than humans do…"

Mabel wiped her tears with her sleeve. "I don't want him to think that way…"

"Give him time." Xin told her. "He'll learn while he's here, he's very intelligent, even if he doesn't believe it."

One day Amelie couldn't make it to hang out with the Pines, Mabel quickly decided to invite Max for dinner with them after his job. Xin helped teleport the daily pay of meat Max always got from his job back to his village. (The butcher thought Max's aunt asked for a very strange contract. )

Mabel ordered him a soup, he had never had soup before and observed the utensils deep in thought. Max knew those existed, but he only used big knives at his job and he had never used 'spoons' or 'forks'. The toddlers were more than glad to teach him how to hold them and after a few attempts, he weakly held it to eat his warm soup.

Mabel sighed dreamily as her twin narrowed his eyes at her. "Mabel...He's like a caveman...from a different species . Are you sure you really want to date a cryptid?" He whispered at her. Mabel scoffed (even as she told him, "Rude. He's not a caveman!")

"Of course I do! I was so ready to date Mermando back then!" "How would that even work-"

Max coughed a little. "You-You said Mermando?"

"Um, yeah! He's a merman! He's king now! And married to a beautiful manatee queen. We met as kids!"

Max licked his spoon and gaped. "N-No way! I-I KNOW him! He-he's the merman friend I told you about days ago! We've known each other since we were pups!"

Mabel shrieked and Stan gaped when the glass he was going to grab fuckin exploded.

"NO WAY! OH MY GOSH! DIPPER DID YOU HEAR THAT?!" Mabel grabbed her twin by his shoulders to shake him. "I NEED to tell Mermando!"

"First eat." Abigail sighed.

"Wait, Mermando? The fish man whose wife kidnapped you?" Shermie gasped. Small world!

"Yup! Dipper and I's first kiss!" Mabel waved a hand. Shermie spat his food, making Seb burst out into laughter as everyone grimaced. "For the last time, Mabel, I didn't kiss him! I did inversed CPR!"

"Sure bro, anyway! GASP! I could tell Mermando and we could have double dates! I mean..I know we aren't dating dating yet but we could...work on that, right?"

Max had no idea what a date was, or a double one. He lifted his bowl to lick at the rests of food, and surprisingly, it was Zoe who lowered his arms. "Nono. No licking the plate. We only lick it at home."

"Woo! That's my baby!" Seb congratulated as Wanda smiled a little. "She's got the spirit."

"It'd be fun to see Mermando again with you." The boy nodded finally. Mabel cheered again.

"UM. Are we just going to iģnore the fact that Mabel's mabelness just made my glass explode?" Stan deadpanned and everyone in unison said "Yes."

-.-

Mabel used the magic mirror to contact Mermando after dinner. The merman was rightfully shocked when he saw his friend. He didn't recognize his human form, Max had to drop the spell for a second. "Maxini! You-You were allowed to get out!"

"I was! There's so much that has happened in the last year! You haven't visited!" Max laughed, wagging his now free tail. Mabel thought it was the most adorable thing ever.

"I'm afraid ruling takes much more time, my old friend. But with Mabel's family's help we can talk through these mirrors! Also, how did you meet my dear friend Mabel? That's such a coincidence?" The merman smiled widely.

The three talked animatedly for a few hours before it was getting late. The Pines told Mabel it was time to say bye to her friend and she could see him tomorrow. Mabel kissed his cheek. "Good bye...You...can give me a kiss if you want to try." Mabel bit her lip in a smile.

Max nodded and after taking a second to think about the dynamics of a kiss, he pressed his lips against her cheek for 2 seconds before letting go. It was close enough and he did it with the best intention so Mabel melted under it.

The Great Dragon accompanied his 'embassador' to the rift and Max bowed as he changed back. "Was I good today, Great Dragon? I...I'm afraid I'm not good at human habits yet."

"You were amazing. And don't worry so much, most humans don't even know how to be human. You'll get used to it." Xin winked. "And Mabel enjoyed your company a hell lot. She really appreciates you." Max wagged his tail. "I…I enjoy her company too...She-She listens to what I say and has never told me to be silent, because I didn't know what anything was or meant."

"We wouldn't do that." Xin assured as he purred at him. "Now go to your house and straight to your nest! It's late and you need to sleep." He scolded softly. Max crossed the rift and Xin Blinked back to Ford's room.

Max grinned as he ran back to his house. He moved the door aside in the darkness of his village and was going to find his pile of sisters when suddenly he was forced to back up by a dangerous growl. His Dad had his spines extended as his mom stepped in front. "M-Max?!"

"It's me! Dont attack me!"

His Dad sniffed the air. "The heck are you smelling like?!"

Max sniffed himself. He didn't know? "What-What is it?"

"Ugh! You stink of human, Maxini, get out, get the hell out!" Mis mom grabbed him by the neck.

"Mother no please, I don't want to sleep outside! Its cold!" Max whimpered as he was dropped outside the house. "Do you think we want you stinking like that inside the house?"

Max tucked his tail. "What if someone comes, please. Im scared."

"You should feel relieved if someone actually used you Maxini, we know your chances are very low." His mother rolled her eyes and Max ear fins dropped.

"Yes, mother." Max was left alone outside, feeling his body's temperature dropping. He also sniffed his arms and back again and started licking himself, trying to wash away the smell that bothered his parents so much. He curled up and sniffed.

His dad did come out with a warm stone for him though, he couldnt leave his own pup outside in the cold, and Max quickly wrapped his body around it. He would request the great dragon to help him clean up his human smell the next time he went to the outside.

"Geesh, man, are you ok?" Dipper winced at Max's exhausted look. "I know a thing or two about exhaustion and eyebags and you look terrible."

Max yawned and rubbed his eyes. "I-I'm sorry, Dipper. I couldn't sleep well last night. I wasn't allowed inside our nest because I had your human smell all over me… but that's my fault, I should have washed myself off first.

"They didn't allow you into your house?" Seb gasped and jumped up to look at the kid. "You ok?!" He pressed his cheeks together.

"Yes, Mr. Sebastian," Max said in a muffled voice. "My mom does that sometimes."

Dipper rubbed his neck as his uncle gasped even louder. Geez. Now that he knew what his uncle went through, it disturbed him even more. "Don't let Mabel know, ok? Shed get pretty upset on your behalf and would want to return to your village and fight them."

"...Mabel would try to fight my family? Why?" Max asked, confused.

"Um, yeah," Dipper left his hand on his neck. "You know, for leaving you outside and the neglect, I guess?" Max looked so clueless it scared him a little. "Look, we don't like the idea of people being mistreated by others. Even if it's your own family- ESPECIALLY if it's your own family." Dipper looked uncomfortable, having to explain this.

"I'm sorry for upsetting you…" Max looked down, ashamed. "No, you didn't...It's more like, actually, I'm pretty sure uncle Seb wants to fight your family too as well." Dipper glanced at the angry fire on his very angry uncle's arms.

"If Miz finds out, she might eat your family." Seb deadpanned. Max gasped. "I don't want that to happen!" Dipper winced. "Yeah… um… so don't let her know."

"Don't let me know what?" Miz asked, popping up beside Dipper, who jumped away with a scream. Dipper and Seb thought as fast as they could to come up with an excuse. "Don't… let you know… that there's a new food contest opening up on the other side of town-" Seb lied terribly. Still, Miz's eyes lit up and she ran over to pull on Wanda's sleeve. "Mommy! I wanna go!"

Wanda sighed. She was pretty sure Sebastian was pulling her leg, but she patted Miz's head with a, "After breakfast, alright? We can take a walk through the town after that." Miz nodded eagerly, full distracted now.

Mabel got to breakfast then, having fixed up her hair and make up before this, since she knew Max was coming today. They were going to have a double date with Mermando after all! She gasped when she saw Max. "Maxi! What happened?! Are you sick?" She squeezed his cheeks with her hands as she got closer to her face. "Gosh, why do you look so awful and tired? Your eyebags are huge! You look like Dipper!"

"Hey!"

Max would have blushed if he could and looked down, tucking his illusioned away tail between his legs. "I'm sorry. I had a...bad night and didn't sleep well, I didn't mean to look awful." He had even gotten fresh water to clean his human face. It did look terrible.

Mabel pulled him for a hug. Max was a very tall teen as a human, Mabel's head barely reached his nose. "No, it's ok, I'm sorry for being so blunt and mean asking it like that. Are you tired? Do you want to rest today? Do you still want to go on a double date later? We could just stay so you can rest if you want to."

"But… But you wanted to go...you even put on your...face...paint, boss's wife does that too…" Max rubbed his arm.

"Your health is more important than some silly date!" Mabel told him. "I care more about you being okay, than about my makeup."

"I...don't get to decide...do I?" A good man didn't bother his partner with what they wanted… Dad always listened to mom and his brother listened to his mate for everything… And Mabel...wanted to date (which had been explained to him was to become partners later- courtship-) which meant he-

"Hey, of course you get to choose, you get to choose whatever you want, Maxi…" Mabel took a deep breath. Remember what Xin said. He had to see how things worked here. "I want to be more than friends with you, Max. And I wanted a date so we can get to know each other even more and have fun while we work on that, but you have EVERY right to say no if you don't want to. Heck, you aren't obligated to hang out with me either if you don't want to. I will never force you to do anything. If you have something to say, or something you want, I want to hear it! You got it?!" She pointed at him as her other hand rested on her hip.

Max gaped a little, his tail was twitching madly. Finally, he rubbed his eyes. "I...I'm cold, Mabel." The hotel restaurant had an air conditioner, making it fresh for a human, but freezing for a cold blooded species. He didn't want to bother her before, but...she said she would listen to him. That she wanted to listen to him-

"O-Oh. I can go ask them to turn down the power a little." She smiled at him a little. Max nodded and smiled too. "And, I'd rather nap…" Mabel tiptoed to boop his nose. "Ok! Then let's get this air conditioner turned down, have some breakfast and then we can go nap!"

Max held the offered hand, sooo warm, and let the human girl lead him to the table. He had a big smile on his face and he could hear his heart hammering rapidly against his chest. With his free hand he tucked his loose hair strands away. He really, really liked this human...didn't he? (Well, no one had ever told him that they wanted to hear what he had to say before…)

They ended up going back to Mabel's hotel room to cuddle. Max liked how soft the beds here were, and how warm Mabel was. She stroked her fingers through his hair until he was relaxed and content. She had even turned on the heater and warmed up a blanket on it. He could hear her giggling, she said he looked funny, but he couldn't help rubbing his face on the warm cloth. Everything was so soft and warm, like napping on a warm rock on the beach but better because this was SOFT...

Max was knocked out cold/warm (?) and started thrumming loudly. Mabel was going to record it but got a message from Dipper, saying he wanted his room! Mabel huffed and typed back 'You owe me your first kiss with Paz, scram DippinDot!'

Dipper groaned. "Fine, whatever. I'll go hang out in Dillon's room instead…" But Dillon was with Phillip in there, so Dipper groaned again and went to ask if he could hang out in Miz, Zach and Zoe's room. They were out with Wanda, walking through town to the ""Eating contest!""(Uncle Seb saved his ass from Miz's rage, saying he had plans with his triplets), so at least their room was free. So Dipper went to hang out there with his phone. He was happy Mabel was having fun, but with all the other times she's dated, or had failed summer romances… well, Dipper didn't want to be a pessimist, but he wasn't sure if this would work out or not.

And Dipper didn't want to see how she'd feel when her heart was broken once again. Dipper tugged at his hat, sighing. Max seemed like a nice boy, a heck of a lot nicer than some of the human boyfriends Mabel had in high school, but… still. They were different species, from different cultures. And while Dipper didn't see a problem with the idea of dating a cryptid, he was worried about her.

He looked at the ceiling, and then curled up on his side, thinking. Did Max really like his sister? Or maybe he was happy with the attention he was receiving from a group of humans. That would be valid, but he didn't like that for Mabel. Maybe dating would bring them closer, dating existed for that reason after all! Learning about each other. Dipper himself didn't like Pacifica right away...So maybe Mabel and Max could really actually start liking each other for real during this time-

Dipper started coughing as he choked on the collar of his shirt he was chewing and trying to swallow. "Gah!" He pulled at his wet shirt in disgust. "Urgh...darn it." He never outgrew this.

-.-

Max felt like he was in heaven when he woke up a couple hours later. Mabel had not moved and she was still asleep, but he did notice her face paint (make...up?) was darker under her eyes now. He chuckled and nuzzled her side.

Mabel didn't take long to wake up herself. She stretched and was ready to speak to Mermando and his wife. Unfortunately, they were busy for the meeting so Mabel decided to spend the day another way! She grabbed some snacks from her bag and cuddled into Max's chest. "Ok! These are called snacks! We have salty ones like chips, pretzels and doritos here! You've had any of these ones before?"

Max shook his head. "I've never eaten human food before eating with your family." Mabel hummed. "Ok, we'll take it easy, ok? I don't want you getting sick or anything."

"Do you think I could get sick?" Max asked sincerely and Mabel hummed. "Well~ I am not really sure...I'm not the cryptid expert...But Miz gets drunk on chocolate and I don't want anything making you feel bad later. I'll text Dip for good measure." she pulled out her phone to do so. 'Hey Dip! If I give Max some chips, could they hurt him?'

"Ok, while Dipper replies, we can ask each other questions!" She let Max examine her phone for a second, amazed at how she sent her brother a message through it. He realized he had to pass his finger by the screen to make it move, and then got nervous when the keyboard appeared and returned it to her. "I think that's better."

'WELL the internet says lizards don't die if you give them a little bit so I'd say dont feed him too much?' Dipper was very confused at the question. Didn't Mabel feed Mermando a sandwich that summer?

"Ok! Dipper says we can go for it but not go so crazy!" Mabel opened a bag and held it for Max. Max opened his mouth and put the chip in it. He chewed and blinked a little bit. "It...has salt." "Yeah, that's why it's a salty snack. Do you like it?" "It leaves my mouth dry...but it's good!" Max laughed.

Mabel found out a lot of things. Max's favorite color was red because he'd love having that color of scales ("I love all colors, but green is being my favorite these couple of days~" was her eloquent response that made the eix leel squirm, flustered) He loved going to the beach ("Me TOO!") He enjoyed cooking fish ("Why, I'm a cooking expert myself~") and liked watching this sport in his village that was about teams hitting a ball with some sticks or hitting the opponents. It was only played by upper classes between villages but unofficial games were done among the townsfolk too, especially between the pups. ("That sounds like Lacrosse! I'm taking ya to a game sometime!")

And "Do you wanna have kids?" Mabel absolutely melted under those bright green eyes and his soft look. GOSH HE DIDN'T HAVE TO MAKE HIMSELF SO SEXY! HER POOR HEART! "I'd love to have kids, my brother has his kids already as well as my old friends and I'd love to be a father..."

She snuggled closer to Max. What would she need to do to marry this guy? Maybe fight a female eix leel? Would the Queen send her warriors at her? Were marriages between humans prohibited unlike Selkies like with Amelie's aunt? It probably prohibited, seeing how the eix leel reacted to her family...

With Mabel cuddling into Max's chest, the boy grabbed his arms around her from behind to hug her, almost afraid to do so. But Mabel was soft. And she didn't seem to mind being enclosed like this, even though it was a 'trapping' type of grip, for catching prey or wrestling an opponent to the ground. "I like this…" Max confessed. Humans had so many interesting ways of expressing themselves. What he saw as a potential dangerous grip had a potential to be beautiful, something Mabel loved ...and Mabel trusted him to do it.

"Me too! You're so tall and you have really strong arms for hugs~" Mabel caught his arm and hugged it tightly.

Max chuckled when he realized it was once again a 'hug', and she wasn't trying to pull off his arm. "Is...this what human courtship is about? Wrapping your arms around the other but not in a dangerous way, but to show you appreciate them?"

"Yes!" Mabel cheered.

"I don't know anything about human courtship...If-If we are going to court before becoming mates…" Max nuzzled Mabel, who giggled when he tickled her neck. "What else do you do? I want to do it correctly."

Mabel put a finger on her lips as she thought about it. "Well, dating has a lot of options...Some people go out to eat in a restaurant and chat! Others do activities together, like going to a party or dancing or some cool games or the cinema! And what we are doing...cuddling, eating chips...talking about what we like and don't...That's also a really good way of dating. In fact, I think I prefer this…" She sunk into his chest and sighed contentedly.

"Huh…" Max thought hard. "I like making my clothes look human...Most were just given to me by the priestesses, but I make my own human shoes, they're weird and I like it." He stared at his handmade boots, which were taken off and left beside the bed. You didn't wear your shoes onto beds, Mabel had explained to him (and the great dragon had vehemently agreed with.)

Mabel laughed. "Well, I love making sweaters! So that's a plus! I can make sweaters for when you're cold!" Max laughed at that. "Great!" Then he thought in the rest of her words.

"I don't like working with my boss...I...I'm bored. I clean fish at home everyday too. And I do the same here, but with exotic meat and I don't get to eat it, just with you, the meat goes home to the priestesses and the queen. I don't like my job, I don't hate it, but I wish I could do more…" He'd had dreams as a pup, dreams that he'd discarded, given up on, as he grew up and realized those would never come to fruition.

"Yeah that sounds me of my old job" Mabel agreed. "What would you want to do instead?"

"I… I don't know." Max said. Could he tell her about the silly dreams he had as a pup? Would she laugh? No, Mabel wanted to hear what he had to say.

"Well, you've got all the time in the world to decide whatcha wanna do! It's not like you're dying at twen…'' Mabel paled. "How long do you live? Is 19 still a teen for you?"

"I...am an adult?" Should have had pups years ago...A neighbor reached 90 years old a few days ago?" Mabel sighed in relief loudly, melting on his chest. "Ok...you've got time...for your dreams…" She said quite breathlessly. "And whatever they are, I wanna help support you for them!"

"Huh...I..guess so." Max wrinkled his nose in thought. Then he blinked. "You would really want to support me?" Mabel nodded. "Duh! You're my friend Maxi. And friends support each other! Even more if we were dating to be more than friends, eh?"

Max grinned, he really liked Mabel's directness, to tell him directly that she was interested in courting. It really made him feel...less of a freak. "Thanks."

"Oh, it's nothing, Maxi~" Mabel sighed happily. "So when you know what you wanna do, I'll be here to listen and help!"

Max couldn't believe he finally found someone who liked him and wanted to court him… someone he actually felt comfortable with, made him feel pretty and heard...and it was from a completely different species…

(And Max realized he didn't care if they were different species. Mabel was Mabel, and she was the kindest person he'd ever met.)

-.-

"Great Dragon, Mabel." Max welcomed them as they approached the meat stand.

"Hey Max~" Mabel waved. Max was packing up some of the exotic meats to send back to his Queen and Priestess right now. "I'll be done soon." He told them. Mabel grinned. "It's fine. I don't mind waiting." And if she could just watch the ways his muscles flexed as he worked, well~

Once Max was done, and Xin poked the wrapped bundles of meat to teleport them (saves time waiting for Max to take them home and then come back) the three headed off to the beach.

That was where the kids were spending today playing, and Mabel liked playing on the beach too, so she had no issue with it. Dipper sighed in relief once they showed up, Zoe and Diego hanging off his arms. "Finally! Backup!"

Zach was quietly playing by himself, though Xin quickly went to join him.

Diego ran up to Max and tugged on his pant leg. "Help me make a sand castle!" He grinned.

"Ah… ok?" Max let himself be pulled away by the excited child.

Max was quietly helping Diego build his sand castle when his big brother, Dillon approached and sat down with the human with bright red hair. "Oh~ Nice sandcastle." Phillip congratulated the toddler (and Max), both smiled, equally excited. "It's Max's first sandcastle!"

"Oh, nice." Phillip wasn't aware of Max's status as 'non human', he just knew from Dillon that he was Mabel's summer romance and that Max's family was scary and tried to kill them, which really disturbed the ginger boy. He was pretty handsome though. Good job, girl. "How's everything man?"

"It's-" Dillon interrupted him "Sorry, sorry, Dad's calling me. You ok staying with them right, sweetie?" "Yes yes, just go." Dillon lowered his head and kissed his boyfriend before trotting away.

Max gaped. He looked at Diego and then back at the boy with bright hair. "You...Mabel said kisses were for affection...A-Anyone can kiss?"

"Yeah, anyone can kiss…" Phillip narrowed his eyes confused, though he had a weird accent… "-though you kiss your partner on the lips, it's even better~" Phillip said and laughed easily when Diego stuck his tongue out, he poked his belly.

"You...Are you saying you are...partners?" How was that even possible?!

"Yup! For years now! Dillon's ma boyfriend."

"But, both of you are male! Why would-how do you-What?!" Max was grimacing and hard . It was literally incomprehensible. Diego pulled his hand. "People love each other, it doesn't matter who!" He said like a good boy.

"But it matters, why would you be together? You can't give each other babies! I don't understand what-why would you do this?...You-You should go with a female, that's how things work…Or do you go with...other males when females dont like you…?" Phillip frowned and narrowed his eyes a little.

"Woah. Thats like, super homophobic of you man."

"What? I just don't understand…"

"I think you got pretty sure I shouldn't be with my boyfriend, but guess what? We're getting married and we don't care what people like you say!" Phillip poked him in his bare chest. Max stepped back flinching and Diego watched, very confused.

"Hey! Phillip what are you doing?" Mabel caught up to them and stepped between them.

"How can you be dating him? I thought you were better than this...Come on, he's being an asshole!"

Mabel grabbed Phillip by his shirt and pulled the tall teen down to her eye level. "The FUCK did you just say about Max?"

"He-" Phillip cowered. "He just said I'm dating Dillon...because I don't have 'females' that like me, what kind of guy you're dating?"

"Um, maybe a guy who isn't human?!" Mabel roared at him. Then she turned at Max with a completely different look. "Maxi, do you know about relationships like this? A boy who loves a boy? Or a girl who loves a girl?"

Max, in shock at the way Mabel came over to defend him, blinked to focus and shook his head. "I-I ve never heard of something like that…"

Mabel dragged her cousin's boyfriend closer to herself and whispered "Are you calling a boy an asshole, when he's only been in the human world for a few months?! A guy that lives in a world completely different from ours where he's only seen as useful for the sole purpose of giving the females eggs? And who hasn't even seen a gay guy in his life before?!"

"I-I didn't know…" Phillip squeaked and was let go. "I-I'm sorry...I thought you were attacking me, I-I didn't know you weren't human." Phillip sheepishly apologized to Max.

Max blinked. "Ok...but I still think you're wrong." he pouted. ("Yeah, sorry, that still offends me." Phillip deadpanned.) Mabel let Phillip fall to the sand with an 'oof!' and grinned sheepishly at him. "We'll work on it. Adding sexuality to the list of things Max gotta learn about~"

"Seriously though," Phillip grumbled. "Even if he's from a different culture, I don't like him telling me to my face that I'm wrong for loving who I love. That's still rude, no matter what."

Mabel sighed. "I apologize for him, Philly, he's still learning a lot of stuff, I'll make him a good ally."

Phillip crossed his arms. "You better. Or start forgetting about the plans for a triple wedding."

"Nooouuuu!" Mabel dramatically moaned. "I promise!" She solemnly put a hand on her chest. Phillip took Diego with him and Max and Mabel stayed together (Zoe had gone over to play with Zach and Xin). Mabel knelt next to Max, who was sitting and staring at the water, and she put her face in front of him, giving him a tense smile. "We gotta talk, baby." He nodded, still looking confused.

"Ok so, you said you've never heard of that kind of relationship? Or is it kind of prohibited where you live?" Max shook his head. "I've never heard of something like that...In the priestesses's notes I haven't seen anything related to it...so it's not prohibited? But I don't get WHY they'd do it and not produce eggs...If they can't fulfill their role with a female."

"Ya, ok. So, humans don't get together just to have kids, ok? People love different kinds of people and get together just so they can spend their lives together with the person they love, like Dillon and Phillip, they really love each other, no matter if they can make kids or not. Humans sometimes love someone from the same gender and that's totally ok, got it?" Mabel stroked his chin.

Xin approached them and Max bowed his head a little. "Hey, I saw what happened with Phillip." Xin stroked Max's hair. "I know a lot of human things are surprising and confusing, but not everything's about reproduction, despite what you were taught. In fact, don't tell anyone but the 8th priestesses is seeing a merchant female in secret, so this exists in your world too, though is very hidden and severely regulated because of the rigid gender roles you're given."

Max was still gasping a little. This happened back home too?! He never realized that. "But… what about the eggs?"

"Not everyone wants to produce eggs. Some people care more about loving the person they want to love." Xin told him gently. Then he leaned closer and whispered, "After all, you like Mabel, don't you? She can't lay eggs."

Max blinked. "T-that's different. She's a human, and humans don't lay eggs." He looked flustered. Mabel only heard what Max said aloud, missing the thing that Xin whispered to Max. "Well, humans have eggs, but they're different. They don't lay them out like your people do. We carry babies inside our bellies."

Max shivered. That still sounded so scary to him. "And that's why human females weren't allowed to be soldiers for a long time, because they didn't want the babies inside them to get killed in combat?" Mabel nodded, "That's one of the reasons."

"With my people, the females lay the eggs and then they can just leave the eggs with her mate when she goes to war." Max told them. "It's easier, and even if she died in combat, the children are safe at home." And then the surviving male will be given as a mate to the next available female, with the deceased female's family having priority and then passing him on as need be.

"...that doesn't seem much better." Mabel pointed out. "Can't they just send the people who don't have eggs or children? Wait, do you guys have a draft?" She gasped. When Max asked what a draft was, and they explained it, he nodded. "Well, they do have the females tested to see how large and strong they are." No point sending someone weak to get killed needlessly.

"Also, since the other tribes also have mating season around the same time, we generally don't go to war at that time. So it's not that bad."

Xin frowned. "What do your people even go to war for? Resources?"

"Yes." Max nodded. "If we need supplies that we can't get, we send raids on the other tribes. Well, first we attempt to trade, but if they refuse, even after we tried a few times, we take them by force." Xin winced at that. It came down to resources in the end, didn't it? At least something like that could be fixed, by just making more and giving it to them, which… fair's fair, only worked when they had a powerful god behind them that could just create stuff out of energy. Still, it was still better than attacking just 'cause they didn't like each other.

"...Yikes" ." Mabel whispered. "That still sounds kinda awful." Like, fighting and killing each other was bad to begin with. And wars were like super fights. She was older now, less naive, and she knew that sometimes you had to fight. But the idea of people being drafted and sent to fight even if they didn't want to was… still upsetting.

Xin patted Max's head. "Well. Humans are different. But even now, there are some issues with acceptance and the reason Phillip got so mad at you was because the things you said really hurt his feelings. Because they're the type of things people have said to him, to try and tell him that he's wrong for loving who he loves. And he thinks that such a thing is unfair and wrong, because other people aren't allowed to decide his preferences for him."

Max nodded slowly. When it was put this way, he thought he could understand. "But what about matchmakers? They decide who you marry?"

"Which is also unfair." Xin huffed. "The point of a matchmaker is to help you find someone you'll work with as partners, but if you don't like the person they choose for you, you shouldn't be forced to marry them."

"But… it's the orders from the Queen-" Max said quietly. "Screw that. People should get a choice. It's not fair otherwise!" Xin huffed again, almost looking like he would spit fire. "I mean, sometimes, people can choose to go along with it. Because they're passively accepting it, or too afraid to go against people… but… That doesn't make it right." He muttered, clutching his arms together.

Mabel reached out to hug Max to herself. "What we're trying to say is, we believe people should get to choose who they want to be with. But currently in the human world, there are people who claim that they have a right to choose for other people. And we think that's stupid. And Phillip and Dillon have people objecting to them being together, and Phillip thought that you were trying to tell him he's not allowed to love Dillon."

Max nodded. Yeah, he understood how that would offend and upset the red haired man. "Should I apologise?" He asked. Mabel nodded. "Apologise and tell him how you feel, after learning a bit more about the subject."

Max nodded and walked towards them. He was barefeet and Mabel winced a little, thinking how the burning hot sand would hurt his feet...and then she felt silly after she remembered Max's body was actually a physical illusion. She and Xin followed him to make sure everything went fine.

Phillip stared at the younger man bowing his head at him. "I'm sorry, fire hair man… Mabel and the Great Dragon, um, explained that humans don't always care about making babies when they choose their mates...I didn't mean to offend your human relationship with Mabel's cousin...or...tell you who you should marry or court...You should be able to love whoever you want...Like how...I like Mabel."

Xin nudged Mabel and she squirmed happily.

"Oh, well, It's good you understand that now." Phillip managed to give him a small smile. "And stop bowing, it's not something humans do, man, just sit down…" Dillon rolled his eyes. "I'm glad you're going to understand more stuff...but I kiiiinda get it. Your city was very shitty, trying to murder us and shouting at ya for being male. Wouldn't be surprised if you thought marriage and dating was only for the sake of making kids." He rolled his eyes.

Max smiled and sat in front of them, hugging his long legs. "The Great Dragon told me the same…'Bout...regulating with our roles… I always thought...having babies came after courting. All the couples make eggs during mating season...But I guess it doesn't work like that...After all, Mabel's courting me to marry me and we can't have babies even we both want them."

Mabel choked with her tongue and had to lean on an amused Xin to cough. Ma-Marry?! Right nOw?!

Dillon and Phillip blinked. "Uh...Marrying?"

Max nodded excitedly, not realizing Mabel was close. "She said she's courting me to be more than friends and courting or how you humans call it, 'dating', is to know each other before marrying!"

"...Guess you didn't explain this to him very well, Shooting Star." Xin giggled as Mabel pulled at her hair. Nooouuuu! She liked Max but she didn't want to marry yeeeettt~!

And- she liked Max a lot . But marriage was a big deal! "A-ah… marriage is still a thing we don't know for sure yet!" Mabel said quickly. "I mean, I have to really get to know someone first before I decide that they're the one I want to spend my life with-"

Xin grinned slyly as he said, far too casually, "As a god of the Harvests, I'm perfectly capable of fertility Blessings. And I HAVE in fact Blessed a wedded pair from different species so they could conceive children together~" he purred. Mabel was bright red. "I'm too young to have kids! I'm still in college! I don't plan to get married until I'm at LEAST a full adult with a career!" Nevermind children ! Mabel wanted kids someday. But not right now! She still had so much to do with her life, to grow as a person- she wasn't experienced enough for kids!

"That's very mature of you, Shooting Star." Xin nodded solemnly. "Marriage and children are a lot of responsibility. Most people rush into it, because they think they're supposed to, and they end up miserable."

"Yeah, Phillip and I aren't getting married until we're both done with school." Dillon told them. "And… we're planning on adopting a kid, but not until we have enough financial stability and time to be able to raise them properly."

Max rather thought this was all incredibly complicated. Why didn't one of them just stay home to care for their pups? But apparently for humans, both partners had to work. That sounded awful. How would the children get the attention they needed?

Then his eyes widened. "Wait. Mabel, you-you aren't-" he glanced at the Great Dragon and then at Mabel. He really liked her, he really really liked Mabel, she was so nice and sweet… He wanted to be good enough for her, the best. He wanted to be able to take care of her and satisfy her needs. He could learn. He learnt the priestesses' stuff when no one thought he could, he could work on this too.

He walked over towards Mabel, towering over her as he grasped her hands into his. His hold was gentle and his bright green eyes were sparkling. "I'd never want to lose you, Mabel. I want to work on it so that we're both good for the other, so you would want to marry me when it's a good time for you." He paused before lifting her hands gently to press against his cheek. "And more than that, I want to be someone whom you would want to marry." Because Max already wanted her. It might be him being naive, but Mabel was the most positive affection and care that Max had ever known. And he… liked it. Liked her. He didn't know if this was what 'love' was, and this wasn't something that his family would ever approve of, but Max had a taste for what being respected and acknowledged felt like now, and he didn't want to lose that.

Mabel sniffled and threw herself over him to hug tightly. (Xin cheered silently at the Social Link UP that popped up over both their heads. Yes! His shipping was coming to fruition!) Max slowly hugged her back and Mabel sent her cousin and his boyfriend a teary smile and pointed at the tall hot guy she got for herself.

Phillip snorted as Dillon gave her 2 thumbs up. Xin was way too smug. But Mabel didn't care. She was feeling so overwhelmed with fluffy feelings right now. And she loved it. Hadn't felt this in years! Frankly, she thought that joyous fluttery feeling was something she'd outgrown, but she was glad she hadn't, it felt so nice.

"Do you wanna be more than friends already? We have an in between phase, called being boyfriend and girlfriend." Mabel told him. "And it's um… a step forward to reaching the point where marriage is an option…" she twirled a lock of hair around her finger as she giggled, the fluffy feelings were everywhere!

Max had managed to get flustered again, something that amazed Xin to no end (because HOW?! This species couldn't even blush), and Max rested his forehead on Mabel's own before letting a soft grumbling sound with his eyes closed. Mabel giggled excitedly when he gently nuzzled one side of her face. "I like the idea…" He whispered and Mabel swooned at the deep voice that was produced. Even Phillip and Dillon had shivers.

"Can I teach you a new kind of kiss?" Mabel waited for the nod and tiptoed to kiss him on the lips. Max's eyes widened incredibly big.

"That's a bf-gf type of kiss~"

"Bee eff? Gee?" Max asked. "Boyfriend and Girlfriend." Mabel explained. Max wondered how those words were anything alike, but just shrugged and went with it. He also licked his lips, wondering at that feeling. Having something press against his mouth felt sort of weird. It was almost like a food response, since 'stuff against mouth' was usually for eating. But it wasn't food, it was Mabel. So it left Max feeling a little confused. Food response was good, it made him happy to eat, but this wasn't eating. But it still felt good, a rush of endorphins (not that Max knew what those were) going through him at the feeling of something pressed against his lips for a short while.

The reason humans like kissing is because human lips contain a lot of nerves, so having the mouth stimulated sets off all sorts of signals to their brain. Max's people weren't quite the same, but the resulting endorphin spike created the same effect. So Max beant his head down, and kissed Mabel again, trying to pinpoint his feelings, to figure out what this sensation was.

And Mabel full on blushed as Max kissed her, ok it wasn't kissing. He was just nudging his lips against hers, rather unevenly, as he had no idea what he was doing, and it was a rather sloppy sort of 'kiss' but Mabel shivered anyway. Ooooh~ how forward~ she hadn't expected that.

So Mabel held Max's head in her hands and moved it a little so she could sort of teach him, via touch, how a kiss worked. Phillip and Dillon had to look away to give them some privacy. Xin on the other hand, was staring at them, enraptured by it all. Dillon gave him a little smack. "Dude."

"What? I'm just looking." Xin pouted. He did finally look away, to check on the kids, they were still quietly playing in the sand. And by quietly, he meant that Zoe had stolen the flip flops from another child and was using them to make a fortification for her sand arches. He sighed. "Hang on, I need to go deal with this." And the dragon went off to convince Zoe to give them back as the other child cried loudly. Geez this girl!

After several very long seconds, Mabel had to pull away to breathe. "Gosh! Maxi, that was the...longest kiss I've had! You don't even have to breathe?" She laughed, obviously breathless. Max didn't even look a bit winded as he smiled.

"We can hold our breath for 2 hours...I didn't know 'kissing' was tiring for humans." And they still liked to do it...Huh. It felt pretty nice though, he could see why they'd do it even if they could die. Humans were pretty hardcore.

Mabel's eyes widened a little. "Well, humans can't hold their breath very long, I can only manage like...35 seconds."

"...You must have really small lungs. How sad~" Max chuckled, sounding almost teasing. Mabel pouted and playfully punched his arm. "You're the worst~"

Max flinched and shut up, before Mabel quickly waved her hands. "It's an expression! A human expression! It's meant as a joke. You're not actually bad! It means-uh-ugh. I gotta remember you're not going to get it…"

Mabel was gonna have a lot more to do with teaching Max about human stuff.

-.-

The Pines had the privilege to be informed about Mabel and Max's current relationship status...after Mermando. Of course friends came first duh! Mermando was very happy for them and knew his old time friend was going to be fine, Mabel was so sweet and kind. He was glad Max had found someone who would love and care for him. Mermando had heard a lot about female Eix Leel and he didn't think Max would do well with that kind of partner.

"Hey family! I'm officially introducing you to~ Max! He's my new boyfriend now! Isn't he the sweetest~" She put a finger on her cheek.

The family was at the pool of the hotel this time, and blinked in perfect unison (except for the kids who didn't care and Dillon who already knew).

"Well...you do you, shooting Star!" Seb gave her thumbs up.

"It's been 2 weeks." Shermie deadpanned. Stan threw him a pool noodle from the other side. "Ah! Let the pumpkin be, you party killer! Carla and me dated from day one and look at us!" Carla squirmed to be let go when he caught her. ("It's Carla and I ." Ford corrected absently. "Bitch you've never dated Carla!" Stan protested. Ford rolled his eyes, "That's not what I meant-")

"Also, am I hearing teen dad talking?" Seb put a hand behind his ear and Stan let out a loud "WOOOOOO!" before fist bumping him.

Shermie threw a beach ball at Seb's head. "I'm not the only one here with unexpected parenthood!" He told Seb with a huff.

"Sure! Your wife! HAHA!" Stan and Seb laughed loudly. "We. ARE on FIRE!" Seb raised his hand and fire flickered to life on his palms. This time, Abigail threw her flip flops at both triplets, hitting both perfectly (from perfected rolled sock throwing at twins because damn them for being just as sassy as her husband.)

"EH HEM! Can we stop making this about dad and focus on us?" Mabel grumbled.

Xin giggled as Ford, leaning against his shoulder, blinked confused. Bothering Shermie about what happened almost 20 years ago was so immature. "Well congratulations on your boyfriend …(?)" He smiled at his niece.

"Why THANK YOU Uncle Ford! The only one who actually cares~" She sent Dipper a glare, who shrugged helplessly. "Congrats? I mean it was kinda obvious you'd start dating for real."

Mabel huffed. Her family just wasn't as excited about this as they should be. "We should have a couples party." She grinned. Maybe that would make things more exciting for people.

Xin perked up, "Party?"

"Absolutely none of you can drink." Stan waved a dismissed hand. "Well, Philly boy can, but I say no, and he can't drink."

"Yessir, absolutely sir." Phillip nodded quickly.

"We don't have to drriiinkk~" Mabel dramatically leaned against Max, who easily caught her with his...big...muscled arms… oh~ Mabel traced a finger over it. "Uhh~"

"Max, I totally forgot to ask you, your family isn't going to like, come kill us for dating right?"

Max's smile was wiped off his face. Well, he wasn't planning to TELL them, so it didn't matter if they liked it or not. "I dont care." He said, defiantly. Xin clapped and let out a "Whoo! Fight da POWAH!"

"Well, as long as you're both happy, then I don't see any issue." Abi told her daughter. "But if he ever hurts you or anything…" Abi gave Max a stern look.

"I'd never hurt Mabel, I already want to marry her-" Max shamelessly said, making everyone turn to look at him. "We are doing this...bee-eff-gee-eff, to see if we're both the best for each other."

Mabel giggled sheepishly with her face completely red. Abigail looked rather impressed. Dipper just rolled his eyes. "So… that's three people who just straight up wanna marry you after knowing you for like, a couple weeks." he joked. "Well, Jeff only knew you for a few days, but I think my point still stands."

"What can I say? I'm just irresistible~" Mabel winked at her brother while Max just smiled. Yes she was. Max gave her another one of those 'hugs' that humans liked so much, and that he found himself falling in love with. Normally, grabbing someone like this was for catching prey or capturing an opponent. And normally it meant that someone died. But with humans, no one died and you get to just keep holding the person! And Mabel was warm so Max liked holding her. So Max got to indulge in his hunter instincts by 'catching' Mabel and then he could just hold her! IT was great!

Mabel looked at her family smugly. "This guy learns fast!"

And then Max gave Mabel a kiss and it was much better this time.

"...he really does learn fast." Abigail deadpanned.

Shermie was torn between being happy for her and his need to be an overprotective dad. His eye twitched and Seb poured water over his head and turned him around. "There. There. Steam's coming out."

Phillip scoffed, putting on a false-snooty air. "Well~ Dillon and I had been dating longer and we said before that we're getting married someday~ So I ain't losing my privileges of being welcomed into the family first." ("Hey, you know about me, so that already means you're welcome here." Xin cheered.)

"You're a dork." Dillon rolled his eyes and kissed his nose.

"Well, Max knows about you too, so, hey! I guess he's welcomed here too!" Seb exclaimed. "Great way for bursting my boyfriend's bubble, Uncle Seb."

"Hey! Paz and I have been together longer! Is meeting Xin the requirement?! Does this mean she isn't welcomed yet?" Dipper exclaimed, offended.

"Um… doesn't Mabel need to breathe at some point?" Stan pointed out, and everyone turned to see Mabel swooning over and gasping for air, loudly, filling her empty lungs.

She leaned against Max, dizzy (with the euphoria of oxygen deprivation) but with a huge smile. "Woah…That's...better than smile dip..." She didn't see a problem of kissing someone who didn't need to breathe for 2 hours at all! This was the best thing ever!

The family was now a little worried.

-.-.-

Mabel is happy with Max and wants to shower him with love and affection!