Forest for the Trees

"Wendy," Dipper said, causing her to freeze in place.

She'd known this was coming, but wasn't sure how to apologize, I mean, how exactly do you apologize for setting Mabel on someone?

Dipper had waited until Mabel was off doing something, Grunkle Stan was going over the books in his office and all the tourists were gone, to talk to her. It was just the two of them. Well, and Soos, but he didn't count. "What did you say to Mabel a couple of days ago?" Dipper asked.

Wendy winced. "I thought she was describing a scene from a romance novel she was reading. I mean, seriously, who has the balls to do what she described?"

"Dipper," Soos answered cheerfully, reminding them he was there.

"That was action movie insane," Wendy said. "I thought she was fantasizing about the main character in a book so I teased her a little."

"Oh," Dipper said in understanding. "The thing to remember about Mabel is that she always pays her debts and little things like sanity or reality tend to get pushed aside. If you do something nice for her, she will do something equally nice back, that's just the way she is."

"So, am I forgiven?" Wendy asked.

"Yeah, just don't let it happen again," Dipper said. "She has far too much fun teasing me and making me blush as it is."

"It's a big sister's job," Wendy said.

"Five minutes," Dipper grumbled as he left. "Five minutes isn't exactly older."

Once Dipper had left, Wendy turned to Soos. "Seriously though, I love my brothers dearly, annoying pests that they are, but if it had been be in that situation they'd be married to Gideon right now. I may have just been teasing but if someone had done that for me I'd be turning in my v-card minimum."

"The Pines rock," Soos said proudly. "Want to see a picture of Stan punching out a Pterodactyl to save Waddles?"

*Thump*

The two turned and saw a flash of pink, the exact shade of one of Mabel's sweaters in the heating vent and heard something scurrying off through the duct work.

"Please tell me that was a squirrel," Wendy begged.

"It was a squirrel, dude," Soos replied solemnly.

Wendy thumped her head on the counter. "I think my flu is coming back."

"At least this time you weren't telling her to have his babies," Soos offered cheerfully.

"Definitely relapsing," Wendy said. "I'm going to go hide erm, I mean rest for a few days, bye."

"And then there was one," Soos said taking her place behind the counter.

*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*

Dipper had just picked up his sandwich to take a bite when he was hugged from behind. It was a Mabel hug, but the intent felt different. Years of surprise hugs attacks from Mabel allowed him to read her hugs like they were highway billboards, but this one was…confused? "How about we talk about things over lunch instead of having a massively embarrassing moment with a side order of confusion?" he asked.

"Is that allowed?" Mabel asked, her hug taking on a relieved feel.

"I'll make you a PB&J," he offered just before Mabel bruised his ribs, unusually happy even for her. Searching the cabinets he found the raisins, honey, and powdered sugar needed to make a Mabel PB&J sandwich. He carefully cut it diagonally using a protractor to make sure it was exactly ninety degrees. It wasn't necessary, but he knew she found it funny when he did it. A quick glass of chocolate milk with triple syrup and he was done.

Mabel beamed at him and they both ate lunch and talked about inconsequential things until they'd finished and cleaned up after themselves.

"Ok, now what's wrong?" Dipper asked.

"I was listening to Wendy," Mabel began, causing Dipper to groan. "She didn't know I was there, she was talking to Soos," she explained.

"And?"

"And she said if she had been in that situation her brother would be married to Gideon now and that at the very least if she were me she would have given up her v-card."

"Ohhh," Dipper said playing for time as he figured out what to do.

"If you weren't my brother there wouldn't even be any hesitation," Mabel admitted.

"How about this," Dipper said. "I take your v-card."

Mabel nodded slowly, shocked that Dipper would agree so easily when even she was having a hard time with the idea and was really just using it to push him out of his safe zone and loosen up a bit to see if he'd stop being so distant. Mabel knew she had been a bit distant herself lately, but there were reasons.

"-and I give it back to you when you're eighteen," he finished.

"What?" she asked confused.

"You give the card to me and you don't get to give it to anyone until you're eighteen after I return it to you," he explained.

"What if I meet that special someone?" she asked, already planning out the design on her v-card, as she realized he was suggesting an actual physical card.

"If he can't wait until you're eighteen then he can't be all that special can he?" Dipper asked.

"You got a point," Mabel agreed. "Does this mean I get to hold your card?"

"Yes it does," he agreed, relieved he'd managed to derail the latest batch of insanity and trying to think of what would be acceptable as a v-card from him so she'd take it seriously and they could put the whole thing behind them.

"Sure you won't want it back while we're here?" she teased cheerfully.

"Mabe o' mine," he said seriously. "I don't think either of us is really ready for anything remotely like that anyway."

"I did just get my first kiss a little while ago," she agreed. "And so did you." She smiled as he groaned at the memory of Mermando and Dipper's reverse CPR.

*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*

The first card he'd gotten from Mabel looked like a credit card that had been cut into a right angle triangle and the V had one red arm and one purple arm and was strangely shaped. Of course the V was sparkly enough to light up the room as expected of Mabel.

The second card was a surprise and looked much the same except the V had a blue arm instead of a red one. Fitting the two pieces together formed one card with a red blue and purple M on it. In retrospect he should have expected something like that. He didn't know how Mabel had cloned herself, but the other Mabel was a lot more stable than Dipper's clones were. She also seemed to be left handed and was just a tad insecure requiring a little more attention and encouragement than Mabel did, of course he could be wrong and this was all a complicated Mabel thing he didn't understand, but he didn't think so.

"So got your v-card done yet?" Mabel asked curiously.

"I got it chipped out right, but Soos needs to get a new propane tank so I can finish it," Dipper replied.

"I can't wait to see it!" Mabel squealed.

"I did take a page from your book and actually thought about what it should look like and what to make it out of," Dipper admitted. "Plus the card I got from you kinda inspired me."

"Really?" She beamed.

"Yeah," he agreed. "I just needed to learn to chip stone without breaking it and find a couple of pre 1965 dimes."

"You put a lot of thought into it," Mabel said trying to figure out what it would look like, since it was obviously not going to be a plastic card like her's had been.

"Dude, I got the tank," Soos said. "Ready to fire it up?"

"Yeah," Dipper said taking a small leather pouch from around his neck. "Got it all right here."

"Are we sure the oil won't stain it?" Soos asked as the two headed towards Soos' workshop.

"Tested it on a couple of heated stones and it washed right off," Dipper assured him.

"Alright, let's do this!" Soos enthused.

"It was nearly two hours later that the pair exited Soos' shop to find Mabel practically bouncing off the walls.

"Is it done, is it done, is it done?" she begged.

Dipper held out his hand and Mabel extended a trembling hand palm up. Her squeal when Dipper dropped a hair clip into it drove Soos to his knees with his hands over his ears. "Make it stop!" Soos moaned.

It was a simple hair clip with a curved blue stone affixed to it that looked like half a heart that a V had carefully been chipped out of and filled with silver.

"It's beautiful!"

"Let's go see how they look in the mirror in our room," Dipper said holding up a second one.

She quickly drug him upstairs, where Mabel was also waiting for them and their matching squeals made him glad he'd thought to put in earplugs.

The two Mabels pushed the stones together forming a blue heart with a silver letter in it. "But you hate your name," Mabel said as the pair put the clips in their hair.

"No, I'd just prefer it was something else," Dipper said. "Anyway, if you can use the double V for an 'M' then I can use them too. I thought it was really cool the way you did that. I was planning to find a smooth river rock that I could chip a V into when I found that one and it all fell into place."

The two girls admired themselves in the mirror, having to take turns as it wouldn't reflect them both at once. Dipper noticed but didn't make a big deal about it. He'd read about Fetches in the Journal and there was something he was forgetting about them, but he could look it up later.

The Mabels hugged him from both sides and he could have sworn he heard a rib snap under the pressure. Fortunately it turned out to just be the pencil he had in his shirt pocket. "Everything on an even keel again?" Dipper asked.

"Keel?" Mabel asked while her otherself vanished into the closet, closing the door behind her, an oink telling everyone that Waddles was in there with her.

"Pirate mystery novel," he admitted.

"Yep, we're gold," she promised. "Now if you'll excuse me I must make up a dozen pirate euphemisms for things that I can use to embarrass you."

Dipper couldn't help but chuckle. "Yeah, we're good again. I'm going to go listen to BAB-erm, something manly with a friend."

"Have fun!" Mabel called out as he left. "Or I'll make you walk the plank? Too boring. Clean the poop deck? Ick, just no. I need a book with nautical terms, dang it!"

Dipper made a quick retreat.

*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*

Madelyn set aside her sketch pad as she sensed William, but a less focused, less controlled one. He had left the abandoned church they were staying in to get supplies and wouldn't be back for hours. Scrawling a quick note, in case William returned early, she followed the feel of his analogue. Intellectually she'd known that they had twins of themselves in other universes, but to actually meet one? The pull was irresistible. 'What would he be like?' she wondered. How much of her William would be in there? She had to find out!

*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*

A bald headed man slammed his palm against an advanced device that seemed to be malfunctioning. "This is all Waddles' fault! They claimed it was just a pig, but it carried an enormous amount of temporal energy and readings don't lie!"

Typing by: The Last Primarch!