This story is not connected to my other previous Gravity Falls fanfictions.

A Holiday Love

Chapter 1

A fresh blanket of snow had fallen all over the small town of Gravity Falls. A perfect time considering that it was the holiday season. With only a week and a half until Christmas day, one of the most magical and joyous days of the year for many.

As such, Mr. Mystery, aka Soos Ramirez was hosting a big holiday bash for free. Many of the townspeople were coming, including Dipper and Mabel Pines. Yep, the heroic Mystery Twins were back in town, along with their parents and Waddles and Mittens, (their pet kitty), and for the long haul.

After returning from Gravity Falls, all the twins talked about was their time in Gravity Falls. Their parents took a real interest in this as, unlike in Piedmont, the kids had made many friends, more so than what Dipper had in their hometown. Mabel had formed lifelong/sister bonds with Candy and Grenda. And even Dipper had kept in touch with certain friends such as Soos, Pacifica, Wendy and members of the latter's gang of friends.

Within the year, after the twins begged their parents to let them go back to Gravity Falls the next summer, where their great uncles Stan and Ford had set up their own supernatural investigative business, the Pines parents decided to not only let their kids go but to go with them to test out the idea of the family living their full time.

In short, the parents grew to love the town as much as their kids did, and Luke, the Pines father, even got a job as head IT director for McGucket Industries. A step up from his old job as a junior IT assistant at some small computer company back in Piedmont. As a result, the family bought a nice little home, coincidentally right next door to the much larger, but not that large, home of the Northwests, the alleged founding family of the town. Though only the young Northwest, Pacifica, ever interacted with the Pines family, and got along with them; her parents refused to acknowledge the neighbours who they felt were beneath them. Even though the Northwests had lost a considerable amount of their wealth during Weirdmageddon.

Nevertheless, the Pines family liked it in Gravity Falls, and a large majority of the town's population liked the family back.

And things were going pretty well for the younger Pines twins: Dipper was interning at his Grunkles' supernatural investigative business, and Mabel got a job at the Mystery Shack working as an assistant curator to Soos while also selling her custom sweaters on the side, allowing her to make decent money.

Now being their first Christmas in Gravity Falls, Soos was determined to make the Pines family feel as welcome as possible.

"Ho, ho, ho! Merry Christmas! Merry Christmas! And a happy New Year Pines." Soos, dressed as Santa, jingled to the Pines family, who were all decked out in holiday sweaters.

"And a merry Christmas to you too Santa," Mabel winked.

"Yeah, happy holidays Soos," Dipper greeted.

"Gotta hand it to ya Soos, you sure do make a good jolly old fat guy," Stan commented, which got him an elbow jab from his twin brother.

A little embarrassed by the older twins the Pines parents just nodded their heads while handing over a present they brought for the party.

"Thanks for inviting us, Mr. Ramirez," Elizabeth, the Pines mother said.

"Thank you for coming," Soos said, taking the gift and welcoming the family into the Shack, which was decked from head to toe in Christmas lights and Santa hats on many of the attractions. Along with this, there were bits of holly scattered throughout the place as well as ribbons and angels.

The Pines family's eyes widened with awe at the sights before them, but that only increased when they entered the floor room where the main party was taking place. Like the rest of the house, it was decorated with lights, holly, angels and all sorts of decorations, with a tree in the center of it. Soos' cousin, Reggie, was DJing the party, playing Christmas tune after Christmas tune; while his grandmother was bringing in dishes of food for the massive buffet filled with delicious-looking Christmas pastries.

Everyone was dressed in a variety of Christmas-themed outfits, though none compared to Mabel's Christmas light sweater with real working lights surrounding Rudolph and a shiny red nose in the center. Mabel didn't like to brag, but she'd spent months working on this sweater and was proud of it.

"Well, I don't know about you all," Stan spoke up, "But that buffet is full of free goodies, and I'm gonna snag as many as my sack can carry," he said as he left the family while pulling out a sack from his pocket. Ford was quick to follow; mainly to make sure his twin didn't get into trouble, as usual.

Mabel was about to follow them so that she could get some sweets too, but then she saw Candy and Grenda, aka Mabel's soul sisters and BFFs, waving at her from the tree. So she went over to them instead.

That left Dipper alone with his parents, that is until one of the couple's favourite Christmas songs began to play and they decided to hit the dancefloor.

This left Dipper alone. And given how he wasn't the most socially interactive member of his family, he wasn't that good at joining crowds. Usually, it took someone else to step into the mix. "Hey Dipper my man," a voice shouted from behind, slapping Dipper in the back, but not too hard.

Making a tiny jump, Dipper turned and saw Wendy, dressed in a flannel green and red-stripped sweater, with her hair much shorter than it was the first summer the Pines' teen had seen her.

"H… hey Wendy. Nice party huh?"

"It was until I saw you being your usual party pooper self," she joked, though Dipper took it a bit personally.

"Hey I'm not a party pooper," he protested. Which got him a laugh from Wendy in response.

"Relax I was just fucking with you. But seriously, have some fun. Meets some people. Drink some eggnog and enjoy yourself. Anyways, I gotta go," she said pointing to the opposite end of the room to a tan girl with braided hair and wearing a light blue shirt with snowflakes on it. "There's a chick nearby in a cute outfit whose lips need kissing. Catch ya later."

That girl Wendy was referring to was her girlfriend, Nova. Earlier that year, the lumberjack girl had come out as bisexual and started dating this new exchange student. The two were a strong item, having lasted longer than all of Wendy's past relationships combined, and the redhead had never been happier.

Dipper was okay with this, but a part of him still had feelings for Wendy that he could never shake. His parents and Mabel kept telling him that all he needed was to find someone to be with romantically, and then he could finally let go of his old crush.

"Hey Dipper," another voice called out from behind.

Turning around, again, Dipper replied not realizing who it was calling out to him until he saw her with his own eyes, which widened when he saw her in that stunning dress. "Yeah-holly angel!" he blurted out. It was none other than Pacifica Northwest, and she looked stunning. Wearing a dark green Christmas dress that went from near the top of her chest, revealing a tiny bit of cleavage, all the way to just above her knees. The dress was sparkling and had a snow-white trim around the bottom, and on the ends of the very short sleeves, that stretched as far as halfway to the elbows. She had on matching green eyeliner, along with rose-red lipstick and Christmas tree ball earrings of the same colour as her lips. Overall, Pacifica sparkled in Dipper's eyes. Which was something that his twelve-year-old would've denied.

"Woah!" he said. "Pacifica you look…" his mind stuttered and his mouth ran out of words to say.

Taking it the wrong way, Pacifica backed away a couple of centimetres while looking away embarrassed. "What is it?" she asked. "Am I too dolled up? Am I not pretty enough? I knew I should've-"

"What? No!" Dipper interrupted, pulling Pacifica back closer to him. "No… you look… gorgeous!"

This caused Pacifica to blush as she turned her head back to face Dipper. "Th… thanks. You look pretty handsome yourself in that sweater of yours. It's cute. Let me guess, Mabel's work?"

Yep, the grey sweater with a reindeer wearing a Santa hat was Mabel's handy work alright. But Dipper's main focus was on the fact that Pacifica had just called him handsome. He couldn't help himself from blushing even more than he already was when he heard this.

"Um… a… wow… I mean thanks," he said back.

There was a long, awkward pause that followed. Neither knew what to say or do. Truth be told, Dipper had been slowly developing a crush on Pacifica for some time. Ever since he and his family moved to Gravity Falls, right next door from the Northwests Dipper had begun to get to know more about Pacifica. Such as how he was a wiz in science, particularly chemistry and biology; and that she enjoyed fantasy novels and games. However, she'd hid these facts from the general public as her family's reputation prevented her from being seen as a nerd. Being around the Pines, however, allowed Pacifica to be herself and stand up against her parent's high social standards. She'd dumped her old friends, who were only interested in her money and power. Now preferring to hang out with Dipper, Mabel, along with Candy and Grenda. Mainly Dipper though. The two had become close friends during the summer Dipper had returned to Gravity Falls. Even closer when they both started attending Royal Woods High together, coincidentally having almost every subject together and were even paired up as lab partners in science.

During this time, Pacifica had been working up the courage to confess to Dipper a secret she'd been hiding from him; the fact that she also had a massive crush on him. Truthfully it had started during the events at her family's old mansion when that ghost was haunting the place. Watching Dipper stand up against the vengeful ghost then even her father gave Pacifica butterflies in her stomach. When he'd returned to Piedmont she'd been devastated, but later relieved when she learned that he and his family were moving to Gravity Falls full-time. She'd been so excited, having taken a major role in helping arrange the welcome party hosted in honour of the Pines twins, aka the heroes of Gravity Falls.

She'd wanted to confess her feelings to him at that party but had gotten cold feet and bailed on that plan at the last moment. Her old self would've had no problem asking out a guy, but this was different; Dipper wasn't like any of the other boys who'd fancied her. Unlike them, Dipper cared for other traits besides wealth, power and looks. He was a man of heart and mind. Something Pacifica had come to admire more than anything else before.

Now, however, a lot had transpired during the last summer. Dipper had been going through puberty, transforming from a young dork into a young, handsome teenager. All the girls, minus Mabel, Candy and Grenda, were fawning over him, especially Pacifica's ex-friend Tiffany. She'd even tried asking Dipper out on numerous occasions, but the Pines teen had turned her down luckily. At this point, Pacifica couldn't wait anymore. She had to confess to Dipper her feelings and ask him out before some other girl got him.

Desperate for help, she'd turned to the one girl who never had a problem asking out a boy no matter how low her social class was, Mabel Pines. When the Pines girl found out Pacifica liked her brother, she'd, practically, flipped over the moon at the idea of her and Dipper becoming a couple. She, along with Candy and Grenda, had spent weeks preparing the Northwest girl for this moment. Helping her pick out a dress, even chipping in when her minimum wage job as a waitress didn't fully cover the fabulous dress she wore now. They also helped her with her makeup and even set up a special place for them to be alone with Dipper.

Now all Pacifica had to do was get Dipper to come with her. Then when they were alone, she would do what needed to be done, and hopefully, the sparks would fly.

"So…." She said awkwardly, trying to build up the courage to take the next step.

"So…." Dipper replied, also feeling a bit awkward. Even though he didn't know why he felt this way.

"C'mon Pacifica," she said to herself. "You got this."

"You know I was thinking…" she said, now out loud.

"Yeah?" Dipper asked.

Taking a deep breath in, and releasing it, Pacifica finally said what she needed to say. "Would you like to go upstairs to the attic with me? There's something pretty cool I'd like to show you."

"Um… sure. Why not. Plus it's getting kinda awkward watching my parents dance like how they are," he said, pointing to his mother and father, who become the center of the dance floor while dancing to Jingle Bells Rock. Using old dance moves that Dipper knew were from their days in high school.

"Heh, heh," Pacifica chuckled. "At least they aren't obsessed with their image. Like a certain pair of people, I can recall."

"True," Dipper replied but quickly attempted to change the subject. "So that thing in the attic?"

"What? Oh right. C'mon," she said. Yanking him out of the floor room.

Dipper and Pacifica's little conversation didn't go unnoticed. Halfway across the room, near the Christmas tree, three pairs of eyes were watching them like hawks. And those hawks were none other than Mabel, Candy, and Grenda.

The three were always eager for a good, real-life love story. Especially one that involved two people they knew and cared about.

"Oh I smell of love in the air," Candy cooed as she and her friends watched the future couple walk out of the party room.

"I'll say," Grenda cheered ecstatically. "I haven't been this excited since my first makeout session with my baron boyfriend."

Mabel wasn't listening to either of her friends. Her main focus was on Dipper and Pacifica, and the idea of them hooking up, becoming a couple, high-school sweethearts, and later getting engaged and becoming the future Mr. and Mrs. Pines. Then, later on, the parents of Mabel's future nieces and nephews.

"Watch out world. Here comes future auntie Mabel!"

To be continued…

Well hope you liked this first chapter. And stay tuned for the next one that will follow. In the meantime feel free to follow, favourite, and review this story.

FYI the kitty mentioned at the beginning was the cat that Mabel was cuddling at the beginning of the show when her parents sent her and Dipper to Gravity Falls. Not sure if that was a real cat or just a toy, but I thought, why not?