A Walk in the Woods (Part One)

Series: Gravity Falls

Pairing: Dipper and Mabel Pines

Rating: Clean / Fluff

Summary: Dipper organizes a "secret" date to confess his love for Mabel, after checking and re-checking his mental check-lists, things seem to be going alright until he finally spits it out.



It all seemed surreal, the crunching of the leaves, how it seemed to blend into white noise against the running streams and occasional 'caw' from a crow whose family must have been somewhere near-by. Gravity Falls was by no means a big town, and luckily The Mystery Shack was even more out of the way. The crisp Autumn air that reddened everyone's noses and ears, leaving them with faint tingles seemed even more satisfying in The Shack's never ending backyard than it did anywhere else, though Dipper guessed it had something to do with the nostalgia that surrounded him and made him feel warmer than his red flannel coat.


Mabel was, as always, a few yards ahead of him. Gracefully prancing around the leaf-covered forest floor and dancing around the raised tree roots that he supposed should have made her trip, but Mabel despite her air-headed exterior danced around without a care in the world. Her feet crunching the leaves below her as she hopped and galloped in circles around the trees. Dipper sighed at the sight, wishing he could slip into that state of mind even for a second. Instead of spinning in circles and running around admiring the beauty of the forest Dipper often lost himself in the seriousness of his mind. Every tree seemed to remind him of one thing or another, whether it was a good memory or something less of that. His brows furrowed as his eyes left his care-free twin to watch his feet as he found himself avoiding a few potholes and roots.


"Hey, Dippy!" Mabel called, his attention immidately flocking to her.
"Why don't we take a break, have that lunch? I'm starved!"
Dipper nodded, and took a few larger-than-normal steps to catch up to her. They where already at the spot they always ate at, a good 2 miles north west from The Shack. Dipper was smart enough that a few years back he marked the trees around them with a knife, carefully mapping the way too and from their secret sanctuary. Over the years it bacame more home-y, Mabel and Dipper brought out old lawn furnature and a tent or two, combining them into an over-sized slightly awkward looking shelter between two trees. If they weren't the ones to build it, it would look more like a hammock than it did a tent, but it was a place to take refuge from any sun or weather if needed.


It was decorated with garland and long strings of beads, curtosy of Mabel of course. Dipper took some liberties as well, making a sign to stick out-front that simply read "Mystery Twins Headquarters" in a few oddly-chosen not so matching paint colors. He also managed to haul out an old trunk, that they decided to be their 'treasure chest' and to this day, was filled with silly trinkets and odd-finds they'd gathered out here in the woods.


The twins stood infront of their fortress with hands on their hips, staring at it in all it's glory. Dipper slid off his backpack and took a few steps forwards, spinning around and looking at everything as it was.
"It's exactly how we left it," he whispered, a hint of relief in his voice.
"Of course! Who else would've come out here, anyway?" Mabel replied teasingly while grabbing her brother's heavy bag and hauling it over to place it ontop of their treasure trunk. She started to empty the contents, using the old tattered box as a table. A few sandwhiches, neatly stacked. 4 bottles of water, 2 small bags of potato chips and a few granola bars. A typical Dipper-made lunch.


"Where's all the junk food, doofus?"


"You have junk food, there's a bag of chips for you." Dipper turned to her with an unamused expression, rolling his eyes as he walked over and grabbed one of his sandwhiches, unwrapping it as he flopped down ontop of his designated lawnchair. Mabel soon after mirroring his actions. They sat in silence for a while, Dipper's wide hazel eyes examining every detail of their childhood hang-out.


"It's been so long since we've been out here," he stated in a low voice, his chewing slowing down before forcing himself to swallow. His hands lowering the sandwhich to his lap. Mabel noticed his sudden mood-change, she was familiar with this. Dipper did it all the time, his overthinking often leading to unpredictable mood swings and long-talks getting him a little... emotional. She offered him his bottle of water, which he ended up refusing eventually.


"Yeah, but we're here now... So..." She finally said in a halfly comforting tone.


"We're 17 now, you know. Come next year things will be different. For all you know it could be the last time we even visit Grunkle Stan here, we'll have to think about college and-"


"Dipper,"


He looked over to her, forcing a half smile before letting his face droop downwards again. He took another small bite of his sandwhich before putting it back in the bag, suddenly he wasn't so hungry. Mabel did the same, taking his sandwhich off his lap and stacking it with hers ever so gently placing it down ontop of the trunk again. Instead of sitting back down in her chair, she walked over to his and sat on the edge, staring at him with a half puzzled have worried expression plastered all over her face. Dipper could read her like a book, she didn't know what to say or do, but she wanted to make him feel better.


"It's okay, Mabes, I'm sorry," he said through a very forced smile.
Mabel didn't buy it. She scooted closer to him and put her hand ontop of his, leaning down just a bit to force him to make eye contact with her. He blinked, his eyes going wide as he stared into her soul-stealing gaze. Her eyes where always so beautiful, twins or not, he didn't think his eyes had the same luster and depth as hers did. Dipper leaned back, and tilted his head.


"What?"


"Dipper, I know you're worried about your future, and I'm sure a lot of this has to do with you having some crazy check-list of things you wanted to do by now-" She began.


"Hey."


"But we're growing up, and it's not a bad thing."


His eyes lowered once more as his lips pressed together.
"It's true," She continued. "We're 17, so what, we're twins! And that's basically a free ticket to be as stupid and immature as we want for the rest of our lives, if we want a stupid tent fort in the middle of the woods when we're 50 then who's going to stop us?"


Mabel thought a minute about what she said, and decided to revise herself.


"Well maybe not 50... I don't think the locals would like two grandparent aged twins creeping around the woods at night."


Dipper couldn't help but to giggle, in turn making a halfed laugh escape her as well.


A soft breeze wafted over them, and they seemed to catch eachothers gaze as the crisp wind made their hair dance and wave in random directions. Dipper noticed a small flush forming on her cheeks, he didn't know if it was the wind or if it was a Mabel famous blush, either way he thought it was cute. A husky chuckle escaped his throat as he quickly wrapped his arms around Mabel, holding her in a tight hug and nearly pulling her towards his lap.


"We've got so many memories out here is all," he whispered. "Some of them I'm not ready to let go of yet and they..."


If it was the wind reddening Mabel's cheeks before, it definately was not the case now. Dipper pressed his cheek against the side of her head, his eyes closing as a soft sigh escaped into her ear.


"Dipper?" She squeaked, not exactly expecting a super long and awkward bro hug.


"Mabel, lets just stay out here," he finally blurted out. "We'll run away and not go back, we can live off two sandwhiches for the rest of our lives, right?"


Mabel sighed.


"I'm kidding..."


He finally pulled away from her, but let his hands trail from her back down her arms to lace his fingers with hers and sit there just staring at her. Mabel didn't know what to think, Dipper was acting weird. And he was being touchier than usual, too. He gave her hands a squeeze. Mabel felt what was like a rock sink to the bottom of her stomach. Her mouth dried up, it was hard to swallow and her hands began to sweat. What is he getting at here? It was like something out of a movie. But... With her brother? Something's wrong here, right? Right?


Come to think of it he's been acting like this since she had that birthday date with what's his name... Mabel couldn't even think of it right now. Dipper has been quiet, and kind of emotional since then. It's all just coincidence right? Maybe he was having one of those weird puberty 'man-periods,' yeah, that sounds right. That had to be it!


"Mabel?"


Oh boy, there it was. She shook her head some and brought herself back to reality, with a little 'huh' her attention was now fully back on her brother instead of listening to all of the racing voices in her head.


"Mabel, I... Don't want to lose you, you know? I..." He paused a moment, looking down and finally letting go of her hands. "I love you."


Mabel gave a sigh of relief, she was right! That's what it's about. Dipper is being an over-protective brother because she went on her first "real" date on their birthday, right? Maybe it was rude of her not to spend their birthday together, they where twins after all...


"Dipper, I know, but you can't be there watching over me my whole life you know! How am I supposed to get married and have a family when crazy uncle Dipper is always hounding me-" She stopped the joke when could feel Dipper shrivel up. She bit her lip almost as punishment for being so reckless with her words and ended up giving another heavy gulp.
"What if I don't want you to move on... Without me?"


He sniffled loudly, wiping his nose on his sleeve and adverted his attention elsewhere. Anywhere. He laced his fingers with eachother and twiddled his thumbs about, his lowly eyes flickering around the ground, his brows once again furrowing downwards.


"What if I wanted to be the one on that birthday date-? I-?"


He squeezed his own hands tightly, tight enough to nearly cut circulation from his digits and he was tense. Visibly tense. Tense enough to make Mabel go tense. She gulped again and forced herself to clear her throat just to break the silence.


"Dip?"


He didn't bother to look at her, instead he looked further downwards letting his thick curled bangs fall fowards and create a shield from the outside world, mostly to protect himself from Mabel's heavy gaze. Though it didn't help, he still felt her piercing eyes staring at him, he shuddered almost physically feeling the tingle of it going from his hands to his face.
"I guess I shouldn't have said I loved you," he whispered.


Mabel paused, reaching her hand out to place it on his trembling forearm.
"Mabel I-... I guess I'm in love with you- I'm sorry- I just-! I-...!"


He covered his face with his flushed hands, shaking lightly in his seat before forcing himself to be 'manly' and sit up straight to look Mabel dead in the face. His adam's apple bobbed nervously with a heavy swallow.
"Mabel, I'm sorry but I mean it. I've been thinking about it ever since you went on that date with Josh... And I..."


Right, Josh was his name. Mabel didn't even remember, she was so focused on Dipper she couldn't even remember her own name let alone the name of some boy she didn't really click with. She didn't know what to do with this information, her mind was racing, mostly flashing images of her date night with whats-his-face but instead of whats-his-face her mind was almost instinctively putting Dipper in his place. She couldn't tell what was going on anymore, what was worse is that the sight of Dipper taking the place of whats-his-face was almost enjoyable. No, it was enjoyable. Wait, that's wrong, right? Dipper is her brother! Twin brother no less. Clearly there is some kind of moral boundary here?


But even with her moral alarm going crazy, she found herself blushing. She couldn't believe she was sitting there fantisising about her brother, let alone dating her brother? That was still supposed to be wrong, correct? You're not supposed to love your brother like that.


Dipper bit his lip and whimpered, his voice cracking seemingly from the pressure of the conversation but that was impossible, right? Can his voice crack from the air around them thickening?


"Dipper, I-" Mabel found herself stuttering over her words, how exactly was she supposed to respond to that kind of thing anway? How would anyone really respond to their twin brother confessing not-so-brotherly-very-serious-love? It definately wasn't easy, and she felt like she was put on the spot but even so she couldn't even imagine what was going through Dipper's head, it must have been ten times worse.


He flickered his eyes about and frantically tried to get a read on what his poor sister was thinking, he almost regretted saying anything, and planning this stupid date. Yeah, he admitted to it - it was intended as a date, but on his check list things where supposed to go much smoother than this and they where supposed to be holding hands by now! He opened his mouth, but nothing came out but another cracking whimper, prompting him to seal his lips once again and stare down at the ground.


"I'm sorry, Mabel," He finally spit out, his voice dry and barely audiable, "It wasn't my place, and I see that I crossed the line - I'm sorry."


She shook her head 'no' and placed her hand on top of his, gently stroking his fingers with her thumb. Her eyes lay low for a while and they moved slowly, like she was lost in her thoughts. And indeed she was, thinking about everything that just happened and part of her was still trying to imagine Dipper in the place of old whats-his-name. She was admittedly starting to warm up the thought, she was even under the impression that maybe if it had of been him, she could have enjoyed that night. Immensely actually...


The date that night was just a simple cliche dinner and a movie, but if Dipper had been in his place she knew that she would have at least had more fun. Sure, whats-his-face was alright, but the date wasn't what it could of been. Partly because he was air-headed and egotistical, the other part was because it was her birthday - well, their birthday. Now she felt bad for ruining Dipper's 17th birthday, what kind of twin doesn't spend time with their twin on their birthday? She sighed deeply, finally letting her deep hazel eyes meet his for the first time since his confession.


He blushed, those heavy orbs staring deep into the fiber of his being and somehow, even though they where the same exact color as his, they had so much more depth. He bagan to sweat, beads rolling down his forehead in a race against time. It seemed that they would end up dropping off his face by the time she said anything, and the anticipation was driving him insane. He bit his lip, let his eyes fall to Mabel's hands and slowly make their way back up to hers. She was tearing up now.


"Oh- no. No, no, no, don't cry!"


Dipper began to panic, he turned towards her and grabbed her arms, straightening her out and making her sit up straight, quickly bringing a digit to raise her chin. The entire situation was a mess, he was beating himself up internally for it, too. He had about two dozen check lists of all possibilities of what could have happened after he confessed to her but somehow he forgot to include this. Crying. God, he hated it when his sister cried, not only did he get that brotherly instinct, now he had to deal with this in-love thing which made it worse. He was supposed to be protecting her from Josh, not hurting her himself by confessing something so utterly insane not even he could understand.


He let his hand drift from her chin to cup her cheeks in his palms, he forced a smile and pressed his birth-marked forehead against hers just to be close to her again. With a soft sigh, after a few minutes he raised his head again to simply rest his chin on the top of her head, looking down at her knowing that now she couldn't see his gaze.


"I just want to protect you, Mabes," he whispered.


Mabel sniffled, clinging on to her brother's shirt as she hid her reddened face from him, her nose buried deep into the crook of his neck.


"None of these guys you like would be able to protect you from gnomes with a leafblower, you know? Let alone anything else out here, I mean Gravity Falls isn't a friendly place... And I just... You deserve so much better, and I know I'm not the best out there and it's weird but I think I'm in love with you," He knew he was rambling now, but for some reason he couldn't stop, "I know I could at least be better at that then-"



"Dipper, stop."


He gulped, his ranting coming to an immidiate stop.


"It's okay."


Is that all? 'It's okay?' Was that all he was going to get? He started to panic, his head racing, body sweating and he suddenly noticed his grip on his sister tightening. 'It's okay' was not what he wanted to hear, he wanted to hear something else entirely. An 'I know' would have been better, but he was hoping for an 'I love you, too' not an 'it's okay.' His lip was almost bleeding now because he couldn't stop biting it, he closed his eyes tightly and tried to calm himself down - happy thoughts, Dipper. Happy thoughts.


Mabel put her hands on his chest and pushed herself up, sitting upright and staring her embarassed and hurt brother in the face, she tapped his cheek lightly to get him to stop chewing his lip and in doing so he hestitantly opened his eyes to look at her. Her face was caring, confused, a bit stern for 'ol Mabel's taste but who could blame her? The minutes took forever to pass. He tried one last time to get a good read on her, but once again failed and before he could start speaking again she cut him off.


"Dipper, I... Know how you feel," She began.


What did she mean? Hurt? Confused? Light headed? Sick?


"I'm sorry for ruining your birthday, if it's anything, I didn't enjoy the date."


"Mabel that's- That's what you have to say? I- I didn't mean-"


"I love you, too," she blurted out, covering her mouth with her hands immidiately. "I mean, I love... you..."


Dipper's stomach dropped, a million butterflies forming in his gut paired with an over-powering sense of gravity which dragged all of his organs to his feet. His mouth parted in shock, it was exactly how he imagined hearing it. Finally. Her voice was so perfect. Admittedly, he imagined Mabel being peppy, and confessing her love like a long-lost princess who had just discovered her knight in shining armour, but the shy, broken, cracked voice and unwilling pauses made him shiver. He wanted to hear it again, and again, over and over, he never wanted this god-awful but oh-so-right feeling to come to an end.


"You have no idea how long I've wanted to hear that, Mabes..."